Jim's meeting notes, Oct 16, 2023
Meeting came to order: Ingo Werk led the flag salute and gave the thought for the day.
Guests: Jake Downey Danny, Bohle, Claudia Matles, stepdaughter of Barbara Matles. Other guests Larry Robinson, PV Sunset president Victoria Perez.
President Lisa thanked several Rotarians for showing up at the Jimmy Miller Foundation beach event. There were pictures of Pres Lisa in the ice bath at the event.
VetFest Tickets and volunteers needed!!! Please buy your tickets ASAP. Table for 10 and bottle service with premium wines for $1,000.
Happy dollars!! All proceeds go to PORAC fund raiser (Porac.org)! Several members had happy events to celebrate!! Tim James got married!! Heather (Hatch) Hearns’ (Jason) new book is out. Pages is having a book signing on Oct 18th, at 6:30 PM. Vanderbilt covered the spread with the Georgia Bulldogs.
President Lisa announced the meeting for the Oct 30th is cancelled. She is organizing a Halloween Happy Hour that day! No Monday morning meeting!
There will be a Rotary Board Meeting on Oct 24, 6:30pm at John Acker's house.
Kathleen Teri introduced our Rotary Reflector for the meeting. Nelson Gray! Nelson is a 36 year member, two time president 1980-90 and 1998 -99. Earliest memories of Rotary for Nelson, were of being taken to his fathers’ annual Take your kids to Rotary Day, in Alexandria Virginia. He first joined Rotary in 1980 when he joined the Century City Club. He was working at the Century Plaza Hotel and moved their meetings to his hotel. He was living in Manhattan Beach and managing the Radisson Hotel (Westdrift) in 1985, so he joined our club sponsored by Dave Hornbecker. Two years later he became president. Half way through his presidency, he was transferred to Denver to manage a hotel there, He was back after a short while…Thank goodness for us, that didn’t work out, he was back and worked to expand the club in the 90’s. Magic in Giving now known as Celebrate Manhattan was started at The Comedy and Magic Club, where they began raising $25-$30 thousand in one night compared to the Hometown Fair booth. In 2000, he quit the hotel business and became a teacher in South Central LA. He is so grateful to the club, as he couldn’t attend meeting regularly, but he club still donated $3,000 a year to his school. Nelson thanked us for the help, support, and notes that were given to him during his recovery.
Paula Winlan with Compass Zambia Community School gave us an update on the additions they have made there because of our support. There are 384 students. With our help, and a land grant from a local land owner, they were able to expand their facility. It took four and a half months, to clear land and build classrooms for 5th and 6th graders. With our grant, combined with others, they were able to build toilet facilities with flushing toilets. A plaque with our clubs’ name is on the building.
Our guest speaker for the meeting was Danny Boehle, coach of the 2023 Little League World Champions! We saw a short video of highlights of the tournament. Danny was born and raised in Venice California. He went to local catholic schools. The played AVP Volleyball. Owned and operated The Fonz restaurant in Manhattan Beach. He is now a tax planner. He moved to El Segundo in 2008.
He is passionate about making a difference without getting paid. He spoke about how the stars had to align for them to reach the Series. His all-stars at 10 years old won the state championship as 11 year old they won the regionals. He spoke of how he drafted a group of great parents. He teaches his kids it is okay to fail. They beat some very good teams to get to the finals. They had to beat great California teams, lost to Texas, but then they beat Seattle and were able to play Texas again. He said that being in the losers’ bracket enabled them to play every day competing, made them sharp in facing Texas, and beating them the next time they met. He mentioned that the security in Williamsport is unbelievable! You can’t get on campus if you don’t have badges wrist bands etc. Parents aren’t even allowed in. He told his players respect the game and have fun. Do the right things in life and you win.
In the Q&A portion of his talk Danny said playing Curacao was going to be tough. They were a good team but cocky. The lives of these kids have been changed forever. He spoke about the illness (GI) that ran through the team, 9 of the 12 players got sick. All of his team members were 12 years old.
Herb Trachtenberg won the wine and Charlie Steinmetz did not pick the right marble.
Meeting adjourned.