Rotary 2013

RotaRy Club of WestChesteR

may 23, 2013 THE aRGONaUT Special advertising Section PaGE 17

Rotary Club of Westchester

By Edgar Saenz

FELLOWSHIP AND SERVICE. I belong to a group that betters communities and lives. I belong to a worldwide peace organization. I belong to Rotary.

I probably joined Rotary for the wrong reason. I was new to Westchester and wanted to network. I joined and — believe me — I networked.

But I stayed in Rotary for the cama-raderie, the jocularity. Wednesday is the highlight of my week. Our Westchester Rotary Club lunch pro-gram is a chance to get together with my friends and learn from a stimu-lating program. (Sadly, though, we don’t have secret handshakes or wear funny hats.) During my eight years in the club, I’ve made many dear friends, treasured relationships that would not have happened but for the club.

And I am committed to Rotary for the service. Service is at the heart of Rotary and is crystalized in Rotary International’s concise motto: Service Above Self. Our little 63-year-old club makes a difference in our community and in other countries. Members of the Rotary Club of Westchester serve free meals to seniors. We cook and serve dinner to homeless youth in Venice. We read to elementary school children. We tutor inner city school children in math. We award scholarships to high school students.

We host art, music, speech, and dance contests for young people. We fix up a battered woman shelter with needed plumbing and repairs. We help repair the “Westchester, Home to LAX” sign. We clean up Dockweiler Beach. We bring some of the Halloween festivity to children in hospitals and shelters. We paint and clean up a South Central Park. We provide Home Boy Industries with a new pastry machine to help them be self-sufficient. Partnering with Vision to Learn, we provide eye screenings and glasses to underprivileged chil-dren in Los Angeles, including the West Side.

Overseas, our little club makes potable water available with the cre-ation of water wells in Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. We make sure a high school in a poor community of Puerto Rico has a new science lab. We donate soccer balls and sporting equipment to an orphanage in Mexico.

BOOK SALE AND HOME MAKEOVER. During the next two weeks, we’re rolling up our sleeves with the book sale and the home makeover. The annual book sale – our 58th — which starts Friday, May 24, offers tens of thousands of used books in good and new condition. The gentle reader will find popular authors such as Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, and a shadowy writer by the name of Shakespeare. (Please see the info box on the next page.) We’ve got cook books, biographies, children’s books, histories, humor, just about

any topic to whet and sate your curi-osity. All proceeds support our com-munity service projects, including the home makeover.

THIS yEAR WE CELEBRATE “PEACE THROugH SERVICE.” We believe that peace can be achieved through disease prevention. Rotary had the vision and provides the leadership to end polio. In 1988, there were 125 Polio endemic coun-tries. Today, polio is nearly extinct. In 2012, India experienced the year without a recorded case of polio and was taken off the polio endemic list. Today, there are only three countries. This is one of the most important achievements in history.

We also believe that peace comes from clean water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, and from eco-nomic development. Rotary actively supports these areas.

A WORLD-WIDE uNDERTAKINg. My chapter, the Westchester Club, is one of 34, 297 clubs. I am one of 1,212,000 members across the globe. I will shortly travel to the annual convention in Lisbon to represent our corner of the earth. As Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka puts it, when we come together for a Rotary conven-tion, “we see, for a few days, the world as it could be. We see people of all colors and cultures come together. We work to build a better world.” I remain in touch with a Rotarian from Nepal who, along with his wife, stayed at our home during the international convention held in Los Angeles a few years ago. I consider this one of the privileges of membership.

Maybe you’ve seen a need in our community and wondered how you could help. Maybe you want to use your professional skills to help others — or even learn new skills. Maybe you’re seeking connections with other service-minded profes-sionals here or abroad. I invite to you learn about our club and get involved.

Join us at our book sale! Join us at our home makeover! Join us on a Wednesday! Join us in this happy mission!

Edgar Saenz is the president-elect of the Westchester Rotary Club. He can be reached at (310) 417-9900 or at [email protected].

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PaGE 18 THE aRGONaUT Special advertising Section may 23, 2013

More than 50,000 books will be available at the Rotary Club of

Westchester’s 58th Annual Book Sale from Friday, May 24 to Saturday, June 1.

The event will be held in the parking lot of the Westchester Village Ralphs at 89th Street and Sepulevda Boulevard in the Westchester Business District.

The books are generously donated each year by businesses and residents in Westchester and the surrounding communities.

