Craft Talks – Boyd Morrison, Steve Klick, John Hackenburg
The meeting began at 7:34 with a welcome from our president, Brian Ling! The pledge of allegiance was lead by Jo Timmson and the Inspiration was provided by Mike Merrill, who quoted (and I am interpreting!) Granville Keiser(?) . The words of wisdom suggest that we should be “discreet, keep our rude comments to ourselves, be a listener, and the the tone of your conversation!” Interestingly enough, his quote was from the 1800’s!!
Bill Arnone was not available to lead us in song so Michael Juric and Sue Nelson led us in singing “God Bless America!” Not too bad for a couple of “non-choral” members!!
There were no visiting Rotarians, however both Stefan, our Travelling Genius” and Domingo, our “son”, were in attendance!
There were a TON of announcements:
•Mother’s day event at Keisar Park brought in about $1000 to our international fund! Now the Bar has been dusted off and we are ready to rock and roll!!
•Brian thanked each of the team members who worked on the Teacher Appreciation event (Doug, Sue, Pam, Beth, Joan and Terry) – then he announced that Terry had been behind the scenes delivering candy and donuts, to the teachers during the Team Appreciation week – BRAVO TERRY!!!
•May 20th is going to be a COMBO day of Rotary Activities – there is the Faught/Shiloh/Pleasant Cleanup in the morning at 10am (starting at Bill Bolster’s home) with a BBQ and POT LUCK to follow at his place around 2:00pm . This will be the “meeting” for the 5th Tuesday – remember – NO MEETING on MAY 30th !!!!
•The Rotary Bar is opening on June1st with Pride and Joy being the opening act!! Renee Hyde is looking for signups!! Please find a slot to either set up, serve or clean up between June 1st and August 30th!!
•Beth Smith is looking for volunteers for PROJECT GRAD!! it takes over 250 volunteers to get this thing off the ground and running! there is a QR code that will give you all the necessary information!!
•Stefan gave an update on the Odyssey of the Mind event that is coming up.The team has built a Pirate Ship which they are shipping back East for the event! The students are soliciting funds to send three of the team members to Michigan for the finals.
•The Club, under the guidance of Monica McCabe will be working with the town on the development of a grant to plant daffodils all around Windsor in an effort towards beautification!! Monica is taking the lead on writing the grant, with the support of her team.
•Domingo, “our son”, announced that he is going to receive his certificate on May 20th in real estate. He is going to continue at SRJC to secure his AA in Real Estate, business Management and Economics! He gave a heartfelt thank you to the club members for all the support, but also to Renee Hyde, whom he had asked about staying for four month(when he first arrived) – Hummmmm, let’s see? It has been about 18 months (and growing!).
•Boyd Morrison, was inducted by Renee Hyde, Membership Chair, into the club! Boyd spoke of feeling a desire to give back to the community and transition from being a “Soccer Dad!”. Having lived in Windsor for 14 years, both he and his wife are wine makers, and are raising two children one of whom is off to University! WELCOME BOYD!!!!
•Birthday acknowledgements went to Renee Hyde, who was in New Orleans with 1700 other agents! She generously gave $100 to the Ecuador Language project and $100 to the Odyssey of the Mind!
•Carol Martin celebrated with JB and Stefan by planting, going to a movie and having dinner out!!
•Leslie Lewis and Nirmal will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary at the Lodge of Bodega Bay – and she also contributed $100 to the John Lewis fund
•Susan Cole, almost forgot that it was her 20th wedding anniversary but she did not forget to contribute to the Windsor Community Foundation!!
CRAFT TALKS
•Steve Klick, gave an extensive history of his background which included being raised in the lumber industry in Fort Bragg before he left for college and never returned to Ft. Bragg!! He started studying engineering before switching to Arizona and becoming a geologist!! He went to Spain in the late 1990’s where he met and married his wife, Mapi. He and Mapi lived in Spain for 10 years, where they ran a restaurant, before returning to the United States They have two children,Lucia and Frank.
Steve has a strong connection both professional and voluntarily to serving in the Fire Service. Currently he is president of the Sonoma County Fire District. He has returned to the field of engineering and is the owner of Bauer Engineering. He is actively involved in volunteerism with focus on Engineers without Borders. He and Mapi still own a home in Malaga, Spain, where they MIGHT end up retiring!
The question arose about his significant weight loss, where Steve mentioned that he has lost 85 pounds. the secret to success is…”eating vegetables and eat less!” Further, he mentioned that a professional challenge resulted in his taking inventory of being more disciplined! He admitted that he had to “put his mind to self discipline self to lose the weight!”
Congratulations, Steve – Before you know it you will be at your wrestling weight!!!
John Hackenburg, apologized that he did not have a power point and suggested that we just use Steve’s photos again as he walked through his history!! Born and raised in Colon, Michigan. There was a medical reference to describe the level of excitement associated with the name of his town, but I won’t go there….he is the youngest of three children, and attended school in a one room school house where he graduated in 1965. He mentioned that he met his wife, Jean, at College and they married three weeks after his graduations! (Celebrating 54 years!! yeah!!) John reviewed his history which involved his going to Pensacola to attend Navy Flight School and receiving his wings when he was in Beeville, Texas. He got his MBA in 1979. He and Jean moved back to California where his daughter was born and where he was flying A7’s in Lemoore, California! He completed two tours in Vietnam (thank you John!!) where he talked of being “playmates” with the North Koreans!! Upon completion of his active duty, he remained in the Reserves, and finally retired from the Navy in 1996.
He mentioned that his wife, Jean, “stumbled into” Atari . While his wife was in high tech and finance, John was a salesman! He and Jean moved to Sonoma County in the mid 1990’s where they were able to pursue their interest in biking, hiking and making wine. In 2013, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and a detached retina. This was followed with five years of changes, which included selling their ranch, major life changes and moving to Windsor! All seems to be fine, because he and Jean are travelling all over the world and particularly enjoy ADVENTURE TRAVEL! Their is no moss growing under their feet!! A past president, John has served on the Board in Windsor as Foundation Chair! Many thanks, John!!
Stefan Neuber, our Exchange Student gave a super short presentation on some of the things that our Iphones can do – that we don’t even know about…I was too busy trying to do what he was suggesting so I did not take notes! Generally, everyone thought that we should have him do a program on the wonders of Iphones!!
Brian gave thanks and a round of applause to all who made the meeting happen. He also told a brief story about his father’s involvement with Lumber transport (linking back to Steve’s early history). Reminded us about the event on Saturday and wished us a GREAT WEEK…Go do something Rotarian!!!
respectfully submitted
Pam Moulton