Sue's story for the September 14 Bulletin

You might think our Board of Directors would have difficulty making plans for 2020-21, since we can’t meet or volunteer in person. But – not so! Their respective plates are crowded with projects and plans.

 

As director of club service and programs, Jim Schlager has, with President Tim Hageman’s help, already booked speakers through the end of the year. His goal – “Bring speakers who have a social, environmental or government impact on our world.”

 

Director of community service, Harrison Clay, had to postpone his presentation, but a glance at our Bulletin will reveal numerous projects he’s brought to our club.

 

Nina Patel, director of international service, was born in Zambia, which makes two of our international projects particularly important to her. The Grace Centre of Kazungula, Zambia helps young women at risk of exploitation, at a price of just $430 annually to sponsor one girl. The Moyo Lunga Community School in Livingston, Zambia, wants to expand through 7^th grade. The Puerto Rico Regenerative Agricultural Support program was witnessed first-hand by those of us who traveled to Puerto Rico, thank to Cedric Tuck-Sherman and James Kennedy. Clean Water for Developing Countries is another project on Nina’s list.

 

Annie Hendrickson, director of vocational service, discussed our legacy projects, such as tutoring at the Richstone Family Center, which generally runs from January through June. She’s hopeful we’ll be back there in person but, if not, we could do virtual tutoring and read-a-louds. Our award programs will continue. Plus, Annie has added a couple of new projects. The Mystery Rotarian now has a vocational component, and we will recognize a community entrepreneur or business.

 

Shannon Ryan has returned to her favorite role, director of youth services. Shannon and her family demonstrated “youth service” before self by hosting five international exchange students. “How do we keep kids engaged?” Shannon asked, an important question for our two Interact clubs, a proposed Rotaract club sponsored by three Rotarian clubs, including ours, and the International Youth Exchange.

 

Lisa Hemmat-Lupercio, director of club social services, addressed the challenges of social distancing by announcing two upcoming events that will be held outdoors – Happy Hour Thursday, September 3, at Grunions and a family day at the beach September 19.

 

Larry Johnson led the Pledge of Allegiance as a “testimony of my love of country,” followed by a photo illustrating his love of golf with fellow Rotarians Ed Kushins and Vinny Fazzino. His four quotes from baseball philosopher Yogi Berra, started with “You gotta be careful if you don’t know where you’re going because you might not get there,” summing up my life before GPS.

 

President Tim welcomed guests Sally Young and Jesse Torres. Mayor Richard Montgomery’s  MB update focused on the recent “peaceful” protest; the Bruce’s Beach Task Force, which welcomes applications from city residents;  and the mask ticketing process (tickets are only issued if the person refuses to put on a mask). He ended by encouraging us to Shop MB. (I did that today, Richard.)

 

President Tim’s call for volunteers to do writeups of our weekly meetings has, mostly, fallen on deaf ears. Jim Hallett’s schedule no longer allows him to do it every week. John Hugunin has stepped up, as have I, but we need more writers. So, please contact me if you can contribute – even if you can only do it once. Webmaster Bob Lanahan needs help with ClubRunner duties and would love to start training one or more volunteers. Contact him if you are interested.

 

Donn Ennis’s son Daniel B. Ennis, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Radiology at Stanford and Senior Fellow of the ISMRM  (International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine). Aren’t you glad I spelled that out? His research is, well, complicated, so I’ll leave it up to Donn to explain.

 

John Ranaudo’s daughter-in-law Lynette joined us. She launched More than Just Sprinkles, a custom cookie business, including videos and classes, featured in VoyageLA magazine. Celebrity clients Will Smith and family are fans of her cookies!

 

President Tim announced two nominations for our Foundation Board, Geoff Bremer and Jim Hunter. We are dark next Monday, September 7, to celebrate Labor Day, so we’ll vote at our September 14 meeting, which allows time for other nominations.

 

Rod Spackman, who is retiring as Chevron’s Manager of Corporate Affairs, will be recognized at an MB City Council meeting.

 

As we celebrate Labor Day, let’s all give thanks for the labor of our Board of Directors, who have met the challenges of 2020 with energy and enthusiasm.