Soundings (9/8/15)

Posted by G. Stowe Talbot 
on Sep 08, 2015
 
Flag Salute & Invocation by Stowe Talbot 
 
Visiting Rotarians: John Griggs from the Big Club, Phyllis and Homer from Spokane, and guest speaker John Edwards from Surrey Rotary Club.
 
Guests:  John Templeton’s guest
 
Announcements
 
John Griggs announced his club’s (Bellingham Club) fundraiser croquet tournament “Wacky Wickets” Sept 26th Saturday 1:30pm, which will include a salmon BBQ, (Boundary Bay) beer and (Dunham) wine. Lots of fun and for a good cause.
 
President Bill handed Tim McEvoy a check from our club for $5,000 to go towards his “Action for Africa” project. 
 
Trisha talked about Youth Services committee and the possibility to get 6 to 8 kids, all from Whatcom County, to go to Honduras next year.
 
G&G meeting at 3:30pm (DATE???) at Bryant Engebretson’s office (Dorothy Haggen Bldg in Barkley)
 
Food Bank Open House: October 22, 5-6:30pm.
 
BBRC Board Meeting will be 4:30pm THIS Thursday Sept 10th at the Talbot / Barkley office, open to all (even get make-up attendance credit!).
 
District 5050 will be holding its Annual Foundation Dinner on Nov. 14th, 5-9pm at our very own Bellingham Golf and Country Club.  This event is a celebration of the Rotary Foundation and our Districts support of it!  Doors open at 5:00pm for cocktail hour, Dinner will be served at 6:00pm Deadline to register (or cancel) is November 8th.  Questions please contact Larry Jubie at lwjubie31@hotmail.com (This is not a Fundraising event and no auction or raffle will be held).
 
Bill Geyer with the Business Bucket:  $40 from Jill Reid to promote B&G Clubs’ Sept 19th fundraiser dinner event “Sweets and Dreams” at Silver Reef, $50/ea.  
Also, Mimi Ferlin with another $20 reported that the cable TV series “Fire and Ice” recently had an episode featuring Brooks crossing arms!
 
Bucks in the Bay
  • Brad Cornwell looking forward to the start of both the US college football season and the European “football” seasons, also excited for the return of Steven Colbert!
  • John Sleeth 50-year wedding anniversary;
  • Curtis Dye update on Joe, helping out well with chores at home!
  • Brent Walker IOU 39th birthday;
  • Terry Brown missed meetings in Spokane for wedding which was exciting with all the fires and smoke, also had a strenuous but fun hiking trip with son;
  • Donna Edquist IOU birthday bucks, heading over to Europe soon, will be exciting to see Serena Williams try for tennis Grand Slam!
 
Sergeant at Arms by Eddie
Fines for power outage, husky fans, football, Superbowl, think of ideas for interesting fellowship events.
 
Program
Curtis Dye introduced John Edwards from the Surrey Club.  John’s topic was about the Carribbean: Its history and culture. The true name of the full area is “Caribbean Greater Antilles and Southern Bahamas” and is made of over 700 islands.  Arawak people were the original settlers (5,000 yrs ago), but now no trace of them left, killed off by later settlers like the Caribs who came from Venezuela. What developed and built the modern Caribbean? Spanish came for the gold, then sugarcane. Today, Caribbean made up of diverse racial groups. The total trade area is over 250million people.
Formerly all were colonies of European nations.
 
Columbus, and later slavery played great role in the development. 1834 Emancipation Act freeing the slaves.  Wars between the various colonialists for centuries, and the islands changed hands between them.  The Church played a great role during this time too.  Piracy as part of the Caribbean culture.  Other Caribbeans of non-African origin:  
  1. East Indians brought in to work the sugar cane fields. 
  2. Chinese also brought in to the fields as well.
  3. Jews also ended up in Caribbean in 18th century.
Some famous people from Carribbean: Secretary of State Colin Powell, Alexander Hamilton born in Nevis, Ludmya “Mia” Love is the first black congresswoman from Utah, 
attorney general Eric Holder.
 
Rotary very popular in the islands. Many opportunities for service work there.  
 
Respectfully submitted, 
Stowe Talbot