IT HAPPENED THIS WEEK November 16, 2011
By Dannie Cavanaugh
The Occupy Culver Hotel Movement reached its fifth month on Wednesday with approximately 25 Culver City Rotarians taking over the lobby of the hotel and refusing to leave until they had received a slice of pie for dessert. The leader of this rag-tag group of squatters, Ann Murakami, called the meeting to order and summoned the ever pious Bruce Jagger to deliver the Invocation. Linda Black followed by leading the Pledge of Allegiance and John Cluff concluded the opening ceremonies with the Patriotic Song. This is a patriotic group as occupiers go.
We had three guests - Linda Forman who is really like a regular member now, Sergei Belokonnyi from the West Los Angeles Rotoract Club, and a guest of Richard Marcus, Patricia O'Neill. Doctor Don Trepany led the Welcome Song.
Under the topic of health updates, Harold Hanslmair reported that Michele Walman had undergone shoulder surgery last Thursday and was recuperating at home. Lenay Richardson is feeling better and expects to be back at our next meeting.
Next up was Keith Jones who stumbled through the District Announcements while Carmella corrected his mistakes. Who is running this Occupy group anyway?
There were a few announcements including a reminder that the Bill Winn Holiday Luncheon is right around the corner, December 14th
to be exact. Raffle tickets for the luncheon will be available soon so get ready to sell those tickets. We are going to sponsor a toy drive for the families of the troops at Camp Pendleton like we did last year - please participate in this very worthy project.
Trojan Phil Tangalakis reminded everyone that next week we will be meeting with the Exchange Club on Tuesday at the Elks Lodge located at 11160 Washington Place. This is one of the really fun meetings of the year and provides a great opportunity to bring a guest. We are dark on Wednesday so if you stop by the Hotel for the meeting that day no one will be there.
There was one more announcement of note and that pertained to a District Youth Exchange student who will be visiting here next
August. The District is looking for a volunteer to home host this student for about 6 months. The student will most likely be enrolled at CCHS requiring a local family to be the host. Talk to Ann if you are interested.
Fine time was brief with Joel and Linda Forman accepting a $50 recognition for their recent trip to Brazil. Cy Pierce will pay $65 (a buck a year for the birthday boy) to commemorate the moves he busted on the dance floor last Saturday night at the Dueling Pianos event in Long Beach.
Our speaker was Ira Diamond who is a Culver City resident, podiatrist, member of Shoes for the Homeless, and a friend (he says) of Chris King. Shoes for the Homeless is a group that does just what the name says, providing used but usable shoes to homeless men, women, and children. If you want to donate some shoes or get involved with Ira's organization you can contact him at DiamondLine@earthlink.net. The second part of Dr. Diamond's program covered a brief overview of various foot ailments and maladies and some tips on maintaining healthy feet. The slide show was not for the squeamish and many averted their eyes at the proper moment.
If anyone can identify the above line, I will donate $25 to the Foundation. You can't look it up on line though - that would be cheating.
The meeting concluded with some wry observations from Cartwright Sheppard who did his best at channeling the late Andy Rooney.
As quickly as it had begun, Occupy Culver Hotel came to an end and we all filed out of the room without incident.
Have a good week Rotarians.