ANNUAL RAFFLE: 2005 Raffle Preseason | About the Raffle | 2004 Raffle Winner

Vol. 17, No. 46, May 16, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE:

This Reveille Home Page | The Friday Program: Corporate Story Telling | Danielle Departs | Rotary First Harvest Breaks 100 Million | Friday Potpourri | Salvation Army Doughnuts & a Classification Talk | Students of the Month: Derek Benach & Fernando Rubio | Mini-Assembly: Community Service | A Photographer’s Life | New Member Proposed: Tom Harrelson | Web Fun

The Friday Program:
Corporate Story Telling

Evelyn Clark, author and speaker on the value of telling good stories gleaned from company files, told her audience about the benefits of spinning these stories to explore the character of the company.

Her talk embraced the tale of three companies. “Storytelling is such an important thing. It puts a real-life stamp on how the company does business and reflects not only on the company leadership, but the employees who work there.” She told the well-known story about Costco Wholesale, a company that always strives to provide the highest quality at the lowest price.

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Danielle Departs

Danielle Peterson, one of the staffmembers who has faithfully served us the past year, has elected to leave her position with Glendale in preparation for returning to school in the fall. Danielle has some credits toward her degree as an LPN and looks forward to finishing that educational endeavor.

Danielle is pictured (on the right) with long-time staff member Maryanne Johns.

Thanks, Danielle for your hard work and gracious hospitality! Good Luck!

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Rotary First Harvest Breaks 100 Million

On the first day of March, 2005, Rotary First Harvest delivered five semi-trailer loads of fruit and vegetables to Washington food banks to commemorate the 100 millionth pound of produce collected.

RFH, begun in 1982 as a simple effort to collect extra vegetables from neighborhood gardens to feed the hungry, has become one of the largest sources of produce for Washington’s hunger response programs.

Mike Shanahan, one RFH’s founders noted that food banks were still a relatively new idea when the program started in 1982. “When we first started this effort, we were trying to fill a real need for fresh fruits and vegetables at the local food banks.”

According to Shanahan, the idea started small, but grew quickly. “In the early years, Rotarians simply asked neighbors to ‘plant an extra row’ in their vegetable garden. That first year, we knew we were onto something special when we delivered the first few pounds to the food banks and saw the reactions of people who were picking up food for their families.”

The remarkable success of Rotary First Harvest is the direct result of the efforts of hundreds of individual Rotarians working together. While the structure of RFH ensures a very low overhead (currently 0.4%) and wise use of resources, it has been the support and leadership of District 5030 Rotarians past and present that have created the energy that continues to drive the program today.

Rotary First Harvest serves as a non-profit food broker, locating donations, then finding trucking to deliver the donated food to food banks. Using this model, RFH provides millions of pounds of produce every year to a broad coalition of food banks and soup kitchens through organizations like Northwest Harvest, Food Lifeline, Emergency Food Network and Second Harvest Inland NW.

From the beginning, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary club has joined with other District 5030 clubs to support Rotary First Harvest. Plugging in financial support through the club’s Community Service committee, drawing on individual donations from BBRC Rotarians and helping to staff monthly work parties at Pier 91 has all been a part of this club’s involvement. Hats off to Kevin Jewell, departing coordinator of the club’s RFH effort. And thanks to Howard Johnson and Ruben Ladlad for stepping forward to continue the BBRC’s activity in this important area. You, too can help by sending a donation to RFH and responding to calls for work teams at the monthly work party. You may also participate as a member of the RFH committee of the BBRC. Contact Howard or Ruben.

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Thought for the week

“Outside of a dog, a book is probably man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx

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THIS WEEK'S EDITOR
John Mix

THIS WEEK'S PHOTOGRAPHER(S)
Larry Gill, Ernie Hayden

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