It all started as it should, right at 12:30PM, as President Mary Horn (PMH) rang her bell and brought us all to attention so that Scott Buser could invoke us to ask for peace, safety and protection – especially for the hostages in Gaza and for those affected by the terrible happening in Maine. Phil Eng led us in the Pledge.

Leon Titus was at the Paul Harris desk while Mark Edgecomb was multitasking as the raffle and visiting Rotarians guy AND being the Sgt. at Arms person as well.
The Dream Team - Rob Erb, Wynn Hoffman, James Osundwa and Tom George set the electronics up for the meeting.
 Walt Richardson was on the camera whilst Donnnn Irwin scribbled stuff down for a later attempt at translating the scribbles into cohesive sentences (thank goodness for editors!!).
John Lowney was Cookie Jar Tender (fine collector) and was forced to contribute to said jar due to his stay in Cabo San Lucas – during a hurricane. John explained that he and his wife (Pam) consider their favorite place to be Cabo and they always go in October. I believe he said something about romance and other sentimental/gushy stuff that cause the Lowney’s to consider Cabo as their favorite place.

In 1904 the big news in NYC on Oct 27 was that the subway opened.

PMH asked the Puffins to stand up - four of them did. PMH also asked for guests of Rotarians to be introduced so Steve Mazoff stood to announce his wife, Ellen.

The “Zoomers” were then recognized – Carol Wier, Carl “Root Beer” Bronkema and John (Ole) Magnuson all had their smiley faces up on the screen.

Back in 1873 on this date, Joseph Glidden applied for a patent on his barbed wire design.

Gordy Quick and Greg Horn were recognized as Past District Governors while Tony Camoroda was acknowledged as District Governor Nominee (Ole, in case you don’t know what that is, it means that Tony is second in line as District Governor) and the always effervescent Assistant Governor, Bill Potter, was also recognized.

On October 27^th in 1795 there was an extremely important event that took place – Pickney’s Treaty between the United States and Spain was signed. The treaty established the southern border of the United Staes and gave us the right to navigate the Mississippi River.

Wendy McGowan was called upon to give the Sunshine report. Wendy reported that Gordy Quick was in Las Vegas for the season and that he was undergoing blood tests and transfusion down in the desert. Gordy says hello to everyone.
Wendy also reported that Tom Sadler is in a facility and that the address is 3512 38^th Ave NW, Gig Harbor WA 98335. Tom’s phone number is 253-820-3443. Tom’s wife, Sharon, said that Tom would welcome visitors but that a call should be placed to 253-313-5638 to make sure that he is available to be seen. (I believe that is the number for the facility that he is in, and they want to be sure that you don’t waste a trip to Gig Harbor to see him).

Steve Enquist stepped up the to mic to award Mark Edgecomb with his 7^th Paul Harris award.  I believe Jason Whalen earned one as well, but it could have been for Gael Whalen – not sure on that one. Steve also gave Tom George a replacement pin for one that he had received earlier that was broken.

Speaking of Tom George, he of the Youth Exchange program, Tom announced that he has worked with both the outbound students in the program and with some rebound (returning) students. He also previewed a new Youth Exchange Pin for District 5020.

Date line 10/27/1936 – Dupont announces “nylon”.

Announcements:

PMH plugged the Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation purple recycling bins program once again. PMH is very competitive and our club is way behind the Kiwanis club is Steilacoom – 33 to 20 - in buying the bins. They cost $200.00 a piece so she is looking for club members to pony up some bucks. (Otherwise, we may have to deal with the result of losing the competition…yikes!).

The World Affairs Seminar is coming up so get nominations in. This is a great opportunity for high school students to learn leadership skills.  They will spend a week in beautiful Wisconsin.

Jan Gee – Trunk or Treat needs volunteers for October 31. Call her.

Wood Stick is November 11^th at Clover Park HS and is supporting Oasis Coffee this year. Chris Kimball says he might need another couple of volunteers to help with parking cars.
Nourish of Pierce County is having a fund-raising auction on November 11^th. Contact AG Bill Potter for more information.

In 1960 on October 27^th Ben E. King recorded “Spanish Harlem’ and “Stand By Me” in NYC and in 2004 the Boston Red Sox won their first championship since 1918.

Community Concerns Committee Chair Jan Gee came forward to ask for motions, seconds, and votes for two grants – one for the LeMay Bike Build and the other for a Holiday Basket Ministry. Both grants were for $2,000. Both received motions, seconds and were passed. Once again, Lakewood Rotary gives back to the community!

