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| Program Chairs: Dwight Heikkila & Ed Jackson | October 4, 2012 | |||||||||||||||
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This Week...
October 11
Warren Bobrow
"Rotary Youth Exchange" Upcoming...
October 18
DG Lew Bertrand
"District Governor's Visit"
November 1
Dr. Richard Jackson
"Designing Healthy Communities"
November 8
Chinatown Rotary Club Visit
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October 11 Warren Bobrow “Rotary Youth Exchange” |
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October 18 Lew Bertrand "District Governor's Visit" |
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The UCLA Rotaract Club led the meeting and provided an
update onRotaract at UCLA.
Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women ages 18 to 30. Rotaract clubs are usually community-based or university-based and are sponsored by a local Rotary club making them true "partners in service" and key members of the Rotary family.
Through the Rotaract program, young adults not only augment
their knowledge and skills, but they also address the
physical and social needs of their communities while
promoting international understanding and peace through a
framework of friendship and service.
All Rotaract efforts begin at the local grassroots level and all Rotaract clubs have access to the many resources of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. The UCLA Rotaract Club President welcomed everyone and started with the Pledge and 4 way test! Sally Brandt provided the Invocation
There were no Visiting
Rotarians but
we did have David Friedman's "younger sister," Sunny (his
Mom) as well as Katherine Norris with Americorps and from
Reading to Kids, and Jack Paul just returned from robotic
surgery to his kidney (he mentioned he lost less than a
teaspoon of blood!) Welcome back, Jack, and we are glad you
are feeling better.
President Dwight announced we will begin hearing from local businesses by giving them a Merchant Minute at our meetings. This idea was brought to you by Darling PE Mark Rogo so to kick this off, we had our own Sarah Leonard Jewelers presented by David Friedman: (Now this next part may take more than a minute to read but it's a great story and we are so proud of our merchant members and their commitment to Westwood!)
I'm going to tell you a fairy tale about our illustrious
Sunny & Lenny and Sarah Leonard Jewelers. Once upon a time,
in 1946, Lenny & Sunny opened a tiny "mom & pop" jewelry
store in Westwood Village. Even THEY wouldn't have believed
then.....that SLJ would grow and prosper to become the
oldest merchant in Westwood.....recognized in many newspaper
and magazine articles as the largest, friendliest and most
respected jeweler in Westwood.
Our staff of 10 includes 8 Graduate Gemologists, a title
conferred only after extensive education and examination by
the Gemological Institute of America. The store is also a
member of the nation's highly respected American Gem
Society.
As years passed....daughter, Linda, son, David, Grandson Dean, & daughter-in-law, Gail, all followed Lenny's example and became Graduate Gemologists. Along with son-in-law, Jeff, they are all UCLA alumni, and they are all part of the SLJ family. And so, it was no longer just "mom & pop"....it became "mom and pop, the kids and grandkids!" Visiting SLJ is like visiting family, or old friends. The warm, friendly atmosphere has engendered tremendous client loyalty and trust. The family works tirelessly for both the community and the industry that they love so much! Lenny's wholehearted devotion to them led to his installation as President of the local chamber of commerce, the Westwood Kiwanis Club, the Jewelers 24K Club and the California Jewelers Association. He is also, of course, and devoted member of the Rotary Club....and the list goes on and on....no wonder they call him Mr. Westwood!
Son, David also served as president of Westwood's Kiwanis
Club, and of the American Gem Society Guild, and as a
Director of the American Red Cross, and the Jeweler's 24K
Club, serves on the board of directors of the Westwood
Business Improvement District and of course, Rotary!
Sunny and daughter, Linda, and daughter-in-law Gail, have
become highly sought-after speakers, having addressed
industry groups across the nation and abroad, because of
their knowledge and enthusiasm for the industry they love.
Linda was also a Director of the California Jewelers
Association, and son-in-law, Jeff, was a Director of the
Jewelers Education Foundation of the American Gem Society.
Gail currently serves on the board of directors of the Westwood Community Council, the Westwood Library and Jewelers for Children charities---which has raised over $40,000,000 since 1999.
Lenny and Sunny are members of the National Jewelers Hall of
Fame!
The first California Jewelers Trade Tour was Lenny and
Sunny's excuse to take their first vacation in 22 years! And
it became the first of numerous worldwide buying trips! As
chairmen of the Trade Tours, they visited diamond mines,
opal mines, sapphire mines, gem cutting centers and jewelry
manufacturers all over the world. (And more recently those
duties became Gail & David's!)
