Notes from Hugo's (temporary) Gazette . . . 
                              Highlights of the meeting of Tuesday, October 16
    As the Pair-a-Docs began swinging jauntily into a rendition of "Side by Side", it became evident to the editorial staff of the Newsletter that the meeting lacked its Rotary Reporter for the day and this calamity would have to be averted. As a result, this rookie reporter was pressed into service, sans a writing instrument . . . but only until his seatmate at the breakfast table begrudgingly loaned out a pen belonging to Boise Cascade, and/or Boise Building Materials or just plain Boise. Fittingly, it was from Idaho.

   Bear with the note-taking.
   Please note below left the requirement that it is required that each club's newsletter posts the call for nominations for a future District 5030 governor. This is the second posting. We're done with that for this year (we'll conduct our own elections for 2008-09 at the December 18 meeting. The ballot box is being provided by the Grace Provisionals again, we understand.)   

 

Mitsy Pelts of Woodinville High School invited members to be observers at Senior Projects Presentations at the school on January 15 and 16, 2008 providing sign up sheets for those who could spare a morning or afternoon. The projects are part of graduation requirements.

Raffle winner Marv Workman previewed "Show Your Colors"

  First, some important news gleaned from the Oct. 16 meeting. 
  In brilliant style, David Landau and his supervisor, Erv DeSmet, G.E.A., have lined up an interesting evening October 30 for our Fifth Tuesday social. It will be held at Hart Properties where attendees will be able to oooh and aaaah at seeing the original Batmobile and other relics, er, classic vehicular displays. David asks that those attending bring a salad or a dessert and their favorite beverage. Circle your calendar for an enjoyable social outing. NO MORNING MEETING on Oct. 30.

  A Rotary-favorite restaurant in nearby Maltby will be holding a traditional "Oktoberfest" celebration the week of Oct. 22. Gunter Baumler started making the sauerkraut last week, according to a reliable source. (Recommendation: Attend daily, first day go for the Sampler).

   White marble locater Bill Schink reported his winnings will go $250 to the Workman Business Scholarship Endowment in the Northshore Scholarship Foundation and the balance to UWB Village Volunteers Action Committee and its campaign to raise funds for water filtration-purification systems in Kiminini, Kenya.

   Snappy Jarvis extracted a happy dollar from an otherwise tightly-bound graying wallet to report that he and a foot-dragging Fitz Jr. are studying elaborate drawings for the installation of a trellis system for the expansion of Grace Town Vineyards. He noted that he, Fitz and their crew (Julian Denes) will leave the October 23 Rotary meeting and proceed to the new vineyard site south of Woodinville for a modest ceremony and hours of labor preparing the site. Planting of the pinot noir vines is scheduled for Earth Day, April 22, 2008. The new location will be revealed at Tuesday's meeting. Some details can be expected. Viticulturalist Gustav T. Williger has not disclosed the clone selected for the vines in the new site, although he did reveal that this planting will triple the potential production of Reckonyard Gold by vintage year 2010. The DeSoto Block of Grace Town Vineyards in downtown Grace just produced its fifth vintage, having been planted on May Day, 2001 with the first crush conducted in the fall of 2003. Don McIntosh of Woodinville purchased the last remaining bottle of '03 Reckonyard Gold at the 2007 Wine'n Shine auction. 

   (Complicated annexation procedures preclude discussing the new site location until heady negotiations have been completed, Grace's mayor-for-life noted.)

Sustainable Yanayo Project in Bolivia

     Gina Hicks, majoring in chemical-electrical engineering, and project lead Donee Alexander, a .phd candidate in civil engineering, reported on their trek with eight other members of the UW Engineers without Borders chapter. They worked with some 25 families in the high mountain region of Central Bolivia for over a month working with the villagers on health-related issues.

      Donee noted the trials and tribulations of working under conditions in which the villagers have had little contact outside their community and with only a few male inhabitants who have stayed in Yanayo where subsistence farming is the norm. She described the devastating impact of Chagas disease that prevails throughout the region, leading to congenital heart failure. Chagas bug infestation thrives in the thatched roofs. Stoves with no chimneys, malnutrition and lack of sanitation also contribute.

      The EWB volunteers tackled three problems -- the first being replacing thatched roofs with corrugated metal. They also provided improved cook stoves with chimneys, based on a design  one of the engineers developed as a classroom project. They also helped install an irrigation system as well as an underground delivery system for water stored in a gravity-based water tank.

     They described harrowing six-hour trips over winding, mountainous roads to travel between Yanayo and Cochabanba, the nearest town where project supplies could be found. 

     Donee reports the volunteers hope to return to Yanayo next summer to work on a continuing list of village needs -- composting toilets, stabilized roads, workshops on health and growing vegetables and livestock, taking the roof/cook stove work to neighboring communities. She plans to take a site assessment trip in February.

     The club has contributed funds to help with this past trip and all indications from our international committee point toward continued support for the work of the UW chapter of Engineers without Borders.

                                                                      --- Hugo B. Jonsen, Grace Provisional Rotary

    The club has received a special invite from one of the several Woodinville area elementary schools that received new dictionaries for third graders this past year from Woodinville Rotary. The literacy-oriented event is Oct. 23. Members Susan Webster, Chris Boland and John Hughes are planning to attend and invite members to join them.

A celebration of literacy in honor of the late Dr. Karen Forys 
at East Ridge Elementary in Woodinville

The Mariner Moose will help motivate students to read

East Ridge Elementary is hosting a celebration of literacy featuring the Mariner Moose D.R.E.A.M. team in honor of the late Dr. Karen Forys and her own life-long dedication to literacy.  An afternoon of events and activities will introduce community members to the interconnectedness of libraries, our District reading program and community support.  School district and community leaders have been invited to attend. 

1:30-2:15 p.m. - Observe a sample lesson using the Reader’s Workshop model, see what classroom leveled libraries are really about, tour the school library to see special displays and demonstrations led by student docents who enthusiastically share their own successes using library resources, and learn about the year-long incentive program to help students remain enthusiastic about their reading goals. 

2:15-2:45 p.m. - Enjoy a motivational assembly by the Mariner Moose and his D.R.E.A.M. team. The D.R.E.A.M. principles are: Drug-free, Respect for yourself and others, Education through reading, Attitude and Motivation to achieve your dreams.  The moose will encourage students to set individual reading goals.

East Ridge Elementary, 22150 NE 156th Place, Woodinville

more info: Kari Chwirka, teacher-librarian at kchwirka@nsd.org

 

OCT. 16 -- More photo highlights. The Pair-a-Docs appeared "Side by Side" as our song leaders and Jay Fiske corrected our leader that he was 13 months older.