Weekly Newsletter for February 4, 2009

ROTARY INFORMER for February 4, 2009 Sunny but very, very cold !!

President Bob called on Jock for the 4 way test, we sang America the Beautiful and Roger Winslow gave an invocation. Frank Broman’s prayer from the moon.

No visiting Rotarians, guests were Courtney Nicholas and Mike Saharab from PHS, Matt Pearley who will be on the GSE team to Brazil and Tina.

Bob reminded us that we are going to attend a dedication of the Habitat for Humanity house at 5673 Springvale Rd. If you would like to carpool, be at the Odawa Hotel at 4:30 on Thursday.

John Scholten announced the annual Northmen Night on Saturday, February 21 at the Kof C Hall. This is a fund-raising party for the athletic department at PHS.

Beno announced the winter Billy-Duff ski outing on Sunday February 22. Bring a dish to pass, dessert, salad or hors d’ oeuvres’. Early afternoon. Sign-up next week.

President Bob read a notice from Principal Dave Snyder, inviting parents of PHS students to attend the annual Rotary Spaghetti dinner before student conferences on Thursday February 12. Get those tickets sold.

Ernie came up and spoke about the many good works of The Rotary Foundation and then presented at PHF to Nicki Kenney, founder of the Free clinic. He mentioned the on-going projects of our club in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Ukraine.

Kathy Hart was with us and thanked the members for our support of Manna during January. She then introduced Mike and Gale Walker. They are the managers of the Nehemiah house and the Mary Margaret house respectively. Mike told us that the Nehemiah project was started by a group of churches in 1988. They have provided an average of 3,000 bed nights over the years and last year provided 4557 bed nights. The Nehemiah House provides temporary housing for men in need of a place to stay. The Mary Margaret house does the same for women and children. They work with other social agencies and churches. The Salvation Army provides about 40% of their annual $100,000 budget. They provide dinner a bed and breakfast for those in need.