OUTGOING PRESIDENT GORDON FELL at WVRC on June 23rd.
ELIOTT TURNER provided the Invocation, which began, “May angels of love, luck and liberty always smile at you and surround you, wherever you go…In God and our soldiers, please keep the trust…I pray for grace from the stars above, that soon one day, we can live in peace…” and ending with “May luck and joy be with all who know that what you reap, is what you sow.” MARCIA BROUSE, back from her leave, led the Pledge and The Four Way Test. RICK BROUS provided the words, and then LENNY asked him to lead us in a nice version of The Four Way Test.
There were no Visiting Rotarians, but we did have guests, of course. David Swatt came with MARK ROGO, with whom he is interning this summer. SHIRLEY MORE accompanied PP PETER, and PEGGY was with her helper. SUNNY of course was with LENNY. And there were four Rotaractors, who were part of the program. Former member David Hawkins was the guest of STEVE PETTISE, but insisted on paying his own tab for lunch. And on that subject, SEAN MCMILLAN apparently had a Special Meal, which cost him fifty bucks! At this point, a sinister element crept into our meeting. Someone's cell phone rang! The culprit didn't own up, however, and blame seemed to settle on Terry deSousa — who was totally innocent of this particular crime. As a matter of fact, MARCIA BROUS, who was seated nearby, seemed to indicate it was, indeed, ALY. ALY, of course, proclaimed her innocence. and then, ANOTHER RING! Lo and Behold, it was none other than RICK BROUS, now fully identified as the criminal he was attempting to be. President GORDON leapt to his rightful role as judge and jury, and levied the required twenty five buck fine. So ends another chapter in our continuing saga of Crime Doesn't Pay!
Those seated at the Head Table were the above-noted four Rotaractors, and Josh and Jessica then narrated some slides showing their visit to the Dominican Republic. You will recall that President GORDON and VACHAREE also took this Tour. The format that developed was that Josh and Jessica alternated speaking, as the slides came up, and they began by telling us something about themselves. Josh is in his second year at UCLA, and his FIFTH YEAR of involvement with Rotary — three years with Interact in high school, and the last two years as part of our Rotaract group here at UCLA! Jessica has just graduated — this month! — and has belonged to Rotaract the last several years. Both these young people were capable speakers, and their commentary was helpful, but my transcribing their comments doesn’t work very well, I’m sorry to say. They did display some items they picked up at the Carnival, and I suspect that ELLIOTT TURNER ended up making off with some of these souvenirs!
There was a brief Q&A. Was this your first visit to a third-world country? Yes, for both of them. What was your impression, being Americans, while you were there? The differences with the U.S. were huge, and we both felt we were fortunate, indeed. And of course, at the end, the two of them were warmly applauded.
President GORDON then embarked on a review of his year, warning us in advance that we won’t be done anywhere near our usual 1:30 departure. We began with the District Assembly, and then an early Board Meeting. GORDON and VACHAREE attended the R.I. International Convention in Montreal, a lovely city. There were several scenes inside the Convention Hall, which was an impressive structure. He showed some of our International Fellowship of Motorcycling Rotarians — which was entirely created and thus founded by our own PP RON LYSTER! This was followed by a couple of shots of the International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians, of which our own PP PETER MORE is this year’s Chairman!
Moving right along, PEGGY was saluted for her hospitality in hosting our first party of the year, the Summer Fun Party. There were scenes from the Paul Harris affair at the House of Blues. The Shopping Spree is now in its 26th year under MIKE YOUSEM! PP STEVE SCHERER and JOHN HEIDT were shown at our meal service for the homeless. And of course, most of the slides were self-identified, and thus not credited by name, thus making any attempt to list them pretty difficult. I think probably everyone in WVRC was shown, one way or another, thus completing the saga of President GORDON’S term. One thing for sure - it was a new record for length of meeting.
