|
|||||||||||||||
Vol. 18, No. 37, MARCH 13, 2006 |
|||||||||||||||
The Friday Program: The Rarified Air of the Wind Mountains of Wyoming — a Climber’s Paradise (Cary Kopczynski & Alex Rule) | Friday Potpourri | Student of the Month: Philip Lam | Rotarian of the Month: David Bolson | The March New Member Mixer | Classification Talk: Steve Vincent | Golf Outing Coming | Note to All BBRC Duffers | To Tell the Truth | Did You Know that March 22 is World Water Day? | RFH Work Day Big Turnout! | Speaker List Growing | District Conference Update | Info That I Hope you Never Need | Web Fun |
|||||||||||||||
The Friday Program:
“These are pretty amazing people ... Cary Kopczynski and Alex Rule. They climb mountains for the fun of it! And, they’re two of our own!” President Steve opened the proceedings with a beautiful sunrise starting the new day. He introduced Steve Szirmai, who gave the invocation & pledge. Jim Carney greeted visiting Rotarian Frank Young, Bellevue Rotary, back from 2 months in Sun Valley. Also, Candice from Fremont Rotary; and Mark Mitchell, from Anchorage Rotary were visitors.
While there, Brown and Chandler called Chuck Kimbrough forward to receive his second sapphire pin, indicating at least $3,000 donated to the Rotary Foundation. Congratulations, Chuck! Student of the Month: Philip Lam
Philip is a volunteer mentor at a middle school; he volunteered at Harborview Medical Center in radiology; and he now wants to enroll at the UW Medical school to be a doctor. Philip thanked the club for the honor and was presented with his plaque. Rotarian of the Month: David Bolson
As President Steve said, “David took this project to another level with his adroit promotion of the book drive, bringing an out-pouring of books that were given to Hopelink.” Congratulations, David! That was a fun project! Classification Talk: Steve Vincent
Steve related his family had deep ties to the Seattle area. His great grandfather was Otto Reinke, who built houses and other structures before the turn of the century. “Several of his homes are still there,” Steve said. Steve was born in California, the youngest of five kids. The family moved to Orcas Island, where he graduated in a class of 24. “Yes, we had power and electricity, but no MTV!” He earned a business degree from Western Washington University and got a job with PACCAR. He returned to school at Seattle University for his Masters, then worked for U.S. Bank before joining the new Puget Sound bank start up last year. The new venture raised $22 million to open as a community bank. Time was up and President Lingenbrink presented Steve’s Blue Badge and everybody was happy.
So, Steve Vincent hung around to play To Tell the Truth. Steve would tell four tidbits about himself, one of which was false. It was up to each table to decide which one was false. Picking the wrong answer meant a dollar from each member at the table. Vincent said:
The bulk of the tables decided that he wasn’t related to Slade Gorton, because Slade wasn’t a Washington State Senator. He was a U.S. Senator and did serve as a member of the Washington House of Representatives and as State Attorney General. Four tables had the wrong answer, so the SAA kitty earned $40.00. So, what about the other three claims by Vincent? His grandfather was Jim Phalen, a successful UW coach. Don Johnson, the actor married a relative of Steve’s. And he did play college basketball, at — where else? — Western! Before Ballard left the scene, Frank Young commented, “I dodged a bullet,” meaning he’d gotten off without his usual $100 fine for just attending the meeting. Ballard heard Frank’s remark and closed in for the kill. Frank was ready and deposited the $100 in Ballard’s paw. Boy, that was easy! Nine BBRC Rotarians joined the worker-bees at the Second Saturday Work Party on behalf of Rotary First Harvest. Mark Hough handled the secretarial chores, reporting the following members in attendance:
Nine others joined their Rotary sponsors to help package frozen corn and non-frozen onions. Family members attending were Bob and Scot Swan (Mary Bell’s kids), Michael Vincent, son of Steve Vincent; Francine Weaver, Ryan and Kyle Weaver, guests of Paul Chapman; and Mary Baker and Ryan Fallern, guest of Terry Baker. Mark reported a great turnout of Rotarians, family and friends — well over 100 people — were working hard to help the hungry
For instance, Evelyn told about a student who wanted to be an Air Force pilot. Evelyn remembered that Tom Smith was a retired Air Force officer and asked him to speak with the student. Tom’s counsel helped the student decide to apply for an appointment to the Air Force Academy and he was successful. The counselors at Sammamish said that Tom’s advice had a major impact on this student when making his decision. The deadline for the Rotarian discount on hotel rooms at Chateau Whistler has been extended until March 31st. After this date, rates will go up, and hotel rooms will no longer be exclusively reserved for our District Conference. Below are links for forms and information pertaining to this year's District Conference (all PDF):
Info That I Hope you Never Need (Thanks to Chuck Barnes for passing this important information along. Feel free to duplicate and send to your family members!) ATTORNEY'S ADVICE — NO CHARGE! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company. 1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks. 2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED". 3 When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it. 4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks.(DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it. 5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards. Unfortunately I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and 1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them. 2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.) 3. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. This weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks. Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen: 1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything. But if you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about. The Friday Program:
