IT HAPPENED THIS WEEK, May 18, 2011

Next Week’s Meeting: May 25^th 

^{Chamber Mixer at Tower Insurance, come by and celabrate their 50 years in business.}

By Dannie Cavanaugh

Linda is on the home stretch of what will be remembered as one of the best years in the history of the Culver City Rotary Club. Although she was on her way to the train station about to leave for New Orleans, she and husband John stopped by the meeting to give a quick summary of the incredible District Conference where our Club walked away with numerous awards. Club of Excellence, Club of

Distinction, plus 17 other awards - we swept through the award ceremonies garnering an award in every avenue of service. What an accomplishment! – a great job to Linda, her Board, and all the members who helped make this happen.

Ann Murakami got to stand in for a practice run and led the meeting in Linda’s absence. Andrew Sisolak gave the Invocation, Buffy Francuz recited the Pledge, and John Cluff led the Patriotic Song. Guests included Sandy Carey, John Black, Linda Forman, and Warren Bobrow from the Westchester Club. Dieter Holberg and Kathy Haworth did a duet for the Welcome Song.

Westchester Rotarian and District Youth Exchange Coordinator Warren Bobrow addressed our Club about the District Youth Exchange, a program that differs from ours in that the students stay here for a full year. Rotarians take on the task of hosting a student for a much longer length of time, time that allows them to bond much more closely to the student. Host families provide meals, transportation, and housing and Rotary takes care of the rest.

Warren is looking for help to home host a student who is coming here from Belgium and will be arriving in August. He is looking for a Culver City family to host Jills for about six weeks so that Jills can enroll in Culver City High School. For more information contact Warren at 310 670-4175 or email him at warren@allaboutperformance.biz.

After Warren finished his presentation, Ann Murakami fined Linda $500 with the proviso that the Club match the $500 and the combined amount be donated to the Foundation. The breakdown went like this: $10 was charged to those present at the meeting and $20 was charged to those who missed. Now that’s what I call leadership!

Next up was Joel Forman who went through the birthdays and anniversaries, creatively tying each date to a famous event.

Paul Knoll finished up the meeting with a report from the Wisdom Office.