Weekly Newsletter 10/29/2025

Hilo Bay Rotary Club Newsletter for the week of October 29, 2025
Tim Hansen, President
 
Rotary theme for November is the Rotary Foundation
 
Call to Order:  Past President Steven Sylvester called the meeting to order at 0700
 
Pledge of Allegiance: Richard Cunningham
 
Inspiration: “People come and go throughout our lives—here one day and gone the next.  It’s this impermanence that makes the relationships we build so precious, and the moments we share so deeply meaningful.”
 
Special Announcement: Hilo Bay Rotarian Steve Jacunski passed away on October 12th in Boston. Steve succumbed to cancer. Later in the meeting Rotarian JoB would lead the club in a final toast to Steve—Mahalo Nui.
 
Trivia:   Given these choices what is or are the drivers of our local economy? Astronomy, Tourism, Flower growing? The answer was all of them.
 
Guests: None
 
Birthday: Kaitlin Balmoja
Anniversaries: Masae & Wayne Comes – October 27th
Inductions: Kaitlin Balmoja
 
Club Announcements:
  • The Polio Pig needs to eat!
  • Our HRYF advocate is back. Richard Cunningham said we are a few hundred dollars short of the $10,000 for the named nursing scholarship. David DeLuz, Jr. said that the family started a local foundation after the sale of the Toyota Dealership and that it would help the Club with two years of funding to get it properly established.
  • Junior Achievement is moving along. Sharon Scheele is still looking for a few good volunteers.
  • Virginia Juettner reported that things were moving along with reading to Kindergarteners. She thanked Anita Cunningham, Mary Begier and Alan Okinaka for reading. She also reported that the Club purchased books for the birthday books project.
  • Nov. 14th will be the yearly Rotary Foundation event.
  • Nov. 12th we will be Dark.
  • JoB and Anita Cunningham announced that there will be a Tent or Treat was being held at St Joseph’s school that evening and you can never have too many volunteers to help set up and pass out candy.
  • The Veterans Day Parade is scheduled for Nov. 8th, and Rotarians are encouraged to march.
  • On 11/13, the UH- Hilo Basketball banquet will be held. Art Taniguchi suggested that the Club buy a table to thank the players for their help with Oktoberfest.
  • JoB brought up helping the Salvation Army over the holidays with bell ringing at Walmart and KTA as well as an Angel Tree. There was club support for doing both.
  • Alan Okinaka attended the D5000 Polio Day Zoom and got an answer to a difficult question. The polio virus can live outside of human host for up to three weeks before it dies.
  • Richard Cunningham told the Club that George Washington inoculated his troops against smallpox during the Revolutionary War. This was accomplished by infecting young boys with cow pox as they crossed the Atlantic from Europe to the colonies.
  • Jan reminded the Club of the Holiday Party in the Bank of Hawaii lobby on 12/20, 5:00pm-9:00pm. Wear a creative sweater.
 
Happy Dollars: Our meetings are fast paced and packed with information. To ensure that we get the intent of Happy Dollars right, we will only list those who provide a description for their Happy Dollars. If your name does not appear below, we did not get a form for your Happy Dollars.
$20 -Kimiko Usuda – Our observatory NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) have worked with the Pokémon Company for 2 years and the special exhibition “Pokémon Astronomical Observatory” will start on Nov. 1, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan.
$20 – Parick Bodell – His first trip to Japan – Wonderful!
$20 – James Tyrin – Happy to have visited Japan on a work sponsored trip but also got the opportunity to meet up with former club Pres. Junichi Noumaru.  He says hello to everyone in the club.
$10 – Alan Okinaka – The Amazing Feather
$3 – Anita Cunningham – Thankful for Patrick’s information about Leavenworth, WA.
 
Guest Speaker:  Virginia Juettner distributed a fact sheet on three potential global grants that were approved by the Board of Directors for the membership to consider and vote on. There were several comments and questions regarding the origin of the projects, information required and timing of them. Virginia asked the members to circle their first and second choices. She would tabulate them and list the results here. There were 4 votes for the number 1 project in Nepal and 18, including 2 write in votes, for the number 2 project in Thailand and 0 votes for the number 3 project in FSM.
 
 
Door Prize Winner: Anita Cunningham won the $50 gift card to Big Island Delights.
 
Four Way Test:  Kaitlin Balmoja
 
Inspiration and door prize for November 5th -James Tyrin