Your Weekly Get Up & Go has been Updated!

Welcome!:  On this magical May morning we climbed the stairs to the refrains of Dave Morse’s polished piano pieces that included “That’s What Friends are For,” “Somewhere,” “When you Wish Upon a Star.” and “Laura”.  Thanks Dave, for setting the mood. And yes, we were upstairs for our full house; welcoming, entertaining, and potentially embarrassing our Students-of-the-Month and their parents.  We clearly dazzled the crowd with our rousing renditions of Smile and America the Beautiful, and the resulting sound volume suggested that some of our guests sang along. 

 

Student-of-the-Month:  President Manny Carbahal’s dynamic voice slowly emerged from the din.  Trying to overcome the chaos, Manny introduced Nancy Storm who formally welcomed our many visitors.  Nancy acknowledged our four high schools: Davis, Da Vinci, King, and the Davis School for Independent Study.  In her familiar and flawless rundown on all things Rotary, including the 4-way test and “Service Above Self,” Nancy featured our long-term drives to eradicate Polio and to deliver more and better water to the 3^rd world.  She rounded out her Rotary introduction at the local level, describing our community projects, Interact (high school) and Rotaract (UC Davis) clubs, and our Student-of-the-Month program, now (time flies) in its thirteenth year.

 

At last the so-far anonymous students were called and a well-balanced group of young men and women- 4 each- strode to the stage for the ceremony. The ensuing teacher presentations were orchestrated (or, in several cases, substituted) in the following order: Michelle Flowers of King High and DSIS, Will Brown of Davis High, and Scott Bell and Susan Kirby of DaVinci High. After the remarks, awards, and standing ovation, unannounced guest Kevin Deacon of the Sac State Rotaract group snuck in an announcement of their upcoming dodgeball tournament.  Then followed the slightly delayed file-out gauntlet in advance of Jim Belenis’ group photos.

 

Guests: Gradually, order returned as Manny’s gavel and voice again emerged with repeated calls for attention and introductions.  Dave Morse introduced Scott Kamen, a visiting engineer; a mystery club member introduced Tyson Hubbard (Lori Raineri or Larry Olsen maybe?), an attorney with Downey Brand in Sacramento; Larry Greene presented Michael McCormick, from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research; and Manny introduced Rebecca Caapay, who guides the Sac State Rotaract group (i.e. Kevin Deacon’s boss).

 

Announcements: Marc Thompson began the announcement stream by reminding us of our grad-night efforts and responsibilities as we again take our annual journey down the China Road.  Our work begins with setup on Thursday June 8, and then we wrestle with takedown on Saturday June 10, starting at the pre-dawn hour of 5 AM.  A well-organized sign-up system is in play, not to be ignored!   Meaghan Likes announced that there are only 29 tickets left for our Ribs & Rotary event on May 20, and that next Friday is the deadline for ticket returns hopefully returns will total zero!  Brodie Hamilton reminded that tonight is both Art About, and the US Bicycling Hall of Fame’s celebration of Davis’50^th anniversary of bike lanes.  Participation is expected by several original council members (this must include Maynard Skinner), and there will be FREE Sudwerk Centennial beer!  Rose Cholewinski then segued back to the R&R event, asking how many members would be baking pies, and volunteering free crusts. If you're interested in baking a pie or two this week.  There is still time! Contact Susanne for more details. Manny attempted a joke about the acceptability of Sacramento crusts at Davis Waste Removal, leaving this crusty reporter wondering why crusts from Rose were assumed to be from that bigger city to our east.  Chuck Snipes, standing in for John Morgan, noted that John still needs R&R beer crew signups. Chuck duly noted that you can bake a pie AND serve beer (simultaneously?).

 

Fine Time:  With fund-rising always high on our agenda, Sergeant Tim Daleiden was allotted our last minutes and immediately called for Happy Bucks.  This was quite a happy morning among our ranks. Chuck Cunningham was happy for Retiring Larry Greene.  Chuck noted that Larry was recently congratulated by 300 colleagues who gave him a standing ovation. Meaghan Likes offered Happy Bucks for Larry Olsen’s help with Meals on Wheels.  After Lori Rainieri offered bucks of welcome for guest Tyson Hubbard, Prez Manny gave bucks to call attention to his tie-dyed shirt, worn in anticipation of the weekend’s Whole Earth Festival where he hoped to “score some pot.”  Someone should tell Manny that you can find this stuff all over the place now. 

 

Don Morrill pretended to be happy about transitioning into his 70’s last week; and Matt Crider was happy that his youngest turned 5, so their “days of waste scooping” had been over until…the recent acquisition of a lab/collie puppy.  Matt dedicated happy bucks to Lori Raineri and Daisy, his source of puppy training books.  Nathalie Minya-Mukome offered up for escaping Arkansas alive, and for her daughters turning 1 and 5.  Dick McCapes was happy for a granddaughter’s first birthday.  Carolyn Geanacou was happy about a Spelling Bee (OK, happiness was flying fast, and this “way-in-back-of-the-room” reporter missed something here... Try SEWING bee :)); Carolyn thanked Clay Brandow for his wife Brooke’s sleuthing skills in aiding her with the gracious return of her cell phone.  Kira King was happy that her daughter is graduating from Pepperdine and headed next for USC grad school; there was no comment about who is paying for the next phase.  Last happy Rotarian was Matt Williams, thanking any appropriate members for their help with the Pence garden tour, which he thoroughly enjoyed. (Special mention & thanks to Jim Smith)

 

Despite all the happiness, Sergeant Tim has a few seconds left for some hapless (does this mean without happiness?) targets.  He first investigated whether Chuck Snipes had any recent news of U of Georgia graduate Sally Yates.  Fortunately this issue was not followed beyond a quick $5 fine.  Cliff Shepard was interrogated and fined about his slugger Little League son, before former Davis mayors Bill Kopper and Don Saylor were nailed for whatever their opinions might be about whether certain remarks would pass the 4-way test (OK, more slow reporting here…)   Commander Tim then asked Meaghan Likes about political news from France, and we all learned that she had a tour in Tours a few years back as a Rotary scholar.  Last on the target list were all teachers, and this reporter stood with a few others, thinking present and former professors were included.  How foolish!  We all know professors don’t teach anything.  Whatever…time was up, fines were in, and we were down to:

 

Draw-of-the-Day.  As Sergeant Tim returned to his seat, we moved on to an “all-Chucks” event in which Chuck Snipes drew Chuck Cunningham’s ticket #871.  In the ensuing card draw, Chuck the engineer had to settle for a free breakfast.  After the clang of the gavel, chaos returned as a roomful of individual conversations erupted, but gradually chaos gave way to footsteps down the stairs, out into the perfect May morning for what promised to be a spectacular weekend for all.