Among the thousands of almost new books are audio tapes, video tapes, CDs and DVDs. Books have been presorted and categorized to ease the search in locating specific kinds of books.

Proceeds from the event provide support for a number of programs in the Westchester community, includ-ing the Annual Teacher Mini-Grant Program, which provides funds to local teachers so that they can conduct enriching classroom activities for their students that they otherwise could not afford. The Rotary Club of Westchester also provides financial assistance to the Scouts, the YMCA and other youth organizations, as well as scholarship programs at our local schools and many other community, senior citizen and youth activities.

The Rotary Club of Westchester also works with the El Sauzal Orphanage in Mexico, providing needy families with

food and clothing. The Club also sup-ports the International Rotary Polio Eradication Program, which hopes to eliminate polio from the earth; and the Polio Corrective Surgeries Program, which sends doctors and other volun-teers to Third World countries to perform much-needed surgery on victims of the disease and clean water program in Thailand.

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Think outside the box? There is no box, at least not for high school age partici-pants completing Rotary’s leadership training program for young people, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). Some 217 high school participants from Rotary’s District 5280 attended this year’s event, on a recent April weekend at the Alpine Camp and Conference Center in the San Bernardino Mountains.

“Honestly, I was awestruck,” says Westchester Rotary Club member Lisa Margulies, who volunteered to be one of the adult counselors. “I had heard about how wonderful the RYLA experi-ence was but I never understood it until now. I do not think enough is known in the community about what exactly

RYLA is and why it would be important for our high school students to partici-pate in this very special weekend.”

RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizen-ship, and personal growth, and aims to demonstrate Rotary’s respect and concern for youth provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders, encourage lead-ership of youth by youth, and recognize publicly young people rendering service to their communities. RYLA leadership principles include the 4 C’s of leader-ship: Communication, Cooperation, Compassion, and Creativity.

The myriad of RYLA experiential exercises include a Trust Fall, where individuals fall back and are caught

by their team members. The Mine Field, in which each participant takes turns being blindfolded and coached by another team member through an obstacle course, inculcates team building. Trust and communication are taken to a new level, as the concept of working alongside one another to achieve goals is made vividly real.

“This training alone would be enough reason for community busi-ness persons to want to join Rotary Clubs and invest time into creating the next generation of leaders to take our communities to the next level. What I gained from literally watching the faces of kids arriving on Friday to be transformed by Sunday has inspired me to be even more committed in my personal and professional life. The RYLA weekend provides touchstone moments for teens to have in their per-manent repertoire of skill sets.”

Rotarians Elyse Rothstein and Joe Harding have co-chaired the event for 15 years. Rothstein exclaims, “We drive up on Friday morning and as soon as we arrive, everybody is regrouped to meet, eat, and spend time with people they don’t know. This forces them out of their comfort zone so everyone

meets new people. After the last event, a wonderful message arrived from a participant: “Thank you for the time that you put into making RYLA hap-pen, for teaching us about leadership, for making us believe in ourselves, for giving us the opportunity to experi-ence something so incredible and life-changing. . . . I’m so glad that I attend-ed RYLA. I can honestly say that it was one of the most memorable experi-ences ever. Everything was absolutely great from the food to the people to the activities to the teams to the guest speakers to the programs”.

Students interested in participat-ing can contact Christa Haggai-Ramey, New Generations Youth director, at (310) 988-2420.

Rotary’s youth leadership training event: Communication, Cooperation, Compassion & Creativity

April weekend at the Alpine Camp Center in the San Bernardino Mountains for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards



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Founded in 1988 to provide an enduring endowment for Westchester community and

beyond, the Westchester Rotary Foundation provides community ser-vice, encourages high vocational and educational standards for our youth, and builds international goodwill and peace.

There’s barely enough room to print the long list of projects and orga-nizations supported by Westchester Rotary Foundation: Halloween Town Fair (Westchester BID), LAX Food Pantry, Fourth of July/Memorial Day/Veterans Day Programs, Airport Marina Counseling Services and its Jet to Jetty 5k/10k run/walk, LAPD Pacific Area Boosters, Senior Citizens Holiday Luncheon, Home Makeover Project, Westchester Family YMCA, Home Boy Industries, senior citizens, and the Polio Corrective Surgery Project.

Support for youth, arts, scholars, and

service includes Safe Place for Youth, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, Westchester Enriched Science Magnet’s Interact Club, St. Bernard High School’s Interact Club, Rotaract at LMU, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), Interact Leadership Program, Little League Baseball Softball, Westchester YMCA’s Youth and Government Program, and Youth Exchange.

