Jim's story for the April 1 Bulletin

It was Monday, March 25, 2019, our first spring meeting this year, and President Ken Deemer led us into a world of hillsides covered with poppies and skies filled with sunshine.  Shannon Ryan quoted Viktor Frankl, who suggested that the space between stimulus and response is where we make choices, and we can choose growth and freedom.  (And poppies.)….We learned from Chris Ullman that Maria, our long-time server, is experiencing severe health issues.  We all signed a card for her.  Our Family of Rotary Chair, Jan Rhees, did much more—Jan drove to her house to deliver flowers and visit with her.  We can call both Maria and Jan “servers”…..We have been asked that, if we want to park in the hotel golf course parking lot, please at least part at the west end, so that actual golfers can park near the course…..Nina Patel received her blue badge….Ed Kushins asked volunteers to email him if willing to test his new vacation exchange website.

 

Tim Hageman greeted Heidi Snively, the Grand View librarian who worked with Tim to organize Rotary Reads.  We used the occasion to honor Manhattan Beach school librarians, and we added to the honor with $1000 of credit at Pages Bookstore for school library books.

 

Celebrate Manhattan Beach is speeding toward us like a freight train, and we still need more freight, including silent and live auction items and more.  John Hugunin took the mike to explain why his arm was in a (fake) cast—it was the product of Kathleen Terry’s arm twisting, which resulted in John contributing a gallon of Piss Wine (don’t ask me to explain).  Larry Johnson is building his annual wine pyramid and is requesting your wine or a purchase of wine from Lisa Hemmat Lupercio's provided supply.  All of which led Lisa to volunteer her Paso Robles home for three days including a wine tour.  Kathleen came with numbers, including:  114 tickets sold, 286 to sell; 18 sponsors so far with $8750; 45% of members giving auction items, with 55% to go;  need at least four more live auction items by April 29; 60% of club members have contributed so far.  Join a CMB committee at www.celebratemb.org. 

 

President Ken named not one, not two, but three Rotarians of the Month:  our CMB organizers, Debby Arnold, Jordan Holbert, and Kathleen Terry.  They fuel everything we do (without adding anything to our carbon imprint).

 

Larry Johnson participated in the Rotary project fitting kids with shoes and was profoundly moved by the experience—these were kids who have never had shoes…..Lee Walker eulogized 111-year-old Henry Tseng, Westwood Rotarian when Lee was in that club….Mark your calendar:  April 15 craft awards are at the hotel this year….Tim Hageman urged us to join Run As One on April 13, supporting Team Rubicon, the veterans group who recently spoke to us and who joined in November’s VetFest.

 

Charlie Steinmetz is on the PBS SoCal Board and introduced Board President Andy Russell, appearing with the good news that PBS has rejoined with KCET, together with KOCE, to serve 19 million Southern Californians.  A major focus will be children’s programming.  They will continue their work with news, journalism, arts, culture, education, science and history.  Our two biggest local public radio stations are also in their sights—KPCC and KCRW.  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, both nationally and locally, is around 15% federally funded, with zero from the State of California, so this is very much a publicly funded service we enjoy.

 

You already know this, but it never hurts to repeat it:  Celebrate Manhattan Beach is where the great bulk of our funding happens.  Our club is one of those wonderful charities you seek but rarely find, where the organization’s operating budget is separate from its service budget.  CMB net proceeds go 100% to the projects we all joined Rotary to promote.  We all owe our gratitude, and our participation, to those who have already stepped up to make this another successful year.