Jim's story for the May 17 Bulletin

 

It was Monday, May 10, 2021, and President Tim Hageman called upon Bill Bloomfield for the Pledge and Thought for the Day.  Bill first reported that Paul Allman is a third of the way through chemo treatments and appreciates our support.  As to politics, Bill suggested that, with the political divide wider than ever, let’s all stop arguing and let the other side be wrong……President Tim reminded us that we’re in National Peace Officers Week and that May 15 is Peace Officer Memorial Day, with recognition ceremonies in Manhattan Beach for our three fallen officers, most recently including Martin Ganz on December 27, 1993 (Tim and he were partners when Tim was a new officer).

 

John Hugunin briefed us on Kiva, our club’s microloan program initiated by Donn Ennis in 2009 and run by John since May of 2018.  We have made 3,349 loans with a 99.5% repayment rate in 63 countries, said loans going to 94% women.  We started with a $3,000 investment and that small sum has produced $240,000 in loans so far.  Kiva worldwide has made $1.6 billion in loans to three million borrowers with a 96% repayment rate.  Anyone can do it, and in fact our Interact Club already has.

 

New member Dan Graham, declaring himself honored to be the undercard to Patti Panucci’s veteran craft talk, presented his craft talk.  He met Lauren at Vanderbilt (he is the school’s LA Alumni Chapter President), and they have produced a boy in 7^th grade and a girl in 1^st grade (they have lived in the Tree Section since 2009).  He was born in Chicago; at age 5 his family moved to Seal Beach, where his father was an orthopedic surgeon.   He pretty much played all sports except football (his physician father nixed football).  Out of college, his wife, an accomplished painter, did real estate asset management while he progressed from fixed income sales/trading in San Francisco, to an MBA at USC, to real estate consulting (including with Robert Guilford), to (in 2013) founding and building up Peer Street, Inc., investing in loans backed by real estate and venture capital.  He is focused on community development and has raised $120 million to date for these projects.  Service is his family value, and he has been involved in charities, nonprofits, schools and kid sports.

 

Patti Panucci started us off with her new promotional video for Beach Braces, then gave us some personal history.  She was born in a car en route to the hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.  She was one of four girls whose Italian-heritage parents included a dad who was a professional football referee.  She was a K-12 Catholic school girl, doing dancing, gymnastics, basketball and field hockey (which she played at the college level).  At age 16, her family moved to Louisville, KY.  She was a Ball State undergrad and a Louisville dental school grad, followed by a USC MS in Craniofacial Biology.  She has run three marathons and, as some lucky Rotarians have witnessed, still dances.   She has attended 12 Kentucky Derbys, adorned with some of her 80 hats.   Before Beach Braces, she worked two years with her mentor, Dr. Ed Bryan, at the L.A. Metropolitan Detention Center.   She and Charlie were married 12 years, whereupon she moved on to the single life, only to find herself in a pandemic, turning blonde, and hanging out with her dogs—but a broken retainer has brought a long-time friend back into her life.  She joined Rotary in 2011, is PH+2 and is our former club secretary.

 

Dan Graham counseled us to “never be so foolish as not to surround ourselves with people who are smarter than us.”   I have decided to follow that advice by staying in a club that includes Dan and Patti Panucci.