In recognition and in thanks to its benefactors, the Foundation provides the following Memorial Scholarships -- Westchester Zetner Scholarships, Earl Smith Four-Way Test Scholarship, K. Palomo, Madera Leadership, Judy Young First Generation Scholarship, Jim Hill Memorial Scholarship, and Jim Bunch Scholarship. Additional community recognition provided by Westchester Rotary Foundation includes Courageous Citizens Award Program, Citizen of the Year, Teacher Eddy Awards, Firefighter of the Year,

Police Officer of the Year, Read to Me Literacy Program, and art, essay, speech and music scholarships.

Internationally, the Foundation sup-ports Ambassadorial Scholars, Youth Exchange Programs (including annu-ally hosting a New Zealand Exchange Student, Polio Corrective Surgery, Sri Lanka Shelters, World Disaster Relief and International Water Project) and the Rotary Club of Westchester’s annual trips to El Sauzal Orphanage in Mexico, delivering food, clothing and Christmas presents for the children.

As a qualified, non-profit chari-table organization, Westchester Rotary Foundation offers both community and club members a permanent vehicle to receive tax deductible contributions, and initiates and funds worthwhile projects on a year-round basis. It allows a broader base for contributions and a permanent method for receiving and disbursing funds. Gifts from various estates, donor programs, businesses, and foundations and fundraising programs allow the Foundation to increase annual expendi-tures and establish its endowment fund that will meet future needs.

The following are welcome: gifts of money, appreciated assets, chari-table gift annuities, charitable trusts, life insurance, and gifts by bequest

in wills or trusts. Please make your checks payable to Westchester Rotary Foundation and mail to: Westchester Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 91543, Los Angeles, CA 90009.

For more information, request a bro-chure by contacting Cozette Vergari at [email protected]; or call (310) 410-4014.

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What is Rotary?

Many people ask, “What is Rotary?” They think of Rotarians as people who meet every

Wednesday for lunch, assess themselves fines for getting a new car or a new job and wear those funny little wheel pin on their lapels.

And while all of that is true, Rotary is so much more.

Founded in 1905 in Chicago, Rotary is now the world’s largest service organiza-tion with more than 1 million members in more than 160 countries across the globe. Internationally, Rotarians build wells in

poor countries where villagers have no access to water. Rotarians provide educa-tional and technical support to those try-ing to establish businesses in Third World countries.

But perhaps Rotary’s biggest and most important quest is the eradication of polio. During its 20-year polio eradication cam-paign, Rotarians have raised millions of dollars and traveled the globe delivering the polio vaccine to tiny villages in Africa and Southeast Asia. Rotarian doctors have volunteered their own time, talent and funds to travel to India, Africa, and else-where, conducting polio corrective surger-ies enabling children afflicted with polio to walk again.

Right here in Westchester, Rotarians are making a difference in their commu-nity, conducting as many as 80 different community service projects every year.

Thanks to the members of the Rotary Club of Westchester, hundreds of local students benefit from Teacher Mini Grants, which provide funds for teachers to conduct field trips, purchase important classroom supplies and equipment, and establish innovative educational activities.

Thanks to the members of the Rotary Club of Westchester, some of the areas most disadvantaged children can partici-pate in a “shopping spree” to buy new school clothes each fall. For some, it is the only new clothes they receive all year.

Local Rotarians also participate in a wide range of international student exchange programs to promote cultural awareness and educational opportuni-ties and numerous literacy programs that provide library books to local schools and encourage children to develop a love of reading.

So, the next time you see that funny little wheel pin on someone’s lapel, remember that Rotarians make a differ-ence right here in Westchester every day.

For more information about Rotary or how you can help Rotarians in a local community service project, please call club President Cindy Williams at (310) 568-1024.

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High school youth provide Rotary Service through Interact Clubs“There’s a common misperception that teenagers are lazy, unmotivated, and self-centered. I disagree,” says Terri Rubio of Food Pantry LAX. Terry is the Food Pantry liaison with Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets Interact Club, at Westchester High School.

“When I engaged the Interact stu-dents in a discussion about hunger and food insecurity in their community, they organized a food drive at school to collect high-protein, non-perishable items. Their donations will feed many families in our community.”

As Terry explains, the club now focuses on raising the three most important protein sources provided by the Food Pantry LAX: Boxes of cereal, cans of tuna fish, and jars of peanut butter.