PMH touted the new Lakewood Rotary edition of Stroll Magazine and mentioned that our own Steve Enquist got a two-page spread and Dwight Williams got a page as well.

Past President Jim Rooks came forward to announce nominations for our Board and officers. New Board members nominated were Linda Disney, Dwight Williams and Mark Herr. Greg Rediske was nominated for Secretary and John Lowney for Treasurer. Tom George was touted for President. There was a motion to accept the slate which was then seconded and approved. Congratulations to all and thank you in advance for your service to the club.

Cookie Jar Contributions:
Chris Kimball paid $20. for being in the top 20 in some car event that I didn’t get the name of. Thank you, Chris and congratulations.

PMH touted the Stroll magazine again and Steve Enquist paid $25.00.

PP Jim Rooks stood to let us know that PP Mark Edgecomb was inducted into the Simon Fraser Hall of Fame for his soccer prowess. Mark paid $40.  Was that Canadian $$?

Tony Camoroda paid some money to congratulate all of the new board members and to mention that Tom George is the first President Elect announced during his upcoming tenure as DG.

AG Bill Potter announced that the LeMay Bike Build will be November 19^th and that he is looking for some possible additional storage space.

Barb Spriggs introduced our speaker, Susanne Bacon.
Susanne Bacon is a bi-lingual, German-American author, journalist, and columnist
All of these colorful chapters in her life and a very positive, hope-inspired attitude influence her topics and her style of writing.

Susanne was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where she graduated with a double Master's degree in General and Comparative Science of Literature and in Linguistics from Stuttgart University.
She was a freelance journalist with a daily paper in her hometown, then with a trade magazine for which she would end up as the editor-in-chief for over a decade. During this time, she published two books of poetry and short stories in German.

Susanne immigrated to the U.S. in 2010, where she has been living with her husband in the South Puget Sound region in Washington State ever since.

In 2015, Susanne Bacon edited and translated her first, originally German novel, “Islands in the Storm”, a historical novel about the German occupation of the British Channel Islands in WW II. Immediately after its publication, she wrote and published her first American novel, “Delicate Dreams”, which would become the first in a series.

Her Suburban Times column “Home from Home”, comparing her former German life to her American experiences, turned into another book with the same title.
In 2021, Susanne created an spin-off from her Wycliff series, a romantic mystery based on the character of a military spouse.

Since 2015, Susanne Bacon has published twelve novels – the 13th is about to be published –, one book of short fiction, and one book of non-fiction; they can be found on Amazon. Her Suburban Times readers find her columns “Across the Fence” and “In the Book Nook with …” each and every Thursday and Friday on the internet.

You can also visit her website https://susannebaconauthor.com/ or her public author page on Facebook.

Susanne’s topic – How to Publish and be an Author.
Her presentation began with the notion that if you are going to write, you have to have a purpose. When she first started writing her purpose was to vent her emotions.

Her first job was as a freelance writer. Later she wrote trade manuals and advertorials. These jobs enabled her to build a network-personally and professionally.

In the United States she is not know as a journalist but as an author. She talked about different types of writing – as might be seen in the Suburban Times. Opinion pieces, editorial pieces, stories and announcements and critiques/entertainment reviews such as Past Rotary 8 President, Don Doman’s articles that show up in the Suburban Times.

She posed the question: How did I start out? Well, in 2017 the political climate was terrible, and angst was the disposition de jour so……she decided to just tell stories – until she ran out of them. Then she started her “Across the Fence” pieces.
She created a column to help authors market themselves.

Next year a new column will appear in the Suburban Times called “Lets Talk”. The purpose of which will be to stimulate conversation – civilly.
Susanne stated that through her writings she tries to inspire and that writing and publishing are easy to do. Just set aside 10 to 15 minutes to write every day.
Think about your message - what you want to say and how you want to deliver that message. Your delivery mechanism could be a novel, a poem, an essay and so on.

Susanne stated that the person who writes will be remembered.
She gave a couple of helpful hints: If you can’t come up with a first sentence then write a second one. If you can’t start with a beginning, then start in the middle or the end and work from there.
The helpful hint I liked the best was – you can’t edit a blank page so write something. (With that I will send this on to our publisher!).

The Foundation took in another $205 today!

Donnnnn Irwin won the raffle and drew a white chip worth $5.00.

Another Lakewood Rotary Club meeting adjourned.
Famous October 27^th birthdays: Theodore Roosevelt, Emily Post, Dylan Thomas, Nanette Fabray, Roy Lichtenstein, H.R. Halderman, John Cleese, Lee Greenwood and Donald Trump’s ex Marla Maples.