2024 Ecuador and Boeing

 

President Connie welcomed Cathy Squires to the podium to award her an Honorary Membership to the Rotary Club of La Conner and a Paul Harris Fellow award for her generosity and kindness.  You embody “Service Above Self”! Each year, Cathy and her BUNCO friends, donate BUNCO winnings and time to purchase bicycles and helmets for the SPARC donation each Holiday season.  Thank you Cathy for your kindness to our club members for the last 30 years and week after week serving and caring for us as well as your kindness to the community!  Welcome!  Cathy shared how much this club means to her and she considers us all friends whom she dearly loves and cares about.  She was very honored and thanked Connie and the Club for this very special award.

Lori Buher introduced our speaker for the evening Joel Hingston, a Spanish Language teacher at La Conner High School.  A Spanish Learning Trip is planned so Joel brought Marlin Bralins, a sophomore student, to share about the trip and what he hopes to experience and learn.  Marlin shared that the students will be going to Ecuador for 9 days, students are raising their own money, in November they will be having a Fundraiser, and to date, he has earned a large percentage of the money by driving and doing yard work in the area.  Students need $3590 ea and Marlin is down to his remaining $700-800 for the trip.  They will spend 2-3 days in Quito to start their learning and the opportunity to see other cultures in the world and how they live.  They will be at an indigenous camp for half a day and then will have some time for hiking in the National Forest and meeting the people who live there.  They will have the opportunity to take a rafting trip down the Amazon River.  One of the foods that are quite a delicacy are “guinea pigs” which are roasted.  Marlin would like to try, even if only once.   The trip is 4 weeks and includes 10-11 students all on one bus.  They will be doing the trip adventure/experience together.   

  

As a second speaker for the evening, President Connie introduced Cory Ertel, Boeing Grassroots Advocate to come to the podium and share about his role at Boeing.  You may remember Cory from when he spoke to the Club when he worked at the Refinery and other Rotary of Anacortes Club interests.  Cory attended Ballard High School where he enjoyed playing baseball in the Seattle area.  He attended Central Washington University.  Cory has been married for 17 years and has 3 children.  His career has mostly been in Public Affairs, most recently hired at Boeing Washington in Government Affairs.  He worked at the Shell Refinery until July 2022 when he joined Boeing.  The Boeing assignment is Grassroots Professional Government Official.  Cory has been a member of Anacortes Rotary since 2012,

Cory began by acknowledging and sharing an update of the Alaska  Flight 1282 in January, where the door plug exited the airplane and pilots successfully landed the aircraft with no series injuries.  He felt that he should share the seriousness of the incident and the levels at which Boeing is committed to ensuring nothing is more important to the company than ensuring the flying public is safe.  Boeing regrets that it happened and commended the pilots for getting the AP landed safely.  The investigation is ongoing and will ensure enhancements to Quality programs to ensure safety.  Boeing is being transparent – There is a one page write up if you would like to follow up on the information at Boeing.com. 

 Boeing was formed in 1916 by Bill Boeing at the Red Barn. If you have never visited it in the Tukwila area, it is a fabulous museum.  Boeing is a leading global aerospace company with product and services support to customers in more than 150 Countries, and contracts with more than 12,000 suppliers globally.  Boeing employs more than 140,000 across the US and in 65 countries, A Diverse Team committed to innovating for the future.  Washington is the headquarters of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Subsidiary Insitu, and Boeing Test and Evaluation with 65,000 + employees, which is more Boeing employees than anywhere else in the world.  The Boeing average wage in Washington is $106,514 compared to the average wage in Washington State which is $84,167. Boeing currently has 3,494 employees in the Learning Together Program, where Boeing has paid $23,466,982 to date in our State for employee education.  Boeing has a direct and indirect economic footprint in Washington, supplier 1K+, annual purchases $2,25B, and jobs supported 205K. Boeing Everett produces wide body aircraft, 767, 777, Composite Wing Center, 777X, 4^th 737 production line, the KC-46 Modification Center, and the   The Renton facility produces the 737 MAX family of commercial aircraft and the E-7 and P-8 military aircraft.  The Seattle/Tukwila facility is home of the P-4 Military Delivery Center, and the Renton product Commercial Delivery Center. Kent houses the Kent Space Center and the 737 Engine Build up, as well as the Auburn Fabrication Division in Auburn  and in Moses Lake there is a 737 Production line to catch up on the MAX build that was stopped for 2 years, after the crash of (2) -900 MAX aircraft internationally.  Over the next 20 years, Airlines will need 42,595 new aircraft.

 

Cory shared that Washington State s very important to Boeing, as well as 842 Skagit Boeing employees as well as 1045 Skagit Valley Retirees.  Company matches Boeing employee and retirees giving through Company Match.  Boeing hired it’s 1000^th employee as a part of the “Kids from High School” program.  If you would like to see more information on the Boeing Company, you can visit www.watchusfly.com.

 

Thankyou Cory for such an educational presentation.

 

 

 

 

 The inspiration was provided by  Ollie Iversen who shared some quotes shared by people over the generations.  Some of what he shared include:  Mahatma Gandhi “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever”, Henry David Thoreau “Success usually comes to those are are too busy to be looking for it”, Thomas Jefferson “The more I work, the luckier I get”, Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon  we can use to change the world” , and Mr Rogers “There are three ways to ultimate success:  The first way is to be kind, the second way is to be kind, and the third way is to be kind”.   

Thank you Ollie for such an inspiring message.