El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel February 18, 2010

El Cerrito Rotary

The Wheel

Editor:  Gary Buffon

Week of February 18, 2010     

(www.rotary5160.org)

www.elcerritorotary.org

President Elect Karen welcomed everyone to the Friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club.   Rebecca (Interact Board member) led the flag salute and Ilhami provided the thought for the day.

Secretary John:   Had Marty introduce his guest.   He them asked the Interact members in attendance to introduce themselves:  Cynthia (club president), Keith (board mbr), Eric (board mbr), Julie (Sec/Tres),  Luke (webmaster), and Rebecca (board mbr).

4-Way Test Presentation:    Paul led us in reciting the 4-Way Test

Announcements:

Þ    Karen reminded us of the St Patrick’s day party at H’s Lordships on Mar 17^th.  There is a sit down dinner as well as music and lots of mixing.  Be sure and sign up for this great event.

Þ    Rebecca reminded everyone of the fundraiser for Pace International at

Happy dollars:  Don is happy the America’s cup trophy is back in the US.  Mark F is celebrating his one year anniversary of back surgery and has a clean bill of health and is feeling great.  Marty is happy for his dog’s 6 month back surgery.  Lee is happy he visited his sister in Oklahoma City and shared the trivia of the name Sooner.  Nobuko is happy her Daughter’s twins have now been Baptized.

Sgt at Arms Nancy:   Did a special gig as part of Carl’s talk on how to spell Kililshwa.  I think your editor may have misspelled it.

New Member Induction:  Karen invited Jack to come forward along with sponsor Kathleen for the induction of Jim Sheppard into our club.  Jack delivered the words and goods to Jim and Kathleen pinned on his Rotary pin.  Everyone applauded our new member and Jim shared how please he is to be a member.  Life in El Cerrito is definitely GOOD.

Jack, Kathleen and Jim Sheppard who is new member of EC Rotary

Today’s Program: 

Karen introduced fellow Rotarian Carl to provide us an update on the Interact project being conducted by our club and the Interact Club of Kenya High school.  Carl began by sharing with us how Astronomy provides an unusual interest to humans because it creates such wonder and excitement to many.  This has made using this as a tool to engage students into a learning environment that involves a number of education disciplines, including math, language and science.  We were then given a summary of the actions and accomplishments of the demonstrator model that Carl and Gary B working with the Interact members at ECHS and Kenya High have completed.  Last week you were provided a link to go read some of the information provided by the Kenya High students and Carl’s HOU colleague Susan Murabana.  The main thing about the project is the interesting ways it has engaged the high school students.  Additionally, the Kenya Interact members, modeling what ECHS Interact does in terms of mentoring grammar school kids, and taking a lap top computer to a elementary school nearby.   The has resulted in excited Interact members and grammar school student being mentored.   Another of the key successes is the relationships that have been formed between our Interact club and the Kenya Interact club.  What Carl and Gary B hope to see in the next steps is more US Interact clubs forming relationships with clubs outside the US.

Thanks Carl for giving us this update on the project.

Carl making his presentation to his fellow Rotarians

Today’s Lottery Winner:   Ilhami had his ticket drawn and pulled a cats eye winning the bottle of wine.   Next meeting the pot is $55. 

Thought for the Week:

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty & dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

--James Madison