“These are pretty amazing people ... Cary Kopczynski and Alex Rule. They climb mountains for the fun of it! And, they’re two of our own!” Cary began the travelogue, saying their trip last September featured “No heavy lifting ... or thinking ... just plain entertainment! Most people would recognize Wyoming’s Tetons as the most well known mountain range, but the fact is, the Wind River Range are the highest mountains in the state. One of the reasons Wind River is so obscure is its distance from the nearest major highway. To make matters more challenging, the access to the range is through the Shoshone Indian tribe’s reservation. To get to the Wind River wilderness, you’ve gotta go through the reservation. We engaged a Shoshone guide, Ramona, who drove us across the reservation to the trail head.” Alex described the early stages of their hike. “We left the trailhead with Gannett Mountain as our goal. This mountain is on the Continental Divide, 13,804 feet high. We knew we’d be challenged when it began snowing just two hours up the trail! We had charted out a 50-mile hike. An early challenge was becoming acclimated to the high altitude. It was 9500 feet on the valley floor where Dingwoody Creek meandered through, draining from the glacier of the same name further up the valley. So, we were greeted with a couple of inches of snow when we awoke the first morning. It’s a real sense of wonder, knowing that we’d be in this country for a week.” The second morning also greeted our hikers with new snow. Alex continued “An early morning thunderstorm with lots of lightning gave us pause because we were camped in timber. Here’s a picture of me trying to light a fire with my butane lighter, while Cary was nearby rubbing two sticks together to builds fire! This guy can do everything! We depended heavily on oatmeal, dried fruit, peanut butter, and wine for our meals. Before the big push up Gannett Mountain, we did a two-day recon.” It was hard for our hikers to describe the scale of this hike. They spotted their goal and a brief glimpse of the climb awaiting them. There was ice and snow-covered rock to make the hike even more challenging. They headed up the glacier toward the mountain named for William Gannett, the chief topographer of the Hayden expedition. The route has spectacular views of the Continental Divide. There are five glaciers on the slopes of Gannett Mountain and beautiful alpine scenery.
The next morning, sunshine filled their campsite. A picture of a butterfly alighting on Alex’s hand showed that the mountain men had now taken the chance to relax. In order to get out of the valley, they had a 2500-foot climb to the south and east….a grueling trek. They huffed and puffed over the ridge to the south-facing slope, which was free of ice and snow. Hiking poles essential on this part of the hike. They came across Knoll Lake, the highest lake in Wyoming. Their route took them down Horse Ridge, through a spectacular boulder field which went on for “miles and miles.” They continued through 12,000 feet until 11:30 that night, hiking by moonlight. The next day they did some high lake fishing for Golden Trout. Both Cary and Alex caught two beautiful trout, which barbecued up just right. The picture with fresh lemon rounds on the fish drew comment from the audience. They were back into the timber now and back into the fall snowstorms. They had reached the end of the trail. They’d made their loop of 50 miles through some of the most beautiful and isolated country in the lower 48. Ramona their Shoshone guide was at the trailhead and they packed their gear and returned to civilization. Alex, our environmental philosopher, closed their presentation by saying “You don’t have to put a 75-pound pack on your back and go into the wilderness for a week to enjoy the outdoors. We live in the most spectacular place in this country! We have parks all over with easy access and some wonderful family hikes. My wife Kim and I decided to hike in each park in Seattle on weekend mornings. We couldn’t even complete our goal there are so many parks! My young son loves exploring the outdoors. Take your family and get out in our beautiful Northwest. Do it for Liam. Please care about our environment!” Not too many calories consumed while watching the Cary and Alex travelogue. But, we certainly saw some spectacular country. Alex is right, there areso many opportunities to get into the great outdoors living where we do. Thanks to our own Mountain Men we’re reminded what a wonderful place we live. A book was donated on behalf of Cary and Alex to the King County Library System’s Ready to Read program. Ba dum bum ... One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, "What "It depends," I replied. "What does it say on your shirt?" He yelled back, "University of Oklahoma." "It's just too hot to wear clothes today," Jack says as he stepped out of the shower. "Honey, what do you think the neighbors would think if I mowed the lawn like this?" "Probably that I married you for your money," she replied. _______________________ He said, "Since I first laid eyes on you, I have wanted to make love to you really badly. She said, "Well, you succeeded." _______________________ He said, "What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you? She said, "Turn sideways and look in the mirror." |
Dick Brown has agreed to chair this year’s Golf Outing the first Friday in July. (July 7) Dick asked all members who would serve on his committee to 
Friday Potpourri
Tom Harrelson had two tickets to a future Sonics game with the Lakers on Friday night, March 31. He was planning to attend the BBRC Retreat that night, so decided to auction off the tickets to the high bidder. Up comes Tim Leahy, our resident auctioneer, with Dick Brown and Don Chandler as spotters. Tom wanted the money to go to the Rotary Foundation. The third-row tickets have “nice oversize chairs, right in the middle of the action.” Leahy said the tickets would go for at least $100 each, so the auction began at $200. The tab ran up quickly to $250, and Bill Spencer walked away with the prize.
The hiking pair prepared to rope up to make their summit ascent. As they were doing this, they spotted a group of people, later identified as an Outdoor School, who’d been in the high country for two months! It was the National Leadership Outdoor School…and the dozen or so “students” headed up the glacier. Cary and Alex had picked a similar spot. It was quite steep and by the time the other group moved up, their path had been effectively blocked for some precious time. The result was that our intrepid climbers decided they didn’t have time in that day to summit, although they were but 700 feet from the top. They headed back down to camp.