Pres Greg is reliving Wild Hogs in Montana or some such thing. In his absence Pres Elec Jack Proffitt stepped in to officiate the madness. His first act was to recruit a tail twister as Dr Jack was off killing animals somewhere. I can understand his need for such an outlet, having to peer into the cavities of the likes of the southerly table!

Things were getting going and then Judge Joe strolled in, fashionably late. No, retract that. Joe is perfectly on time – court time. Turns out Joe is our speaker chair! Mic Goulet had been keeping our lovely speaker company – thanks Mic! Dawn Johnson of the Humane Society was prepped to speak. Anticipation was that she was eyeing which Optimists it was time to put down. King JLo didn’t help matters while leading the charge of dumb fines from the southerly table.

You won’t believe who graced our meeting with his presence this fine am! Russ Osborne! For newbies that don’t know Russ. He single handedly brought in six members during a membership drive a few years back. Russ is the king of jokes and lyric. Great to see Russ back breaking bread and hope to see him again. Jack asked him to lead us in reciting the pledge and he got all chocked up!

Another nice surprise this am! Matt Mrasek lightened the mood at the northerly table with his guest Kim Banat of First Merit. Kim has worked in the Citizen’s Bank building for 19 years and is due to join a service club. Matt was fined for not providing her a membership app yet. I’ll make sure she has access to oneJ

Meak and mild mannored Jim Reigle won the 50/50 raffle worth $9 ($18 total, divide by 2; note for Walt)!  Come out next week for our “business meeting” to discuss the $5,000 Raffle and buy a raffle ticket from Jim!

I have a ton of dates to share for upcoming events, so keep reading!

Speaker chair Judge Joe introduced his speaker Dawn Johnson (you already know her) Dawn has been with the humane society for three years. She was on an executive search committee and decided to put her name in the hat. The Humane Society began in 1926, is self funded – they do not receive money from those national organizations that advertise on TV!

Major take away: Did you know that there are 66 Cats for every person in the US?!!  The Humane Society is the only adoption agency that is inspected by the Dept. of Agriculture and pass with flying colors. Animal Control funding has reduced and Humane Society has stepped up efforts. They house 175 animals and do not euthanize by age – good news for Norm! The keep an animal till adoption and refuse room till a spot is vacant. They have reptiles, birds, rabbits and even a couple stinky Pot Belly Pigs. Popular movies and holidays push trends. For example, two weeks after Easter they have an influx of rabbits. After the Beethoven movie they received St Bernard’s…etc.

We had a couple of helpful suggestions from the peanut gallery:  Dan suggested providing an nice recipe with the rabbits. When Dawn mentioned how hard it is to move around a 500 lb pig, Mic suggested a smoker. I don’t think that was the advice she was looking for, but she was a good sport and mentioned that the majority of the workers at the Humane Society are meat eatersJ

Visit www.GeneseeHumane.org to learn about many ways to help them out. Judge Joe made a pitch for their 10th Annual Ties & Tails event – Cruising On The Love Boat is the theme, on Oct. 4th. Sounds like a fun dinner with your dog.

Ok, dates – Pete, pull out your smart phone and enter these in! (Pete was missing, but we donated his half of the 50/50 in his absence.)

July 17: Board meeting at the Bridge 6:15pm – all invited.

July 23rd: Superior Travel is looking for help giving away a truckload of food.

July 31st: our informal Golf Outing – details to follow

August 21st: Joe’s Steak Cookout