Weekly Review Jun 23, 2025

Student Leaders and Scholars

by Don Jung

Our flag salute and thought for the day was given by Charlie Steinmetz to start our meeting. President John Acker, in his next-to-last appearance, introduced our various guests for the day that included several Mira Costa students as well as friends of Dave Gendron, Tarek Shaer, Sandesha Singh and Ken Deemer.
 
Happy Dollars were donated by Tarek Shaer, John Ranaudo and Ian Jackson. The Mystery Rotarian was Richard Montgomery. His joke for the day was - “What is the difference between golf and politicians? Politicians always try to improve their lie.”
 
Cedric Tuck-Sherman then thanked Debbie Goldberg and Rita Crabtree-Kampe for spearheading the Altadena event last week and asked us to join their Concerts in the Park event coming up this summer. The Constitution and Bylaws were approved with only one member abstaining. Cedric reminded us about the upcoming annual dues statements that are going out for his year as president.
 
Nelson Gray spoke of the Paul Harris Fellows program and honored Ian Jackson for Paul Harris plus eight and John Ranaudo for Paul Harris plus seven.
 
Cedric announced he will attend Rotary International next week in Calgary, Canada. His first meeting as President will be on July 14^th. President John awarded leaders of the Mira Costa Interact Club for their outstanding year. They spoke of the 200 Easter baskets given to Palisades firefighters and their various help-the-homeless projects, as well as being part of the Altadena event a few weeks back.
 
Pictures showed Travels with Charlie to the South Coast Botanic Garden and the well-attended District Conference in Temecula, which included wine tasting and dancing in a festive atmosphere.
 
Our guest speaker was Crystal Baird from the LA Sparks basketball team, who was interviewed by Tara Khaleghian, a Mira Costa tennis player and an intern for Al Muratsuchi.  She asked questions on Crystal’s background and how she got involved in women’s sports.  From her start in ticket sales with the WNBA, MLB, NFL and Women’s Pro Soccer, she moved to be Director of Business Intelligence for the Los Angeles Sparks. She has campaigned to create a bigger audience for women’s sports and serves as Vice President with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission. 
 
Harrison Clay won the wine bottle raffle and Dave Harris did not draw the winning marble for the cash prize.
 
For more meeting photos, go to SmugMug.