As one of the most significant and fastest-growing programs of Rotary service, Interact has become a world-wide phenomenon, involving 200,000 students from more than 10,700 clubs in 109 countries. Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12-18; self-governing and self-supported clubs sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide guidance. The Rotary Club of Westchester is the proud sponsor of the Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets Interact Club.

Each year, Interact clubs complete at least two community service projects. While the Westchester club’s primary project is the food pantry drive, other projects include campus cleanups, school volunteer events, and construc-tion of a hydroponics greenhouse system on the school’s campus. Last

October, Interact Club members cre-ated a special Halloween party for a battered women’s shelter, providing families and children with treats to enjoy a memorable party.

As projects are completed, Interactors develop a network of friendships with local and overseas clubs and learn the importance of developing leadership skills and personal integrity, demonstrating help-

fulness and respect for others, under-standing the value of individual responsi-bility and hard work, and advancing inter-national understand-ing and goodwill.

Interact students also undergo expe-riential workshop leadership train-ing, at the New Generations Youth Conference each October, and at the Rotary Youth

Leadership Awards each April. Through these training events, the youthful attendees achieve their personal best, discover their inner leader, and learn how to be team leaders in their person-al life, family and community lives.

Last year’s president, Nabil Afifi, left the club a lasting legacy by being awarded a Gates Millennium scholar-ship for inspiring so many youth. Now a Business-Economics major at UCLA

(and Posse Scholar, South Central Scholar, and VIP Scholar), Afifi writes about his Interact experience, “I was able to develop my leadership skills, learn to speak in front of a group of people, and learn how to delegate. Through Interact/ Rotary, I was able to connect to my community, serve my community, and grow in it.”

Nick Davis, WESM Interact Club’s current president, has enrolled more than 50 club members, with the sup-port of long-time faculty advisor Alan Sacks. They meet the first and third Friday of each month.

Rotary Club of Westchester has a legacy and a deep commitment to creating and affecting lasting change in our community’s youth. If your high school student is interested in creating an Interact Club at his/her high school, please contact Christa Haggai Ramey, New Generations Youth director, at (310) 988-2420. To participate in the ongoing food pantry donation, please contact Lisa Margulies at (310) 995-7695.

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Behind every home, there is a story, and the story of Karen Ricks and her family is both uplifting and heart-

breaking. For many years, Karen and Tim Ricks and their three children were intimate-ly involved in the Westchester community. From Boy Scouts and Knights of Columbus to Westchester Lariats and Visitation School, the Ricks family could be found helping oth-ers. Then, tragedy struck. A year and a half ago, while attending a family reunion, Tim suffered a massive heart attack and died. The money from a small insurance policy has run out, and Karen, a homemaker for more than a decade, now finds herself with two daughters in college and a son ready to graduate from high school, but without a full-time job. Finding it harder and harder to make ends meet, Karen has not been able to complete the myriad home improve-ment projects Tim would normally handle, and her family’s home is suffering.

Although their bond as a family has not wavered during this time of uncertainty, their

home on West 82nd Street has suffered, and from paint and flooring to landscaping, the Ricks’ home is desperately in need of some real TLC.

From May 30 through June 2, the Ricks will be treated to Mammoth Mountain vacation, while volunteers from the Rotary Club of Westchester, and throughout the community, roll up their sleeves and paint and landscape their home. Thanks to major contributions from the William H. Hannon Foundation, the Drollinger Family Charitable Foundation, the Westchester Woman’s Club, the Westchester Rotary Foundation and many, many others, the Ricks will enjoy new paint, new flooring, new landscaping and plenty of additional surprises!

Work on the home at 6638 W. 82nd Street, in Westchester (just west of Emerson) will begin at 9 a.m. on each day and con-tinue during daylight hours until the after-noon of Sunday, June 2, when the Ricks will return to their “new” home.

“We are hopeful this project will inspire others like it in our community,” said Rotary President Cindy Williams. “In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we often fail to realize how fortunate we all are, so it will be a privi-lege to help Karen and her family make their home warm, comfortable and livable again.”

Those interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to the project can make checks payable to: Westchester Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 91543, Los Angeles, CA 90009. Those interested in volunteering should contact Warren Bobrow at (310) 670-4175 or [email protected].

Home Makeover


Thanking the

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TO MAKE A GIFT to the Westchester Rotary

Foundation, please call Cozette Vergari (310) 410-4014

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Rotary 2013