by Lorine Parks
Wynne Ritch has a gift – for holding his audience spellbound while he recounts his history of collecting Norman Rockwell paintings, especially ones that feature the Boy Scouts of America.
Wynne, a past president of the Rotary Club of Greater Van Nuys, also has a gift for fundraising. In his long career as executive with the Boy Scouts, he initiated events that have raised as much as $65,000 at a single seating. The secret - a gift which he also gave us – is to honor a member of the club or the community, people who have done something for their community and have resources. “It does take people to climb aboard,” Wynne said,” and make a commitment. It’s building relationships.”
Wynne also had a gift for the Rotary Club of Downey: a copy of a Norman Rockwell painting that he gave to us, to use in our own fund raising event!
Its title is “The Rookie”(Red Sox Locker Room),” and it shows a tall skinny young man carrying a suitcase and a bat and glove, entering the dugout where veteran uniformed players are waiting. They are the Red Sox, and he is Ted Williams. The year is 1939.
Wynne’s greatest gift is his own capacity to give. He has been selling off his collection of Norman Rockwells, to help finance treatment for children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, because when his granddaughter Sara was born eight years ago, she was diagnosed. SMA is a degenerative disease of the nervous system that weakens the victim’s ability to eat, to breath, even to move the eyelids.
The treatment that has proved effective is a spinraza shot which will stop the progression of SMA - and that costs $125,000. Sara has had six of them, and they were working. She has been able to scoot around in her own Go-Go, a motorized wheel chair. But recently Sara has become too weak to operate the hand controls. Wynne told us of “the cure,” a new drug that actually arrests and cures the disease. Cost of one treatment: one million dollars.
What Wynne asks in return for his gift to our club, as that we support his Rotary Club of Greater Van Nuys in their Service Above Self event next May, when in conjunction with Children’s Hospital they annually raise thousands for SMA.
Wynne began his professional career as an executive with the Boy Scouts in 1960’s, and early on he and his wife Rosemary, while attending a convention in San Francisco, saw a Rockwell painting, ”Can’t Wait,” of a grinning young boy trying on his older brother’s Scout uniform, which is too big. Wynne felt an instant affinity, and thought, “I would like to have that painting.” He had brought the picture and placed it on an easel for us to see. “This is my baby,” he said. 100 Rockwells later, he is an avid collector and authority on all things Rockwell.
Wynne displayed some of his other treasures that Rockwell had signed. But he beemed when he spoke of his beloved, “Can’t Wait,” which illustrates the Scout Code, “A scout is cheerful.” One was “Before the Shot,” an iconic painting which appeared as the cover for The Saturday Evening Post on March 15, 1958. It shows a young boy standing on a chair and peering at the doctor’s framed credentials while behind him the doctor is preparing to give him a hypodermic in his uncovered rump.
“We grew up with Rockwell,” Wynne said. “He is our artist; he is our country’s artist.” Rockwell was famous for the covers he did for The Saturday Evening Post, including the series, “The Four Freedoms.” “Freedom from Want” depicts a multigenerational family gathered in prayerful thanks at a Thanksgiving dinner table featuring a huge turkey.
Wynne also displayed a Post cover of JFK, and a treasured self-portrait of an aging Rockwell in Boy Scout shirt and cap. Above it in the glassed-in frame is Rockwell’s own creased hat.
Wynne is the sort of man who never met a stranger. “In 1972 I joined the Huntington Park Rotary club,” Wynne says, “which has at that time about 100 members. Art Redfox from Redfox Camera who was a contributor to the Boy Scouts who I worked for, said to one day come and visit our club and see if you might be interested in joining. So I visited and he explained to me by being a member I could get to know these folks and find out about their scouting background and maybe ask them for money for Scouts.
“But,” said Wynne, “Art said the perception of giving is important, so be prepared to give to get. Well I guess I paid attention because it turned out by giving to Rotary they in turn gave to me as well, and I was able to visit other Rotary Clubs and make friends and yes, do business.”
Wynne the fundraiser gave us priceless advice: “We Rotarians as part of an organization are always expected to give. But you have to give to get from those whom you give to.”
“So organizations who give to our event get. It’s not 100% of course but most do. So I use that principal that Rotary talked about in my fundraising.”
Each honoree at the Give of Yourself event receives a special Rotary glass clock with their name on it and they get to speak about 5 minutes about themselves.
Wynne has been a member of the San Marino Club, Pacific Palisades Club, Half Moon Bay Club, Granada Hills and now Greater Van Nuys Club. President twice, he has been to 5 Rotary conventions and now doing Fundraising for his present Club.
Wynne served in Viet Nam, and said when he arrived there, he asked around to see who had been an Eagle Scout. “I want you next to me,” he said “because you guys know first aid.” Never one to miss a giving opportunity, Wynne also offered a large donation can for Downey Rotarians who wish to give to support disabled vets. Many hands reached out to put in cash.
Wynne’s research into Rockwell showed that in the 1930’s he decided to use a camera to help him in his work, so the subjects did not have to pose too long for his life studies. In “The Rookie,” the model for Ted Williams, a semi-pro ball player himself, was just like Ted: “Never could stand still,” said Wynne. So he was photographed separately from the other Sox players who actually came to Rockwell’s home in Stockbridge, Mass. and posed.
Rockwell's The Rookie sold for $22.5 million at auction by Christie’s, The 1957 painting of baseball players in a locker room was sold by Christie's auction house — heady heights for a magazine cover that sold for fifteen cents. Our new acquisition is an unsigned copy, so nostalgia buffs can acquire it for much, much less. Wynne has the amazing details about how the painting came into his hands.
DOWNEY ROTARY’S NEW ROCKWELL
“It was because of Sara with Spinal Muscular Atrophy that Rosemary and I are doing this for Rotary,” Wynne said. “When I became President my kids wanted to do a Birthday party for her 5th birthday. I asked the Rotary Club if they wanted to participate and maybe make some money for their activities because they had no plans for raising money. We raised in three months $32,000. $10,000 went to SMA, 10 went to Ride On, and rest the club kept.”
“I asked the club if they would be interested once again,” Wynne said, “to raise some money for Children’s Hospital of which half goes to the hospital and the rest goes to club activities. If organizations participate we will support their activities as well. And guess what - by giving toward this event they in turn got money and we raised for the first Service Above Self Event, in which we honored 6 people, $39,000. We did another and that was $52,000 and this last one we did $65,000....with 271 attending.”
“We’re doing another next year on May 10th, 2018,” said Wynne, and this is where Downey Rotary comes in. The event is held at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills, which is 35 miles from Downey, a straight shot on the I-5.
Wynne would like us to send two people to the dinner: “If your club could take a table it would be great,” he added. “We also have about 100 silent auction items and 4 or 5 live auction items. Rosemary and I literally for one year buy the items or get them donated and they are specific items that people want. We have dinner and background music, and are out by 9:30.”