Invocation: Bob Hammar

Pledge of Allegiance – Writer was still at the dessert table so didn’t get the name of who led us. Further extensive research on this writer’s part found out that it was most likely Mickey Mouse but could have been Scott Buser that did the job.

President Jim recognized Ron Irwin for simply being with us. It was good to see Mr. Irwin!

Want to know when Thanksgiving started?…. read on

Making the Meeting happen:  Meeting set-up: Rob Erb, Tom George, James Osundwa, Rick Selden, Andrew Kruse  Recording of fines: John Lowney
Bulletin Writer: Donn Irwin.  Photographer: Phil Eng
$2.00 Desk and Sgt at Arms:  Chuck Hellar Foundation Desk: Eric Warn

Monitoring This President’s Gaffes:  Greg Rediske

The only visible visiting Rotarian we had was the speaker (introduced later).

Guests of Rotarians: Carl Bronkema introduced his wife, Veronica. He mentioned that she has filled out the application to become a member of our club.
Andrew Kruse introduced Eldie Gentry, a colleague at Youth For Christ.
President Rooks recognized the Puffins: 
Jessica James,  Carl Bronkema, Rachel Mazoff, Steve Saalfeld, Jamie Simons, James Osundwa, and Wendy McGowan, Connie Coleman- Lacadie, Anthony Veliz, Bob Martin, and Andy Phillips.  We regret that Puffin Dave Hall has decided to resign as his caddying job and other duties did not allow him to attend often enough.

Why did Thanksgiving even start?…. see below.

Sunshine Report: Eric Warn recognized Mo Sarram. Mo attended our meeting after having brain surgery last week. Mo got up and announced that he will be 90 years old in a few days and offered a check for $90.00 to pay for the privilege. So glad you made back Mo! Mr. Warn then called on Phil Eng and Steve Mazoff for a special announcement regarding a former member that had passed away – Cal Kushen. Cal was a long time Rotarian. He was a member of the Van Nuys California club and then moved to Washington. He and his wife, Kai, lived in Oakbrook and he joined Lakewood Rotary. He sponsored Steve Mazoff into the club.  Kai has long been a champion of the Tacoma Area Literacy Council, which the Rotary Community Concerns Committee has approved for grants many times over the years.

Almost new member Angela Connelly was going to be inducted toady but due to unforeseen circumstances she couldn’t make the meeting.  We look forward to seeing her soon.

Announcements: Gayle Selden (aka Ms. Zoom Advocate) asked that, if we have an announcement,  for the benefit of the Zoomers, we use the mic AND face one of two cameras. She then proceeded to make an announcement using the mic but…. well – never mind. Gayle said that she had 10 drivers for the break bag drive and that she felt it was covered but that if anyone was still inclined to help then the event would be happening Monday morning at the time and place previously announced.

Who first proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a national holiday?……answer below.

PP and PDG Greg Horn came forward to use the mic AND face the camera (Greg would make a great politician wouldn’t he) in order to give President Jim a couple of photos of him and Mary and then Rose Stevens at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Seems that the three of them (Greg, Mary and Rose) were visiting Rose’s exotic home town of Schenevus in upstate NY so they went to nearsby Cooperstown to check it out. PDG Horn also gave President Jim a pair of socks that Greg and Mary picked up while attending a Rotary Conference in Tucson.

President Jim let us know that there will NOT be Rotary meetings The Friday after Thanksgiving, nor the Fridays before Christmas and New Year’s. NOTE: ALL of the meeting s in January and the first one in February will be via Zoom. There will be NO in-person meetings at the club during that time, due to some renovations taking place there.

Leanna Christian ceded the reading of a letter from the Art Fair to President Jim, thanking Lakewood Rotary for our continued support.

Bike build: Steve Mazoff reported about the Lakewood Rotarians that participated recently in the Bike Build, which was held last Saturday, the 13^th of November. Those Rotarians who took part at the LeMay facility were: Gary Barton, Bob Martin, Lowell Johnson, Rachel Mazoff, Bill Potter, Rick Selden and Steve Mazoff.




