A full house was greeted by CHRISTINE COTE and our PRESIDENT RON ZIRKLE. JO MCLAIN prayed for us and JULIUS GLOVER led us in a rousing song since we had to sing at least as loud as our Selah Interclub. Other guests included former member and president, Barb Greco and Jesse Garza .
Announcements: The Selah Prayer Breakfast was not January 13th but our interclub of CHRIS CHRISTMAN, STEVE PICKETT, LYNN BUCHANAN and President Ron would have prayed well for us and instead got us an interclub credit. The Prayer Breakfast is the 1st Saturday in March, or March 7.
FATHER/DAUGHTER DANCE: STEVE EMHOFF then shared with us that the upcoming Father/Daughter Dance is at the 100 person level; ticket sales have been phenomenal. They can use volunteers at the Clarion on Saturday, the 17th at 2 p.m. to help decorate; give Steve a call or an email and find out the details.
PRESENTATION OF NOVEMBER KIWANIAN OF THE MONTH: JOHN WARREN was given the honor of Kiwanian of the Month by President Ron for John’s great efforts at our Salvation Army Bell Ringing. He received a big thank you and a “cup of coffee”!
WELCOME NEW MEMBER, JAN LYONS. President Ron officially welcomed new member Jan Lyons, Asst. to the CEO at Avail Home Health. Good job, sponsors Steve Emhoff and KARL CORPRON.
Sergeant KIRSTEN DANIELSON then quizzed us on the winery tourist activities in the area. RICH LEWIS then won and lost 50/50. And Bingo was called by Chris Christman and won by Julius Glover.
BECKY SCHOLL then did a wonderful job of introducing our speakers, Ben Soria, Superintendant of Yakima Schools, and Rick Linneweh, CEO of Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. They then shared the message of ‘CHARACTER IT’S WHO YOU ARE’. The mission statement of character endeavors in education is: “It is our mission to raise awareness of the importance of good character and to teach and model significant attributes of character in our communities, schools and homes, thereby helping to develop ethical, responsible and caring people whose lives reflect the universal principals that we all share.” The character trait that is introduced and emphasized for this month is Forgiveness. Even though there have been two recent bond failures, the Yakima Schools have never performed better, but many in the community blamed the school district for the ills of the community. There is changing demographics in the community with many parents being illiterate and of low character and low values. A need was seen for an emphasis in character building. And the process is in the works. You can go to www.buildcharacter.org and see what the school district is doing. Rick Linneweh joined Supt. Soria and Jesse Garza as Director of Parent and Community Involvement, Enigma Marketing, Mayor Edler and Greco of For a Better Tomorrow as a coalition to model good character. Rick shared that we have the obligation to create the culture of the future. That it does take a village to raise a child and to remember, employers, today’s youth are your future employees. They are putting out a call to action. We have an opportunity or responsibility to become a part of character building in our community – be a positive character creator.

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