Rotary Club of Bellingham Bay

Rotary Club of Bellingham Bay Bellingham Bay Rotary Club is a fun, friendly service club located in Bellingham, Washington. Please join us from noon until 1:30 any Tuesday.

We meet at 12 noon on Tuesdays at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. Welcome to the Rotary Club of Bellingham Bay, also known as the "Tuesday FUN Club". We meet on Tuesdays for fun, fellowship, lunch and planning our service work. Our donations are funded by two primary fundraisers: Grape & Gourmet in November and Brewers by the Bay each July – both events are great FUN and help us MAKE A DIFFE

RENCE! Our weekly lunch meetings are open to ALL and feature interesting speakers from around the area. Meetings are held at Bellingham Golf and Country Club, 3729 Meridian St., Bellingham, WA 98225. No reservation necessary.

At this week's lunch meeting we had a very nice presentation from one of our short-term exchange students, Louisa, who s...
08/20/2026

At this week's lunch meeting we had a very nice presentation from one of our short-term exchange students, Louisa, who spent some time in Normandy, and Madeleine, the French student who hosted Louisa and who is now staying with Louisa's family in Bellingham. Two wonderful students who had excellent stories about cultural exchange between the US and France.

We also got to meet Louisa's parents Don and Julie. Great students like Louisa don't just fall off of trees, you know!

We exchanged a Bellingham Bay Rotary Club flag for a flag from Madeleine's host Rotary club, Le Havre Oceane

At today’s lunch meeting we heard from Steve Ban, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Bellingham, as well as our Assis...
08/12/2026

At today’s lunch meeting we heard from Steve Ban, who is a member of the Rotary Club of Bellingham, as well as our Assistant Governor for District 5050. His mother Noemi Ban, was a survivor of Auschwitz and the holocaust. She was an impassioned speaker about her experience, and a crusader against hate, bigotry, and anti-semitism. Steve is carrying on her work and her tradition. It was a very moving talk, and there were few dry eyes in the room. The most moving part was hearing a quote from Noemi where she said (paraphrasing) that she refused to give in to hate, because hate is mostly harmful to the people doing the hating. Instead, she chose to remain positive and devote her life to promoting tolerance and fighting bigotry.

Thank you, Steve!

Club members Tim Krell and John Bosche attended a wonderful event today. Hands Across The Border brought together about...
08/09/2026

Club members Tim Krell and John Bosche attended a wonderful event today. Hands Across The Border brought together about 100 Rotarians and other members of border communities to the Peace Arch to celebrate peace and friendship between Canada and the US. We sang both national anthems and learned a little history from the Peace Arch historian. Awards were also presented to various clubs and individuals for their work promoting civic engagement, health, peace, climate change resilience, and other worthy projects.

We had a wonderful group of people for our lunch today, including some visitors from Las Cruces, New Mexico. We also he...
08/04/2026

We had a wonderful group of people for our lunch today, including some visitors from Las Cruces, New Mexico. We also heard about plans for a new skate park from Collin Whalen and Liam Gallagher of the Northwest Skate Collective. It was a fun meeting!

Hope to see you there next week when we hear from Steve Ban about his mother Naomi’s experience as a survivor of Auschwitz and the holocaust. I expect it to be very moving.

At today’s lunch meeting we heard from our own past President, John Purdie, and Cluny Madison about the Jansen Art Cente...
07/29/2026

At today’s lunch meeting we heard from our own past President, John Purdie, and Cluny Madison about the Jansen Art Center in Lynden. John recently took a job at the Jansen as their Development Director.

We learned about the impressive array of classes and other activities at the Jansen covering painting, ceramics, glass work, textile art, darkroom, and music programs.

Club President John Bosche will be playing next Saturday at the Jansen in a concert of the Jansen Jazz Orchestra. Rumor has it there might be a tuba solo involved.

We look forward to taking a club field trip to visit the Jansen in person.

At our club lunch meeting today we heard from short term exchange students Sydney and Dalila. Sydney (daughter of our o...
07/29/2026

At our club lunch meeting today we heard from short term exchange students Sydney and Dalila. Sydney (daughter of our own Eddie Hansen) spent a month in Italy with Delila’s family, and then the two of them spent a month here in Bellingham with the Hansen family. We got to hear all about the adventures they found while Delila was in Bellingham as well as the cultural educations both of them experienced.

Delila is a sweet and a very poised young woman. She presented us with a banner from her home Rotary club, and we sent her with a banner from the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club. Sadly, Delila leaves tomorrow to return home.

We are proud to have had Sydney represent us in Italy. Sydney is quite an impressive person, and I can’t think of a better ambassador for the US.

This week we hosted our new District Governor, Kathleen Olson and Assistant Governor Steve Ban. Kathleen was our speake...
07/23/2026

This week we hosted our new District Governor, Kathleen Olson and Assistant Governor Steve Ban. Kathleen was our speaker and gave us a motivational talk about the power of connections within Rotary. She described a simple conversation that happened years ago that led to a couple Rotary clubs partnering, and eventually led to a very meaningful effort to improve dignity and healthcare for people suffering from HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. She had a particularly heart-warming story of a man who was brought to tears when she hugged him, because other people were afraid to touch him. On a later visit, his AIDS was in remission and he was healthy, and he thought it might have been the miracle of human touch that helped cure him.

Kathleen is challenging us this year to have similar conversations, and to make connections with other Rotary clubs, that could lead to meaningful projects that have lasting impacts on other people’s lives.

Thank you, Kathleen, for your inspiration, and for your invitation to make connections with other Rotary clubs and to create lasting change in the ways that we are able. We accept the challenge!

We had a fun evening yesterday at the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club changing of the guards ceremony. Outgoing President Jo...
07/01/2026

We had a fun evening yesterday at the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club changing of the guards ceremony. Outgoing President John Purdie and incoming President John Bosche played a tuba duet. We also had a couple songs from the Rotary Brass and we heard about accomplishments over the past year as well as plans for the upcoming year.

Today the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club heard from Janka, an exchange student here from Hungary, and from Louisa, a local s...
05/06/2026

Today the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club heard from Janka, an exchange student here from Hungary, and from Louisa, a local student who will soon be heading to Normandy, France on a short-term exchange. We also heard from Debbie Kiene and Felicity Dye, two superhero youth exchange volunteers. Thanks to all of them for an interesting and informative program!

And who knew that Hungarian sour cream and cottage cheese are so much better than out American versions?!?!

Address

Bellingham, WA
98225

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Rotary Club of Bellingham Bay posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category