Above:   A photo of Rotarians present

Also, there was information left on the tables by the Puffins regarding several upcoming projects that I don’t think the Zoomers received. Here is a recap:
Saturday Dec 11^th: Communities in Schools is looking for volunteers to pick up students’ holiday baskets and bring them to four school sites. Looking for 10-20 cars for this task.
Saturday Dec18th Communities in Schools will need help delivering break bags to students’ homes who are unable to pick them up from the schools.
For more info on these two projects or to sign up to help please contact Bill White at bw@northwestmilitary.com
Diane Formoso from Caring for Kids is looking for volunteers to help with the set up for holiday baskets Friday afternoon and Saturday morning Dec. 10-11 at Thomas Middle School. If you are interested in this or toy/cash donations email Diane at carekids@comcast.net
Generous Giving (aka Fines): Bud Montgomery confessed that he had an accident while doing yard work Tuesday and was banged up but that didn’t stop him from giving $100.00 to TRF (Paul Harris) for his 53^rd anniversary. President Jim tossed in $80.00. Eric Quinn added $21.00 (Madsen Quinn was born on 10/21/21). Bob Peterson came forward to the podium (used the mic and the camera) to announce that he is soon to be 93 and that he really enjoys being part of the club and engaging with all of us. It cost him $93.00 but he did it anyway. Leanna Christian announced that she has passed both CMA exams and is now an official Certified Management Accountant.  Jim Sharp went to Sonoma Valley and sampled some wine. He added $20.00 to the President’s coffer.

Who made Thanksgiving Day a permanent holiday ?…..interesting factoid below.

Rose Stevens introduced our speaker – Howard Svigals. District 5020 Rotary Foundation Chair. Howard is a member of the Gig Harbor Midday Club.
Mr. Svigals started off his presentation with some facts: This year’s theme is “Changing Lives”. Rotary is divided into 34 Zones world wide and there are 535 Districts. The relationship between Rotary International (RI) and The Rotary Foundation is a partnership. The Foundation has Trustees while RI has a Board.
There is an organization called Charity Navigator that rates charities by their financial health and their Accountability and Transparency. Charity Navigator rates TRF with 4 stars which is their highest rating. TRF has received a 4-star rating for 13 years in a row. An amazing 92% of the money Rotarians give goes directly to projects.

Howard covered a lot of ground in a short period of time which required some fast talking so this writer will try to summarize. The Polio Plus Society is made up of Rotarians that commit to giving $100.00 every year until we end polio. There are three “buckets” that our donations can go into: End Polio, Annual Fund and Endowment. End Polio: Even though polio is almost gone there is still work to do. The money goal is 50 million dollars a year. The system that has been developed for tracking polio is being used to track Covid. Currently (in the world) in 2021 there has been one case in Pakistan and up until last week there were 3 cases in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there were 2 new cases reported last week. All of the cases are centered around this one area. NOTE: The continent of Africa is officially polio free.

Endowment Fund: The goal is to have 2 billion dollars in the fund by 2025. The corpus of the fund isn’t spent.

Annual Fund: The goal here is EREY - “Every Rotarian Every Year”, with every Rotarian in each club donating $25.00 every year.

In District 5020 we have given out $194,000 in grants this year. Global grants in which LR was involved amount to $117,000 (Lakewood Rotary has gotten back more than we put in). What makes our giving special is that Rotarians get to choose where the money goes.

The right to draw for a red chip was won by Troy Wilcox, who drew white and got $5.00

A brief history of Thanksgiving (according to Britannica):
Colonists in New England and Canada regularly observed “thanksgivings,” days of prayer for such blessings as safe journeys, military victories, or abundant harvests. Americans model their holiday on a 1621 harvest feast shared between English colonists and the Wampanoag. Canadians trace their earliest thanksgiving to 1578, when a Martin Frobisher-led expedition celebrated safe passage.
The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.

Plymouth’s Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement’s gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Native Americans lost their lives.

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “Thanksgivings,” days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution, for example. Yet, after 1798, the new U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the states; some objected to the national government’s involvement in a religious observance, Southerners were slow to adopt a New England custom, and others took offense over the day’s being used to hold partisan speeches and parades. A national Thanksgiving Day seemed more like a lightning rod for controversy than a unifying force.

Thanksgiving Day did not become an official holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of President Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter, and the date chosen, with few exceptions, was the last Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, attempted to extend the Christmas shopping season, which generally begins with the Thanksgiving holiday, and to boost the economy by moving the date back a week, to the third week in November. But not all states complied, and, after a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November (which is not always the last Thursday) as Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.