Venky Venkatesh was the acting president today and he requested Art to give his talk. Art Mendoza talked about his three things in life regarding Faith and hope, Family and Love were his key things in life. To him family is not just his close family members, it includes a larger group of dear friends, Rotarians, etc. He has enjoyed his 21+ years at Rotary. Love is something that makes us want to be better as per a quote from Jack Nicholson. In 1975 when he was 20 years old he had an opportunity to live in Indonesia (a muslim country) for some time and he was engaged in community work and peace building. He then married a Persian girl and he had the opportunity to go to Teheran but his wife has never been there although her family comes from Iran.
We then had Charles, Molly, Charlotte and Malcolm give some updates on the Bocce Ball fund-raising and the Beer Fest competition.
- Sponsorships have reached $40,000
- Auction proceeds have reached $5,000
- Brewery competition had 18 breweries that participated. Each brewery donated 2 sixtel kegs, which is 80 pints total
Following this we had our District Governor Mel Gallegos give a talk about his life and how Rotarians are helping the world. Susie Callahan and Steve Weitzen introduced Mel. Steve had invited many guests. Mel was born and raised in Central California. He received his BS in Nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mel served our country as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy stationed at San Diego Naval Hospital, Balboa. Mel joined the staff of Sharp Memorial Hospital in 1981 working on the Cardiac Care Unit. In the last few years he transitioned to the Information Technology department to work on the electronic medical record-keeping system.
Mel was recognized as a Partner of Health and Pillar of Philanthropy by the Sharp HeathCare Foundation. A multiple Major Donor to The Rotary Foundation and Bequest Society member, Mel is dedicated to making the world a better place. He also actively supports Project Mexico and Mana De San Diego and is a member of the American Legion. Mel is Past President of the El Cajon Breakfast and San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Clubs. In addition to serving at the club level, he has served the District in many capacities including Assistant Governor, Foundation Mentor, Rotaract Chair, Community Service Chair, Foundation Gala Chair and District Conference Chair. Mel’s wife, Hey Jude, is a member of San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club.
Mel’s first trip to Africa was to participate in an NID in Eritrea. That was the beginning of several trips to East Africa for Mel and Hey-Jude. They have attended District Conferences in Mexico and East Africa.
Some of his key points were as follows --
- He said that our DMSB club has given out over $322K to The Rotary Foundation.
- He said that our Rotary district was #1 in our zone.
- He said we are down to 12 polio cases in Afghanistan and 3 in Pakistan. We are almost there to eradicate polio from the world.
- His advice was to find ways to retain members since many clubs lose members in the first 1 to 2 years.
He ended his talk by showing a video of his mock press conference at the Catamaran resort. That was quite funny.
In the end Mel congratulated Venky for running the meeting today and gave him a special and rare Rotary pin.
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