Welcome

 

It took President Matt two rings to bring these raucous football fans to order.  Mark Mercer may have been a bit over the top with the big “R” painted on his chest, but hey, you have to admire his spirit!  Val Meyerson did an exceptional job of properly greeting everyone, Lindsey Bur led the pledge and Kathy Motschall brought it home with the 4-Way Test.  All we were missing was the singing of the Star Spangled Banner, but this club doesn't sing!

 

Shall we toss out a few makeups to get things started?  Some Sunrise Rotary members volunteered at Camp Daggett this weekend to provide meals to the inbound Rotary Foreign Exchange Students who were at camp for an orientation.  Let's give makeups to Julie Joles, Andy Kolp, Jenn Kolp, Carlin Smith, and Tracy Butler!  Thanks folks for volunteering.

 

From time to time, our club does some volunteering at Habitat for Humanity.  Chuck Drake is the leader of that initiative.  Habitat is starting a project in Indian River and they need to construct some storage sheds for their equipment.  The work bees will be Mon. 10/5 through Thu. 10/8, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.  You can pick the days that you want tThe build site will be in Indian River.  See Chuck about how to sign up online.

 

Our noon club guests had a sneaky reason for attending.  They commandeered our meeting to promote their club's Great Grocery Giveaway.  It's a raffle to win groceries each week for a year!  Top prize is valued at $5,200, Second prize is $2,600 and third prize is $1,300.  Tickets are just $25 each and can be purchased from any Noon Rotarian.  One dollar of every ticket sold supports the Manna Food Project.

 

Today was the last day to purchase tickets for the Rotary on the Bay Sunset Cruise next Monday evening.  If you missed the boat, check with Matt, he might be able to still swing a couple of tickets your way.  

 

 

The arrival of football season usually marks the beginning of some more lucrative happy bucks, provided the right teams are winning.

 

John Marshall pitched in to remind everyone that the rumors of U of M's football demise were greatly exaggerated.  

 

It wasn't until the very end until someone finally pitched in for the Lions' big win.  It was Kathy Motschall who shook a single out of her wallet.

 

We had some travelers.  Joe Kanine was in Louisville visiting a kid and Wisconsin to see the grandchild.  

 

Chuck Johnson enjoyed a trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula.  

 

Hal Lawrence traveled to a funeral which wasn't happy, but the reuniting with several former co-workers from all over the country was a good occasion.

 

Jenny Johnson pitched in for the “Hair-apist” project.  I don't really know what that is, but it's a good pun, so I'm all in!

 

Chuck Drake was happy to be at Rotary, but his wallet didn't come with him!  Joe, put Chuck down for an IOU.  He was also happy for his class reunion and how the class has raised $20,000 for an NCMC scholarship.

 

And Brian reminisced about meeting Ben Manthei at one of his early Rotary meetings and they've been friends ever since.  It was great to have Ben with us today.

 

 

Today marked the end of the David Meyer Sunrise Rotary Lecture Series.  He finished on a high note by welcoming back Perry Paganelli and this time Perry brought his brother Carl.  Perry is a retired NFL referee and Carl is still active in the league.  They have a younger brother who also officiates NFL games.  Among the three gentleman, they have worked nine Super Bowls.  

 

 

Dave says Perry and Carl love speaking to Sunrise Rotary because it's the only place where they ever get applause!

 

Carl noted the need to have thick skin when you're a referee.  “You just can't take things personally,” he said or it would really get to you.  He's even had a young child curse him while the Dad was giving the kid a high five!  They were Raiders fans, so there's that.  He joked that sometimes he tells a coach, “That's a good one; I've never heard that before!”  He said Sean Payton, who now coaches for the Broncos, once told him that that's the worse call he's ever seen, to which Carl replied, “Oh I've made worse!”

 

Perry opened by saying we should all be happy football fans, U of M, MSU, and the Lions are all undefeated!

 

He talked about how officials do make mistakes from time to time.  He says they are graded, play-by-play, call-by-call each for each game that they work and get a repart card sent to them each Tuesday.  These report cards help the league to determine who will officiate playoff games and the Super Bowl.  He said that's why there's no such thing as a “make up call.”  “If I mess up a call, I'm not goint to mess up another one to make up for it,” he said.  It hurts his grades!

 

Both Carl and Perry have had careers off of the football field.  Perry worked as a school administrator and I believe they said Carl worked in the probation court system, or something like that.  

 

For the record, Perry says Western Michigan University was robbed out of a win in their loss to U of M.  U of M was granted an extra play after time appeared to expire and, of course, scored the winning touchdown on that extra play.  He says it's possible that the clock the referees saw on the replay differed from the game clock, but he says in the Big Ten, they should have used the clock on the telecast.  “Western did win that game,” he said.  

 

Carl noted that the game now has too much technology.  He says refs are now worried about replay technology.  He says it has dramatically changed the game and it isn't going away.  

 

Thanks Dave for bringing us such a fun program!

 

Have a great week everyone!  Go Lions!

 

Respectfully submitted,

Carlin Smith