LAKE STEVENS — Of the 2,000 Rotary Club meetings Loren Hole of Lake Stevens has attended — earning him the honor of perfect attendance over the past 40 years — only one was borderline in terms of whether it would count.
It took place on a sailboat to Hawaii. Hole and three friends, all Rotarians, were sailing from Victoria, B.C., to Maui in 1978.
“We had a box of wine and we toasted the queen, because the race started in Victoria, and we toasted the president and we adjourned the meeting,” Hole said.
When the group returned, they asked their home club, Everett at the time, for credit for having the meeting and it was granted, he said.
Hole, 82, was recently honored by the Rotary Club of Lake Stevens and Granite Falls for his perfect attendance since 1967.
A golfer, he was given a custom-made putter and a plaque, and he and his wife Lorna were treated to dinner and a Tony Bennett show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.
He’s appreciative of the recognition, but modest about his accomplishment.
“I guess they think it’s a big deal,” he said.
Hole attends meetings in far-off locations where he travels with Lorna, who is an honorary Rotarian. The club has chapters in more than 160 countries, and most cities in the United States, he said.
“Just about anyplace you go, you find a Rotary Club,” he said. “It’s really not that difficult if you just commit to it.”
A Rotarian who misses a meeting gets two weeks to make it up by attending a meeting of another club, which means sometimes attending two or more meetings per week. Most are breakfast or lunch meetings.
“You’ve got to eat lunch somehow,” he said.
Hole has been to meetings in New England, Alaska, Hawaii and Key West, Fla., the latter being probably the farthest-away meeting from the Northwest that he’s attended.
“It’s really a fun thing to do, to visit these other clubs,” he said. “You see some of the fun things they do, and bring back good ideas and you share.”
Hole worked as a manager for a company that made business forms and retired about 20 years ago. At the Rotary Club, he’s held all the offices, taken photos and “just given them help wherever they need it.”
He still works as an evaluator for people getting their amateur radio licenses, and teaches safe driving for AARP, Lorna Hole said.
He’s just as good at keeping up with all those obligations as he is with the Rotary Club, she said. And he plays golf twice a week, weather permitting.
“He has tremendous energy,” she said.
“I’ve been blessed with good health and I’ve appreciated every day,” he said.
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