The Ken April 24

The Ken April 24

Attendance: Dick Hanaburgh

Split Club: Pat Griffin

Invocation: Gary Roberts             

Fine Master: Tom Lang

The Ken: Jeff Markarian

Mike began our meeting with the Pledge. Barb led us in “America” and Gary gave our invocation. Gary told us Pat Hoffman’s service will be at Roberts, Dengler on Delaware at 11:00 May 6.

Announcements first from a very enthusiastic Scott Mason who was delighted with the help and the outcome of Shred-It. At one point we had to turn people away because the trucks were full. There was a lot of modifying of procedures because of so many cars. Great job Scott this event is a success because of your stewardship. Initial audit brings this event to $9,332. Audrey also thanked us on our continued efforts on the Wine Event. We are at a record high for sponsorships. Audrey thanked Mark Tremont on filling our major auction item, the wine cooler, with wine. We still need baskets and names of attendees.  This event is May 10 at 6:00.

Mike reminded us that our next 2 meetings will be for student recognition. Remember it is at The Paddock Dome. We have a larger room this year. And by the way their food is wonderful so I’m sure we’ll get a great lunch. Barb in Larry’s absents, asked us to bring Shred-It lawn signs to the meeting so we do not lose track of them.  This roving reporter is going to be all over any of you who stumble into Jovi’s by mistake. There will be spies watching.

Gary was asked up to continue the Armenian Raffle from last week. We had 13 spots left. John Coogan, Gary signed you up for 2 tickets. Please settle up with the treasurer. BTW, you didn’t win. It killed Gary to announce that Rick Graham’s number was drawn. Evidently Gary caught wind of Ricks chiming up that Gary missed the first half of the raffle.

Before Finemaster Tom Lang came up, Mike felt it urgent to hack on him about his lawyerly attire. Many in the room thought Tom dressed as if he was in a barbershop quartet. Being that president Mike is exempt from fines, Tom just had to take it. Art was immediately fined for commenting on Tom’s shirt. Any person that volunteered at Shred-It was exempt also. I was fined for doing a crouching dragon yoga stretch in the lunch line. Tom, I was just lining up my internal organs to accept the fuel I was about to intake. Don’t you? Ron Levea confessed to listening to an Armenian poet on Saturday afternoon. I was fined again for reciting an Armenian poem from Omar Kham. “A loaf of bread, a bottle of wine and thou”. There is a picture that goes along with this poem. If you saw it you would take the bread and wine and leave thou. Joe Starck tried to bribe Tom with cookies. Today’s trivia we were quizzed on had to do with celebrities born on or died on April 24. Oh and then Pat had an overwhelming desire to thank Barb for her donation to the Christmas Party. Pat and Linda used Barb’s timesharing unit and had a blast.

George Allen won the split club and Dick missed the Ace. In Brian’s absence, we had no bread to raffle off.

Paul was not able to get a speaker for this meeting so he decided to get one of our new members to tell us about themselves. Today we were very fortunate to have our newest member, George Allen III speak to us. George is no stranger to Rotary. His grandfather and father were Rotarians. George has been in the construction Industry in every facet. He started out working at Elmlawn as so many of our youths do. He worked as a rugger for us for a while. George lived in Tucson and did home building.  He was a super intendant on many large construction projects you have seen in town. Savarino’s ECDC. 95 Ferry. JM Hayes’ project at Washington and Sinclair where they did a complete gut and remodel. As in many cases, the super intendant works 70 hours and is paid for 40 so George decided to hang his own shingle and open his home improvement company. He has the ability to do many of the phases himself and has aligned himself with all the better contractors that he is sure will uphold is high standards. George is licensed and insured. There are already several Rotarians employing George with projects. Welcome aboard George. I never met an Allen I didn’t like.