This Week...
It was a hot day (air inversion, fires and such) as we gathered for our meeting in the late summer.
PREXY ED GAULD welcomed us to the "warm," "friendly" and award winning WVRC.
LEE DUNAYER led us in the Pledge. PDG BILL ("Reverend") GOODWYN gave the invocation, quoting some choice words from our third President, Thomas Jefferson, to the effect that our citizens will lead the country to prosperity if the government is limited and stays out of the way (at first I thought Bill was quoting Ronald Regan).
LENNY FRIEDMAN and RICK BROUS led us in singing a new song, "Rotarians Clap Your Hands." PREXY ED observed that Lenny was not the tallest person in the world, and so when he conducts the LA Phil he uses an extra long baton – which Ed then showed us. PREXY ED also noted that the members can come up after the meeting to touch Lenny's baton, to which DAVID FRIEDMAN retorted, "keep your hands off my old man!"
PP DON NELSON introduced our guest WENDY BARAHONA, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in 2000-2001, who is back from Nice, France. There were no visiting Rotarians. However, one of our resident wags, MARK ROGO, thought he should re-introduce us to SCOTT FITCH, who was attending his first WVRC meeting since becoming a married man! Congratulations, Scott!
At the head table were DWIGHT HEIKKILA (who noted the S&P is now over 1,000, contrary to our financial prognosticators – although the year is not yet over!), JOHN SINGLETON and HANK HEUER (the lawyer, with nothing to say!). JOHN SINGLETON professed "me no John Singleton, my name Leo Tseng, #1 tennis player and #1 Merrill Lynch employee." PREXY ED asked the Club what these three gentleman at the head table have in common, with the winner getting a bottle of Napoleon's favorite wine, a red Bordeaux "Chateau Les Tours Sequy." PP STEVE SCHERER guessed right -- they all play tennis – and won the fine bottle of wine (party tbd at Steve's house!).
PREXY ED noted we have six members born in August; the following three were present and accorded the traditional "Happy Birthday Rotarians" song: MADISON GORITSAN, JACK HARRIS and MARK BLOCK.
WARREN DODSON (with some prodding from Steve Scherer) proudly announced that he was now a great-grandfather a second time! Of course, this resulted in a hefty fine, which Warren was glad to pay.
STEVE PETTISE introduced our speaker, KAREN WEST. Karen is the author, graphic designer, and publisher of her book, "The Trouble with the Alphabet." After watching a short video, Karen explained that her book is designed to raise awareness of the insufferable plight of children in third world countries. Karen and her family are on a bus tour of the United States in an effort to "plant the seeds" and inspire Americans to raise money and do good deeds for impoverished and abused children around our planet Earth.
PDG and PP ANDY ANDERSON is our speaker next week. Andy will speak about what motivated him to join and become an active member of Rotary.
PREXY ED's thought for the day:
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the Ark; professionals built the Titanic.
