El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel September 3, 2009

El Cerrito Rotary

The Wheel

Editors:  Gary Buffon & John Ferguson Jr.

Week of September 3^rd  

(www.rotary5160.org)

www.elcerritorotary.org

President Tracy welcomed us to the friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club.  Frank led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and Marty shared two thoughts for the day from Helen Keller.

Introduction of guests and Visiting Rotarians: 

Secretary John introduced our visitor Barbara Cronin a Past President of our club who was Jane’s guest.

Announcements:

Þ    Past President Jack told us what the 4-Way Test means to him and went through it a shared application ideas for each statement.

Þ    Gary B announced that the Interact District Conference will be held this year at El Cerrito High School on October 25^th from 10a to 1:30p.  This is a great opportunity to see your District Interact members in action.  In addition, the first ECHS Interact meeting was held yesterday and there were about 50 kids there.  This is significant because there has been no club recruitment at the school thus far.  This will be a banner year for our Interact Club.

Þ    Tracy gave us an update on the success of the concession stand at the El Cerrito Swim Center.  Last weekend $280 was made for the club’s coffers.

Þ    Kathleen gave us an update on the project to give a dictionary to each 3^rd grade student to the schools in El Cerrito.  We now have the dictionaries and will be working out the logistics of getting them into the kids hands.  Stay tuned for the next step.

Þ    Andy, taking advantage of the Genie Stone showed us the latest useful products in gutter covers.  Since Andy’s company does gutter cleaning he provided this information so we can choose the products that will help our homes both functionally and aesthetically.  Thanks for this info Andy.

Happy dollars:  Lee is happy to have his driving privileges back and told us a fun story.  Andy is $10 happy his wife voted for a conservative this election.  Marty is happy to be back from a trip to Oregon.  Karen is $10 for her 15^th Anniversary, her daughter doing well on the STAR test and for her business growing.  Kathleen is $5 for her son being in middle school and winning a local competition with Lucky store chef competition.  Jack is happy about the newspaper article containing Paul Keith.  John H is $5 happy as he is off to vacation and tomorrow is his birthday.  Don is happy about the Interact Club and Gary B being a quality club coordinator and for his great trip to Canada where he saw great sights and attended a wedding.  Nobuko is happy to see Barbara here.  Barbara had $5 to catch us up on her son Patrick’s acting career, her 39^th anniversary and 37 years with Mechanics Bank.  Pres Tracy is happy for daughter Sarah being at Windrush for middle school.

Sgt at Arms Nancy:  Not on duty today

Today’s Program: 

President Tracy introduced our own Jane Del Simone to share her remembrances of her year as President of our Rotary Club.  Jane chronicled her introduction to Rotary by Glenn Davis and how he and Charlie Weaver tag teamed her to get her inducted into the club.  From there she went through how over the next four years she was recruited to become President Elect.  In 1995-96 Jane became our President and she had a great year.  Some of the highlights of her year included a community service project that provide $8000 in resources for three projects that include fixing the theatre, expanding the art education and other project.  In addition, Jane was instrumental in starting Camp Venture, the entrepreneurs camp that has become part of our District’s RYLA.  She also worked with Marilyn O’Brien to start the job shadow program that is ongoing today where a Rotarian takes a high school student to work during the morning and then brings them to Rotary for lunch.  That way the student gets to experience the Rotarian’s profession.  Jane also remembered having Sundar Shadi who was an Honorary Rotarian in our club.  Thank you Jane for a great presentation!!

Jane Del Simone shares info about her Presidency 1995-96

Today’s Lottery Winner: Marty won the raffle and drew a cats-eye marble so he went home with a bottle of wine. Next week the pot is $80.

Thought for Week:

Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

--Dwight D. Eisenhower