Spokes April 11, 2017

Posted by Dene Hadden on Apr 11, 2017
 
 
SPOKES VOL. LXIII NO. 39                                                                                April 11, 2017
 
 
We were greeted by Tom Renner and Art Ayers.
 
We opened the meeting with the “My Country ‘tis of Thee” and Art Ayers’ invocation.
 
Guests:
We welcomed Nancy Tuit, Jane Copping, LaRae Odland, Larry Girard and our speaker, Frank Cunningham.
 
Music:
Since Bob Boerma has been missing in action for a couple of weeks, Jim Davis continues to be our song leader, assisted, as usual by “Fingers” Gruber and Dottie.  We began with Jan Garber’s 1926 #1 hit “Baby Face”.  Other than some confusion on the time changes, it sounded pretty good!  We followed our success with “California Here I Come” from the 1921 Al Jolsen musical “Bombo”.  Several of our songs originate from this musical, which must have been a big hit back them.  Does anyone remember?  We finished with “Rotary, My Rotary”
 
Announcements:
  • It is time to nominate folks for our Community Service Award and Rotarian of the Year.  Nomination forms can be found on our website.
  • Don’t forget the District Conference on May 12th and May 13th.  Our Club Hero, Tom Renner, will be honored on the 12th and Marty Graber will receive his national award on the 13th and we are hoping for a nice turnout of local Rotarians..  Both events are in Battle Creek.
  • We continue taking up a collection to help pay for Marty’s trip from Kenya to accept his award.  If you are writing a check, please make it out to: Grand Rapids Lions-District 11-C1 and, on the memo line, write c/o Kenya Project.  It may be possible to donate frequent flyer miles to Marty.  Check with your air carrier.
  • Buy your tickets:  The South Haven Future dinner supporting LMC Scholarships and the SHPS Foundation is set for April 29th at Lakeshore Caio.
  • Don’t forget the Club Runner App for your phones, it’s a great resource!
  • Steve Larsen attended the Agency Area on Aging information meeting last week at the invitation of our speaker.  He indicated that there are a lot of resources going in to this area.
50/50
No winner again this week as Barbara Craig had the lucky ticket but found the “7” rather than the luckier “2” or “4”.  Richard Swanson did walk away with $2.
 
Fines:
  • Mark Odland, Nick Tuit and Bob Copping enjoyed paying fines to have their lovely wives with them this morning..
  • Jerry Portman is enjoying a visit from his son.
  • We had a whole passel of birthdays this week:
    • Tom Rummel’s son Joel turns 17
    • Deb Davidson and her daughter shared a birthday this week
    • Barbara Craig’s mother had a birthday
    • Richard Swanson celebrated his brother’s birthday
    • Tom Fleming is pleased to celebrate wife Dorann’s birthday
    • All of our birthday celebrants were “treated” to our famous “Happy Birthday-Ludington style” song.
  • Bob McAlear appreciated Bob Copping’s courage for telling his stories.
  • Tom Renner has some Cub’s tickets for this week (but they are probably gone by the time you read this.  Check with him.)
  • Bob Straits thanked Tom Rummel for his help as treasurer during the past few months.
  • Jim Davis and Richard Swanson had riddles for us.
  • Tom Ruesink added the money collected from our Florida meetings to the pot.
 
Mark Odland introduced our speaker, author Frank Cunningham
 
Mr. Cunningham recently completed his book “Aging as a Spiritual Experience”.He began by talking about why he wrote this book and why he chose this subject.
 
He defines spirituality as a person’s relationship with God, with others and with the world around us.
 
He is especially interested in aging and how that relates to an individual’s spiritualism.He looked at several facets of this in his book, including, but not limited to, Memory, Gratitude, and Diminishment.
 
He spent lots of time talking about his book and thoughts in it to the rapt attention of our members and guests.It is for sale on Amazon and he has copies.
 
He did say that he was nervous about how it would be received, but it has gone back to press.He said that he has enjoyed reading the reviews and shared a few of them with us.
 
President Ayers thanked Frank for his presentation and presented him with one of our Rotary pens so he can continue writing.
 
We closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: Kathleen Brickley will introduce County Commissioner Mike Henry who will talk about a millage proposal to improve jail and courthouse facilities in Van Buren County.
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Dorothy Lockwood and Bill Roberts
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden