Friday Program: "The Ascent of Mt. Everest," John Waechter, Managing Director, Delafield Hambrecht, Inc. | Opener | Rotarian of the Month: Diane Gamache | New Members Inducted: Anderton, Hines & Scharnhorst | Walkathon 2009 | Family Picnic Just Around the Corner | Dino Rossi to Speak September 19 | Groundbreaking Ceremony at Newcastle YMCA | Web Fun

"State of the Civil Justice System & Washington State Supreme Court," Justice Debra Stephens, a recent appointee to the Washington State Supreme Court and longtime Rotarian. [Lingenbrink]

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ~ Mark Twain  

Opener

Howard Johnson gave the invocation and led members in the Pledge, and Chuck Kimbrough introduced visiting Rotarian and guests, including Jamie Parsons, from Juneau, Alaska.

Rotarian of the Month: Diane Gamache

President Jenny Andrews called members of the Golf Committee to the podium to once again thank them for their hard work on a very successful golf tournament. Jenny said if she could, she would award every single person on the committee with the Rotarian of the Month award for the month of August.

Of course, she couldn't do that, so she went on to recognize "one member of the committee who has shown extraordinary commitment. This person took responsibility for all of the accounting and registration activities for the golf tournament — a huge job!" For her efforts on not only this year's walkathon, but also last year's, Diane Gamache was chose as Rotarian of the Month for August. Diane has not even celebrated her first anniversary of membership in the BBRC, but she "has a true Rotarian’s heart."

Congratulations, Diane!

New Members Inducted: Anderton, Hines & Scharnhorst

Three new members were inducted into the BBRC:

Jeff Anderton is President of Ascent Technology Services (Kirkland), which provides IT/network support for small business and engineering/IT staffing service. He lives in Kenmore with his wife Judie Krey and two children, Will and Zoe. His interests include golf and camping. He has attended BBRC meetings for two months already and is ready to become a member. He is sponsored by Rourke O’Brien and Sayoko Kuwahara.The proposed classification is IT Consulting.

Lorenzo Hines, Jr., has been visiting our club for a few months and attended the Rotating the Wheels party, too. He has served our King County as Public Sector CFO and Chief Administrative Officer. He lives in Issaquah with his wife Nancy and two children, Lauren and Kristen. Lorenzo is also a singer, songwriter, and musician, with the ability to play various instruments. His classification will be Financial Management, and his sponsors are Corr Pearce and Jim Owens.

Ryan Scharnhorst is a young, passionate professional, who stated that his overall goal of joining the BBRC is to “give back to the community, volunteer, and make the world a better place.” He works for Sagemark Wealth Management in Kirkland, and he lives in Issaquah with his wife Jodene and daughter Anya. Ryan's hobbies include golf, running and water-skiing. The proposed classification is Independent Financial Planner. He is sponsored by John Martinka and Rourke O’Brien.

All three received their red badges and pins. Welcome to the BBRC!

Walkathon 2009

Jane Kuechle told members that this, the third year of the Walkathon, would be the one that tuns the corner. The committee is committed to having 3,000 people sign up for the event.

The walk will be held on a Sunday, April 26, and will be at Bellevue Crossroads Park, at the Spray Play facility that the BBRC spearheaded.

In another change, the Walkathon will benefit one primary charity, plus other secondary charities. The lead charity will be The Kindering Center, an organization that helps infants and other young children who are disabled, medically fragile or vulnerable because of abuse or neglect.

Mimi Siegel, the Executive Director of the center, reminded BBRC members of their past help, noting “you have given us the most incredible gifts.” The club kick-started The Kindering Center 7-8 years ago, Mimi said, and today she can look out of her office on one edge of Crossroads Park and see the Spray Play facility.

To crank up the interest (and the volume), the BBRC house band launched into a spirited rendition of “Money,” sung by Jane and the band. As an added touch, the band added in the line: 890-0204, which, when preceded by area code 206, happened to be Jenny’s cell phone number.

She was, uh, surprised at the lyrics.

Family Picnic Just Around the Corner

Members were reminded of the upcoming BBRC family picnic set for Sunday, September 14, at Perrigo Park in Redmond. The noon-to-3 p.m. event will include a rematch of the USA and East German volleyball teams, as well as a treasure hunt for kids and plenty of food and fun for all. Sign-up deadline is September 12. Click here to go to the online sign-up.

Dino Rossi to Speak September 19

Also coming up is a program featuring GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi at the September 19 meeting. For this meeting, members must register with Club Administrator Sayoko Kuwahara and indicate who they will be bringing as guests. The sign-up is necessary to insure that enough food is prepared for the breakfast.

If you have not responded to the email sent by Sayoko on September 5, please contact her to let her know whether you are or are not going to attend the meeting, and include any guest names.

Groundbreaking Ceremony at Newcastle YMCA

The groundbreaking for the new YMCA facility in Newcastle, which the BBRC is helping to build, will be from 4-5 PM on Tuesday, September 9th, at 13750 Newcastle Golf Club Road, Newcastle. We are looking for a big turnout of Rotarians. Click here for a flyer with information on this event.

Friday Program
"The Ascent of Mt. Everest," John Waechter, Managing Director, Delafield Hambrecht, Inc.

Chris Monger introduced John Waechter, the 58th person to conquer the Seven Summits of the World. Each summit is the highest peak in one of the seven continents.

Waechter talked of his climb of Mr. Everest in 2001, a climb which begins at the 5,000-foot level. The team spent two weeks just getting to the base camp. The team then climbed every other day to get acclimated to the altitude.

Base camp is at the 17,600-foot level. The summit is at 29,035, Waechter said.

The entire effort takes two-and-a-half months, which includes a number of climbs up and back from the base camp to higher camps.

Climbers are not roped together when climbing Mt. Everest, Waechter said, because the mountain is too steep and if one person slipped, everyone would fall to their deaths. Instead, climbers hook on to ropes which are placed or have been placed along the climb route.

Before beginning the climb, members of the team were blessed by a Lama, who put white powder on their faces to signify their living long enough to grow white hair.

Part of the ascent included going across crevasses. To accomplish this, the group tied aluminum ladders together and used them as a walkway. One crossing required six ladders.

Many climbers use oxygen in the final stages, Waechter said, to help keep their heads clear and to better keep their core body temperatures up. If the core temperature falls, the body shuts down blood supply to the extremities.

Only two of the original team of five climbers reached the top. It took 12 hours to make the final ascent, and they spent 30 minutes on the summit. They left when a storm rolled in and had to descend through it.

To underscore the difficulty of climbing Mt. Everest, Waechter told of another team attempting an ascent. One of those climbers, a young English climber, fell from a rope down an icy slope. The problem, Waechter said, was not only the difficulty of a climber actually reaching the Englishman, but also that the attempt would be so exhausting that it would make it impossible for the rescuer to complete his or her own climb to the top.

Waechter’s team was not close enough to attempt a rescue. However, an Italian climber made a free climb down and around to the fallen climber, discovered the climber had lost one of his crampons and yet taught the Englishman how to climb with only one.

The two safely descended from the mountain, without either reaching the summit.

Web Fun

Courtesy of Chuck Barnes

Email Petitions a Waste of Time

We have all gotten emails with petitions to "sign" and forward on to everyone we know. Don't bother "signing" it and don't bother your friends and family by sending it on to them. Email petitions are NOT acceptable deliverables to the US Congress or to any other governmental agency. To be acceptable, petitions must have a hand-signed signature and full address.

Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass e-letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for gathering the most cards. All it was, and all this type of email is, is to get names and "cookie"  tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active email accounts for their own purposes.

Any time you see an email that says this: "Forward this on to 10 of your friends, and you'll get good luck” (or whatever), it has either an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy. Each time it gets forwarded, it is then able to get lists of active emails to use in spam emails or to sell to others that do.

If you have been sending out the above kinds of email — and you know who you are — now you know why you get so much spam! Check it out at snopes.com.