What a great week for Rotary! Since my last message to you, we had a very nice club social outing last Thursday night, and a wonderful meeting yesterday. Many thanks to Heidi Blair for setting up the Wine Tasting at Aloha Wines, and to all of you who showed up and supported the club at the event. It was nice to meet some your spouses in a different setting than our normal club meeting. I had to leave early to go to a school event, but I noticed many more folks arriving as I left. I'm sure you all had a great time.
John Boivin opened the meeting with a pretty funny Groaner about our old friend "Boudreaux" - and different ways to represent numbers and sums - well done, John! Justin Beck then lead us in the Rotary Prayer, followed by WWII veteran and retired Army Colonel Bob Spilman leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Carl Gindl leading us in the 4-Way Test.
We had lots of happy dollars - most notably was Bobbye Carroll and her comments about returning from a trip and having workmen in her back yard! Other notable Happy Dollars sprung forth from Paul Parks with his 34 years of perfect attendance and Ronnie Arnold for a smooth start to the school year. I really enjoy hearing from everyone during the Happy Dollar portion of the meeting! Your contributions all go the the Rotary Foundation to help wipe out Polio, so thanks for the double effect of sharing the good news. We also had some "long distance" good news - Don Gregory let us know that his son's transplant went well - please keep them in your prayers. Bob Bothfeld wrote to let us know he is enjoying his time in chilly Vermont (I'm jealous - see you back here in October - bring some cool weather with you, please!). Thanks to Bob B. and Mike M. for your $100 "birthday brigade" checks to the Rotary Foundation (Every Rotarian - Every Year).
Bill Sheffield then came up to introduce visitors and guests. He did a great job introducing guests Carol Monroe (John Stein's boss), Wes Nichols (guest of Sandy Starr), Reuben Buekoureff (guest of Ed Holt), Julia Hoeschler (Ronnie Arnold's guest), and a very brave man named Bobby - son in law of our own Huntley Johnson. We also had two visiting Rotarians (our speaker Frank Miller - Five Flags) and John Clark - from the Downtown club.
Huntley Johnson got his long awaited turn at the microphone as our Woolley and had us all in stitches as he went from table to table picking on us for our numerous (or imagined) shortcomings. Only Huntley can create so much laughter and generate such proceeds for the Rotary Foundation. If you missed this meeting you missed a real good chance to laugh and have a good time with your friends - don't miss next week!
Today's drawing was won by Tim Couch, who pulled a 2 of clubs, so he didn't win the $158 pot and and graciously donated his $10 consolation prize back to the foundation! As soon as the Ace of Spades is pulled from this deck (only 30 or so cards left), we will restart the game with some new rules. The club will seed the pot with $250 to start, and will not give any payout unless the Ace of Spades is drawn. That should help the pot grow faster and hopefully, we will raise more money that way...
John Stein then introduced our guest speaker, Frank Miller, Director of Pensacola Regional Airport, who gave us a presentation about the $75 million airport improvement plans. Most notable is the planned automated baggage screening area, and the "hammer head" terminal expansion. Another great program - thanks, John!
Don't miss our meeting next week, when the program will be our District Governor, Ron Richards. Until then, stay dry and keep an eye out for Fay - let's hope she is a kind visitor.
See you next week!
John Boivin opened the meeting with a pretty funny Groaner about our old friend "Boudreaux" - and different ways to represent numbers and sums - well done, John! Justin Beck then lead us in the Rotary Prayer, followed by WWII veteran and retired Army Colonel Bob Spilman leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Carl Gindl leading us in the 4-Way Test.
We had lots of happy dollars - most notably was Bobbye Carroll and her comments about returning from a trip and having workmen in her back yard! Other notable Happy Dollars sprung forth from Paul Parks with his 34 years of perfect attendance and Ronnie Arnold for a smooth start to the school year. I really enjoy hearing from everyone during the Happy Dollar portion of the meeting! Your contributions all go the the Rotary Foundation to help wipe out Polio, so thanks for the double effect of sharing the good news. We also had some "long distance" good news - Don Gregory let us know that his son's transplant went well - please keep them in your prayers. Bob Bothfeld wrote to let us know he is enjoying his time in chilly Vermont (I'm jealous - see you back here in October - bring some cool weather with you, please!). Thanks to Bob B. and Mike M. for your $100 "birthday brigade" checks to the Rotary Foundation (Every Rotarian - Every Year).
Bill Sheffield then came up to introduce visitors and guests. He did a great job introducing guests Carol Monroe (John Stein's boss), Wes Nichols (guest of Sandy Starr), Reuben Buekoureff (guest of Ed Holt), Julia Hoeschler (Ronnie Arnold's guest), and a very brave man named Bobby - son in law of our own Huntley Johnson. We also had two visiting Rotarians (our speaker Frank Miller - Five Flags) and John Clark - from the Downtown club.
Huntley Johnson got his long awaited turn at the microphone as our Woolley and had us all in stitches as he went from table to table picking on us for our numerous (or imagined) shortcomings. Only Huntley can create so much laughter and generate such proceeds for the Rotary Foundation. If you missed this meeting you missed a real good chance to laugh and have a good time with your friends - don't miss next week!
Today's drawing was won by Tim Couch, who pulled a 2 of clubs, so he didn't win the $158 pot and and graciously donated his $10 consolation prize back to the foundation! As soon as the Ace of Spades is pulled from this deck (only 30 or so cards left), we will restart the game with some new rules. The club will seed the pot with $250 to start, and will not give any payout unless the Ace of Spades is drawn. That should help the pot grow faster and hopefully, we will raise more money that way...
John Stein then introduced our guest speaker, Frank Miller, Director of Pensacola Regional Airport, who gave us a presentation about the $75 million airport improvement plans. Most notable is the planned automated baggage screening area, and the "hammer head" terminal expansion. Another great program - thanks, John!
Don't miss our meeting next week, when the program will be our District Governor, Ron Richards. Until then, stay dry and keep an eye out for Fay - let's hope she is a kind visitor.
See you next week!
