Weekly Review Jan 13, 2025

 

by Jim McFarland

Jason Hearne introduced our flag salute leader and Thought of the Day master, Tim Auringer.  He had a quote from a Jackson Browne song (Love Jackson Browne!), “The Only Child.” “Let the disappointments pass. Let the laughter fill your glass. Let your illusions last until they shatter. Whatever you might hope to find among the thoughts that crowd your mind, there won’t be many that ever really matter.”

President John Acker took the podium, welcoming us back from our holiday break! Guests. Albert Hernandez, District Governor, and Giovanni Sylvestre, Assistant District Governor, and Ryan Zahalkan, younger brother of Sandesha Singh

Happy Dollars -- Lisa Hemmat-Lupercio thanked Rita Crabtree-Kampe for donating her place in Deer Valley to the Magic in Giving event, as Lisa ended up staying there over the holidays.  Norm Levin had dollars for the great trip to Africa he and his wife just completed. Jim McFarland had dollars to celebrate 40 years of marital bliss on the 12^th of January…only to be outdone by Dick and Harriet Chase… celebrating their 63^rd on the 27^th.  Geoff Bremer had happy dollars for Matt Peck, who retired as of the 31^st of December!  Congrats Matt!!  Nelson Gray had dollars for seeing his kids in Florida over the break, John Bartlett celebrated a trip to Mexico, and Walt Kasha had a successful knee surgery two weeks ago and is going to a pickleball tournament in the desert this weekend.

Who is this Rotarian? Wasn’t hard to recognized Barbara Matles, as she is just as beautiful now as she was in her high school picture.  Her joke…It was such a beautiful wedding even the cake had tiers!!!  President John followed with another of his weekly jokes.

Rotarians in the Wild. We saw photos of our club members at the holiday party, the senior holiday luncheon, and the last meeting of 2024! Great photos of the gang!! Thanks to all who participated!!!

Who should we fine?? District Governor…just because. President John for using his phone to take photos of cell phone violators and Dave Harris for potentially proposing to the singer at our holiday party.

The advisor is in the house. We got a twofer!!  “Give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can’t change.”  And, “I’m not saying let’s get rid of all the stupid people…I’m just saying let’s remove all the warning labels and let the problem sort itself out.”

Paul Harris recognition.  District Governor 2024-2025 Albert Hernandez helped Nelson Gray with presentation of Paul Harris pins. Comment from Albert: “Think of the people who must travel two hours a day for potable water and those who have no home. These people survive because of us and our donations.”  Ken Deemer +5, Nelson Gray +4, Patti Panucci +3, Cedric Tuck-Sherman +2, Jeff Serota 1^st as well as Richard Montgomery 1^st.

Blue Badges!!  Mark Maruyama, Walt Kasha, Paul Rudy and John Bartlett.

District Governor Hernandez, member of the Rotary Club of Burbank Noon, gave us an update on Rotary district wide. Our District, 5280, is the only district that has a district- wide annual Humanity Trip. This term it will have two. The first one was in August, where 47 members completed 11 service projects in Maui, donating over $85,000.  Humanitarian Trip 2 will be to Barbados on April 29, 2025. See the slated projects plus Discon 2025 (District Conference 2025) June 13-15th in Temecula at the district website www.rotary5280.org

What is a District Governor? Governor Hernandez equated it to a head manger like the Dodgers, making sure we’re all getting our hits!  “Magic of Rotary” is this year’s international theme chosen by our president, Stephanie Urchick, only the second woman president of Rotary International. Albert’ s job is to encourage teamwork between clubs, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” As DG he has been traveling to as many clubs as possible, going to service projects, social eventsand sharing ideas between clubs. He believes that more members equals more projects. He wants to recruit members by offering tier membership for corporations, non-profits, young professional groups, and retired teachers. He suggests clubs hold “Open Houses’ to invite the public in to hear shared Rotary Moments. Support the Rotary Foundation. Make that first donation and consider donating through Rotary Direct. www.MyRotary.org.  Albert thinks it’s okay to talk business. Check out the district LinkedIn page. www.linkedin.com/company/rotary-district-5280-greater-los-angeles We will have a Vocational Directory and a Rotary Means Business Event January 30^th, Hollywood Sports Park in Bellflower.  

Where will members come from?  Reach out to those who may have fallen out of the club. Invite them back. In closing, Albert remembers being a 14-year-old boy with 11 siblings, whose father had passed away working a job to help feed his family. He was invited to Camp RYLA and  joined the Burbank club at 19. This gave him the support he needed to succeed.  He believes in hand up instead of handouts.
Albert is currently the CEO of Home Again LA, homeagainla.org, a 501(c)3 non-profit homeless service agency with offices in Burbank, Glendale and San Fernando. There are five core programs: Shelter, homeless prevention, rapid rehousing, outreach and transitional housing. In 2024 they supplied permanent housing for 243 people. Thank you Mr. Hernandez.

Gerry Morton was fined $10 for phone use. John Bartlett won the wine, and Jeff Serota had a chance for the $323. Happy New Year to all!!  

For more meeting photos, go to SmugMug.