Demotion Lunch

President Kristen Watson

Salute (The Italian Flag) – Aaron Falk

Invocation – Toni Harper – Toni again delivered beautiful demotion remarks that truly reflected Downtown Rotary’s personality and ethos.

Song – BC Fight Song, Joe Hay and Rowdy Roadrunner.  The Fight Song has the word ‘fight’ 18 times, representing almost 30% of the word count.

Guests

Many guests attended the Demotion Lunch, including District Governor Sherry Sims, family for Kristen and Ray Watson, and leadership for some other Rotaries.  Much love to Garro Ellis, who was able to attend.

Program

Joe Hay and his team delivered a fun and engaging demotion for Kristen.  Luigi’s provided excellent food and drink.  Nik Boone worked very hard for a couple of laughs.

Justin Salters hosted ‘Where in the World.’  The correct answer was Seven Oaks, an elitist community within the City of Bakersfield. Some fun facts:

• Home of ¾ of a Rotary.
• Average Age: OLD
• Average population more than doubles on weekdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
• Median Income: $1.15 million
• Primary export is entitled children
• Number of houses successfully flipped by Doug Pierce: ZERO

Nik Boone hosted the first ever Rotary Feud.  Major props to Jean-Luc Slagle for making the technology work behind the scenes. We managed to do about 75% of the game as mature, responsible adults, which is pretty good for our group.  We learned about Kristen’s hobbies, favorite positions, many regrets from her presidency, and sense of humor.  In the completely arbitrary fake points system, Cathy Abernathy’s team defeated Duane Keathley’s merry band of past presidents.

Jerry Fliger awarded Kristen with an Honary Degree (sic) from Bakersfield College. BC was rated as the premier institute of higher education in Rotary Feud, edging out BC Southwest and San Joaquin Valley College.

Joe Hay also delivered remarks on Kristen’s tenure.  DT Rotary had a strong year, and Kristen was a gracious and attentive president.  We learned some geography, had fascinating program material, several fun social gatherings, and ate a lot of that mayo-broccoli salad.  DT Rotary also presented Kristen with some gifts, including making her son Morgan a Paul Harris Fellow and a most-expenses-paid trip to Boron, CA in partnership with Uniglobe Travel.  You’ll love the borax.