April 15th, 2014
NEXT MEETING: April 22 PROGRAM: Club Assembly
Next week’s meeting is a normal noon meeting held at the
Soda Center on St. Mary’s campus in Moraga.
Greeter & Invocation: Angelo Costanza
VISITORS
Brian Walker – Mission Director for Rotaplast, a member
of the Garberville Rotary Club and our speaker today Bill Eames – Lafayette Rotary Club
CLUB BUSINESS
Today the meeting was opened by Al Simonsen
BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES John Erickson recently celebrated a birthday with a visit to his home on the coast and a dinner with friends. Tony and Libby Schoemehl recently celebrated their 47
th wedding anniversary. Congratulations,
and many more!!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Everyone liked the Speech Contest held at last week’s
evening meeting. It is hoped that we can encourage Campolindo High School to join Miramonte next year to participate in this wonderful event.
2. The District Assembly fo r all club members will be
held in Vallejo at Solano Community College on
Saturday, May 3rd
. All club board members are urged to attend along with all members, new and old, that would like to meet other Rotarians and learn more about Rotary in our district. It will be worthwhile!!
3. Help our Rotaract Club Celebrate Literacy with a
Moraga Family Literacy Day at St. Mary’s College from 10AM to 12PM at Dante Hall Rooms 215 and 220. Fun for kids ages 2-8 and their parents. Bring two new or used children’s books – one to swap and one to donate!! If you can’t attend in person, bring children’s books to our next meeting and we will get them to Rotaract. For more information email Mary Volmer at [email protected]. See the flyer for this event at the end of this newsletter.
4. It was announced by Kevin Reneau that Cliff
Dochterman has been named Citizen of the Year by the Moraga Chamber of Commerce. There will be a dinner honoring Cliff on Friday May 2
nd beginning at
6PM.
Location - Soda Center, Saint Mary’s College Social 6 PM Dinner 7 PM Program 8 PM $45.00 Flank Steak or Vegetarian on prior request, 2 wine/beer tickets
Payment to Moraga Chamber of Commerce, Check, Visa etc (no AMEXP) Kathe Nelson is the contact point on 925-323-6524. Her email is [email protected]. For club members, Kevin will collect checks at our meeting on Tuesday and get them to Kathe.
5. Gary Irwin announced that a new chairman is needed
for the Community Faire this year as he will be out of town. Gary is willing to train the person as well as offer up the use of his Vanagon to transport the necessary equipment from the storage shed. Contact Gary if you are able to help out. The event goes from 11AM until 4PM on Saturday, May 10
th.
HAPPY Bucks………….
Gary Irwin offered Happy Bucks for his son that lives in Vancouver being named a full professor at the college where he teaches..
Cliff Dochterman offered twenty Happy Bucks thanking Kevin Reneau and others who helped with his Moraga Citizen of the Year Award. Cliff noted how special it is to receive such a personal honor from the community in which you live.
Bill Eames offered a buck remembering his Rotary experiences with Cliff many years ago.
Roger Gregory offered a buck for finding and purchasing Cliff’s book on Amazon.
Angelo Costanza also remembered Rotary projects working with both Bill Eames and Randy Smith.
Nora Avelar offered $10 for her local bridal shower
~~ COMING UP ~~
Apr. 15 Board Meeting – 5:30PM, Trinity Center *Apr. 29 Diego Rios “St. Mary’s Sophomore Class President” *May 6 Carol Louisell “Meals on Wheels”
* Regular Tuesday noon meeting ** Second Tuesday Evening Meeting at 6:00 PM
this weekend and obtaining of her marriage license. Only 24 days to go, Nora!!
PROGRAM OF THE DAY
Our speaker today was Brian Walker, from Rotaplast. Brian was introduced by Angelo Costanza. Brian ran a grocery store in Garberville, CA before retiring several years ago and is a member of the Garberville Rotary Club. Originally, Brian showed up at the Rotaplast warehouse with an offer to help out. He has been on 23 missions and is currently the International Committee Chair on the Rotaplast Board of Directors,
Brian Walker, Director of Rotaplast holding up an example of
the quilts given patients during their clinic stay. President
Nora looks on!!
