Program Chair:  Michael Newman

April 5, 2012  

Our first meeting of April was another beautiful day in Westwood Village, as we observe April as Rotary Magazine Month.  Our greeters were Terry R. White and Terry M. White.  The pledge was given by past president and webmaster Ron Lyster.  PE Dwight Heikkila delivered another excellent Invocation.

We had several guests, starting with Derek Nardo, hono rary member and student body president at Uni High.  Kim Morris, Director of Development for the College of Letters and Science at UCLA, and Sharon Bradford were guests of PP Chris Bradford.  Emily Strand, Director of Development for the Graduate School of Education and Informational Studies at UCLA was a guest of PP Don Nelson. Jane Mulato was a guest of Peggy Bloomfield, and Bill Krinsky, Senior Vice President at Grandpoint Bank, was a guest of Mark Rogo.

Gracing our head table: Ann Samson, Derrick Nardo, President Ed Jackson, Community Chair John Heidt, fourth quarter Program Chair Michael Newman, and our speaker, the unofficial mayor of Westwood, Steve Sann.

Announcements:

 ·         April 9, 2012 — April Happy Hour, Young Professionals, 6:30 p.m. at SOUTH Santa Monica

·         April 10, 2012 — District Breakfast at 7:15 a.m. at LAX Westin

·      &nb sp;  April 10, 2012 — Auxiliary Tea

·         April 19-22, 2012 — District Conference, Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa at Mission Bay

·         April 21, 2012 — Navy ROTC Awards Ceremony, presenting award of ship’s clock, at 1:00 p.m. at UCLA Haines Hall, Lt. Jim Bell (310) 794-9422

·         April 28, 2012 — WOMP at Westwood Village

·         May 2, 2012 — Army ROTC Awards Ceremony at 7:00 p.m. at UCLA Ackerman Union, 2nd Floor Lounge, Vicky Senelli (310) 825-7381

Derek Nardo is the first student body president of Uni High to be awarded an honorary membership since Pre! sident Ed in 1970.  He also was the winner of our Four-way Test S peech contest.  He delivered his speech, titled “Homelessness in Our City” today, and it is included below:

“Could you spare some change please?”  It is a question we hear far too often today.  In Los Angeles alone, the number of homeless people is upwards of 90,000.  And these are only numbers of the people we know of.  Many families are homeless but their plight is not on record so the 90,000 we speak of does not truly represent the number of people that are living without a home.  In downtown Los Angeles, there is a place called Skid Row.  It is a 50-block area, only a walking distance from some major attractions like the Skyline or the Staples Center, that some describe as Dante’s Inferno.  People who have never seen Skid Row fail to realize the magnitude ! of the problem we face in our city.  I myself did not understand the severity of the problem until I was taking toys to a homeless shelter and saw blocks and blocks of people with nowhere to go.  So when a person is begging for spare change, we are looking into the face of those in need who are asking for help.

Often when confronted by this, several thoughts go through our head.  Will they spend the money on food or will they just buy drugs?  Is this person really homeless?  Many ignore them and just walk by as if they don’t exist, or just lie and say we have no spare money.  This, however, is usually not true.  The people that are begging for change DO exist and we often have something that we can spare to these people in need.

Is it fair to all concerned?  This is perhaps the hardest question to answer.  Some feel that it is fair because they earned their money and don’t want to give it away without receiving anything.  But ignoring someone or lying to them when they are asking for help is not fair at all.  Giving money to them may not be fair to you either though.  You may be taken advantage of in order to help pay for someone’s drug addiction when you think they will be buying food.

Extending your hand to help the homeless will promote good will.  By helping those in need, they will be in a better position to escape their plight and reintegrate back into society.  On the flipside, many people abuse the goodwill of others and beg for change simply because they know they can! .  This abuse is beneficial to no one.  People who abuse other’s goodwill make others less likely to be charitable as well.  The solution to this is not an easy one but some ways are better than others.  For people who truly want to help solve this problem, they can donate to an established charity where they can guarantee that the money they donate will be put towards the right cause.  Also, instead of handing money to someone, you can offer to buy them something to eat.  On several occasions when stopped at a convenience store and asked for change, I have offered to buy the person a piece of fruit and a bottle of water.  This was beneficial to both of us because I knew that I was helping someone and that they were receiving something they needed, and not spending the money on something else.  There are other solutions to this as well.  By doing what we can to help, we will take a huge step towards eliminating this crisis,! and increase the well being of those who have been less fortunate tha n us in their lives.

Good speech, Derek.  Harvard University is getting another great student from University High School.

Next, PP Michael Newman introduced our speaker, Steve Sann.  Known to many as the unofficial “Mayor of Westwood,” Steve is a longtime Westwood Village business owner and partner in NINETHIRTY and The Backyard restaurants at the W Hotel in Westwood.  His company manages the entire food and beverage operation at the W Los Angeles – Westwood for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, along with several other venues in Los Angeles and Hollywood.

A lifelong Angeleno, Steve is deeply involved in the life of Westwood and UCLA.  He is a founding board member and program chair of the Friends of Westwood Library, and he founded WOMP (Westwood Organized Mega Project), a volunteer day of service co-sponsored by the Westwood Community Council and the UCLA Volunteer Center.  Steve played a pivotal role in bringing the Los Angeles Film Festival to Westwood Village from 2006 to 2009, and served as Co-Chair of its Westwood Host Committee.  An ardent advocate for historic preservation, he is a member of the Westwood-Holmby Historical Society and championed the successful Historic-Cultural Monument designations by the City of Los Angeles of the Majestic Crest Theater and Westwood Village Memorial Park.

Steve is widely recogni! zed as one of the leading experts on the history of Westwood and UCLA, and is often quoted in books and periodicals on these subjects.  He owns one of the largest privately held collections of memorabilia, books and photographs on the development of Westwood, UCLA, and Los Angeles.  He said that the real Mayor of Westwood Village is our own Lenny Friedman! 

—YOE Ed Jackson

NEARBY MAKEUP SITES: Monday, Beverly Hills, BH Hotel, 9641 Sunset / Tuesday, Inglewood, Hollywood Park Casino, 3883 W. Century Blvd, Inglewood / Wednesday, Century City, Hyatt Regency Century City, in the Breeze Cafe, Culver Ci! ty, Raddison Hotel, 6161 W Centinela Ave, CC, or  Wilshire, The Ebell, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd, LA / Friday, Santa Monica, Riviera Country Club, 1250 Capri Dr, Pacific Palisades
For information about on-line makeups, www.recswusa.org