SPOKES VOL. LXVIII NO. 7                                                                              September 7, 2021

 

President Bill Roberts called our meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.  Art Ayers offered our invocation, offering prayers and hope to all those who are suffering around the world from New Orleans to New York and on to Afghanistan and everywhere people are having a hard time. Our guest this morning included prospective member John Maitlin, transfer in waiting Sondra Reno and our speaker John Gillette.

Announcements:
September 21st will be the Rotary District 6360 run visioning session for the South Haven Rotary Club. The Rotary Club Board and some selected members will participate in this look into the future for the South Haven Rotary Club. We have decided to take advantage of this District offered event. The event cannot accommodate all of our club members so the board members will attend and each board member has asked another club member to participate.

Our next Board meeting is Tuesday September 14th at 8:00am. Attend here or on zoom. I’ll try to remember to keep zoom active for the board meeting.

I received a thank you note from our district governor, Rita LaMoreaux, along with the pins that contain the Rotary International presidents’ theme for this year, “Serve to Change Lives”. The pins were supposed to be presented at her visit.

Volunteer to do Spokes, and transition from Dene our editarian who has been on the job since 2009.

Invitation from Battle Creek Horizon Club to join them for a Zoom meeting with a guest speaker from the Epic Bike Tour for Diabetes.

2022 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Harbor Shores Golf Club Bob Straits or Mark Odland Need two more marshals.

Golden Trowel Nominee for our Club – Dan Thompson Deadline is September 18, 2021

Thanks to Tom Ruesink for answering my call to help get the storage unit door open, and then fixing it; and taking down the portion of the Rotary Sign on North Blue Star Highway that saws we meet at the Wellness center. He plans on addressing the other sign on M-43 that has the same situation.

Resignation letter from Don Kitchin.

Discover New Horizons. Rotary International Convention will be in Houston Texas USA, June 4-8, 2022. Register today at convention.rotary.org

Need someone to lead the Salvation Army bell ringing project. Stickland/ Frost – Kettles may have been retained by Ralph Frost?

Rhonda – “Blessings in a backpack” will resume soon.

No information yet on the monthly open door dinner assist? 

Shout Bridge flowers removal in October.

We Care Golf Outing in October.

50/50 and Fines
Bill Roberts was the 50/50 winner this morning, drawing the “2” to take home half of the pot.  Sondra Reno was the $2 winner.
Pete Swanson is celebrating his daughter’s birthday this week.

Bob Brickman paid to celebrate daughter Jill’s birthday who grudgingly congratulated the Spartans on their win this weekend.

Kaleigh Eddy is celebrating her husband’s birthday on the 11th, one of several birthdays in the club that day, as we remember 9/11.

Bob Straits was pleased to announce his wife’s anniversary this week.

Tom Noverr has a granddaughter’s birthday to celebrate.

Mike Livovich is happy to celebrate an anniversary and a birthday.

Stu Comiskey’s grandson has a birthday, also on the 11th.

The celebrants were saluted with a birthday song provided by the resourceful Larry Wittkop.  Louis Armstrong provided the music.

Tom Reusink had a scare concerning his future grandchild this weekend but all is well now.  His son also discovered that his Ford Model A was stolen.

Larry Wittkop was a pleased South Haven and MSU football fan this weekend.

Bob Brickman will be headed south soon.

In Ann Arbor this past Saturday Bob Boerma’s son Scott led the Bronco band in the pregame show.
The Disc Golf Course (we sponsored the tee box on hole Number 14) is now open for family fun!

 

Tony Martorano introduced our speaker, John Gillette, Director of the We Care Food Pantry.

John began with a review of the services they offered during the pandemic and the changes they made to keep volunteers and clients safe.In addition to masks for everyone, they changed to a drive through operation.  He thanked Don Kitchin for his work to keep everything safe.  They also switched to a once a month pickup.  It was also much harder to get resources during this time, but the generosity of the community helped make it easier.
John described the many amazing things that happened to keep the Food Pantry running.  First, the donations of money and products was a blessing.
Jay Marcoux and folks from Clementine’s donated sandwiches every week.
One lady went grocery shopping every week and donated bags of groceries often.
He was surprised at the number of part time residents who donated including folks from Illinois, Missouri, out state Michigan and other locales.

Aldi’s provided surplus food directly to We Care as often as three times a week., as did Barden’s and several local farmers.

John said that they served clients from as many as nineteen different communities. He specifically mentioned several Rotarians for their efforts, including John Maitland, Stu Comiskey (for his traffic directing skills), Dave Campbell, Jerry Gruber, Dan Thompson, Tom Reusink, and a reminder of Glenn Pietenpol’s work, now being carried on with Mary’s help. John also offered his heartfelt thanks to our club in general for our strong support of the food pantry.
There will be an Open House at the We Care offices in the former Canonie/Triangle Sheet Metal building at the corner of Blue Star and M-43 on Thursday evening from 5 to 7 PM.President Roberts thanked John for his update and presented him with our new speaker’s gift, a Shell gas card donated by Tom Fleming.
 

Bill adjourned the meeting with the Four Way Test at 8:00 AM