Saying Good Bye To President Peter
Fifteen years after first being attracted to Rotary while participating in a Group Study Exchange to Turkey, Peter Dannenfelser II became Rotary Club of Sacramento’s 101st Past President Monday night.
The first Buddhist to preside over RCS, Dannenfelser received standing ovations for an outstanding year during the annual demotion dinner, which was preceded by a hosted bar, at the Elks Temple.
Past President Tim Pinkney presented Dannenfelser with his Past President’s Pin and recounted some of the achievements during President Peter’s term of office:
Golf 4 Kids raised $23,000, Bids for Kids $35,000 and Peter managed to pry $63,000 out of people’s pockets during the “community service” portions of the regular weekly meetings.
Among the ways those monies were used: $27,000 went to Youth Incentive Program scholarships and $45,000 to various other community service projects.
Additionally, 900 dictionaries were distributed to underprivileged third graders, our blood drive again topped Point West and our softball team, with Peter at first base, again won the championship.
Pinkney also pointed out that RCS received the Presidential Citation Award and three other significant awards at the district conference and funded projects on three continents under Peter’s leadership.
Pinkney said there are five criteria for becoming past president, 1) run great meetings; 2) bring great speakers; 3) raise lots of money; 4) promote the club throughout Rotary International.
And the fifth criterion? “Don’t screw up the first four,” said Pinkney, who gave Dannenfelser two thumbs up for his performance over the year.
In recognition of his year of service, Peter was presented with the gift of a remote control model aircraft by Past President Jon Snyder, who chaired the demotion dinner. Snyder, who did a creditable imitation of Dick Osen while leading the singing of God Bless America at the beginning of the program, offered this bit of wisdom to Dannenfelser:
“Until you become past-president, you don’t really know how exciting it was to be what you were.” (I know…just read it slowly. I’m pretty sure he stole the line from Yogi Berra.)
Dannenfelser, who was joined at the dinner by his wife, Lori (he met her through Rotary, their first “date” was Past President Hal Bartholomew’s demotion dinner), endured a few gentle barbs.
For example, Bruce Hester’s program-opening “thought for the day” started out gently with lines like “parting is such sweet sorrow” but concluded with:
“When the desires and aspirations of the president have all turned to dust, it is time to break out the vacuum cleaner!”
Past President Hal was emcee for the event and landed a few zingers of his own and briefly losing control of the meeting only once (which, I’m told, differs from meetings when he was president).
Birthday boy Lev Kaganovich wrested away the microphone from Bartholomew and delivered an impromptu speech extolling the virtues of Rotary. (Did I mention dinner was preceded by a hosted bar?)
Dannenfelser then took the podium and delivered a three-page reflection on his year as president and thanking board members and other key volunteers as well as staff.
Since Past President Tim had already outlined much of it, I won’t repeat it here—though it should be mentioned that Bob Daly headed up set-up with help from Art Breuer, Rick Davis & Past President Walter Dahl. Dave Higdon donated the wine for the dinner.
(Did I mention that dinner was preceded by a hosted bar?)