A special thank you to all club members who worked on the Blair Rotary Golf Tournament.  The event was a success with 16 teams playing.  Proceeds are still being tabulated but it appears as though we will have netted about $1,500. 

Club members are asked to keep the date of Saturday, November 22nd available for help at the Washington County Recycling Center.  A sign up sheet will be available at next week's meeting.

Club members are reminded they can do make-ups on the web at  http://www.rotaryeclubone.org.

Brittni Jensen was honored as the September Rotary Student of the Month.  Brittni has been involved in a number of activities including: FBLA (4 years), Basketball (4 years), Band (4 years), Jazz Band (4 years), Flag Squad ( 4 years), Musical-Orchestra (1 year), Musical Cast (3 years), Choir (3 years), Show Choir (2 years), Choir Council (1 year), Drama Club (1 year).  Academically Brittni has a number of accomplishments including: Honor Roll six consecutive semesters, National Honor Society (1 year) and Top 5% of her graduating class.  As a Blair Rotary Student of the Month, Brittni will receive $200 for educational expenses next fall.

Notes from the October 7th  Meeting - Program Chair - Neil Smith

Club members shared information on their businesses and families (without any fines!):

Blake Dillon -  working with his new Harley Davidson business in Omaha/Fremont.  
Doug Demers- crop yields are down in the area due to lack of rain, U.S. cattle prices are up due to the mad cow disease in Canada, hog prices are down as Canadian producers have increased their supply to make up for the loss in beef exports.
Neil Smith - CONECO is having a good year and is currently hiring new employees, Neil has been struggling through West Nile Virus during the past month - he indicates that it is a very debilitating disease.
Tom Sternberg - the real estate market has had a typical year with the usual ups and downs.
John Cromwell - he is now a full-time financial analyst with Principal American.  John hopes to have an office in Blair by next summer. 
Mary Jean Rahlfs - new tax laws have kept Mary Jean busy, she currently has 10 employees
Doug Wolfe - OPPD continues to work on its two nuclear power plants (Ft. Calhoun and Nebraska City), the Blair Rotary Centennial Project is moving along - we need to consider the wording for a plaque to be installed.
Mark Rhoades - a busy summer with family events - graduations and weddings, they now have an empty nest
Dave Bohling - the hotel is full due to the outage at Ft. Calhoun, since Dave's wife started working at Washington County Bank, he has realized how much she did in the family business
Ellen Ryder - this week, on the 9th,  marks the 9th anniversary of Ray's stroke - they will celebrate his success and improvements during the past nine years,  Ellen and Ray continue to take their monthly mini-vacations
Jim Nelson - hard to believe the Sid Dillon dealership has been at its "new" location for 7 years now, the Blair Chamber After Hours will be held at the dealership on October 24th.
Lana Pleak - Lana has been at the Blair Hospital for over 21 years, in a number of different positions, her son will graduate from Iowa State in May
Chris Boswell - Chris has been working at Sid Dillon for five years, his two year old son keeps him busy.
Don Boswell - after a slow spring, the remodeling business has picked up, the new taxation on labor is complicating his business.
Bob Hill - this is the 3rd year of ownership of the Rivers Wild Golf Course, Bob is building a house west of Elkhorn.

Rotary Question of the Week

How did Rotarians in Britain and Ireland make it into the Guinness Book of Records?

Rotary Fact of the Week (from  the RI or District Website)

Rotarians in Britain and Ireland have made it into the Guinness Book of Records with a health initiative they helped implement early this year.

"Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) in partnership with The Stroke Association took blood pressure readings from a total of 127,573 people at over 1,000 sites across the UK on 5 April 2003," reads the certificate sent to the RIBI secretariat by the keeper of records at the Guinness Book of Records.

Clubs sponsored the event to address the alarming incidence of stroke in the RIBI area. At each of the sites, qualified medical staff checked the blood pressure of participants and, when necessary, advised them about lifestyle changes and further health care. Each examinee was issued a card to take to his or her doctor.

In some areas, up to 25 percent of those who took advantage of the free checkup had problems they were unaware of.

"A large number of people were referred to their own doctors and whilst I cannot provide a definite figure it is estimated to have been about 5 percent of the total," said Don Carsley, 2002-03 chair of the RIBI Community & Vocational Service Committee. "In one case a lady patient was taken for immediate treatment and she wrote to the Rotary organizer saying, 'Thank you for saving my life.' That lady alone made it all worthwhile."

According to Carsley, the success of the initiative has inspired numerous clubs to express a wish to repeat the Stroke Awareness Day this Rotary year.

"Rotarians believe that stroke is a major issue for our communities and costs too many people their lives, too many families and carers great suffering and hardship, and costs the national health service billions of pounds every year," said Tony de St Dalmas, 2002-03 RIBI president. "I believe that awareness and prevention are vital and this initiative struck a chord with the general public."

Thought of the Week

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

October Birthdays
Tom Sternberg 1st
Doug Demers 6th