Our program today, Youth Exchange, was presented by Maria Andersen, College Rotary’s visiting Youth Exchange Student from Denmark, and Andrew Maxwell, College Rotary’s returning Youth Exchange Student who visited Norway.
 

Today’s meeting was led by President, Patty Meritt. 

 

At the desk was Carol Callahan and Mike Dunton, Elaine Williamson greeted and Mike Dunton sold 50/50 tickets.  The Thought of the Day was presented by Debbie Gross, the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Sandra Doyle, and Jane Lanford led us in song with the “Alaska Flag Song”.

 

Our guests included:

Andre Layral  with Fairbanks Sunrisers Rotary Club, who passed out flyers for the Sunriser’s wine tasting and auction fundraiser scheduled for November 7th, 5:30 – 8:30 pm at the Carlson Center.  Proceeds will be used by the Sunrisers for a playground and gazebo at the South Davis Soccer Park Complex. 

 

Other guests included: Lavern Valdez, Manager for Sandy Doyle; Jeri Maxwell, mother of College Rotary’s returning youth exchange student, Andrew Maxwell; and Pamela Flory, wife of College Rotarian, Glenn Potts.  We also had the pleasure of the company of the following youth exchange students: Andrew Maxwell, Clemens Heiden (Downtown - visiting from Austria), Cigne Torres (Sunrisers - returned from Denmark), and Maria Andersen (College – visiting from Denmark).  Maria was accompanied by her current host parents, Leslie and David Swenson and their son, as well as her next host mom, Anya Kurzbard, and her daughter.

 

Announcements:

Club President, Patty Merritt, reminded members who signed up for the blood drive that they should go to the blood bank by this Thursday (October 31st).

 

College Rotary’s annual children’s shopping spree is scheduled for December 14, 2013.

 

Board members will meet for a brief 5 minutes or so right after today’s luncheon.

 

The Princess hotel will be closing from December 2013 – May 2014, and will necessitate the selection of a new meeting location by College Rotary.  Patty Merritt presented two current options:  1) Raven Landing, or 2) trying out Pikes Waterfront Lodge for the next 2-3 weeks.  Patty asked club members to vote on these two options, and the majority of club members opted to try out Pikes Waterfront Lodge.  Patty will contact Pikes and arrange the Club’s next couple of meetings at that location.

 

Happy Bucks

Cynthia Steiner is happy she had the privilege of hosting 50 people from Dillingham, from moose camp.  She also enjoyed FDA’s current production of Sylvia, the Rescue Dog, and highly recommends this show to all club members; the production runs for two more weekends.  Cynthia is also very happy to hear about the Sunriser’s project at the soccer fields.

 

Jaime Marunde is happy to have her MBA semester finished, which was her hardest one yet.  She is also  happy to have her garage finished.

 

Vickie Kennebec is happy to have recently celebrated her Mom’s 93rd birthday in Arizona.

 

Jane Lanford is happy about her (and a former Fairbanks friend’s) participation in the Indianapolis Marathon last week.

 

Vera Alexander was recognized for her Paul Harris Plus 2 contribution and received her pin.  Vera is also happy about her recent trip to BC where she attended an international treaty organizational ceremony, and her side trips to Dublin and London to visit her daughter. 

 

Sergeant at Arms,  Don Lynch, extended congratulations to the following members for their club anniversaries: Vera (26 yrs), Sukamar (12 yrs), Corey (1 yr), Don (32 yrs), Gerd (17 yrs), and Eileen (23 yrs). 

 

Our program today, Youth Exchange, was presented by Maria Andersen, College Rotary’s visiting Youth Exchange Student from Denmark, and Andrew Maxwell, College Rotary’s returning Youth Exchange Student who visited Norway.  Both Maria and Andrew took club members on vivid pictorial tours of Denmark and Norway, respectively, including: history, culture, geographics, currency, school systems, their home/visited towns, and families.  Maria shared that Danes are known are known as “the happiest people on earth”, and Andrew really enjoyed his Euro tour trip where he had the opportunity to meet and interact with many other youth exchange students.    

 

  

Our youth exchange students are always eager and very happy to have the opportunity to participate in local events and activities.  If you or your family has an event or activity planned and have room for another person, please consider inviting College Rotary’s exchange student, Maria Anderson, to your event/activity.  Sunrisers and Downtown Rotary also have sponsored students (Cigne and Clemons) who would love to participate as well! 

 

The 50/50 pot was $29, and was won by Sukumar Bandopadhyay.

 

Carol Callahan closed out the meeting with a Leave ‘Em Laughing joke.  A man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.  The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.


The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.  The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.


Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"  The man said, "Look, I'm a computer programmer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

 

 

The meeting was adjourned by Patty Merritt.