New Member Induction

by Lorine Parks

First, Past District Governor and also District Governor-Elect and Former President of the Downey Club (drum roll, please), Doug Baker introduced the personage doing the inductions.  She is, he said, the only District Governor he has ever seen in diapers.  Never mind his explanations.

Then Past District Governor Barbara Risher-Welch stepped up to do the honors. The inductees included her husband, Greg Welch, from Risher Mortuary, Alicia de la Cruz from Bank of the West and Dahlya MacDonald from Strayer & Saylors Accounting. 

Barbara stressed that service above self, Rotary’s motto, excluded all consideration of race, religion or passport.  And service has grown to mean bringing clean drinking water and access to education and clean air to breathe.  “Hope is the garden where peace can grow,” she said, and then asked the entire club to rise and promise to help the new members feel welcome in Rotary.

As the new members received their Rotary pins, Barbara asked all members to wear their pins at all times, even outside club meetings, to raise consciousness with the public as to the good that Rotary does.

New members were then given the customary three minutes to introduce themselves. Dahlya MacDonald said she was not here to replace Brian Saylors, her sponsor, but to alternate and join with him at meetings.  She is a Downeyite, having gone to school at Ward, South (now Sussman), and Downey High.  She wants to be involved in the future, and works with a Girl Scout troop, so we can expect her to alert us when the opportunity comes to buy cookies. She also participates in her church and women’s organizations.  She said she enjoys our singing.  Let’s hope she brings a good loud true voice.  Maybe now we can get some songs pitched for women.

Alicia de la Cruz began by saying “I’m back.”  Ten years ago she gave membership with us a try, and this time she means to make it stick.  She says she has a new job at Bank of the West.

Lastly but most feelingly, PDG Barbara pronounced her husband a member. Greg told us he has been a YMCA trainer, and he was Dan Fox’s best man.  He now works in Downey at the Risher Mortuary, and commutes to his home in Seal Beach.  As words to live by, he says our motto, service above self, is “unsurpassable.”  He is excited about becoming a Downey Rotarian.