Musings from the past

The Hawk's Prairie Rotarian 3/4/02 Greetings and Salutations to all of you that are Hawk's Prairie Rotary members! First things first....Have you all made your reservations for the Paul Harris Fellow dinner and meeting? It's simple and easy..All you have to do is get ahold of Shawn Lewis(North Thurston School District) e-mail at scmlewis@earthlink.net or call at 412-4425 and let him know how many of you are coming, and you can pay at the door. President Joseph Beaulieu(First Community Bank) is MC for this affair and the club with the highest percentage of attendance wins a big prize, plus there will be a drawing amongst Hawks Prairie Club attendees to add a whopping $100 contribution to the Paul Harris Foundation in the winners name! So plan to be there. This meeting takes the place of our regular meeting on Friday March 15TH which you need to know about, because if you show up on March 15TH nobody will be there. So be there at the West Coast Hotel at 5:30 pm, where everybody else will be! LAST WEEK'S MEETING: If you missed it, you missed a wonderful meal of croissant club sandwiches and pasta salad from City Picnics(thank you Bill Peabody from Salomon, Smith and Barney) then we had Lowell Gordon(Creative Office Supply) lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, then Jan Wallace(Providence Home Services) shared a positive moment with us.something about 2 seeds in the ground talking to each other, then we all sang "This Land is Your Land" and Bob Kagy(ABC Printing) welcomed all visiting Rotarians .a lady from the Twin Cities Club and 3 out of town Rotarians from the Lacey Club(you had to be there) then President Joseph helped us all to sing the Hawk's Prairie Rotary song, he then told Ken Balsley who had written the song that it was now our song, and that we would sing it any way we wanted. Ken seemed satisfied to give it away.. GETTING TO KNOW YOU... Mike Andritch(IBM Sales) shared his story with us about how he was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin the 4TH of 4 children in his family and how his dad moved the family to California(the land with the streets paved in gold) when he was just a youngster and after attending St. Joseph's Catholic school, in the 2nd grade his teacher told him to go sell a stack of Christmas cards, and how he did it, and then she gave him another stack and he sold those, and how he didn't realize until later in life what kind of feat that was for a 2nd grader, because most of his neighbors that he sold the Christmas cards to were Jewish.(you had to be there) He graduated with a degree in marketing from California Poly technic University and then went to work for IBM, which Mike says stands for "I've been Moved"! He was married in 1970. Has a son named Brian(29) who is working as a prosecuting attorney in California, and his daughter, Lisa(22) is graduating from Oregon University in June, is planning on studying criminology, and going to work for the FBI after she graduates. Mike has traveled all over with his work for IBM, and after a short stint in the financial services industry, went back to IBM and has been happily involved in marketing and sales ever since, and we're proud that he is a Hawk's Prairie Rotarian! THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM: ...Introduced by Joe Chiappino(PDG 5160) after embarrassing Jim Rydaland and Shawn Lewis (North Thurston School District) Col. Steve Bailey from Ft. Lewis and Maj. Joe Henry, gave us an overview of what's going on at Ft. Lewis and how important this strategic facility is to the U.S. Army and the Northwest. There are 8 major Subordinate Commands on Base with a host of other entities dispatched from there. Usually about 22,800 soldiers are stationed at Ft. Lewis at any one time. Plus how Ft. Lewis' "Community Connection" program has won 1ST place as far as effectiveness was concerned in the entire U.S. Army! Superb Presentation and we are glad to have Col. Bailey as a Hawk's Prairie Rotarian. NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: Make your plans to be there, because Joe Chiappino tells me that he's really got something great in store for us next week! Plus in the getting to know you section, John Darby(Lacey City Commisioner and Olympia Thurston County Chamber) is scheduled to tell us all about himself!(that shouldn't take long) Plus, it's the last meeting we'll have before the Paul Harris Fellow dinner at the West Coast Hotel! I'll see you there... Til Next Time Greg Stevens