Brian took a few minutes to describe Rotaplast. It is a non-profit organization started by Rotary Club #2 in Oakland to provide reconstructive cleft lip and palate surgery to children in need throughout the world. To date, Rotaplast has performed over 16 thousand surgeries and currently run between 10 and 15 missions a year. The operations are provided at no cost to the families. Missions have been going to Guatemala for 14 straight years. (A recent mission to Guatemala performed 124 surgeries.) Brian showed us a video that introduced us to a team of volunteers on an actual mission. There are about 20 medical members on a team including plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, pediatricians and dentists. Typically 8 to 10 non-medical team members are present most of whom are Rotarians. Brian highlighted two children that particularly stick out in his mind. One, whose family was attacked travelling to the mission, was treated with bullets still lodged in his body. The second was the first little girl that Brian met while on a mission. Two Rotaplast volunteers have connections to Moraga Rotary. Sandy Ellenberg, a plastic surgeon, was the brother of Marv Ellenberg and Al Simonsen’s grandson, Mark Moore, who provided anesthesiology services on the most recent mission to Guatemala.
Go to http://rotaplast.typepad.com/missions/ to see examples of the great work being done by Rotaplast.
Our meeting ended with Al Simonsen holding the winning ticket. Al was “Oh, so close!!”
E-Waste Event Last Weekend
Last Saturday we held our 10th E-Waste Recycling event. The day started out cold, windy and very slow. But by the afternoon shift, it warmed up nicely and customer traffic picked up a bit. We should do OK as a fundraiser, and the community service was acknowledged by many. A funny coincidence was a stray $45.00 in cash blew into our area, so our costs for donuts, chicken and sodas were cut in half.
Special thanks go out to our volunteers: Tony Schoemehl, Kevin Reneau, Al Simonsen, Roger Gregory, Gary Irwin, Debbie Roessler, Marv Ellenberg, Herb Wehmeyer, John Erickson Ron Mucovich and Frank May. (A special thanks to Rich Render who has organized and managed this event for many years – Editor)
Odyssey of the Mind Update
Rich Render is happy to report that the Moraga Rotary Odyssey of the Mind Team made up of six freshmen from Campolindo High won first place at the California State Tournament, and qualified to participate in the World Competition which will be held at Iowa State University in late May. The team includes three veterans who have been to World before plus three newbies. They are Allison Ahn, Claire Matranga, Navid Boozapour, Austen Li, Ming Qian, and Kaveh Boostanpour. Their veteran coach is
Omid Boozapour, and if you recall Omid and Navid presented to our club at an evening meeting about their last trip to World. Their problem, "The Not So Haunted House", is the technical problem that requires 4 mechanisms to cause special effects aimed at scaring others, but instead they produce a different result. It also requires a surprise ending, and incorporation of humor is always a bonus.
The team members, coach, and parents expressed their thanks to Moraga Rotary for their continued support over the years. The team is excited to represent Moraga Rotary at World Competition!
THE EDITOR’S COMMENTS This week’s program on Rotaplast illustrates what can happen when a single Rotary Club, in this case Club Number 2 in Oakland, starts implementing a big idea. When I attended the Rotary Conference in Bangkok a couple of years ago, a Rotarian from Calcutta India described the blood bank that his club was operating. I am personally amazed with some of the past “big idea” accomplishments within Rotary. I wonder what the next big idea will be!!
MORAGA ROTARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2013-14
President……………………………………………..Nora Avelar President-elect …………………….….….......Debbie Roessler Past President………………………………………...Frank May Secretary…………………………………….........Kevin Reneau Treasurer……………………………………………....Lad Lynch Community Service Chair………….………….Barbara Bruner New Generations..………………………………….Rich Render International Service Chair………….………Tony Schoemehl Rotary Foundation………………..…………….…... Lad Lynch Public Relations ……………………………… …… Gary Irwin Membership……………………………… ...Debbie and Frank Director at Large……………………… ….……John Erickson Director at Large………………………… ...Cliff Dochterman
President, Rotary International……Ron Burton District Governor, 5160……………….Steve Lack Assistant District Governor………….Jose Avelar
Newsletter Editor for April – Frank May Newsletter Editor for May – Gary Irwin April Room Setup – John Erickson
Rotary International Theme for 2013-14 “ENGAGE ROTARY, CHANGE LIVES”
CALENDAR OF FUTURE EVENTS
Apr. 26 – Rotary at Work Day (with Rotaract) May 3 – District Assembly May 10 – Moraga Community Faire May 21 – Rotary Field Day June 14 – Rotary Bocce Bash June 24 – Demotion Party
Aug. 8-10 – OMPA Swim Meet
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