The Down East Seniors Club held its Nov. 4 meeting at the Blind Center of North Carolina in Washington. President Stewart Rumley led the meeting. Jim Hackney played for the singing of “God Bless America” and Ed Hamrick gave the invocation. Dick Robinson and Dick Paul provided humor.

Bill Cates announced that the club is to ring the Salvation Army bell at Wal-mart on Dec. 5. He passed around a signup sheet for volunteers.

Ed Hamrick announced that the cost for each person attending the Dec. 16

Christmas party will be $25 and the menu will be chicken or salmon. He also passed around a signup sheet and said he had to have a final count by Dec. 9.

President Rumley introduced Beth Byrd, director of the Washington Harbor District Alliance, as the guest speaker. WHDA is an independent non-profit group that works to promote and improve the central business district of the city. The four major areas they focus on are organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring. Organization is building partnerships among various groups that can aid downtown development. Promotion includes downtown festivals, marketing and public relations. Design covers the appearance of downtown buildings, rear entries, signs, landscaping and window displays. Economic restructuring includes conducting market analysis to determine changes in the business climate, adapting vacant buildings for uses such as entertainment or museums and aiding the competitiveness of the traditional merchants. WHDA is funded by the events it puts on, the city and business/corporate sponsors.

Dick Robinson won the 50/50 drawing.