Meeting on Mar 29, 2013
GREETER: Past President Jim C was all set and ready to deliver his inspiration but Pres. Chuck skipped all that and went to a full explanation of our special Persian Breakfast at Call of the Sea facility hosted by Past Pres Alan. Past President Jim C will be our greeter for our next meeting!!
GUEST:
Paul Koski, Retired Teacher, Docent at Audubon Ranch, Expert Bee Keeper and Mycologist (mushroom expert) guest of Farhad
Tom Bauch, Avid sailor as well as son of a paratrooper of WWII, long time supporter of our Club guest of Farhad
Chris Gallagher, Governor Nominee for District 5150 and head of Bay Model Army Corp of Engineers, guest of Cap Alan
Angie Olson, Wife of Cap Alan and supported of every aspect of Call of the Sea
Janet Baltzo, Visiting Rotarian and musician from Seattle performing in Bay Area; guest of Barbara L and Stephen Scott
Narayan Baltzo Diito above
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Paul B, Jirayr, Hank, Lisa, Chuck, Will, Dr Mike, Jim C and Herman as well as few others were busy from 7 am preparing the great spread of Persian goodies. But in all honestly , half were of Armenian and Lebanese origin such as Lavash bread and Halva. The Persians like to take credit for all things invented on earth if the Greeks have not done so already.
Narayan and Janet (www.narayanjanet.com) are travelling the whole country and singing about peace, love and creating goodwill. They are members of Rotary Club in Seattle. They offered to join in with Call of the Sea fund raiser on June 15th for silent Auction item. Please viisit this site for all info onteh Call of the Sea and the event: http://www.callofthesea.org/home.php
Past President Alan who hosted the meeting then gave our first presentation:
After a brief intro by Farhad, our little family of Rotarians really got into the spirits and even the Persian tea was totally finished by the end. If Past PRes Dianne did not find a single item that bothered her, then this was a superb perfromance by all. Thank you Past Pres Alan for the facility, I personally wish we could meet here every Wed as it was superb.
Past President Alan gave us a brief overview of the Educational Tall Ship project. It is a $6Mill project to build a Tall Ship that is almost three times the size of the Seaward. The latter is the Tall Ship presently used by Call of the Sea for its youth educational program.
Educational Tall Ship’s mission is to build a historic and sustainable wooden tall ship for the San Francisco bay area. During construction the community is invited to visit and observe construction, tour the Visitor Center, volunteer and get involved. Special school programs for K-12, and young adult work training opportunities are available. This boat will join the present Seaward of Call of Sea that is almost 1/3 of the size of the to be built boat.
Call of the Sea now serves 5,000 students per year with hands on programs that connect them to the sea, sailing and our bay watershed. The experience of learning to sail a tall ship builds teamwork and leadership. Participating in on-board marine science experiments and observations stimulates curiosity and knowledge of their environment and will help inspire their future as stewards of the world.
Seaward has already taken several trips all the way down to Baja in joint efforts with other local Rotary Clubs delivering much needed school supplies and chidlren's clothing for the isolated villages on the coastal areas. They also took many of the youth on the ship for a hands-on experience.
President Chuck delivered a summary of Ride4vets event to date
The website, Facebook, donation directly to our Foundation Account is all setup and running. We are getting sign ups daily including donation in form of pledges to the riders. All Corporate Sponsors funds are being used to promote and run the event while all donations to the riders as pledges are being given 100% to 501 (3) C registered entities.
Jirayr who has been working very hard on our Facebook suggested to all to visit Ride4vets site and press like it so that all those connected to them will increase its exposure. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ride-4-Vets/174325356066477
Any amount given as pledges to Marin Sunrise Rotary Club will be given as 100% to the Vet (NCIRE) for establishment of a pilot program that is running so successfully at the YMCA in SF as a joint program with Vet Admin as well as UCSF. All coordinated by NCIRE. Our little Club has attracted major players and if all goes well we may start a national program for all Rotaries across the US. The main force behind Band of Brothers successful nine HBO series are in the planning stage of sending a skeleton film crew to create a documentary on the Rdie4vets.
There were lots of Questions and Answers on both presentation and the meeting closed with very high spirits.