Rotary Informer

Howard Richards led us in “God Bless America”

Four Way Test:  Kam Culbertson

Invocation:  Tim Dykstra

**In addition to the invocation, a moment of silence was held in memory of Rotarian, Doug Basel, who was a member of our club for 35 years. Doug’s memorial service will be held Friday, December 27 from 5:00 – 7:00 PM at Stone Funeral Home.**

Singing/Song:  Georgia Abbott and Howard Richards led us through “Feliz Navidad” and “Smile.” Today was Howard’s last day playing piano for awhile. He will return in April. Thank you, Howard—you will be missed!!!

Calendar Winners:  Read by Anora O’Connor

Calendar Winners December 18, 2019

Visiting Rotarians:  Norm Veliquette from Elk Rapids

Visitors:  Scott LaDeur, Christina Cartwright

Life Events: 

Birthdays:  

Karen Ragland

Herb Carlson (87 years young!!)

Steve Brummeler

Anniversaries:  

Judy Zorn -- 2 Years

Steve Brown -- 35 Years

Care Committee:  Nothing to report

Announcements:

Upcoming Club Meeting Dates:  The next two Rotary meetings fall on Christmas and New Year’s Day. Because of that, we will move those meetings to December 26 and January 2. On December 26 Rotarians present will order off the regular lunch menu. We will also draw the $5,000 raffle winner that day!! January 2 will be a “regular” Rotary lunch buffet.

Wreaths Across America:  Took place last Saturday, December 14. Thank you to all who came out and supported this very moving event!

Salvation Army Bell Ringing:  Happening this Friday, December 20 at three locations. We have just 4 slots left that we need to fill!  Contact Jeff Wynder if you’d like to fill one of those slots. Thanks to all who have volunteered! Should be decent weather that day.

Calendar Sales:  Ideally all calendars should be sold by January 15, 2020. We still have about 400 calendars not accounted for, so keep ‘em coming! This will net our club about $19,000. Remember it’s not just a calendar—it’s a raffle ticket too!

Paul Harris Fellowship Pool:  A new pool is starting! Sign up by January 15, 2020 to be included in the pool. Each quarter, starting with the first quarter of 2020, pool participants agree to make a $50 donation to the Rotary Foundation. Once a total of $1,000 has accumulated in the pool, one name will be drawn and a Paul Harris Fellow will be designated. This will continue until each person in the pool has paid the full $1,000 and all the names in the pool are drawn. Contact Dibby Smith with questions.

Program:  Paul Harris Fellowship | Emmet County Road Commission

We began our program by designating the newest Paul Harris Fellow, Christina Cartwright. She received the honor from her husband (fellow Rotarian, Kent Cartwright).

Kent made very touching remarks about Christina, who he described as his “wife, best friend and all-around bad ass!” The two are celebrating 30 years of marriage this month. Congrats!

Following the Paul Harris Fellow presentation, Rotarians also took the opportunity to thank Kent for the time and effort he gave our club, and wished him well on his next journey. Kent recently accepted a job downstate. He and Christina are moving to Lansing.

Dianne Litzenburger, Steve Brummeler and John Scholten all made remarks about Kent and his time in Rotary.

Afterwards, Brian Gutowski from the Emmet County Road Commission gave a great presentation on the work they do. All roads are rated on a scale from 1 (terrible condition) to 10 (new condition). The Road Commission’s strategy is to first keep the good roads in good shape and then address the poor roads.

The Road Commission also works with several others to repair damaged culverts and/or convert culverts into free-spanning timber bridges.

Brian showed us lots of scary pictures of giant holes in roads that seem to appear out of nowhere! But fortunately Brian and team are on top of it, working hard every day to keep us safe and sound.

Next Week’s Program:  No program—just each other’s fine company!

Two-Week Notification:  This is the second of a two-week notification required for Sharon Schappacher who was voted in for membership to Rotary Club of Petoskey at the December 10, 2019 Board Meeting