The day of our meeting greeted us some of the nicest weather you could imagine and the meeting room bordered on pre-lunch chaos when President Sigur brought the Club to order at 12:30 on the nose.

The duo of Eleanor and Rodger (Cape Henry Club) Schoonover led us in song with “Let There Be Peace on Earth”, “Four Way Test”, and a rousing version of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.  A table near mine was tempted to start dancing, inspired by the enthusiasm of Lynne Berg.  Our singing was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance (one of your humble scribe’s favorite parts of the week) and a well done Invocation by Jim Baker.

The school of the week was Lindenwood Elementary School (more on that school later)

The best visitation report ever was delivered by Bill Gough who had nothing to report!

Will King introduced the guests and that’s where the chaos I mentioned earlier began.  In Will’s defense, last week’s list was mixed in with this week’s, so here are the guests as best we (meaning me) can tell:

Rotarian of the Day Winston Whitehurst had the parents of our speaker and his friends Jim and Sheryl Wood; President Sigur welcomed Kevin Turpin; Edna Baehre-Kolovani was joined by Jeffery Boyd; Jim Kitz invited Morgan Edwards; Cynthia Carter-West brought Cline Reasor (who I happen to be friends with…don’t hold that against him); and lastly, but certainly not least, Morgan Trimyer graced us with the presence of his lovely wife Tracy.

But wait, we also had some very distinguished guests who were present for a special presentation.  We had Dr. Samuel King, Norfolk Public Schools superintendent, Dr. Clark-Freeman, the principal of Lindenwood (that school again!), Kindel Holloman, the assistant principal at Lindenwood, Mamie Johnson, the Norfolk City Councilwoman for Ward 3, in which Lindenwood is located and Dr. Kirk Houston, Chairman of the Board of the Norfolk Public Schools, which Photographer of the Day Shep Miller would later describe as the toughest job in the city.  Even Shep gets things right every now and then.

Our visiting Rotarians were Rodger Schoonover from Cape Henry, SuAnne Bryant from Chesapeake, and PDG Bill Pollard from Churchland.

President Sigur presented Mal Branch with his Paul Harris Fellowship + 6.  “That is a big deal”. Then she inducted Michael Desplaines after a nice introduction of Michael by Bill Eisenbeiss.  Welcome to the Club Michael!  Finally, she announced that Rotary Day would be on September 27^th from 9:00-3:00 at the Harris Teeter at Wards Corner.  We’ll collect food and donations from the community and share the good message of Rotary.           

The reason for the chaos and the distinguished visitors from the schools became clear when SuAnne Bryant presented Kevin Turpin with a $5,000 check from the District that was immediately matched from the Club by President Sigur to establish a Literacy Lab at the aforementioned Lindenwood Elementary School. 

Fines were paid by:

1. John Chittick for his research being presented and seeking a world record for AIDS screenings
2. Harry Gustin – Grandson article and picture in VA Pilot
3. Steve Jolly in Tiel article in the Compass section of VA Pilot
4. Edna Baehre-Kolovani Sunday Form section of VA Pilot on Vocational training
5. Ben Mason for the exploits of his children
6. Cynthia Carter-West for a Mal Vincent quote in the Pilot
7. Shep returned from Zimbabwe and his children are doing well
8. Win Lewis for his daughter’s Master Thesis
9. David Brandt for his daughter’s return to school and success at TowneBank

Vice President In Charge of Programs is Bryce Burton

Finally, our attention turned to Ross Woods, Norfolk Rotary Club’s First Peace Fellow (only 60 are named every year) whose talk was titled “Shared Stress:  Harnessing Empathy as an Humanitarian“.  I will not re-hash all of the details of Ross’ talk, but I will opine that it was one of the most interesting, best delivered lunch talks we’ve had since I joined the club.  Ross is obviously a wonderful ambassador for his family, his faith, and our Club.

A book was presented to Lindenwood (really!) Elementary is Ross’ honor. 

Table 1 was the only 100% table, Jack Hornbeck won the small pot, drew the 6 of diamonds, and the meeting was adjourned.

Next Week’s Program:  Rear Admiral Brian Cutchen, U.S. Naval Reserve - “Citizen-Sailors – their future mission and what it means for their civilian employers”