Weekly eBulletin January 8, 2014
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eBulletin written by Bill Paul
Photography be Ernie O'Dell & Dave Whitehead
(REDONDO BEACH) January 8, 2014 -- With our club president and her husband off to Steamboat Springs, Colo. for a week of skiing, past-president Steve Scerra filled in at the podium today before an overflow crowd. Whenever we have to add a table for seating it is a guaranteed full house, and today nearly 50 people showed up for lunch.
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| PDG Eli Gauna (l) awarded Paul Harris Fellow to Scott Young (c) with past president and Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel. |
Michael Jackson served as our greeter today, Herb Masi provided the invocation, and Laura Fields led us in the flag salute and pledge of allegiance.
Steve opened the meeting by introducing visiting Rotarians and guests: Arlene Kruger of the Albuquerque Rotary Club (she and her husband own a home in Hermosa Beach and she visits our club whenever in town), Connie Siegel of the Harrisburg Rotary Club (Connie and his wife are snowbirds and live in Redondo Beach during winter months), Lindsey Dreizler, guest of Gayle Bailey, David, Laura, and Erica Mallen, Kara Heinrich, Shawn and Mathew Dalquest, Lisa Veal.
Meals on Wheels – Seth Stodder and Scott Fellows; next week: Michael Jackson and Scott Fellows. (How about we name Scott chair of MOW!)
Dollar Announcements: Hat in hand, Rotarian Dave Whitehead strolled the room gathering one dollar donations from members who had announcements of any sort to make. What a haul: Amy Zimmerman kicked in a buck to announce it was her second Rotary luncheon. Looks like we may have a new member. Bill Workman announced it was his 33rd year in Rotary; Terry Bichlmeier announced his daughter scored her first goal in soccer; Laura Fields announced a friend of hers was being inducted into Rotary today in another club; Alexis Sheehy announced that she and hubby Jim are off on a three week trip next week; PDG Vickie Radel announced she is off to Burma next week; Rolando Andrade kicked in a buck to remind everyone that "we are less than two months from Casino Night," and visitor David Mallen took the opportunity to brag about his lovely young daughter, who is one of our students of the month. He said, "Every morning she is pure sunshine."
Announcements:
District Breakfast - January 14, 7:00AM, Westin LAX, 10 members signed up
Evening Meeting – January 29, 5:30PM to 7:30PM. We'll start with a mixer, and announce teacher mini grant awards. Be sure to bring a guest that you think would be a great Rotarian,
Casino Night - March 1, Toyota Automotive Museum
Student of the Month: Alexis Sheehy introduced our Student of the Month. "Actually" she said, "we have two students of the month today as we missed one last fall."
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| Student of the Month Erica Mallen (c) shown with dad David, mom Laura, Principal Kara Heinrich and Rotarian Alexis Sheehy. Congrats Erica! |
Student of the Month Matthew Dalquest shown with mom Shawn, Principal Lisa Veal and Rotarian Alexis Sheehy. Way to go, Matt! |
The first Student of the Month is Erica Mallen, a 5th grader at Washington Elementary. Our second Student of the month is Matthew Dalquest, a 4th grader at Birney Elementary School. Both young people wowed the capacity crowd with short speeches about their accomplishments at school and their ambitions for their futures.
Speaker: Marcia Haber, an instructor in the Principles of Law & Business at the Southern California Regional Occupational Center (SoCal ROC) in Torrance, presented an a overview of the educational center. "We've been in existence for 47 years, and focus on technical and career education to build a robust community," she said. Haber said SoCal ROC is a public school district, courses are free to students up to the age of 18 and then a modest tuition for older students, and classes are only offered during after-school hours 3:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. "Our students attend because they want to learn," she added. "Last year we served 10,000 students, about 50 percent high school age and 50 percent adult learners."
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| Speaker Marcia Haber gave an overview of SoCal Roc. The club donated a book in her name to the Redondo Beach Public Library. |
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SoCal ROC is funded primarily be students grants, though last year Chevron Oil donated $50,000 to the center for new, 3-D printers. "We are governed by the California Education Code and some of our course work is transferrable to universities elsewhere," she said.