PRESIDENT WENDY started off the meeting with a welcome and DON DAVIDSON was our greeter, BECKY SCHOLL led us in our patriotic songs, O Canada included for this first meeting of the month. STEVE SOELBERG prayed for us and PAT DANIELSON is your very own scribe.

GUESTS: LYNN BUCHANAN brought our lone guest, Kathy Ziegler.

ANNOUCEMENTS: Becky announced that the League of Women Voters is having an evening of entertainment with John Keister. (I attended this last year and it was great entertainment.) She said that there is food so let it be dinner also. Call or email Becky for tickets. (I didn't get the day, sorry)

SONGFEST: SPENCER HATTON reminded us that Songfest is coming right up on Saturday, March 8. Argus Insurance has once again donated the funds for printing of the programs! RON ZIRKLE and President Wendy have already signed up to work. Check your calendar and be ready to volunteer and if you are lucky you will be stationed somewhere you can NOT hear Spencer's jokes!

CAMPFIRE has a new Camp Director, THERESA VITELLO announced. AMY NEAL and STEVE PICKETT helped with the hiring. The new camp director is John Warden from Lake Tahoe and has 18 years of camp experience. The CampFire annual dinner is coming up on February 28. So get your tickets for a fun evening.

A joint meeting has been requested for Lions, Rotary and Kiwanis to discuss the signage at Kiwanis Park for the ballfields. The meeting will be Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. at the Clarion. Please attend and let Rotary know that they are not just Rotary Fields.

SGT. CHRIS COTE had several volunteer with brag bucks. Ron Z has a birthday, JO MCLAIN bragged about the Aktion Club annual meeting, KL WOMBACHER told us about his hew baseball manager of the Bears and JOHN WARREN shared that Jack Warren had gotten 3rd in the Pine Wood Derby! The rest of our Sargeant's money making was on trivia of Ground Hog Day.

KL then called a rousing game of Bingo and Lynn once again tried to win the 50-50 but did not. We need for the pot to grow.

SHARON ALBEE then introduced our speaker Jon DeVaney, who is the Washington state director of USDA Rural Development and he lives here in Yakima with his family. Jon shared that the probram has been effective at providing public utilities, affordable housing, jobs and many other opportunities. USDA is a loan guarantee program for housing in rural areas. They also support hospitals in rural areas and help to provide energy in rural areas. Energy includes wind power, renewable energy sources. When companies are looking to grow in rural areas they want good broadband connections, good schools and available health care. USDA Rural Development invests in all of these. Yakima it self is not considered rural but if you are doing business in rural areas and think possibly that the USDA Rural Development could help, give them a call. They have all kinds of resources available.

Program next week is Jamie Crawford who works for Rob McKenna and Allied Against Meth. Jamie shares her personal story and statistics about meth use and will offer advise for positive community change.

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