The Splinter - Current  Aug 31, 2010

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 CLUB 470 * DISTRICT 5160  *  ORGANIZED APRIL 29, 1926                   MEETING DATE:  August 31, 2010

www.rotary5160.org                                                                                    ww.woodlandrotary.org

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Today's Meeting 

After 17 days on a cruise of the Mediterranean, President Mark decided to return home. Taking charge today he had Ken Nordgren lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Jim McGibbon coax a good version of Rotary Grace from the group to begin the meeting.

President Mark thanked past Presidents Bob Nakken and George Berrettoni for standing in for him the past couple of weeks. He gave them each a Holland American Lines key chain as a gift. George appeared particularly humbled by the gesture. President Mark noted that he felt especially at home one day on the Lido deck of his ship when he met Roberta Paul and Linda Weisner of Woodland who also happened to be on board.

President Mark again reminded us about our new ‘silent salesman (and women)’ effort to make the Club a little more business friendly this year. He said that members who wished to bring and distribute promotional materials about their businesses to other members and guests at the regular meetings could do so without a fine. However, Mark says that members who “get up and talk” about their business at the meetings can still expect to be fined for advertising.

Visiting Rotarians 

None.

Guests of Rotarians

Dave Molinaro introduced Dean Berlin, Area Manager for Maxim Cranes.

Announcements

President Mark pointed out District Governor Karl Diekman has announced that there will be an ‘End Polio Now’ walk across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on Sunday, October 24^th. Volunteer leaders for the event are needed; contact Mark or Karl if you can volunteer. More details on this event will be coming along.

President Mark announced that our program on September 28^th will be Walt Schafer of the Chico Rotary Club who will be speaking on the Tanzania Clean Water Project that the Chico Club is leading. Our club is one of fifteen District 5160 clubs committing a total of over $43,000 toward the project that should, with the anticipated addition of District and Rotary Foundation money, eventually generate more than $125,000 for several clean water projects at 31 schools in eight communities in partnership with the Rotary Club of Moshi, Tanzania in Africa. Come find out where our money is going, says President Mark.

Bob Nakken reported that this year’s Rotary Beer Booth brought in total revenues of $47,500, up 16% from last year. He thanked those members who worked to make the event successful. We do this work in partnership with the other Rotary clubs in the County. Our club received $2500 from the Booth last year, so Bob says he expects we’ll eventually receive something slightly higher this year.

Gary Wegener reported that District 5160 is organizing a Rotary donation drive to help victims of the recent flooding in Pakistan. Gary was hoping individual members of our club could participate with a donation at our next meeting.

David Janes again circulated a copy of the actual document at the heart of the ‘Dictionary 4 Life’ Literacy Project. The Project, which is a focus for District Governor Karl Diekman, is an opportunity for each District 5160 club and Rotarian to participate in an international project by providing at least 3,700 dictionaries for children in and around Livingston, Zambia in Africa. DG Karl says this literacy project will open new horizons and provide academic stimulus and enrichment for these young people. The pictorial dictionaries provide these children with motivation, exposure to good language models and will nurture English as a second language.  Each Rotarian is being asked to donate $7 (more if desired) to prepare a personalized copy (i.e. with your name printed in it) of the dictionary. David is taking donations and looking forward to 100% participation by the Club. The District plans to order the dictionaries in November 2010 based on donations received, and to have them delivered in June 2011. More information about the Dictionary 4 Life Project can be found at http://www.dictionary4life.com/index.html

DG Karl Diekman talked briefly about the need for our Club to formally assist him by officially asking that two items be placed on the agenda for the District’s business meeting coming up at the District Conference in November. Specifically, he asked the Club to adopt two resolutions today that would request that a new District Nominations Policy and a new District Auditing and Accounting Policy be placed on the District’s business meeting’s agenda for consideration. The proposed new Nominating Policy would expand the number of non-past District governor members of the District’s Nominating Committee; and the new Auditing and Accounting Policy, developed with the assistance of the Woodland Sunrise Club’s Lynn Jepson, would be a first for the District. On the motion of Peter Faye, seconded by Roy Holmes, the proposed resolutions were approved by a voice vote, with only George Berrettoni opposing.  

President Mark emphasized the upcoming Western Dinner Dance as a great social get together for us. Mark Ullrich distributed flyers on the event to be held Saturday evening, September 25^th at Rose Lane Ranch (21616 Rose Lane/Frontage Road north of CR 27-Highway 113). 6pm cocktails followed by dinner at 7pm. Ludy’s will cater a ribs, chicken & tri tip dinner. The band, Sterling Hiway, will be performing, and a no-host bar will be operating. Tickets are $35 per person (21 years of age and over). Sponsors involved so far are Rose Lane Ranch; Monument Hill (Ray Poarch); Ullrich Delevati CPAs; Century 21 Trong & Associates; Big O Tires; Yolo Pumping; Edward Jones (Kevin Haarberg); Ludy’s; Landucci, Johnston, Bick & Matter, and Woodland Healthcare. Mark wants us to bring guests to this event. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Woodland High School Athletic Department’s trophy case project.

Mark Ullrich, a Woodland High School alum, also announced efforts are underway to organize a WHS home coming parade on October 15^th and a home coming dance on October 16^th at the Community and Senior Center. ‘Be on the lookout for more information on these events’, says Mark.

Kris Kristensen noted that our program next week, September 7^th, will be Greg Roeszler, Executive Director, Playmakers, speaking on ‘Building Youth to Lead & Serve.

