Posted by G. Stowe Talbot on Oct 01, 2019
Flag Salute & Invocation by John Templeton
 
Visiting Rotarians: Bill Dattola (retired past Rotarian, guest of Doug Wight)
      
Guests: Seth Fleetwood and April Barker, Heather Flaherty, Anika Palmerton, and Mike Henry (from the Chamber of Commerce)
 
Announcements
 
Andy Clay resigned from the club due to increasing business work load. Also, Stan Dyer would love to hear from you all! 
 
VFW (Oct 12th): Our Community Service Committee and Anna Williams have organized a great opportunity for us to serve our Bellingham community by painting a room at the VFW Post, 625 North State Street, on October 12th.  Six (6) spots need to be filled,   if interested contact Tony at tfreeland@freelandengineering.com.
 
Bellingham’s three Rotary clubs will be putting on a joint fellowship gathering on Thursday October 17th, 4:30 - 6:30pm, at Twin Sisters Brewery, with catered food.
 
Wines by the Water will take place October 19th at the Hotel Bellwether. Special “Rotary” tickets available for early entry at 4 pm. General admission to the public starts at 5:30. The event runs until 8pm. The special Rotary ticket includes entry into a door prize drawing which will be held at 5:30 before GA admission. Each Rotarian is being asked by the board to purchase two tickets at $95 each.  See Christine Palmerton (cpalmerton@msn.com) for tickets now, or via Eventbrite (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grape-and-gourmet-presents-wines-by-the-water-tickets-66490381521?aff=eac2)
 
Special Olympics Bowling Event (Oct. 26th): Our Community Service Committee and the Special Olympics Washington Bellingham have organized a great opportunity for us to serve our community by supporting a bowling competition at Park Bowl, on October 26th.  We have volunteer shifts available from 8-12pm, 12-4pm, or 8am-4pm, contact Tony if interested.
Bucks in the Bay
  • Lance Calloway was in Palm Springs for a “US Soccer” meetings, round of golf at Indian Wells;
  • John Templeton heard from Dick Stark, bought his tickets to attend a fun Husky football game last Saturday;
  • Jim Johnson birthday - 73 years young, and upcoming trips to work on the slavery issue; 
  • Tonja Myers great to be back at the club, next week heading out to the East Coast for a cruise!
  • Bryant extended deadline one week for pre-event wine purchases! 
  • Erik Dyrland lost his mom last month at age 92;
  • John Purdie: a second daughter got married last week; one to go!
  • Mimi Ferlin with a check for hurricane recovery, and reminder that her 12-yo grandson (Hunter) will be on the tv show Modern Family October 9th;
  • Anna for hurricane relief;
  • Mike Bates hurricane relief;
  • Debbie Kiene missed meetings, lots of summer time with grandkids, son recovering spinal injury, and story about a pear!
  • Martin Mead went to Bozeman, MO to see daughter at college, fly fishing on Madison River, and selling his former shop-building in Cordata;
  • Anika great to come to our meetings, and a special shout-out to Lesa Ferguson for her  valuable assistance with an insurance issue (https://representatives.countryfinancial.com/lesa.ferguson/)!
  • Eddie successful family weekend at fishing derby;

SAA by Eddie

Fines for misc. sins, and This Day in History trivia!

Program

Lance introduced April Barker and Seth Fleetwood, candidates for Bellingham Mayor.   

April talked about the importance of building more housing housing, in particular affordable housing, that includes both seniors and childcare. Bellingham becoming more racially diverse as well and our housing solutions need to be inclusive. April looks forward to solving these issues and is up for the challenge. Homelessness in Bellingham: a subset of the homeless population causes the most visible problems, and we need to have the resources and places to deal with those individuals in particular.

Seth Fleetwood is inspired to run for mayor and has a hopeful vision for the future of Bellingham. Seth says we have to accommodate big future population and infrastructure growth in the city: Housing, homelessness, and growing the local economy are the most important issues, solving them while still maintaining Bellingham’s special unique character. He would try to reach broad agreements how to accommodate more people reaching across different groups. Seth was one of the people who helped initiate the growth forums that have taken place over the past 15 years.

Bill Dattola wins the raffle.

Respectfully submitted,
Stowe Talbot