North Notes
Spokane North Rotary Club Bulletin
January 10, 2022
Calendar:
Jan. 17: No meeting. MLK Holiday.
Jan. 24: Rotary lunch, Noon, at the Bark. Speaker: Chris Cargill, Washington Policy Center.
Jan. 31: Rotary lunch, Noon, at the Bark. Classification talks: John Mailliard and Bill Simer.
Happy Buck$:
Dave Hayward was happy that WSU’s men’s basketball team beat Utah. “That was the first time in 20 years,” he said.
Guest Rotarian Mary Joanis added $2 to celebrate her Spokane visit.
Is your check in the (e-) mail?
Club President Lenore Romney has e-mailed members about contributing to club projects.
To date, six members have contributed $6,250 toward an annual goal of $15,000, she said at the Jan. 10 luncheon.
Romney said the contributions now fund all of the projects for Holmes Elementary School for the Rotary year, but do not yet cover the club’s two scholarships and various other projects.
The fund drive is in lieu of the club’s annual dinner and wine event, which was canceled by the Covid chaos.
We encourage everyone to help if you can contribute,” she said.
One part of encouragement, Romney said, is the ability to use a 501(c)3 fiscal tool available to U.S. Rotary clubs to make the contributions taxable.
Warm thoughts from the Baja
It was 79 degrees at noon on Jan. 3 in the Cabo San Lucas area of Baja California while Mary Joanis was talking about her home Barriles Rotary Club. Spokane reached 34 degrees. The low Monday night at St. Luke’s Cape was 67 degrees. Spokane hit the mid-20s.
Mary and husband Phillip (Paco) came to Spokane to help welcome a godchild.
Mary grew up in Portland and Phillip in Bend, Ore., and she said they may come back to Spokane for the family. She also wants to start an “arbonne” skin care and wellness business.
In a few weeks, Mary and Phillip will drive the 2,000-mile trip to Cabo San Lucas. Their pictures and stories showed a little less glitz than the high-end resort town, which even has a Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Her Rotary club in Los Barriles (“the barrels”) shows a fountain with gushing water from barrels. The area has just 9 inches of rain (with no snow) per year, about half the Spokane area total.
The local industries are tourism and sport fishing. The fishing includes rays, sharks, mahi mahi and marlin. Pods of whales cruise around the tip of the peninsula. Mary said her home club of 19 does not meet in the hot summer months. Ironically, Phillip said local stores do not sell fish. Local residents just see what fresh fish is brought into the harbor for the day.
Much of the area use wells and the water is bad, she said, so the area clubs help provide water filtration projects. Mary said diabetes is the biggest health concern in the area.
She said litter is rampant, despite that garbage collection is free.
Phillip, a long-time baseball player and coach, tries to recruit a youth team.
The baseball field is all-dirt, no grass, while the area soccer field has artificial turf.
Mary said cartel problems are little. “we don’t mess with them and they don’t mess with us,” she said.
Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink