Mount Clemens Rotary Club spokesperson January 10, 2019 (Jan 10, 2019)

President Larry Neal rang the bell promptly at 12:15. David Gerlach led us in the Pledge. Bill Furest led us in “The Four-Way Test.” Finally, Tom Davies delivered grace. Lunch was a regular fiesta with tortillas, tortilla

chips and all the fixins for burritos, tacos or nachos. In addition to this, there was the standard salad. Finally, there was ice cream for dessert.

PRESIDENT TIME

Larry reminded us of the feather bowling event taking place at Bath City Bistro on Friday, January 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. Cost is $15 per person. RSVP to Gloria Murray at imgmurray@yahoo.com.
He then let Karan share some heartfelt thank-you notes from recipients of our Christmas giving tree to turning point families.
The election results are in and winners are: Valerie Miller as secretary, Julie Huttenlocher as treasurer, Steve Krankota as director-at-large and Jessie Johnson as director-at-large.
We are still looking for a president nominee.
The January 30 meeting will be a field trip to the Frederick Pankow Center.

FLOWERS

Flower duty was handled by Julie Huttenlocher taking the first for herself for her anniversary. Glenn Burton also took an anniversary flower. Kelly Allen bought some flowers for her guests who would also be our speakers. Dave Gerlach bought one for Tom Davies, the latter of which was handling recognition. This was an attempt at bribery which failed miserably (more to come on this.) There were some other flowers being bought but it was moving fast and this was all I got.

GUESTS
Jeff Furest handled the announcing of the guests, and for the second week straight, he did so without butchering a name.

They were as follows.
Dorothy Yope: L'Anse Creuse Coalition (Co-speaker) & guest of Kelly Allen
Viviana Palmer: Co-speaker/Kelly Allen
Michael Bell: LCAC
Cole Tucker: LCN
Madison Till: LCHS
Emma Oresky: LCHS
Jaden Brown: LCHS

Adrienne Gaspermi: Guest of Mari Jackson

Val Poliuto: Guest of Frank Bernabei

SONGS
Music was led by Chuck Dib who selected "Zip a

Dee Do Dah" which lacked the uplifting tone intrinsic to the lyrics and came off as more like the last sounds of a horse being put out of its misery.

This was followed by "Viva Le Rotary" which may have fared worse as no one at my table even knew which song we were singing. I am not sure it was announced before Gary started to play. After the first verse, Larry asked if we should do the second verse. The resounding no was the only thing that was done in sync since we started singing.

Great Job Chuck. lol

SUNSHINE REPORTS

Leading the sunshine report was Larry Neal commenting on the sad club announcement he made earlier the week regarding the passing of Mira Green at 92-years-old. Larry shared some wonderful stories about Mira. At the time of this announcement no details were known as to arrangements, but I checked today and am happy to report with this spokesperson that a memorial visitation will be held on Saturday, January 26 from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. at the Harold W. Vick Funeral Home, 140 South Main, Mount Clemens.Details and the full obituary can be found at:
https://www.vickfuneralhome.com/obituary/ludomira-mira-green
Don Carnaghi announced that a partner in business has recently been admitted to hospice following a long battle with a brain cancer that Don had previously mentioned. Please keep the above in your thoughts and prayers.
On to some happier news, our fearless secretary, Valerie Miller informed me that all went well with her surgery.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Larry has been kind of slacking with the Rotarian of the Week as of late, but decided to award this week's honors in abscencia Bob Baker for all he has done for Rotary in his many years of service. He also shared that he had received a letter from a very appreciative Margo in which she let us know how much it meant for her and Bob to receive the card we sent to them.
Chuck Dib announced that we are selling tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the fundraiser taking place at the Emerald Theater on May 17.

RECOGNITION
Tom Davies led recognition today and selfishly attacked the two people who saved his keester last week when he decided last minute that he needed someone to cover his shift. Yes, its true. He even had the audacity to criticize the job of the committee leader, an esteemed past president who has been doing an exceptional job of running the committee. So I paid the lousy $3 plus $1 for not wearing my pin.

Mark Zuccaro was fined $1 since he actually did the recognition, but came to the meeting thinking it was his month, when in reality, he was scheduled for February.

Gary was fined for starting playing the Welcome to Rotary song before the guests were even introduced.

Next up, Glenn Burton, Jeff Furest and Dave Gerlach were asked to stand. All three were sporting stubble roughly appearing to be a beard reminiscent of the Movember movement; however, this was January, so each had to pony up $3 as there is no Moanuary.

Dave Gerlach seemed perplexed as he thought he made clear that by bribing Tom with a flower he was safe from being fined. Tom then explained that he only promised not to fine him for most-missed Rotarian. Anything else was open game. Dave, if you are out there, I will share an appropriate quote my dad always told me growing up, "if you lie with dogs you get fleas." :-)

Ellen was hit $3 for a phone faux pas and finally,

Kristine Howell was fined for the pleasure that comes with having your mom move in across the hall from you. All missing pins were $1.

SPEAKER PRESENTATION
Kelly Allen announced the speakers which was the leaders and some members of the L'anse Creuse Coalition. This is a group that is working to help curb drug use in the schools. They shared that vaping is a big challenge nowadays. For those unaware, vaping is like smoking a cigarette, but without the telltale scent.

The students then broke into groups with Rotarians and did an exercise where we talked about families and the importance of them. This was done where a question was asked and a ball was passed around and the holder of the ball would answer and then pass the ball to someone else to provide and answer.