Vice President Terry White greeted us for the swan song of President Ed Jackson.  Ed led the pledge, and Art Henry gave an excellent invocation.  Peggy Bloomfield announced the Rotarian Of The Year for 2011-2012: immediate Past President and current Assistant Governor of District 5280, Gordon Fell.

The meeting was informal.  Everyone collected their barbecue from the outdoor patio, which was beautiful on this day.  They saw pictures of Ernie and the year in review on the screen and even received the treat of the video “California Initiative,” starring Cisco CEO John Chambers, Chancellors of the University of California and Cal State University systems and also included President Ed Jackson.  The Initiative was implemented in California to enhance education through the Internet, building the infrastructure for the Internet worldwide and educating everyone to use it successfully.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  This could summarize the Rotary year 2011-2012.  This was an amazingly good year, but at the end we were saddened to lose a good friend, Past President, a Rotary Hall of Fame member for his 50 years of service, and Mr. Westwood, Ernie Wolfe.

My first meeting with Ernie was when I was 14.  He was conducting the meeting as president of the Westwood Village Rotary Club.  Three years later, he was one of four cofounders who worked with me to create Uni High’s Innovative Program School, which lasted for 17 years and is now the model for modern magnet program.

Ernie was an energetic, cool man with vision and hope.  He was a humanitarian, making people’s lives better.  Mr. Westwood, this next year is dedicated to you.  I will always have a smile on my face as I walk into Pauley Pavilion and see your name on the Founder’s Wall.

The 2011-2012 Rotary year started with great excitement and anticipation as we begin implementing the 2011-2014 Rotary International Pilot Program, given to 200 out of 3400 Rotary clubs worldwide.  The mission for the 200 is to find solutions for the challenges Rotary faces today.

Our club’s theme of Connecting with the Community through Education allowed us to strengthen our relationships with old and new resources, dedicated to world peace and community improvement.  Our merger with Brentwood and the district’s merger with 5260 affords us a great opportunity to provide bigger and bolder services for our communities.

We can and will do a better job of communicating our mission and presenting our projects to our members and community.  We are proud of the opportunities and leadership we are providing with our Young Professionals group and the new associate and corporate memberships.  The excitement we all feel about our programs is even greater when we realize that many in the community also feel the excitement and look forward to many great things to come.

Here’s to a great year and many more great years for our club and for our new 83rd president, Dwight Heikkila.

We end this Windmill by listing the awards won and projects completed this year:

·       Excellence in club service for the Windmill

·       Achievement award for communications and public relations for our work with social media

·       Excellence in vocational service

·       Overall achievement award in vocational service for our art, music and speech contest at University High, ethics forum, literacy

·       Community service recognition for fire, police, teacher, and non-Rotarians and our Spotlight Project, providing speakers at Uni High

·       Excellence award for the Rotary Foundation

·       Achievement award for the Rotary Foundation, for foundation giving, Paul Harris Society members, polio now support, GSE and Ambassadorial scholar support, and utilization of Grants – matching and district simplified

·       Excellence in New Generations

·       Overall achievement in New Generations

·       Achievement award in New Generations

·       Partnering with Past President George Dea’s San Francisco Chinatown Rotary Club, with a matching grant to build a library and center in Lebanon

·       Led a PR Campaign For UNIversity High Smash Musical award

·       Feeding the Homeless at Ocean Park Community Center OPCC

·       Reading to Kids

·       Angel Flight at Santa Monica Airport

·       District scholarships for local students

·       Alan Campbell student scholarships for highest GPA at Emerson Middle School

·       Rotary Impact professional networking

·       Dictionaries for Elementary Schools

·       Salvation Army Holiday Shopping Spree

·       Salvation Army Recreation-District Simplified Grant 2011-2012

·       UCLA Rotaractors in Charge at Rotary Meeting

·       UCLA Dance Marathon

·       UCLA Relay for Life

·       UCLA Dribble for the Cure

·       UCLA Polio Drive

·       Sponsoring the new interact Program at Marymount High School

·       LA Marathon Kids Kickoff Celebration