Tree Planting at Rotary Park
Saturday, March 31st, 2001

The Up With Trees Committee of the Rotary Club of Tulsa (the old downtown club, and the largest club in our Rotary District), along with some other good people from the Tulsa Up With Trees project, brought about 3 dozen new trees to McAlester to help replace some of the many trees destroyed in the terrible ice storm in late December of 2000. This particular project was for Rotary Park - the longtime ongoing project of the Rotary Club of McAlester.

On Friday evening about two dozen Tulsans and more than two dozen McAlester Rotarians and spouses gathered at Pete's Place Restaurant in Krebs (the small Italian-heritage community adjoining McAlester on the east) for food and fellowship and a short slide show and program about Up With Trees.

Saturday morning 30 McAlester Rotarians and a few spouses and several children showed up to work with the Tulsa Rotarians and Up With Trees people, and some outstanding help from the City of McAlester - Glenn Kern had a number of his workers there to help in many ways, not least of which was that the holes for planting the trees were dug on Friday and ready to go Saturday morning - also provided a large backhoe and tractor and watering tank. Following the tree-planting work, we all toured the old house which is being remodelled into the new Rotary Hospitality House at Rotary Park, in conjunction with the City of McAlester (owner of the property and in charge of the renovations and construction work) and the McAlester Regional Health Center (which will provide the management and staffing of the facility when it is completed). The morning concluded with a lunch brought to the Rotary Picnic Pavilion at Rotary Park by Randy Saunier's wife Mary.

These photos are just a few shots of the activities and the good participants that beautiful spring morning at Rotary Park and we thank Rotarian Ronnie May for bringing his son, Brady, and our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Veronica Pradoborja, who is staying with Ronnie's family, and for taking the digital photos and providing them for this webpage.

If you have any questions or comments, or want to provide additional names for the people in the photos, feel free to let us hear from you by email at mcalester_rotary@awaredata.com

Bob Saunier		Jeff Sellmeyer and former Rotarian Jack Sheets
Randy and Bob Saunier, father and son Rotarians	Phil Brenner	Vern Mann, Larry Bishop, Randy Saunier
Bob Duran, Tom Clark (Assistant District Governor for our club, member of Tulsa Sunrise Rotary Club), Terry James	Harvey Bollinger, Vern Mann, Larry Bishop, Randy Saunier and his daughter Madeline
	Randy Saunier and Terry James, and Randy's daughter Madeline	George Lampton, Noble Miller, Jeff Sellmeyer, Bob Saunier, Ted Welch, Terry James
Bob Duran, Tom Clark (Asst. Dist. Gov.), Tom Payne (past-president of McAlester Rotary Club, now an active member of Tulsa downtown Rotary Club)		Bob Duran, proving that OU alums can drive a John Deere tractor as well as OSU alums!
Our Rotary Youth Exchange student from Ecuador, Veronica Pradoborja, conversing with our own Carl Filskow - si, en Espanol!	Even with the help of the big yellow backhoe (and a big thanks to Glen Kern), there was lots of good "sweat equity" on the part of the Rotarians
Our Rotary Youth Exchange student from Ecuador, Veronica Pradoborja, conversing with our own Loise Washington - in English, probably	Randy Saunier and daughter Madeline	Bob Duran at the wheel of the big green tractor, again
	Ronnie May's son Brady, watches club secretary-treasurer Bob Duran "take roll" of Rotarians present to work	Carl Filskow and Kim Impson (our 1999-2000 Rotarian of the Year)
Interior of the old house being remodelled into our new Rotary Hospitality House, in cooperation with the City of McAlester and the McAlester Regional Health Center	Mat McGowan	Former Rotarian Jack Sheets, with Glenn Kern of the City of McAlester Parks Department at the controls of the big yellow backhoe behind Jack
the future Rotary Hospitality House, at Rotary Park	Larry Auld and Jim Elliott, among those in this shot	Chris Wilson, Larry Auld, Randy Saunier
Mat McGowan and Larry Auld, with Randy Saunier at the far right edge of the photo	Larry Auld, Mat McGowan, Randy Saunier, Phil Brenner	Brady May, son of Rotarian Ronnie May, with Rotarian Loise Washington
Rotarian Jack Lindley and wife Debra, and Rotarian Larry Auld	The big "group picture" for the McAlester News-Capital & Democrat

Thanks to Rotarian Ronnie May for taking the digital pictures and providing them to us for this webpage.

At the Friday night banquet, our club was represented by President Harvey Bollinger and wife Sue, Bob Saunier and wife Drue, Randy Saunier and wife Mary, Larry Bishop and wife Carol, Loise Washington and husband Anthony, Cliff House and wife Ann Marie, Sue Hawkins and husband Jack, Don Harris and wife Mary, Kim Impson, Tim Wynn and wife Laura, Vern Mann and wife Lee, Jack Chatenay and wife Dorothy, Carl Filskow, Bob Duran, Wayne Hanway and wife Sally, Ronnie May, and "Rotarian awaiting indoctrination" Terry Harrison and wife Amy.

Saturday at Rotary Park included President Harvey Bollinger, President-Elect Terry James, Vern Mann, Bob Saunier, Randy Saunier (and wife Mary and daughters), Bob Duran, Larry Bishop, Carl Filskow, Ronnie May (and son Brady), Noble Miller, Ted Welch, Jim Elliott, Kim Impson, Jack Lindley (and wife Debra), Mat McGowan, George Lampton, Jeff Sellmeyer, Jim Henley, Phil Brenner, Larry Auld, John Gorton, Brian Tippit, Loise Washington (and husband Anthony), Tim Wynn, Mike Lowber, Angie Nelson (and husband Scott), Chris Wilson, Tom Johnston, Cliff House, Don Harris (and son). Former Rotarian Jack Sheets was also working hard all morning. Ronnie May also brought along our Rotary Youth Exchange student from Ecuador, Veronica Pradoborja, who especially enjoyed visiting in the Spanish language with local Rotarian Carl Filskow and a few of the Tulsa Rotarians.

Besides the Up With Trees Committee of the Tulsa Rotary Club (the old downtown club), we also had our Assistant District Governor, Tom Clark from the Tulsa Sunrise Rotary Club, and District Governor Don Wasson, also from the Tulsa Sunrise Rotary Club, visiting McAlester and Rotary Park.