President Susan rang the bell with a friendly welcome and admonition to silence all cell phones.  Eleanor Schoonover led the singing with Daisy Bell (on your bicycle built for two), followed by "It's Rot'ry" and then a patriotic song.  After the pledge Mark Morelewski offered the invocation.

Lois Kercher delivered the final Centennial Moment.  She discussed the Rotary Endowment, which has two key expectations for us in the Rotary Club of Norfolk.  We contribute each year to the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.  This money is used for global initiatives and grants to regional districts.    A second key expectation is for us to contribute to the Norfolk Rotary Endowment Fund.  Ours started with $67,000 that was raised in 1991.   The principal has grown and “the income generated enables financial support for long-term charity work in our community.” (Harry McCoy)  Not all clubs have a local endowment, so we can take a little pride in being a local leader. 

The school of the week is W.H. Taylor Elementary, a well known West Ghent school. 

Matt Shriver gave the visitation report.  He noted that honorary member Walt Grandy’s wife, Anne, had died during the weekend and the funeral will be on Wednesday.  Walt was very active in our club and joined in 1965. A card was available for all members to sign. Tom Richards seems to be improving a little, and Ken Weeks says he is about the same. 

Al Carmichael introduced guests:  Visiting Rotarians included:   Nancy Joslin, president of the Northside Club and Tom Herbert from Oyster Point   Rotarian Cy Grandy introduced his guest, Jim Kitz.

Roger Flagg was honored as the Rotarian of the Week.  Roger was born and raised in Buffalo, NY.  Roger was a dentist in the Navy most of his life and thus settled in Virginia Beach.  After retirement he worked with the Virginia Beach Health Department.  He has three sons, one daughter, and four grandchildren.  He has been in Rotary for 28 years, and has contributed in a number of projects, including being Santa Claus at a number of Christmas luncheons at the TED Center.

Marty Raiss made an announcement that they were sending out press releases about our 100^th birthday.  Copies were on each table, but she quickly added that members could send letters to the editor commenting on the success of our club.  President Susan commented that other clubs had shown drops in membership, but we have maintained ours (roughly 150).  

We received a proclamation from Tom Enright, President of The Kiwanis Club of Norfolk congratulating us on our 100^th anniversary, and wishing us well.  Not too subtly Tom noted that the Kiwanis was in its 95^th year.  It was a very elegantly worded proclamation and gratefully received. 

Lisa Chandler reminded us all about the antique and flea auction and that the time was now to gather things for the sale.  She does have warehouse space. 

Fines were very lucrative and extensive at this meeting.  It seems President Susan lost her Rotary pin in her pocketbook, so she started by offering a $2 fine, but some thought $5 was more appropriate, and she conceded.  Then the dollars came thick and fast, this newsletter includes a sampling:  Mal Branch had wide coverage for the NATO Festivals now completed and considered a success.  He was grateful for the good weather.  Linwood Beckner latched on to mention of WB Taylor school and suggested any who had attended or had children there (past or present) or taught there should contribute.  Harry Taylor attended the 55^th reunion of his medical school.  Jim O’Brien has had a 43 year wedding anniversary.  Cynthia Carter West was grateful for our support of the Virginia Tattoo.  Chuck Spence had his 55^th HS reunion.  Marty Raiss contributed for the privilege of crying through the tattoo.   Lindsay Russell gave $5 for the appreciation of Brett Meredith and the opening of the Kroc Center.  Brett then stood to announce his thanks, and noted that some 7,000 people passed through the new facility.  Brett went on to mention that he was being asked to move on to another location in about six weeks.    Barbara Lipskis reported a recent success. Nancy Joslin, president of Northside Rotary, rose to contribute and congratulate us on our 100^th anniversary.  Barry Kesser stood to contribute to recognition of his membership in the ‘lost class of 1959,’ he noted that Chuck Spence was also part of that historic group. 

Ed Lilly was Rotarian of the Day and introduced Wes Cheney, founder of Bike Norfolk.  Wes is truly committed to bicycling.  He has biked through Europe.  He also has an interest in photography and worked for a time under contract with Norfolk-Southern to take pictures.  His wife is a mid-wife at DePaul and he has two young children. 

Wes continued his introduction by mentioning that he came from Vermont where his father was a Methodist minister, hence his name, Wesley.  He likes living in this area because he can walk to various activities. His wife often rides her bicycle to DePaul Hospital where she works as a midwife.  They have about 10 to 12 bicycles in the garage which they use in just about every season of the year. Wes enjoys doing a century ride, which is 100 miles on a bike to anywhere. The ride is really only a challenge usually four days on a bicycle.  He worked as a bike courier in London, England, and was impressed with the pedicab cab service started in Norfolk. Currently he is a bike courier and covers downtown Norfolk, Old Dominion, and Ghent delivering Oriental food.  He brought in several bikes for us to look at, one is a bamboo bike. It does have six steel parts and some epoxy and fiber glass with a lot of bamboo.   It is light and strong because bamboo is plentiful, cheap, and the size of its sections are consistent.  He also had his Raleigh bike which was rebuilt. It seems the bicycle was on the roof when they went through a car wash. He was able to salvage the parts and by using bamboo created a very workable bicycle.  Wes is very tall (6’ 4”) so he was able to design a bicycle to fit his body.  His work bike is referred to as a Gary Fisher rig, with aluminum body and a three speed transmission. It also has disc brakes, and he has a trailer which will carry 12 to 15 gallons for his courier work.  Riding a bicycle in downtown Norfolk is something of a challenge, He suggests that bike riders try to be predictable, let drivers know what you want to do.  He always uses turn signals and he does mind red lights.  He will also acknowledge a driver who gives him the right-of-way with a wave or smile. He wears a helmet, and he has a light on it for night driving and also uses a rearview mirror.  He asked us to observe that he wears a “sports kilt,”  It seems his pants kept ripping at the crotch because his legs are so long, the kilt works very well. He commented that peripheral vision is very important. During the Q&A he mentioned that the Hampton Boulevard underpass is not safe on the street and that he does use the sidewalk. This is illegal in certain areas. There are signs up saying “shared use lane” on some parts of Granby Street and other places in the city.

President Susan showed him the book donated in his honor to the W.H. Taylor elementary school. There was a raffle for one night hotel room in the Marriott which was won by George Compo.  Ted Baker picked up $15 from our regular raffle, and left $465 for a future winner.