Because neither of our Rotarian pianists were in attendance, President Steve Yorde opened the meeting by inviting Rotarians to recite THE FOUR-WAY TEST. Darlene Anderson came forward to provide us with a very inspiring invocation in which she alluded to the impact that music – the theme of today’s program – has in our lives, concluding with a short, moving prayer.
Jon Ohman introduced and welcomed former member Dick Whitney, now a visiting Rotarian, and guest LeAnn House, wife of today’s program presenter. Jon mentioned that LeAnn, during her college days, was a Rotary International Scholar who was provided a one-year RI Scholarship in Vienna, Austria. Jon then announced that nothing of world-wide importance occurred on September 27 in past years, unless you consider it outstanding that Henry Ford began to market his Model T Ford on this date way back when. Other Fellowship news included a self-reporting event by Tricia Bunten that she and her husband just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary – and she made a very nice contribution to the Golden Can. We learned that Duluth Rotarian Eric Dott’s wife, Deb DeLuca, is the new Executive Director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. Allen Anway made a sizeable Golden Can contribution in acknowledgement of his daughter Carol’s selection as a Fellow of the American Physical Society – a very prestigious award that is earned by a very small percentage of the membership; Carol is a physicist with the Boeing Company in Seattle. Jon suggested that, since the UMD hockey season is about to get underway, Rotarians who have a connection with UMD hockey as a player or fan might want to put a dollar on the table to acknowledge this fact. Dave Gaddy came forward to acknowledge Essentia’s plan to greatly expand its facilities in Duluth, and Marc Seigar self-reported that his son has had a very successful season on a championship soccer team. President Steve announced that his son had been promoted to general manager at the London Road Blackwood’s restaurant.
Club 25’s Rose Man, Scott Frankovich, came forward in full rose regalia to clue Club members in on the progress of the current rose sale. Scott’s enthusiasm and high-jinx were on full display again at this meeting as he encouraged members to keep working on their sales campaigns. Dick Swenson shared a Rose Sale story that happened when John Foucault, co-chair of the Rose Sale committee, met Dick at a local car dealership and gave him some very successful advice on how to sell roses.
Though he was unable to attend today’s meeting, Jerry Ostroski wanted Club members to know that the Habitat for Humanity housing project is moving forward and work crews are now being sought and scheduled. Rotarians can sign up by notifying the office of their intentions.
Jim Schwartz reminded Rotarians that a work crew is being formed to assist the Second Harvest Northern Lights Food Bank on Friday, October 5, in Duluth’s Air Park, from 10am-noon.
President Steve then asked new member Dan Markham to come forward to re-introduce himself to club members. Dan was formerly a member of Club 25, but his circumstances are now such that he can resume his membership, and he was welcomed with hearty applause.
Dick Carlson then introduced Shelley Gruskin, today’s speaker. Shelley is a semi-retired professor of musical history at the College of St. Scholastica. He began his presentation, “The Origin of the One-Man Band,” by explaining that, typically, in order to have a “band,” there must be a melody and an accompaniment. Historically, single instruments of a very early age were able to provide both these requirements. The essence of his program was then a demonstration on how this was possible. Using four different types of bag-pipes, Shelley explained how each instrument was able to provide both melody and accompaniment and proceeded to demonstrate his expertise on a total of six different instruments. He began by introducing us to the Hurdy Gurdy, a French instrument that “nobody seems to know how it got its name.” His final instrument was a French musette, a kind of bag-pipe that attaches to your waist and has four drones that accompany the melody pipe. As he played each instrument during the presentation, Shelley demonstrated a profound ability to bring the most melodic sounds out of each of them. Anyone observing the audience would immediately have noted the absorbed attention his presentation brought to today’s program. A question and answer period followed, after which President Steve thanked Shelley for a program that was easily among one of the more unique programs Club 25 has recently experienced.
The meeting was closed with the usual 50-50 drawing, this week won by Jeff IIsakka.
We begin the Halloween month of October by decorating and hosting a party for grade-schoolers at the Boys and Girls Club’s “Haunted Reception Room” at their Lincoln Park location, 2407 West 4th Street on Monday, October 8, 4-6pm. Includes decorating, arts and crafts, and cookies (NO nuts). We need volunteer Rotarians to bake and bring ten dozen chocolate chip cookies and/or sugar cookies. Please coordinate with Dan and Karen Dock. 
