This was a four speech night with no Table Topics
CONVERSATIONS WITH MOM
Care giving for a parent with Alzheimer's disease is a challenge for anyone. Ilene Kulk spoke about her mother and the highs and lows of this experience. She compared it to caring for a child, but instead of learning they are forgetting. Her method of coping was to find the humor, learning to view it as a comedy. It was a lesson for all of us.
TRIAL AND ERROR
Joe Nickelson shares his story of struggling through school, only to take extra classes so he could graduate early. He refers to it as his 'get out of jail' card. At 16 he started his own business. By 21 he was married and owned a home. But soon he began losing his momentum and starting questioning everything. Fortunately he found his strength in his children. As polar opposites they constantly challenge and encourage him. They are his wings.
CANDY
June is National Candy Month. Christina Grijalva gave us the history of candy, from honey to goo goo clusters. Honey is considered the oldest candy. There are cave drawings of men gathering honey from hives in cliffs. Ouch. That makes honey older than farming or animal husbandry. Fast forward to goo goo clusters, which is the first candy that combined ingredients. Created in 1912, this treat is a combination of marshmallow nougat, caramel, and roasted peanuts covered in milk chocolate. Yum.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES - TRASH ISLAND
It feels good when we recycle. We are doing the right thing, correct? Not so, says Robert Schluter. Plastic trash used to be sorted and sent to China for reuse. But our plastic is not clean, even though it is washed multiple times after pick up. Unfortunately it is accumulating in the ocean, in a place termed Trash Island. It is estimated that approximately 100 million tons of plastic are generated globally each year, and about 10% of that plastic ends up in the oceans. Robert wants us to stop recycling, and send those plastic items to the local landfill.