Posted by Dene Hadden
SPOKES VOL. LXIII NO. 47                                                                                June 6, 2017
 
 
Only 63% of our members read Spokes last week.
 
We were greeted by Bob Stickland and Bill Roberts this week.
 
We opened the meeting with “God Bless America” and Art Ayers’ inspiring invocations.
 
Guests:
Our guest this morning was our speaker, Jack Neal.
 
Music:
Bob Boerma was our song leader this AM, and we started the morning with the slightly off-color “My Wild Irish Rose” whose last line seems a little suggestive, but we are reminded that it refers to the blooming of the rose.  Our next song, “”On the Banks of the Wabash” is thankfully, only four lines long, which is a long enough tribute to our neighboring state.  We finished with the Disney inspired “R-O-T-A-R-Y”.
 
Spotlight:
No Spotlight this week.
 
Announcements:
  • Don’t forget the Club Runner App for your phones, it’s a great resource!
  • Our Induction dinner will be June 27th and Steve Larsen will organize a golf tournament.
  • Don’t forget the hospital’s annual golf outing on June 9th.
  • We are in charge of staging the 4th of July parade this summer so volunteers are needed on the evening of the 3rd and the morning of the 4th to make sure this event runs smoothly. A sign up list was passed around.
  • If you did not attend the LMC/SHPS Foundation fundraiser in April and have not made your donation to that fundraiser ($100) please get it to Rhonda as soon as possible so we can finalize that event.
  • Thanks for all of the Blessings in a Backpack help last Friday.
  • We can still use some volunteers for the SPGA next spring.
  • Tom Ruesink will trim up around our sign on M-43
  • The Performance Series will begin shortly and cards with the dates and performers were available for members.
  • The next Speaker’s Series will be next week and will focus on immigration.
  • Tom Renner was honored by the Chamber of Commerce as South Haven’s Volunteer of the Year!
50/50
We honored two of our female members this morning with Deb Davidson drawing the lucky ticket, but she failed to find the 2 or 4, much to the disappointment of her fellow Rotarians.  Dorothy Lockwood did win the $2 prize!
 
Fines:
  • Jerry Portman asked for prayers for the husband of a co-worker who suffered a broken back.
  • Bob Copping had a somewhat amusing story of cats and commas, but his badge remains safely stored at his house.
  • Art Ayers paid for his badge at home and picture in the paper.
  • Scott Mark had a birthday and picture in the paper.  The ensuing Ludington style birthday song was nicely done, so we repeated it several times as more birthdays were announced.
  • Dorothy Lockwood celebrated a birthday and her granddaughter’s picture was in the paper.
  • Bob Boerma celebrated his wife Karen’s birthday.
  • Ted Weber celebrated the anniversary of his marriage to the lovely Julie this week.
  • Linda Hadden is celebrating 47 years of martial joy with her husband Dene this day.
  • Don Hodgman was very pleased to announce that Nick Tuit will be his next pancake breakfast assistant.
  • Jerry Gruber announced that his granddaughter turned 21 and that he really enjoyed the wedding of his daughter Amy last weekend.
 
Our Program today was Portage Rotarian and woodcarver Jack Neal.
 
Jack became interested in wood carving after graduating from college and actually took lessons for a couple of years to learn the skills necessary to be the outstanding carver he is today.
 
He buys wood blanks from a distributor who prepares them with sophisticated machines and sends them to Jack.He can get over 200 different blanks and has even had some custom made.
 
Jack then adds the details to the blanks to make the finished carving.He uses a wood burner to add feathers, scales and other details and, depending on the carving, paints or uses different levels of power on the wood burner to complete the model.
 
He spends five to seven hours completing small carvings and from fifteen to twenty hours on the larger models.
 
He shows his work at a few art shows each year and they typically sell for $20 - $30 for small carvings and $100 - $200 or more for larger sizes.
 
Jack demonstrated how he adds details to a carving with his electronic wood burner.
 
President Ayers thanked Jack for his interesting program and presented him with one of our speaker’s pens.
 
Next week’s program: TBA
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Jerry Portman and Bob Herrera.
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden