July 1, 1969 - June 30 1970
President: Phil Isaminger
Vice Pres: Ed Nichols
Secretary: Rod McCormick Exec. Secretary: Carol Norton
Apple Seed: Don Kay
District Governor: John Jones, Moses Lake, WA
Attendance: 89.90%
New Members: 14
Members Lost: 13
Members end of the year: 172
Prior to taking office as President, Phil Isaminger and his wife, Pauline, along with Frank and June Taylor and Past District Governor Ed Cadman and Mary Jean attended the Rotary International Convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, May 25-29. More than 14,600 Rotarians and guests from 66 countries attended the convention at which James F. Conway, Rockville Centre, New York, was elected President of Rotary International. At the beginning of the year there were 13,822 Rotary Clubs and 654,500 Rotarians in 146 countries.
Program Chairman Jack Grover and his committee did an excellent job of coming up with good weekly programs. Among the outstanding ones were: Mike Ryan, Wenatchee's Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellow, gave us a good report on his year in Europe; Rubinoff, the famous violin virtuoso, held Rotarians and visiting Kiwanians spellbound by his great artistry; resident British Consul General, Hamish McGaie, gave an excellent report on Great Britain; District Governor, John E. Jones, address to our club was outstanding; the Christmas Program, directed by Barbara and Earl Tilly, was professionally done and many Rotary Anns and children and grandchildren of Rotarians participated. At that meeting the Salvation Army Collection reached an all-time high of $433.15. Representatives of Girls' State and Boys' State, Debbie Mumm, Cheryl Foster, Vickie Odell, Craig Swanson and Chris Elder, impressed us with their report on these worthwhile youth programs.
As always, one of our most delightful programs is the top-10 candidates for festival queen. Art Ludwick, for the second year in a row, did an excellent job of interviewing them. Rotarians were evident in Festival leadership with Ed Cadman as Director General, Win Baker and Ralph Wrenn as Assistant Director Generals, Dave Gellatly as President of the Chamber of Commerce and Gordon Chester Chamber Manager and Rotary Anns, Marguerite Neel and Pauline Isaminger as Royalty Chaperones. On April 12 Queen Kim Horan, Princess Gail Bergener and Jane Drake visited our meeting.
Again the international students from the University of Washington presented an entertaining program; Ellis Armstrong, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior gave an outstanding address entitled "The Quality of Life;" the most controversial program was given by Kenneth Kirkpatrick when he talked about the Paris Peace Talks and the Vietnam situation.
The Joint Service Club meeting held during Apple Blossom Festival week was one of the largest ever, with Astronaut Richard Gordon of the Apollo 12 moon mission as guest speaker. Gordon also served as Grand Marshall of the festival parade that weekend.
Wenatchee Rotary reached the 400% plateau in contributions to the Rotary International Foundations meaning a total of $6,800 has now been given by members of our club. It was announced in July that Thelma Waddle, proposed by Wenatchee Rotary, had been selected to receive an undergraduate Rotary Foundation Fellowship award for 1970-71 for study in Belgium. Harold Schomer acted as leader of a Rotary Group Study Exchange team from district 506 to Bolivia. On his return he presented two interesting programs on his experience. Steven Brown, son of Wenatchee Rotarian Don Brown, left to spend a school term in Denmark as a Rotary Exchange Student. Lisa Shamberger, WHS student, was selected to spend the 1970-71 school year in Sweden as a Rotary Exchange Student. The club agreed to sponsor an exchange student from Sweden to spend a year in Wenatchee at the same time.
Don Kay, editor of the Apple Seed, introduced a new format and put new life into the club's weekly newsletter.
Griff Quinby and his Classification Committee spent much time and effort in completing and publishing an up-to-date Classification Roster.
An idea that originated at one of our Fireside meetings resulted in Rotary holding a "Youth Forum" at the YMCA camp at Lake Wenatchee in April. Jack Crowl was Chairman and was so well received by the 50 high school students and 30 Rotarians and Rotary Anns who attended, that a new Youth Action Committee was appointed and plans made for future activities and projects to benefit youth and create a better understanding between the young and older generations.
The Rotary Suit Sale, headed by Jay McFarland and the Ways and Means Committee was the most successful on record. The sale helped our Club assist such groups as: Boys' State, Girls' State, Boy Scouts, Salvation Army Camperships, YMCA Camperships, Camp Fire Girls Camp, Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball and Wenatchee Swim Team. Assistance was also given to the Wenatchee Sheltered Workshop and YMCA Therapy Swim Program. Construction of a Rotary Ski Haus was nearly completed, giving youth and parents a place to assemble for rides to and from Mission Ridge.
President Phil instituted two well received practices at the weekly meetings. Prior to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance he gave an appropriate preamble; and, to show courtesy to the speaker, Rotarians who had to leave early were asked to register at the head table so they could be formally excused.
Awards were presented this year to Wenatchee Rotarians having more than 20 years of perfect attendance. They were: Paul Scea and Kuch Kuchenreuther (30 years), Don Pybus and Less Lewis (27 years), Ross Heminger (26 years), Kirby Billingsley (25 years), Jim Welch (23 years) and Lloyd Reems (21 years).
The Board gave approval to Earl Tilly, chairman of the International Committee, to proceed with arrangements to have Wenatchee Rotary become a "Sister" club to the Rotary Club of Hirosaki, Japan.
The District Conference in Moses Lake was attended by 14 Wenatchee Rotarians and their Rotary Anns. A highlight included a tour of the new Boeing 747 jumbo jet of Japan Airlines.
Social events worthy of note: For the first time in several years Rotary failed to win the All Service Club Golf Tournament, however, a good number of Rotarians and Rotary Anns enjoyed the dinner party which followed. A bus load of Rotarians had a good time on the trip to see the Seattle Sonics play the Cincinnati Royals March 6. After 11 years of usually winding up in second place, the Rotary Bowling Team finally won the championship of the second half of league play, however they lost in the playoff to the Wenatchee Jaycees.
President elect, Ed Nichols, was transferred to Fresno in May. The board elected John Manhart to serve as President during the 1970-71 year, and Charles Fox as Vice President. John Warnock was selected to fill the vacancy on the Board of Directors.
On June 25, 1970, the Past Presidents staged a demonstration and protest march demanding that Phil give up the President's gavel. Dressed as hippies, wearing wigs and carrying placards inscribed with appropriate phrases for the occasion, the Past Presidents were quite a sight to behold. After many speeches by the group, Phil Isaminger was admitted in the Past Presidents and John Manhart became President of Wenatchee Rotary for the 1970-71 year.