Freedom is Fragile
-by Jim Hallett
 
It was Monday, April 26, 2021, and Lindy Murrell rose early in New Zealand to lead our pledge to the American flag, after which President Tim Hageman quoted Ronald Reagan to remind us that freedom is fragile, that every generation must defend it…..Guests included Assistant District Governor Shiela Fowler…..Nina Patel had happy dollars for the Canada goose family she shepherded through the streets of Manhattan Beach, complete with video……President Tim enjoyed the first in-person board meeting at Lido and is looking forward to resuming VetFest in November……Tom Jeffry was grateful for the thoughts and prayers directed to his family…..Larry Johnson was grateful to Vinny Fazzino’s plumbing team…..Tarek Shaer was relieved to have his second vaccine……Jeff Serota was anticipating his daughter’s interview with Kelly Stroman for a Chamber of Commerce internship.
 
Mystery Rotarian
Our Mystery Rotarian got a blue ribbon for flower arranging (in kindergarten), was asked to join the Key Club in high school despite his family’s Rotary history, played center defense for his Division 3 lacrosse team (which beat major universities), and had a yellow lab named R.T. Choke.   Nelson Gray grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, the son of a dentist and a homemaker, majored in history at Randolph Macon College, worked in hotel management in the Virgin Islands, moved on to an MBA in hotel administration at Cornell, married Peggy and signed on with the Guam Hilton, moved to L.A. and the Bonaventure, worked with various airport hotels and the L.A. Olympic Committee, joined Paul Allman’s HR business, got still another master's degree in organization management, started over by teaching at Dana Middle School in San Pedro, got still another academic recognition with a teaching credential and then spent 11 years at Central High Continuation School, retiring in 2016.  His dad was a charter member 100 years ago in the Alexandria Rotary Club.  He joined the Century City club, and moved to Manhattan Beach in 1985 where he worked for the Radisson (now Westdrift) and joined our club (he was twice our president, his first term interrupted by a transfer to a Denver hotel). His son is in Fort Lauderdale with a hotel company, and his daughter is a literacy coach in a Hawthorne school.
 
Trash Talk
Jim Schlager introduced his close family friend, Zach Schwartz, an Emmy winner at age 23 for sports programming.  He was Arizona State’s men’s basketball team’s student manager (Rick Singer tried and failed to reel in his family for college admissions) and graduated to an NFL internship, then a podcast, then Yahoo Sports, and then a video network on YouTube covering the NBA (it all started with the Mira Costa film program). He has enjoyed contact and interviews with many major sports stars (memorably trash talking with James Harden).  These have all been good experiences, from catching Kyle Kuzma on a bad day, to a very pleasant time with Dennis Rodman, to being inspired by Russell Wilson’s serious service commitment to Children’s Hospital in Seattle.  The best people in sports might just be Formula One drivers, but even NFL guys tend to be accommodating and nice.
 
Canada Geese
It's not unusual for Rotarians to reflect the values of the Good Shepherd in what they do.   Like quarterback Russell Wilson, Rotarians take time out of busy family and professional lives to keep up their service commitments.   One of our club’s members who keeps showing up is Nina Patel, so it only made sense that we would find her helping a family get to Polliwog Park—a Canada goose family, yes, but a family in need that she could not overlook.   Such is the life of another great Rotarian.