VOL 20, NO 4, JULY 24, 2007

Friday Program: Meet Officer Cookie

Seattle Police Department Officer Denise “Cookie” Bouldin was introduced by Rourke O’Brien. Officer Cookie, as she is fondly known, is a 28-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department. Her beat includes the tougher neighborhoods of inner-city Seattle. She is on the Community Policing Team of the SPD and speaks often at high schools and middle schools in the Department’s anti-violence program.

Officer Cookie herself is clearly an all-American success story. She grew up as one of seven children in a family that lived in the Chicago projects, where she was surrounded by crime in the form of drugs, gangs, prostitution; but because of her good parental role models, she stayed out of trouble, graduated from high school and went on to college. READ MORE

Preliminaries

Capo di capo, Don Salvatori called the meeting to order. Steve Szirmai gave the gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance, while Juan Hernandez introduced the lone visiting Rotarian and guests.

Classification Talks: Jim Everist & Craig Groshart

President Salvatori served up not one, but two classification talks. The first was Jim Everist, retired four years now from a 30-year career at Xerox. Jim grew up in Belfair on Hood Canal and after dropping out of high school was ultimately awarded a B.A. from Western Washington and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington. On leaving Xerox, Jim started his own business and now operates a Xerox dealership which is focused on providing Xerox products to smaller companies. Jim’s company simply sells the products; they are serviced and supported and warranted by Xerox directly. Jim has two sons from a previous marriage and a young son from his present marriage. Jim says he is “the grandpa that stays.”

The second classification talk was from Craig Groshart. Craig is actually a retread, having rejoined BBRC after a few years’ hiatus.

Craig recounted how he entered the University of Washington with aspirations of earning a political science degree, but found the theory of government to be pretty boring and his four years of high school Latin not very helpful for foreign language requirements. He did not intend to go into journalism, but after taking a communications class or two, became intrigued with the subject and, upon graduation, found a job with a Eugene, Oregon, newspaper. His career brought him back to Washington, first at the Bellevue American and a stint in Port Angeles. He is now the editor of the Bellevue Reporter, having held virtually every editorial position at a newspaper from photography to copy, news, city, managing editor and finally editor-in-chief.

Craig also recounted an interesting process that he initiated when his oldest son was at loose ends about his career. Not only did Craig suggest that his son seek the services of a professional guidance counselor, but to make the process easier, Craig signed up the whole family. After all of them took the notorious Myers Briggs Personality Test, Craig was told that he should be seeking jobs such as an accountant, but in no event should he be looking at journalism. This reporter has always suspected that the Myers Briggs test was a load of horse pucky. Craig’s experience confirms his opinion.

Rotary Summer Exchange Students

Last year, Bob Vallat took the initiative when a request went out for possible exchange students interested in a one-month stay with an overseas family. His neighbors, Scott and Erin Dahlgren, are the parents of four teenagers. Scott is the president of a company that constructs industrial processing plants. Erin is the “CEO” of the family household on Mercer Island. With three active teen age sons, she is heavily into the transportation business.

The Dahlgrens liked the exchange idea, and their son Jacob will be going to France on July 30, 2007 for a one-month stay, while they are the host family for Gauvin Hemery from Bergerac, France, a town east of Bordeaux.

The Dahlgrens have been busy since Gauvin’s arrival on July 1, attending a Mariners game, visiting the Pacific Coast beach, going on a Boeing tour (so that a lad from an Airbus country could see how real airplanes are made). The Dahlgrens are taking Gauvin to Lake Roosevelt next week to get a sense of what eastern Washington is like.

Both Jacob and Gauvin are musicians, and Gauvin, a drummer, had the opportunity to participate in a teen battle-of-the-bands held on Mercer Island. A video of this event was made and will be sent to Gauvin’s parents.

These exchanges are a small but important part of Rotary’s goal of furthering world understanding. A big thanks to Bob Vallat for enlisting the Dahlgrens; to the Dahlgrens for being a great host family; to Mike Ralph, the BBRC facilitator; and to Curtis Cummings, for good stewardship as head of the BBRC’s international service committee.

Sergeant At Arms Makes His First Appearance

New Sergeant At Arms Tom Harrelson came armed with compromising information on BBRC members. Norm Johnson was fined $2.00 for appearing in a nice photo spread where he failed to mention the BBRC, while one of the other photographees had no problem mentioning his Kiwanis Club. Jenny Andrews was fined $10.00 for failing to show up for a new member meeting and the delivering a series of lame excuses and scurrilous comments about other BBRCers when confronted with her no-show.

Proposed Members: Rambo, Shulman & Wescott

William “Bill” Rambo
Bill and his wife Marylin live in Bellevue. Bill has retired from Caterpillar Corporation after 38+ years. At Caterpillar, he has had several positions including being District Manager over five NW states and Corporate Accounts Manager for North America. He is sponsored by Bob Moloney and co-sponsored by Rourke O’Brien. The proposed classification for Bill is “Heavy Equipment-Construction.”

Connie Shulman
Connie, a resident of Bellevue, works at the Leadership Institute of Seattle as Director of Planning, Development and Alumni Relations. She is sponsored by Craig Groshart and co-sponsored by Rourke O’Brien. The proposed classification for Connie is “Fundraising Consulting.”

