Energy conservation?
To offer insight into “green construction” and “energy conservation” at home Charlie Rogers told Vashon Kiwanians May 19 what his new Island firm Habitat Home Energy Audits was up to. He’s one of two trained and licenses energy auditors on the Island.

Goal: serviceable citizens
Rogers and subsequent speakers in this short series of speakers are to help Kiwanians “develop a more serviceable citizenship”, one of Kiwanis’ six objects adopted in1924 and reconfirmed periodically in the decades since.

Rogers offered, among other things, a free guide to how to do your own energy audit at http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/greeenbuilding/documents/energyguide/pdf.

He also has offered a 10 questions checklist to the public at Saturday Market help determine if an audit makes sense for you to save money and live healthy and comfortably in your home.

Laotians doing well
Suzanna Leigh, John and Marj Watkins’ daughter, offered a slide show of beautiful scenery to the May 26 meeting of Kiwanis in which she showed pictures of the places and people her uncle and his wife worked with before the Viet Nam war.

They were missionaries in Laos and helped many Laotians escape encroaching communists by flying them to a neighboring country in their mission small plane.

Leigh and her aunt and uncle visited Thailand and Laos recently to see how people were getting on now. They found people among whom the missionaries lived before to be friendly and healthy and, for some at least, improving their life.

Kids grew up to help
Some of the children grew up to work now as adults to improve the well being of Laotians and others in southeast Asia. One might draw a conclusion from her talk and slide show that missionary work pays off in the long run even after suppression.

Under the present communists regime some things are happening that make sense, including a measure of religious freedom, Leigh said.

Salmon succor celebrated
The serviceable citizenship series picks up again June 9 with Doug Myers, Director of Science Projects for People for Puget Sound, one of the sponsors of major citizen efforts to improve the environment last month on the Island.

He expects more attention to the Island (and perhaps more rules to follow) in the future because the Island is a pivotal part of the whole Puget Sound ecosystem and particularly important for salmon runs.

Islander Amy Carey comes to Kiwanis Jun 16 with new insight into the long struggle to stop a major expansion of a gravel/sand pit on Maury Island on the grounds of environmental threat to Puget Sound as well as aspects of Islander’s dry-land well being.

New initiative for old sore
The public is always welcome to hear these Kiwanis speakers. Meetings begin at 6 p.m. with our catered dinner at Sound Food Tuesdays until about 6:45 p.m. when the speakers offer their ideas. Pull up a chair and just listen, then join in with questions for the speaker when they conclude. Kiwanians often have questions.

Or have your own dinner and bring your chair over to where Kiwanians are busy chatting.

A Puget Sound Clean Air Agency official, Rick Hess, is to peek into the smoky future and explain what’s ahead on burn bans and associated rules June 23. He spoke to the community council recently and said most outdoor burning of big piles of stuff may soon be banned entirely now that there is a handy place on the Island to chip all those prunings, etc.

Nope, we’ll be pooped
First Tuesday of each month there’s usually no speaker, just discussion of Kiwanis business. June 2, however, John Jennetty came and asked if Kiwanis wanted to flip pancakes for breakfast for an 18 hour Cancer Foundation Relay for Life benefit event ending August 1. Kiwanians mulled it over and decided it wasn’t practical so soon after the big Kiwanis Festival Pancake Breakfast July 18-19.

Discussion of the all-you-can-eat-for-$7 breakfast included adding things to the traditional pancakes, ham, and strawberries menu and publicity for the event.

Advance ticket sales tried before seemed only good for publicity since you still have to stand in line to get your pancakes so other ways to publicize the breakfast were considered.

Donations mounting
Joyce Smith reported some $$5,544 has been distributed to improve the well being of our Island community members since October. The fund comes from previous pancake breakfast proceeds put into the Kiwanis Community Fund.

Principal beneficiaries of the fund were the 2008 senior holiday dinner to help keep older folks connected to their community, two scholarships to help graduating high school seniors with college expenses, and cash to the Vashon food bank for food.

There’s $1,456 left to distribute, Smith added. The new Charitable Contributions Committee handed out a report which showed details of a $7000 budget.

Dollars stay here
Proceeds form Kiwanis fund raising activities goes into the community fund to be distributed on the Island. Member dues pay for club operation and donations to Kiwanis International youth benefit programs.

Details of the various Kiwanis programs are on this web site. Click on the menu at left. The archives have more details of what speakers have told Kiwanis.

--Jay Becker, reporter
How come no pictures? I lost the only good one for this report. Apologies