Posted by Charles Rehberg
 
North Notes
Spokane-North Rotary Club Bulletin
May 16, 2022
 
Calendar:
 
            May 23: Rotary lunch, Noon at the Bark. Service project: Hand-written greeting cards to Holmes staff.
 
            May 30: Memorial Day holiday – no meeting
 
            June 6:  Rotary lunch, Noon at the Bark.  Program:  Fellowship.
 
            June 13:  Offsite meeting for a tour of The Podium – more details to follow
 
            June 20:  Rotary lunch, Noon at the Bark.  Program:  ALSC Architects
 
            June 24:  Year end dinner at Art Rudd’s home – more details to follow
 
Happy Buck$:
 
            Bill Simer was happy for the Skyfest program at Fairchild AFB.  He said though cloudy weather grounded some of the aerial flights last Saturday, with the smaller crowd he could tour most of the planes.
 
             Lenore Romney was $22 worth of happy for the graduation of her niece who completed a B.S. degree in wildlife science from SUNY ESF/Syracuse University -- $22 for 2022.
 
            Sandy Fink added a guilty pleasure measure for French fries as Steve Perry shared his Bark lunch.
 
            Officers and directors elected
 
            With a unanimous show of hands, club members elected the slate of officers and directors for 2022-23.  The roster includes:
 
            In quarterly order, the quad-chair presidency nominees will be filled by Steve Bergman, Michelle Fossum, Melinda Keberle and Steve Boharski.
 
            Lenore Romney will be Past-president and Treasurer.
 
            New Secretary would be Nancy Hanson.
 
            Director candidates would be Bill Simer, Chuck Rehberg, Ron Noble (at-large), and Colin Prestesater.
 
            The President Elect/VP position remains unfilled. 
 
Speaker question: ‘Book ‘em’ or do something else?
 
            For about five years, guest speakers at the club have been added a book to the Holmes Elementary library in their honor.
 
            Sandy Fink, the club’s liaison to Holmes, said Principal Kale Colyar is open to other kinds of speaker gifts.
 
            Sandy said one possibility Kale suggested would be funding a camp to a Holmes’ student.  A range of camps could be considered.  One suggestion was the Mobius science programs.
 
            Another suggestion is that the speaker rewards focus on more students rather than just one student at a time.
 
            Club members are asked to think about the continuing the book program or change to other student-involved activities.
 
A time of their lives
           
            Steve Boharski and April Weber-Boharski see a lot of cats and dogs every day, so for a little variety last Christmas they looked for some other animal life.
 
            Their holiday list included giant turtles, lizards and iguanas, blue-footed boobies, flamingos, manta rays, orcas, sharks, more seals they could count and the only species of penguins north of the equator.
 
            So Steve and April, who own and operate the Garland Animal Clinic, took their kids and another family to the Galapagos Islands a unique wildlife site.         
 
            Their party of 12 hiked the paths of the volcanic lava fields and mountains and swam and scuba-dived in the chilly Humboldt Current waters.
 
            At the May 16 club luncheon, Steve and April shared their holiday odyssey with a wonderfully riveted picture show.  Their trip was one of the first opened after the Covid-19 chaos forced closure of those trips.
 
            This trip involved a flight to Quito, Ecuador, then a 600-mile flight west to the Galapagos, the “giant turtles” named by Spaniards in the 1500s.
 
            Some resources say the Incas were at the islands in the 1400s.  But the major discoveries worldwide started in a visit by Charles Darwin in 1835.
 
            As Steve noted, the Galapagos Islands are an archipelago built, like the Hawaiian Islands, on volcanic lava.  The Galapagos has 33 islands, but only four inhabited.  Some 97 percent of the 80-mile long islands are a national park.  Residents total about 25,000 and tourism is king.
 
            The holiday included staying in tents.  April said, “With no showers, it’s camping.”
 
            Steve said, “With no predators on the land, all of the other wildlife can adapt in their own niches.”
 
            Off shore, though, Steve could hear orcas cracking the shells of sea turtles.  “A little bit savage,” he said.  “And the orcas were bigger than the boats we were in.”
 
            Steve said that while the island weather just ranges from 70 to 85 degrees, the cold currents are chilly for even wet-suit diving.  Snorklers can find warmer bays.
 
            The food, especially seafood, was outstanding, they said.  Kids and adults crawled into old giant tortoise shells for photo ops. A large Christmas tree, fully decorated, reminded of the holidays.
 
            Steve also mentioned an older gentleman who “has three businesses – coffee beans, cocoa and moonshine.”  Travelers got to sample their work.
 
            In all, it was a lifetime trip…and their photos made all of us wanting to go.
 
Bulletin editors: Chuck Rehberg and Sandy Fink