by Jim McFarland

Chris Coye led our flag salute and the Thought for the Day.  He had just come back from a stay in Hanalei, Hawaii. ”Slow yourself down.”
 
Guests: Russell Roeber, the son of our speaker and a Manhattan Beach resident.  Alex Baily, who was with us last week as someone we could connect to an IT job, will now also be helping to set up our AV for the meetings.  James Kennedy from Puerto Rico.  Always good to see James!!  
 
Rotarians in the Wild and Happy Dollars.  John Acker and President Cedric Tuck-Sherman met at Saint and Second. (New restaurant at the Manhattan Mall.) Tarek Shaer sent a photo from Switzerland. David Hadley stopped by the Rotary Club of East Sutherland at the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Scotland. John Osten and Larry Johnson were seen at Concerts in the Park July 27^th.  Lisa Hemmat-Lupercio in Hawaii.  Russ Samuels with Troop 849, who we charter. Deb Robertson and Rita Crabtree-Kampe had dollars for their Floating Doctors trip.  Amazing group of people!! Kelly Stroman was called out for her feature in MB Weekly as Exec Director of the Downtown Business Association. Ted Iantuono had Happy Dollars for his pier-to-pier swim this weekend.  By the way…he paid his $$ by credit card!!!  Tony Rogondino had $$ for his trip to Dubai and South Africa. Bill Bloomfield’s $$ for his wife, who had a gallbladder attack with chest pains and sweats and who waited to get relief…surgery scheduled for this week.  The club wishes her a speedy recovery.  Dave Barnes, Kathleen Terry, Kelly Stroman, Larry Johnson, Mark Shoemaker, Walt and Priscila Kasha, Cedric Tuck-Sherman and wife Gretchen Stipec all attended the District Breakfast last Saturday. Last but not least, Brad Roeber, President-elect of the Altadena Rotary Club, had $100 Happy Bucks for the support our club has shown to his club and the City of Altadena.
 
Ronald McDonald House sent us a “Thank You” for the club’s $3,000 donation, signed by our club member Nina Patel.  El Camino College sent us a “Thank You” for our $9,450 donation for student scholarships!!
 
Foundation Board nominees gave their 2-minute statements in an order chosen by Chat GPT.  First up was Joel Ruben, followed by Genevieve Kelly, Bob Stephenson (statement given by Ian Jackson), Lisa Hemmat-Lupercio (given by Christina Pascucci), Jason Wallace, Rod Spackman, Geoff Bremer, Bruce Greenspon, and Charlie Steinmetz (read by President Cedric).  Ken Deemer had a question as to how votes will be tabulated.  Simple, by most votes.  Jim Hunter will be our election inspector, as he is our Foundation Chair. 
 
New member induction. Welcome to Kavita Patel (sponsor Coby McDonald), Chris Coye (sponsor Mark Maruyama), John Clough (sponsor Gerry Morton). Welcome back John.  Note, if a picture or bio is not sent to President Cedric before the meeting a lovely “Simpsons” will be shown instead. President Cedric also gave the induction statement to the three and was reminded by Gerry Morton that the previous group did not hear that at their induction.  No pins for them yet, but we all greeted the three with handshakes.
 
Call to action!! Order your Superhero T-shirts at Superhero Tees by August 25!  It’s on ClubRunner as well as the calendar of events!!!!!  Also, Donate to the Rotary International Foundation to get a chance for a seat at the Foundation Celebration on board the USS Iowa on November 1. Go to RI Foundation (you’ll need to sign in or create an account).
 
Guest speaker.  Brad Roeber, president-elect of the Altadena Rotary Club.  Talked about meeting Tarek Shaer at Rite-Aid in Altadena where Tarek’s son was handing out water and supplies to people as a result of the January 7^th fire. Turns out, Brad’s son (Russell), lives in Manhattan Beach. Brad spoke about, and showed photos of, that January night.  In a town of 40,000, 9,400 structures were destroyed.  6,000 of those were homes.  He showed a slide showing the Eaton Fire and the Palisades tallies.  Insured loss estimates range from $28-35 billion.
 
Compared to Maui (2023) $41.3 billion and Camp Fire (2018) $12.5 billion.  Now, 6 months later, all 6,800 lots have been cleared.  He praised the Army Corp of Engineers for their quick and humane response in the cleaning up.  Three homes have started the construction process.  Altadena city has no local services – fire, police and building department are County of Los Angeles -- so it’s going to be a long process.  Many of the homes were uninsured, as they were generational homes with no mortgages. There have been only 100 building permits issued as of date.  On June 7^th 500 families were helped in a joint Rotary project. Several of our members also went to Altadena to donate and help at their Concerts in the Park.  The Altadena Rotary Club manages the concert venue.  Last week over 900 people showed up for the concert.  
 
On January 6^th there was no money in the Restore Altadena account. So far there is now over $1,000,000, mostly donated $20 at a time. He expects the need for help will increase not decrease over time. He thanked those MB Rotary members that showed up to help: Rita Crabtree-Kampe, Deb Robertson, Kathleen Terry (with Fred), President Cedric (with Gretchen & Kristen), Scott Yanofsky, and Norm Levin. You can donate at: Altadena Fire Fund. 
 
Brad spoke about the California Insurance Guarantee Fund.  “They exist to serve those insurance consumers who have nowhere else to go. CIGA https://www.ciga.org/  Spoke about insurance companies leaving California, due in part to Prop. 103 which capped rates in 1984.  He stated that our rates are going up!!  Rita Crabtree-Kampe, on behalf of the club, presented Brad and the Altadena Rotary Club a check for $13,000.  Questions to Brad were fielded after the meeting. 
 
Raffle - 2018 Rutherford Cab was won by John Ranaudo and the marble drawing was not won by Dave Harris.

For more meeting photos, go to SmugMug.