Opti BeaBull November 11, 2010

Twelve stalwarts showed up on this Veterans Day for our morning meal. Marv T led us in the pledge to the flag and Bruce gave the invocation. Sheriff Steve did double duty as secret greeter fining Barry in what some viewed as revenge. Susan turned over last week’s raffle winnings to Bruce for children’s bike helmets and then promptly won this week’s raffle. We celebrated Jack’s 49^th anniversary on the 10^th which turned out to be the same day in 1871 when Stanley found Livingston in Africa. The US Marines were also organized on this day in 1775 by the Continental Congress. Sesame Street began broadcasting this same day in 1969. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month in 1918 the guns on the western front fell silent and World War One was over. We celebrated Armistice Day and the war to end all wars was over. Today we call it Veterans Day and haven’t run out of veterans or wars yet.

We will meet again this Saturday at 8:30 AM in the Kmart Parking Lot to cleanup Murray Rd. Our last road party only took an hour. We discussed plans for our annual Christmas Party. The Board wanted directions as to whether we’d allow other members to run around grabbing the really good gifts we’d been lucky enough to unwrap. After a show of hands, we agreed again to allow this heartbreaking custom to continue and Bob Primrose to again arrange things. Mark your calendars for the 16^th of December as you begin searching your basement for appropriate gifts. That talking fish must be in a box somewhere? The question of a food barrel for the Sunshine Pantry also came up at our Board Meeting but our restaurant has already allowed a toy barrel to go in. We may have to find another location to collect food cans.

Wally wanted us to also remember the homeless children at Aloha High. Last week’s speaker, Jennifer Winquist left us a list of needs for these children. The Club has run out of Speaker Plaques so we (by we I mean Bob P) are exploring all possibilities including cups so we have something to give our speaker to remember us by. Marv T is proposing a golf tournament to fund our Dean Mitchell Scholarship program. Hillsboro had pretty good success with theirs last year and our funding from Intell through Commissioner Schouten has come to an end.

At the Board Meeting Monday we learned that Dusty will be dropping his membership for this year because he is traveling to South American so much and won’t be around. And Kyle Rogers hasn’t been around for a long time. In order to help members pay dues, the board discussed quarterly payments of $25 be allowed. Joe would like a $45 payment by mid December so we don’t have to drop any more members. The Club must pay OI and District and our Administrative account is low. Scott suggested we ask members to donate to the account. We will probably send a letter requesting help in bringing this account into a level of a balanced budget.

We discussed an evening meeting pot luck dinner for members and spouses and inviting friends and acquaintances we’d like to have join our club. Joan and Marv D will look for a place to hold this event.

Linda Sneddon from Beaverton Together was this morning’s speaker. It is a coalition of partners against substance abuse with the goal of reducing smoking and drinking among our school children. The partners include:

Beaverton School District
Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District
Department of Human Services
Westside Police Activities League
Beaverton Police Department
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Washington County Sheriff’s Office
Jesuit High School
Washington County Commission on Children & Families
LifeWorks NW
Beaverton Valley Times

They sponsor Prom Perfect programs and have in the past been involved in getting the PAL Club off the ground and those big children’s parades over to the Park and Rec. District involving thousands of kids. They have compiled interesting statistics showing much lower involvement  in drinking and smoking than most people believe. And it has been dropping over the years. They will be partnering with a Cristmas tree farm this year to raise funds. There is a U-Cut farm out near the Mountaindale  exit off Hwy 26 and a tree lot at Oaks Park which includes a mini train ride with a tree purchase.