Your Weekly Get Up & Go Has Been Updated

    President Gary Johns was back after nose surgery and did not look any the worse for it. Mack Walker introduced Mark Kropp from the Vacaville Sunrise Rotary. Mark now lives in Davis and is a potential new member. Dick Berry introduced Steve Slinkard as his guest.  Steve is a long-time Davis resident.  Don Winters introduced three RoterAct Students from UCD – Amy, Stephanie and Dan.  Amy announced a RoterAct Charity Dinner on Saturday April 9^th on campus.  The dinner will be catered by the Buckhorn.   Tickets are now available.  If anyone wishes to donate to the raffle, donations are being accepted.

     Chuck Cunningham reported that the Hallmark Party on March 2^nd was a great success and that 15 percent of the profit came back to the Club.   Chuck is thinking that another wine tasting would be a good event for the Club.  Mack Walker announced that the Progress Ranch front yard landscape project would be coming up in April.  He also announced the Golf Tournament at the up-coming Regional Rotary Conference.  Golf Tournament fees are $99.00 for the tournament and two meals.    Registration is online. Tim Daleiden announced the Davis Sunrise Ski Team would be taking on the best Rotarian Teams on March 11^th.  There will be 100 to 150 Rotarians skiing.  Any members of our Club that are available will be gratefully welcomed, especially if they are good skiers.   Patsy Inouye is out though since Jeff Adamski broke her arm skiing.  Well, not literally.  Poor Patsy was trying to keep up and just couldn’t.  Those years mount up.

    Bob Poppenga announced a work party on March 12 and March 13 to put together the benches at the Yolo Fair Grounds before the Regional Rotary conference.  Patsy Inouye asked for volunteers to bake cookies for the Friday Evening Social at the Regional Rotary Conference.  The cookies are needed April 1. Vanessa Errecarte announced a Food Bank WorkDay/Social on March 19^th starting at 9:00 am at the Food Bank at 1244 Fortuna Ave Woodland. The work will include sorting, packing, and bagging.  Three will be a potluck at 12:00 pm to 1:00 after the work is done.

     The Rotary Foundation is active with March Madness.  Larry Greene announced that the winner will get $700, the runner-up $300, and third place $100 and it will all go to the Rotary Foundation.  Any left over money will go to the Davis Sunrise Rotary Foundation. Rose Cholewinski announced the Ribs and Rotary T-Shirt Sponsorship.  The Sunrise Rotary’s sponsorships on the T-shirts were snapped up in 3 minutes, but the noon club could not sell very many.  More are available if any members want a sponsorship.

     Chuck Snipes announced Rotary Trivia Night Saturday March 12^th at 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.  Additional teams are welcome.  Also, Chuck emphasized the teams need to pay so that it is not a net loss for the Club, but a fundraiser. David Morse, the younger, announced the Jay Gerber Award will be announced on April 8^th at 5:00 pm at the Bicycle Hall of Fame. He urged everyone to attend.

    Will Portello was the Sargeant for the Day.  Clay Brandow gave Happy Bucks because Patsy Inouye broke her arm and not him.  Will was particularly mean to Dick McCapes accusing him of being responsible for the Turkey epidemic in Davis. It was clear that Will was a supporter of John McNeary, the City employee who wants to initiate turkey hunting in Davis.   McNeary proposed the use of bolas, snares, traps and nets as all safe and viable options to limit the turkey’s population. Current regulations allow only the use of shotguns, archery equipment or air rifles to hunt turkeys in the State of California.  These weapons are all banned in the City limits.  Portello made the preposterous proposal that City residents should hunt turkeys with 9-irons and then fined everyone with a 9-iron.  In a private comment, Dick noted that since urbanization has been taking a lot of the turkey’s habitat he needed to protect his client’s urban dwelling grounds.

    The program for the day centered upon fencing in Davis.  Simon Pitfield was our special guest and presented the program.  Davis is blessed to have among its residence Dick Berry, who is the namesake of the Berry Athletic Foundation, and one of the world’s premier fencers.  Dick was an All-American Fencing Champ at Michigan State in the fifties.  Dick’s photos from the Fifties showed him to be a handsome young man.  Now he is a handsome old man.  The highlight of the morning was the fencing contest between Dick Berry and Tom Cross. Tom Cross had a tremendous advantage being more than twice Dick’s size and one-half his age.  One would expect Tom to have faster reflexes and get most of the hits.   But no, it was not to be.  The 84-year-old wonder out-smarted the young mammoth upstart, and stabbed him a couple of times before he knew what was happening.  Next time, Tom will have to use a cudgel and bludgeon Dick into submission before Dick knows what is happening.   Sean Yao, President of the Barry Athletic Foundation, gave a presentation on the Davis Pentathlon Program.  It consists of running, swimming, shooting, and fencing.  We couldn’t figure out what the fifth sport was – golf perhaps?  Later we learned that indeed the fifth sport was not golf, but horse jumping and the jumpers were at the mercy of the horses.  If the horse you draw randomly knows how to jump you are in good shape, if not, forget it. 

     Sean urges parents to have your kids grow up fencers, because they have a better chance of getting into college. Tom Cross won the draw of the day and a free breakfast.