Steve Venables reminded us to mark our calendars for District Governor Karl Diekman’s District 5160 Annual Conference to be held in Sacramento November 4-7 at the downtown Holiday Inn Capital Plaza. For event details, costs and registration see the District website at http://rotary5160.org  

Birthdays

David Contto celebrated his 39^th birthday on August 21^st (Lima, Peru).

Anniversaries 

David Janes, mentioning something about ‘happy to be alone’, said he was celebrating his 42^nd anniversary to Judy today (Lodi); and Pamela Vargas was also celebrating an anniversary today, her 19^th (Lake Tahoe) to Junior, ‘the most wonderful husband in the world’.

Recognition

Bob Moeller was in charge today (at least he said so). President Mark and Gary Bunch squabbled over who told who about Bob’s duty today (fine filled and fascinating!) Bob first asked for happy Rotarians: Dave Molinaro was anything BUT happy last Saturday night; he was at San Francisco’s AT&T Park watching the Giants get trounced by the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks while his Oakland Raiders lost to the SF 49ers across the Bay (no happy 49er fans in attendance today, hmmm).  Jim McGibbon praised our program speaker today, John Abigana, for the instruction he gave Jims’ kids over the years and for the pride Jim and wife Susan had in watching the Carnegie Hall performance Abigana spoke of later; ‘they competed very well’ said Jim.

Bob then asked the following victims a series of questions about Lake Tahoe trivia: Bob Meyer (still picking on the new guy)/ the ‘Washoe tribe’ is the native American tribe around the Lake; Chuck Moore/ 63 streams run into the Lake; Carl Rodegerdts /it would take 700 years of normal rainfall to fill the Lake; Tom Schwarzgruber/ the Truckee River, the only discharge point from the Lake, is unique in that it does not to run to the ocean (it goes to Lake Pyramid instead); Don Smith/ average Lake water temperature is 51.9 degrees; Mary Ann Trongo and her table mates(band title???)/the Lake is 2 million years old; Steve Venables/the deepest part of the Lake is 1644 feet; Clyde Brooker/the Lake is filled by a 314 square mile watershed; DG Karl & Marilyn Faye/the Lake’s shoreline is 72 miles long; and Roger Dorris/the Lake contains 41 million gallons of water. Yes, this report was edited to remove as much ‘Moellerspeak’ as possible for our readers.

 Rags to Riches

With the pot at $251, Bob Tamblyn drew a free lunch.

Tabb Randolph introduced John Abigana, Woodland High School teacher and leader of the WHS music program. John has been in education for 36 years, the last 24 years at WHS. John and wife Carol make Woodland their home. They have two grown children.

John told an inspirational story of qualifying for, preparing for, and eventually taking his WHS band to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall this past March. It was a yearlong effort started with the band preparing and sending in a recording of their work in to qualify to be invited for the event. Once invited, the band needed to find the funds necessary to make the trip. Eventually over $20,000 were raised by many people from several sources, including funds from our Club.

John said the traveling group took a red eye flight from Sacramento on Saturday evening. After arriving early Sunday morning they ate and toured their way through New York the rest of the day, ending with attending a performance of West Side Story that evening. Everyone went to a well deserved sleep Sunday night. The band performed at another location on Monday, but there main event was the following day.

Abigana said the band learned three pieces for their performance at New York’s premier Carnegie Hall: ‘American Overture’ by Joseph Jenkins; ‘Masque of the Red Death’, from the story by Edgar Allan Poe, composed just for this performance by Abigana’s own son; and ‘Slava, a Political Overture’ by Leonard Bernstein. John then showed a video and audio presentation of the band’s actual performance.

John tried to describe the ‘Wow’ moment he and the band experienced during the 20-30 minutes they were on stage. Built in the 1890s this was the same stage that famous composers Tchaikovsky and Bernstein had conducted upon, and thousands of famous performers have appeared upon. Perhaps the best moment came afterwards for the band as they privately broke into tears and hugged one another. John said the kids did everything asked of them, it changed their lives and his own life as well. ‘We have great kids in Woodland’, exclaimed John.

Jordan Gutierrez, son of our own Aniek Ramsay, was a member of the band and joined John today. For those that could see him, it was particularly fun watching Jordan looking at Abigana’s  video/audio presentation of the band’s performance. He was really reliving that performance! Asked to comment, Jordan said that before he went on the trip he wondered ‘Am I good enough’. Once the band took the stage, after all they had done to get there, he knew ‘they were all good enough’.

John Abigana concluded by thanking the Club for its support. When he first arrived in Woodland there were only 16 children enrolled in WHS music. In just four years the program included over 100 students, and is going well today. The entire WHS music department plans to tour Southern California next spring. John went on to say he plans to retire in 2012 and, while they love Woodland, he and his wife will eventually return to their native New England. With all the financial cutbacks coming in recent years he wonders about the future of WHS music. ‘We need to keep making the garden grow’, he said.  President Mark thanked John for all he has done, both for Mark’s own children, but for Woodland as a whole.

Upcoming Programs

September 7 – Greg Roezler, Executive Director, Playmakers, ‘Building Youth to Lead & Serve’

September 14 – Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director, CA Product Stewardship Council, ‘Reducing Waste and Taxes While Creating Jobs’

September 28 – Walt Schafer, Chico Rotary Club, Tanzania Clean Water Project

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