The Morning After . . .
by Sue Vogl
After a festive weekend capped with the annual MB Rotary holiday party (see photos below), even those late to leave Dave Gendron’s party-friendly workspace were on hand for our morning meeting at the Westdrift.
There were several visitors as well – Kelly Stroman brought two women for their third visit – Grace Adams and Maureen McBride, Charlie Steinmetz hosted John Cameron, and Bill Bloomfield brought his wife Susan. Kelly also organized the tip basket for our always-helpful Westdrift staff.
Coby McDonald led the flag salute and his thought for the day echoed the challenges of family life with four children with humor. Good luck, Coby!
President Cedric Tuck-Sherman thanked Social Directors and party planners Tarek Shaer and Martha Mansfield for their work on a festive and fun holiday party, as well as thanking Dave Gendron for hosting.
With so many holiday service opportunities coming up, our busy Community Service Directors, Rita Crabtree-Kampe and Nancy Vrankovic, brought us up to date on our upcoming activities, everything from driving a truck for the Sandpipers Holiday Baskets project to distributing food to families in the Lennox/Inglewood area. Check out the Save the Date section of the Bulletin and ClubRunner for details. Thank you, Rita and Nancy, for the all the work you do for our club! Kavita Patel told us about another opportunity started by her daughter, the Lennox Holiday Adopt-a-Family.
Next Bill Bloomfield introduced our speaker Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice and EdVoice Institute. His talk’s title, “Reshaping Public Education for Children from Low-Income Communities in California,” was just a snapshot of the important work he is doing. He first lauded Bill and Susan Bloomfield for “their effect on LA public schools.” Marshall’s mother was a teacher, which was an inspiration for his work.
Education is the gateway to opportunities for growth for everyone, he said. It reduces crime, improves health outcomes and bolsters civic engagement. But he believes our schools are failing low-income children. He works to change policy at the state level and then implement those changes. He’s already had success with the passage of two recent bills “Universal Screening for Reading Difficulties” and “Evidence-based Reading Instruction and Materials.” Yes, that does include phonics as well as funds to train teachers. With the EdVoice Foundation, he is also building a community of financial supporters. Fortunately, there was time for many questions from our members.
President Cedric shared happy dollars slides, including one announcing three new Eagle Scouts from MB Rotary chartered Troop 849 (Rohill Dave, Griffin O’Gorman and Nathan Bunenechek) as well as a just-completed Eagle Scout project to replace the mile markers on the MB green belt. He also showed upcoming activities both in the Bulletin and a series of ClubRunner pages before our closing raffle. Kate Orroth won a bottle of wine and Tom Zimmerman drew the winning marble.
For more meeting photos, go to SmugMug.
Tis the Season
by Editor
If you don't like delicious food, specialty cocktails, holiday music and friendly folks, then this party wasn't for you. But, of course, we MB Rotarians love all those things. And, thanks to party planners Martha Tapias Mansfield and Tarek Shaer plus host Dave Gendron, we got to celebrate the holidays in style. The more than 120 guests were welcomed with champagne to begin a joyful evening. Although many stopped by the Speak Easy by Tarek & Martha first.
Dave Gendron's workplace in El Segundo has an outdoor bar, which we became acquainted with when he hosted our Cinco de Mayo celebration. This time, there were four specialty cocktails - a lavender gimlet, espresso martini, spicy margarita and an old fashioned. (I cannot resist a spicy margarita!)
The ample spread of food (Catering by Jack) included charcuterie and appetizers as well as an ample buffet. I just had to get seconds of the butternut quinoa salad. Delicious!
We had holiday music from Matt Commerce, vocals and guitar, as well as Fadu Wanas on the saxophone. And, ready or not, we were assigned numbers and came up in groups to sing holiday songs, where folks with good voices (Larry Johnson among them) could really shine.
Patti Panucci and Jim Hunter helped Martha and Tarek organize this event. Thanks to Donn Ennis for capturing the evening with his photos.
For more party photos, go to SmugMug.
SCHEDULE CHECK (click to calendar)
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