Phillip Wescott
Phillip and his wife Lynne live in Kirkland. Phillip is a consultant in the international market development. He is sponsored by Jim Gordon and co-sponsored by Kim Shrader. The proposed classification for Phillip is “Consultant International Development.”

In accordance with our by-laws, if you have any comments on the candidacy of Bill, Connie or Phillip for membership, please contact Chris Ballard, Director of Membership.

Meet Officer Cookie

Seattle Police Department Officer Denise “Cookie” Bouldin was introduced by Rourke O’Brien. Officer Cookie, as she is fondly known, is a 28-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department. Her beat includes the tougher neighborhoods of inner-city Seattle. She is on the Community Policing Team of the SPD and speaks often at high schools and middle schools in the Department’s anti-violence program.

Officer Cookie herself is clearly an all-American success story. She grew up as one of seven children in a family that lived in the Chicago projects, where she was surrounded by crime in the form of drugs, gangs, prostitution; but because of her good parental role models, she stayed out of trouble, graduated from high school and went on to college.

Officer Cookie, at an early age, decided that she had three goals in life: to be a model, a teacher and a police officer. She became a professional model in high school, a career which allowed her to travel the world, and on one of her engagements in Seattle decided to apply to the Seattle Police Department. She graduated as one of two female officers in her Police Academy class of 30 and has achieved her goal of being an educator through her many community activities with the Seattle Police Department.

One of Officer Cookie’s experiences pointed out in a powerful way how those who may not be family members can strongly influence a young person’s direction in life. She recounted how, as a rebellious adolescent, she got into a group of peers and learn learned how to cuss like a merchant mariner. She and her friends were loudly cussing up a storm on a Chicago bus when a small, elderly, black woman turned around and told her that she shouldn’t be doing that, that she had too much class and could be a leader. This experience altered her life. She gave up her blaspheming ways and vowed to become a leader, a goal which she clearly has accomplished. She likened the woman on the bus to Rosa Parks and recounted how she had the opportunity, when Rosa Parks visited Seattle, to be her personal bodyguard.

In this same vein she recounted how her fifth grade teacher required all of the students in the class to say many times a day, “I am somebody.” This clearly had a bearing on her own self-esteem and helped Officer Cookie become the community leader that she is today.

One of the most interesting aspects of Officer Cookie’s career is that she has been instrumental in establishing a number of activities for youth in the inner-city area that she patrols. She has established an Officer Cookie’s Reading Club, Arts and Crafts Club, Sudoku Club, Basketball series and, most recently, Officer Cookie’s Chess Club, which was featured in the July 18, 2000, edition of the Beacon Hill News South District Journal. She approached the Seattle Police Foundation and received a grant to hire a professional chess director and started a chess club for children in the Rainier Beach Public Library. At least 27 kids, aged 5 to 17, participated in the program, which only lasted two months. She is now in the process of trying to find additional money to continue the program which was, by all accounts, a very successful endeavor.

In case you are wondering, Officer Cookie got her nickname because, as a child, she loved cookies and was often told, “You are going to become a big cookie if you keep eating those things the way you do.” Officer Cookie certainly has a very robust metabolism system since there was no evidence whatsoever that any of those cookies found a permanent location on her person!

If you want to help keep Officer Cookie’s Chess Club going, Rourke O’Brien has made arrangements through America’s Foundation for Chess to channel donations to the program. Go the AF4C web site, www.af4c.org. Scroll down to the “Donate Now” button. Type in the amount of the donation in the “Other” box. Under “Gift Information” click on the “On Behalf Of” box and type in “Cookie’s Chess Club,” and fill in the rest of the information. AF4C will send the money to Cookie’s program and you will get a receipt for a tax-deductible gift. AF4C is also donating boards and chess pieces.

Web Fun

Safety Tip
Courtesy of Chuck Barnes

Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this:

It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key chain. It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break into your house, odds are the burglar or rapist won't stick around. After a few seconds, all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and the criminal won't want that.

So, put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get into your house, just press the panic button for your car.

And, remember to carry your keys in your hand while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator.

• • •

ER Confessions
Courtesy of Bob Vallat

1. A man comes into the ER and yells, "My wife's going to have her baby in the cab!" I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, lifted the lady's dress, and began to take off her underwear. Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs - and I was in the wrong one.

Submitted by Dr. Mark MacDonald, San Antonio, TX.

2. At the beginning of my shift I placed a stethoscope on an elderly and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall. "Big breaths," I instructed. "Yes, they used to be," replied the patient.

Submitted by Dr. Richard Byrnes, Seattle, WA

3. One day I had to be the bearer of bad news when I told a wife that her husband had died of a massive myocardial infarct. Not more than five minutes later, I heard her reporting to the rest of the family that he had died of a "massive internal fart."

Submitted by Dr. Susan Steinberg, Manitoba, Canada

4. During a patient's two week follow-up appointment with his cardiologist, he informed me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with one of his medications. "Which one?" I asked. "The patch. The nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours and now I'm running out of places to put it!" I had him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped I wouldn't see. Yes, the man had over fifty patches on his body! Now, the instructions include removal of the old patch before applying a new one.

Submitted by Dr. Rebecca St. Clair, Norfolk, VA

5. While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient, I asked, "How long have you been bedridden?" After a look of complete confusion she answered, "Why, not for about twenty years — when my husband was alive."

Submitted by Dr. Steven Swanson, Corvallis, OR

Ba dum bum ...