Related Page
Subpages
2010-2011 President's Report by President Bill Paul
Redondo Beach Rotary Club
July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2011
(June 2011) Year-end Concluding Remarks
Thank you for the honor of having served as your president this past year. As I look back on the past Rotary Year, I am particularly pleased that we’ve continued our long tradition as an award winning club. No wonder at the recent District Conference our club received the Overall Club of Excellence for Communications & Public Relations, Club of Excellence for International Service, and Club of Achievement awards for Community Service, Vocational Service, and New Generations.
In addition, four of our members received special recognition. You all know this but it bears repeating:
Karen Weigel received the Ian Jones Humanitarian Awards for her inspirational work in Fiji – truly a world-class humanitarian effort that will ultimately touch hundreds of thousands of people in Fiji. This is a District 5280 award that is given out infrequently as not many individuals do such great work.
Rick Mendoza received the District 5280 Hall of Fame Award that recognizes individual Rotarians for continuing, dedicated Rotary service to District 5280. This award was established 15 years ago, only one is given at a time, but it is not required annually.
Vicki Radel received the Rotary International Service Above Self Award for her work with the Shoot Cameras Not Guns project. Only 150 of these are awarded annually by Rotary International;
Pat Cashin received the Distinguished Service Award from The Rotary Foundation. This is a rare award. Some RI presidents have never received this award. The Rotary Foundation gives it to a Rotarian after 5 years of continued dedicated service to the Foundation. There are at least two pre-requisites: the individual must have received the RI Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service and have served as their district Rotary Foundation Chair which Pat did a few years ago. Oh, and the 5 years of dedicated service – how about traveling to India for the past 15 years to participated in that country’s National Immunization Day.
I hope that you now begin to understand why I describe not just Rotary, but this unit of Rotary, the Rotary Club of Redondo Beach, as a world-class organization.
In the spring of 2010, before I became president, I asked the club what it wanted during my year as president. The answer was a resounding more Community Service
As Gov. Baker, Rick Mendoza, Pat Cashin, Chuck Anderson and others have told me, it is your year. Run the club as you see fit. So what did I think was important and what did we accomplish this last year?
Community Service: We ordered a club canopy featuring the Rotary International logo on all four panels, members participated in the Child Safety Seat booth at Redondo Beach Safety Fair, the Redondo Beach Employee Pancake Breakfast, our current and past boards of directors provided $5,000 support for the Veterans Memorial (and key members of club participated privately in this activity), Pancake Breakfast at Salvation Army, Rotary Cares Day, several members participated in the Beach Cities Health District vitality walking program, we fund the YMCA “Send a Kid to Camp” program, the Braille Institute, Drs. Larry and Bruce provide dental screening to local children and our clubs fund to the tune of $3500 the South Bay Children’s Health District, our support of Earth Day and continuing support of the Wyland Wall, we participate in the annual Cheer for Children activity, and our DSG dictionary delivery project – about 650 children’s dictionaries by Scholastic -- is a community service project though it also comes under Youth. Lastly, we ordered a club canopy featuring the Rotary International logo on all four panels. We will be able to use this canopy for years to come at various club-sponsored activities.
Program with chair Pat Haynes: In my view, marvelous. And recall, not one speaker came with their hand out for money! Thank you Pat Haynes for ensuring speakers followed our requirement to not ask for money.
