President Elect Margarida Eidson led our meeting today.
Kathy McGee led us in the Flag Salute.
Roy Valdez gave our Inspirational Message by asking Bill Spellman to read the Baby in the car.
The baby in the car
In the late 1980s and early 90s Paula and I were involved with a group called the Center for US/USSR Initiatives. It was a sort of people to people program as the Soviet Union was falling apart. We traveled with the group in 1989 for my third and final Russian trip.
In the early 90s, the group proposed an intern program. Since the state owned everything in the USSR, private enterprise was against the law. It existed but it was all black market. The idea was to bring potential entrepreneurs to the US to "intern" with American business people to see how business was organized in the US. Since several couples from Ojai had been on the trip, it was natural to bring one of the groups to this area.
There were about fifteen of them. Paula and I met them at LAX. The businesses involved were in Ojai and Ventura. Bill Hicks had one of the interns at Barber Ford.
One of the ladies, Karina Atenesian, spoke excellent English as would be expected since she was a college professor in Armenia and taught English. She spoke with an accent but had better grammar than most Americans.
Karina interned with Andi Bloom at Tottenham Court, an English tearoom in Ojai. She planned on opening a gift shop in Yerevan Armenia. Everyone fell in love with the interns but especially with Karina. They stayed for about a month and we were all sad to see them go back.
When Karina returned, she wrote to the ladies at Tottenham Court that everything had fallen apart. There was war with Azerbaijan. The economy had collapsed and there was no way she could open a business in the near future. There was no heat in their apartment building, no electricity and the winter was unusually severe. Her son and daughter in law had a new baby and it was so cold that the baby could not get to sleep. They had to bundle up the baby and drive around in the car with the heater on so that it was warm enough for him to go to sleep.
We all felt badly about they were suffering. What touched those of us who had children the most was the thought of the baby in the car. As we all sat around here with cushy little lives with our nice warm houses. We all felt that we needed to do something but were helpless.
The ladies at Tottenham Court chipped in and bought a ticket for Karina to return to the US. She was able to return legally and get a green card. She could not have made enough money at Tottenham Court to support herself so I helped her get a job at Golden West.
As soon as she was able, she started to work on getting her family to the US. Amazingly, she was able to get her whole family here within a few years, all legally. Even her mother.
She worked at Golden West until we sold to Blue Cross in 2001. We kept in touch for a few years but I eventually lost connection with the family.
Last week as we gave out the Scholarships, we were impressed with the quality of all the recipients but especially Tigran Parsdanyan. After he finished speaking Michael Doyle asked him to say a little about his family coming to America. When he mentioned the Azerbaijan war and the cold winters, I immediately had a flood of memories, especially about the baby in the car.
After the meeting Tigraan's mother and father came up to me and reminded me of our connection.
Tigran was the baby in the car.
Bill Spellman
Tom Swan introduced guests and visiting Rotarians.
Guest of the Club - Carin Kally and guest of Sharon Daly was Lucille Miller.
PE Margarida thanked Kris Hansen for greeting and Alison Thompson for taking attendance.
PE Margarida thanked Alisaon Thompson, President Jeff, Tom Hashbarger, Bruce McGee, Tom and Georganna Swan for helping with the Backpack project last Saturday.
Roy Valdez announced that today's raffle prize was a $50 gift card to Finney's!
Presidents announcements:
- Next Week – Membership Drive (Club Meeting) & Mexico build.
- August 17th Rubicon “Into the Woods” – Matinee
- August – Exchange student from Japan arrived
- Taste of Ventura – August 29th 5:30pm Museum of Ventura County (Tickets still available)
- September 19th – Our First Third Thursday Night @ Rincon Brewery – Start at 6:30pm
- October 12th – District Assembly – Santa Ynez
- January 23, 2020 – District Governor’s Visit
PE Margarida read a letter from Sharon Daly thanking the club for donating the Opportunity Drawing to Mossy Foot and for all the donations to take back to Ethiopia.
Thought for the week....
"The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises - it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them."
-John F. Kennedy