They met with heads of state, business and industry in over 32 countries around the globe! And so....this little "mom & pop" shop grew up to be internationally known and respected. Now, as their fame spread, from Westwood Village, across the nation, and around the world, the story of Sunny & Lenny's unique success and joy, living and working side by side, was broadcast on TV for all to see. NBC-TV ran a 10 part series on romance. To their surprise and delight, Sunny and Lenny were selected as the "Ideal Couple" that has it all: life's work together, children and still a "good old fashioned romance."
Sometime later, CBS-TV filmed them with their children and
their spouses....as a family...who share a great love for
life, and for each other....CBS said...."Some people may
call it traditional...old fashioned...or even
corny......Whatever it is, it's worked!....
............AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!! Our guest, Katherine Norris, thanked the club for volunteering atReading to Kids and shared that on Oct 13 there is a Reading Cluband they need 200 volunteers if anyone can help they would love our participation!
PP Steve Day announced the Paul
Harris Celebration event
on Oct 27 Looking
for auction items online, onsite for bidding Online
Auctionruns Oct 8 to the event on the district website.
Don't forget to get your $100 raffle tickets in!
Conductor Ed Gauld gave credit to the master conductor Lenny for all his training, pulled out his chopstick and led Shine On, Harvest Moon with his Pilgrim hat in honor of the upcoming pilgrimage to Leo's this weekend (But I am going to bet not one of the Rotaractors knew that song ;)
We heard from each of our Rotaract Officers:
President Jumana Aljumairi is majoring in anthropology and considering a neuroscience minor. She wants to be a Pediatrician and gave credit to going to Costa Rica on a service trip which, really made an impact. Sounds like a Rotary moment =) In terms of Rotaractors, one goal she plans to focus on is retention. Her favorite service project was the craft project at the Salvation Army last year for Halloween. Jumana is from Hemet, California and chose UCLA because she wanted a public school for budget reasons. She was accepted into all the UCs she applied to but decided being a Bruin was the best choice. Karla is the community chair and is from San Diego. Originally from Germany, she chose UCLA to still be close to SD but wanted a bigger city. Karla is a 2nd year global studies major and wants to work for the UN so may go to Grad school in International Studies or Law school. She works with the Community services chair and her goal for Rotaract is to expand transportation to increase involvement since that is the biggest challenge. The Polio change drive was her favorite project, it raised several hundred dollars in fundraising and showed to her, Little things add up.
Joan is
the PR
Chair and
actually started with the Folsom Interact Club so
Rotaractors was a natural next step. She credits her learned
leadership and social skills to Rotaract. Joan is a
community college transfer studying psychology and wants to
go to Pharmacy school because watching her mother be ill,
she saw what an impact even your local pharmacists has on a
community. The Polio
Project was
also her favorite service project and shared that each
vaccine is only $0.69 cents!
Jennifer Lee is the Professional Development Chair. She grew up in Torrance and although the rest of her family went to USC, she knew she wanted to be a Bruin! Jennifer is a 4th year anthropology major interested in holistic community and public health. She is looking at North Carolina Chapel Hill or UCLA to continue in her education and training. Many of her relatives are Rotarians in South Korea and Texas
The Rotaractors showed a Slide show of activities, passed
out a flyer to participate in their Fall
Canned Food Drive (Donations
will go to the LA Food Bank) Bags will be collected on Nov.
13
They also led us through a Penny game which, is supposed to embody the ideas with the same weight or equal or none. It simulates when things don't go right and how people react (example from RYLA), though the lawyers ended up with all the pennies at more than one table... The board is motivated and they have hit the ground running- they just started school last week. And there was already a meeting with 60 people in attendance. They shared their projects which included: Soup kitchen, ugly blanket, and canned food drives. Want to connect internationally now too because they met a Rotaractor from India and also strengthened their connection with our club for a potential career night. Two more projects were shared:
Volunteered at Friends
of Animals Shelter (a
no kill shelter--went three times with groups of 10).
Cleaned and played with animals, walked them to teach them
to be adoptable The ugly blanket project for the homeless -
you take two blankets and put clothes in middle for
insulation and gave a bag of toiletries. Transportation
funding is being applied to from student commission to
encourage more participation.
RYLA: This 3-day intensive leadership camp is geared
to freshman to juniors. High school Rotary Youth
Leadership Assembly. Nothing is too big if we start
small - funded Mercy Village in Africa in Blue Jay
(Arrowhead) it's all new, transformative, life changing.
Several were sent by our club and now are counselors!
This year RYLA had 260 participants - largest ever with
alumni and Youth Exchange students. "I'm possible -
opportunity is now here!" (not nowhere). Their themes
were: Creativity, Communication, Cooperation, and
Compassion.
-YYE Aly Shoji
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