We started with a talk about the James Webb Telescope that will orbit one million miles from Earth. Boy, talk about expanding our horizons! Then Rotarian Walter Neil, a past president of the Carson-Gardena-Dominguez Rotary Club gave us the inside scoop at the BP oil spill (he works for BO); we heard about the computer game Tetris from a local player who happens to have won the world champion in this computer game; we learned about memory exercises to stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s from world-renown Dr. Bresky; an insiders view of the scandal at the City of Bell by our own Bill Workman; a discussion of the juvenile court system in California; a true story of courage and escape from Transylvania, the land of the mythical Frankenstein by Rotarian Aura Imbarus; recent research into the minds and thought processes of the Children of Cyberspace; the State of LA County by 4th District Supervisor Don Knabe; we took a look at the future and the radical innovations that will benefit humanity by futurist Keith Kegley who discussed turning points in social consciousness; a roots journey by Princess Sarah—a true African princess; the economic impact of the LA Air Force Base to the southland region; the California Space Authority and its economic impact in the state; club member Dr. Allen Peters educated us to future health issues; former club member Dan Madrigal told us about the Redondo Beach city emergency plan; the district’s humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic and on and on. It has been quite a journey, hasn’t it? Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
Fellowship: We held three social events – at Gayle Bailey’s home, Dal Covington’s home and Nancy and Chat Campbell’s home. We didn’t quite get the attendance I’d hoped for, but I see Steve proposes to continue with social events in the coming year though the format will be slightly different – four Wednesday evening meetings, spouses included.
Fund Raising: We held a few small fundraisers such as Pancake Breakfast at the Salvation Army, but our main fundraiser was Casino Night. As of June 14, 2011, overall we grossed $46,643 and spent $16,720 netting $29,922.89. (At a board meeting, we allocated half the net proceeds of Casino Night to the club’s Community Foundation and the other half to the club’s operating budget for the 2011-2012 Rotary Year.) Scott Fellows chaired the event and has even promised to get out thank you notes to key sponsors and donors by the end of this Rotary Year. However, it would not have been possible without the participation of many members of this club.
The Rotary Foundation: At PETS last year, I committed to the club contributing $8125.00 in annual giving. As of this morning, according to Rick, club members have contributed $12,285.00 for a per capita of $195.00. That is up 150% over my pledge for the club at PETS last year. In addition, in restricted giving our club contributed $22,000 for a grand total of $34,517.85. There are only three other clubs in District 5280 that contributed more. Keep in mind we are by no means the largest or wealthiest club in the district, but obviously we exemplify the Rotary spirit.
International Service by chair Karen Weigel: Mexico – Karen, Vicki and Terry traveled there on their own nickel last fall to prepare a service project for Steve’s year; we support dental clinics in Tijuana; and we continued to fund a humanitarian project in support of controlling scabies in Fiji. This year, we helped fund, earlier this spring, the training 20 senior sub-divisional nurses and two nurse trainers with the Fiji School of Nursing that in turn have to train 10 nurses each in topical dermatology including the techniques of scabies control on the scattered islands of the island nation of Fiji. There are 322 islands of which 110 are permanently inhabited with a population of almost 850,000. Karen’s leadership and our support will affect the lives of more than three-quarters million people. And that’s why I believe we are a world class club.
Youth or New Generations with Jim and Alexis Sheehy, Pearl Davis and 5 members altogether who participated in the reading-by-nine to students at Birney, Washington, Alota Vista, Jefferson and Tulita schools; for our District Simplified Grant project members distributed 650 dictionaries to 3rd graders in Lincoln, Washington and Birney schools in Redondo, President Ave. School in Harbor City, and up to 200 dictionaries to 90th Ave. School in the Hood, i.e. South Central Los Angeles; we sponsored an art contest; and we awarded 6 scholarships to graduating seniors at Redondo Union High School. Is that a good relationship with the community? Yes, remember the students at RUHS raised $5,000 this year and $7,000 last year for Rotary ShelterBox.
So in conclusion, overall I feel our club has accomplished much this year. We have a lot to be proud of, and I am proud and honored to have served as your president. Thank you. And I want to give special thanks to Rick Mendoza who has been a mentor to me. Thank you Rick.
I have one item remaining: Rotarian of the Year.
I’ve selected someone who provided enthusiasm, was humorous, was always ready to volunteer, showed up when they promised, provided leadership, and will be our president-elect starting July 1st: Nancy Campbell.