Jorge covers Village Volunteers

Somebody better count the raffle money before is too late, selling raffle tickets this morning were an Italian from Lynnwood and a Mexican from Ireland, both of whom for some unexplained reason were left to take care of this sensitive task without proper supervision, although they performed their assignment with much enthusiasm.

All the usual goodies were served at the breakfast buffet including the now famous Eggs a la Grange and the disappearing grapes, missing however was First at the Line Baaab who we have been told is in a cruise on the Atlantic Ocean, in November?.

The meeting started with Julian leading us to the Flag Salute and Rick with a prayer followed by Pres Elect Al’s rendition of Ty’s Song Hit the Road Jack! or was it On the Road Again cain’t remember which but I do remember the “Ty” part. Then our very own Joey from Lynnwood -- an Italian desk manager and official provider of fake fine waivers -- made the introductions of our guests, Jason Marsh an independent web designer and son of Pres Elect Al, Morrie Tugby, Assistant District Governor, and Shana Greene, Executive Director of Village Volunteers and our guest speaker for the meeting.

President Chris then turned the program over to Hugo aka John who in turn introduced Shana Greene who talked to us about Village Volunteers (www.villagevolunteers.org) and their effort to bring clean water to people in Kenya with a filtering system that consists of a plastic bucket with a spigot and a ceramic pot with a silver lining that eliminates 98.8% of waterborne bacteria. The water filtering system is simple, effective and affordable -- each costing 12 bucks and lasting three years. She said that in Kenya many people die every year because of the water that they drink is polluted and that most of them are kids under five years of age. The plan to produce and distribute the filters is feasible, sustainable and financially sound. These filters will be sold by people in their communities and the project is being directed by a board composed of local people. The plan also includes education, since most do not know that the polluted water is the cause of why many of them die, the projected sales are for 10,000 filters a year. On a personal note, I have great respect for Shana because of her complete commitment to this project. When she saw the need to do something for these villagers in Kenya she sold her home and used the proceeds to jump start the project.

Shana and the Prez

After the presentation, Pres Chris introduced our Assistant Governor who encouraged us to participate in social activities involving other clubs as means to get to know more Rotarians, to use the district’s webpage to learn about what is going on, to make sure to attend the upcoming district conference in Victoria BC, to tell us about a $5 device designed to allow blind people to “read” books in CD format, and to recommend we make our IRS filings in a timely manner.

Word from Morrie

Bucks for Studliness

As for the announcements:

Art, District Conference in Victoria, BC, May 1 – 3, 2009

Board meeting at the Firehouse at 6:00 PM

Holiday party December 2 **** No AM Meeting *****

Ignacio’s last day with us December 9

As for the birthdays:

El Magnifico Erv who has been married for 37 years, has two sons and four grandchildren will celebrate his birthday November 27. After he told us about his wonderful year, how much he loves job and the satisfaction he receives from being able to help his clients, we sang Happy Birthday to him.

Same El Magnifico Erv turns out was the Sergeant at Arms -- proceeded to award Greg Gratz with a Certificate of Extreme Studliness for his alleged studliness, and offered immunity for capricious fines to everyone buying a solar powered flashlight to benefit Village Volunteers and the people in Kenya, and with that the meeting adjourned without a joke from Pres Chris L

Respectfully submitted in proper Spanglish at a time when the DOW is in the toilet, gasoline is cheap, the US Dollar beats the Canadian Dollar again, and when, we trust, that the worst is now behind

us.

Next Reporter:
Rick Pisani
December 2