SOMETHING NEW
 

New UN-Rotary collaboration set to share global information

OPENING
 

Playing the part of the Welcome Wagon, Richard Weed and inbound exchange student Jessy Guinot welcomed guests and Rotarians alike to the meeting. Dale Tomlinson led the club in an invocation and Gary Rueter got the meeting off to an official start with the Pledge of Allegiance. President Dan Gardener kept things moving along by asking for the introduction of guests.

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
 

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Lee Vasquez introduced the woman he described as our next County Commissioner, Kris Bledsoe.

Van Keck introduced his guest, physical therapist Joe Stewart.

Sharon Larsen introduced Rotary’s other outbound exchange student, Gia Bataglia.

Brian Owen introduced another Brian (Steffel) to the club.

And finally, Laurie Rumbaugh introduced her daughter to her fellow Rotarians.

MEMBER RECOGNITION, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND BRAGS
 

Next Van Keck led the club through member recognition on the honor system. With no list from Ryan, Rotarians were asked to confess any upcoming birthdays or anniversaries. To get the ball rolling, Van announced that he and his wife Glenda were celebrating 42 years of marriage this week.

Sharon Larson admitted to having a birthday last week and made the appropriate donation.

Steve Bataglia announced that while he wasn’t having a birthday, his daughter, outbound exchange student Gia, had just turned sixteen.

Switching to anniversaries, Carole Benedict announced that she has been married for 17 years to her Irish hubby.

Ray Fields told the club that he is lucky enough to get to celebrate two 18^th anniversaries with his wife, the second of which is March 18^th, and was the day they had their ceremony in Japan.

And finally, Tom Hellie announced that he is celebrating his 55^th birthday this week.

Moving on to announcements, Elise Hui announced that the Village Quarter Apartments, a community for low-income seniors located on 3^rd and Irvine, is now taking applications.

Randy McCreith reminded the club of Bella Casa Realty’s first anniversary, being celebrated with an open house held Friday evening from 3:00 to 7:00 in the Marshall Building.

Brian Owen, also with Bella Casa, announced that in addition to selling houses he is running for County Clerk.

Al Hansen was also recognized for being featured in the News Register as a candidate for office.

And switching from politics to baseball, John Swensen announced that he had the opportunity to host major league all star Mark Grace in his limo, and that he had extended an invitation to him to speak to our club.

And finally, President Dan announced that our club is partnering with Seaside Rotary on a water project in Honduras. A $500 donation form our club has turned into $14,000 for the project thanks to matching funds offered by both our district and RI.

Before moving on to our program, President Dan called Art Bradley to the podium to induct a new Rotarian, the 14^th of the year. Harry Ahn, the new owner of the Wildwood Café and sponsored by Russ Rainwater, received his pin, his badge and the history of the McMinnville Rotary Club.

MAIN EVENT
 

As a fitting introduction to the program, Richard Weed read a letter from our current outbound exchange student, Amelia Larsen, who is in Japan, before turning the meeting over to Austen Wuellner, who gave a terrific program on his year as an exchange student in Guatemala.

Austen spent the year living in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, with the family of the governor. After four months of attending private school and living in a beautiful home, Austen was fully fluent and was able to engage completely in life in Guatemala. He said that by the end of the trip he didn’t want to come home, but his parents insisted. Now, thanks to his experience as a Rotary exchange student, he wants to become a doctor so that he can go to third world countries and help improve the health of impoverished people.

(editor's note: Starla Pointer of the News Register wrote an article about Austen's experiences. The story is on the District's Website. Click here to review the story. )

CLOSING
 

To close the meeting, President Dan presented Austen with a book for our early reader program. He then announced that next week's program will be the 4 eighth grade students presenting their 4 Way Test speeches. Please come prepared to pick the winner.

Photographs by Dianne Haugeberg
Captions by Erin Stephenson
Edited for the web by Ray Fields

"When meeting day comes around, I do not have to decide whether to attend or not, for that has already been decided for me . . . it was one of the obligations I accepted when I joined Rotary." -- A Rotarian
 

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