Weekly eBulletin July 17, 2013 -- Firefighter of the Year Award
eBulletin written by Bill Paul
Photos by Rick Mendoza
(REDONDO BEACH, July 17, 2013) What a crowd! Attendance was way up. Probably due to the Firefighter/Paramedic of the Year Award the club presented today. The recipient was Curt Mahoney, a veteran of eleven years with the Redondo Beach Fire Department. About half a dozen of his fellow firefighters were on hand to support him. That's Rotarian Paul Hyashi presenting the award. (Click HERE for more photos from today's luncheon.)
Mahoney is the department's Paramedic Coordinator and also a lead instructor for the Firefighter Safety and Survival Course. He is a primary instructor for the Redondo Beach CERT program, and lead's the department's Community Relief Committee. "Much of what Curt does is outside the workplace and he embodies the spirit of community service," said Hyashi. "Curt sets a very high standard for protecting and serving our community and I am proud to introduce you to our Firefighter of the Year, Curt Mahoney."
Visitors: Firefighters Isaac Yang, Dustin Conrad, Grant Currie (last year’s recipient), Chad Smith, and Fire Chief Robert Metzger. Kerry Mahoney (Curt’s wife), Mike Rabe, a special guest of Jeff Melodia, Nicholas Sandoval, Maxine Mechain, and luncheon speaker Randall Meadors.
Meals on Wheels: Scott Young and Scott Fellows. Next week: Bill Gard and Chat Campbell
Family of Rotary: Dal Covington's wife, Cheryl, is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Pearl Davis announced she was circulating a “get well” card to send to Cheryl.
Past president Nancy Campbell announced two members of our club recently received major awards. PDG Chuck Anderson was named Rotarian of the Year by Nancy at last week’s Demotion Party. Meanwhile, Dal Covington received the Man-of-the-Year Award from the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce. Dal in the ninth member of our club to receive the honor. Previous recipients include Jim Chen, Herb Masi, John Parsons, Chuck Anderson, Steve Aspel, Terry Tamble and Ron Day. Gayle Albin-Bailey was named Woman of the Year by the Chamber in 1998 and is the only female Rotarian in our club to have gotten that honor.
Announcements: The club will participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life this weekend at Lincoln Elementary School. Contact Laura Fields for more details. President Karen announced our first evening meeting will be held on July 31. The speaker will be Jackie Scarcello, author of “Advocate for Positive Aging” and “50 and Fabulous-The Best Year’s of a Woman’s Life.” Spouses are invited. (Rumor is: Scarcello is working on a book about the best years of a man's life!)
Karen also announced that she will be in Fiji during the entire month of October. She and husband Jeff developed a Rotary Matching Grant of $17500 to install six bio-sand filters in schools, install two 5200-liter storage tanks, and assist in five spring box repairs. (Our club put in $1000, the Fiji Rotary Club put in $1,000, and District 5280 contributed $5,000, and District 9920 in Fiji came up with $2,000. RI matched to equal $17,000,” she said.
PDG Rick Mendoza gave an update of The Rotary Foundation. “Zone 25-26 is ranked 4th worldwide in annual giving,” he said, “and District 5280 is ranked 4th in the Zone.” The per capita giving for the 12 districts in the Zone averaged $152 per member. Regarding Polio Plus, he said only 52 cases worldwide have been reported this year and that Rotarians in our Zone contributed nearly $900,000 towards eradicating polio, with total giving to all Rotary programs of $8.8 million by Rotarians in the Zone. Worldwide, during the just concluded Rotary Year, Rotarians contributed $115 million to all Rotary programs. Meanwhile, he added, "Redondo Beach Rotarians contributed $9,620 last year."
President Karen introduced her 2013-2014 board to the club. The board was first introduced at last weekend’s Demotion Party, bus as Karen said, “I want to introduce the board to the entire club not just those who were present Saturday night.” She asked them all to come forward and then recognized each individually.
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| Flag Exchange: Karen exchange Rotary flags with Maxine Mechain, an exchange student from France our club hosted. She was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bordeaux Sud. |
Program: Randall Meadors, the Director of International Service with the Manhattan Beach Rotary Club, shared with us his passion about orphanages. Meadors heads a multi-club project in Baja, Mexico where an estimated 75,000 children are classified as orphans. The orphanage his organization operates provides for 44 children! Meddors described his group’s efforts to develop or add solar hot water systems, waste water treatment system, grey water use, replace old toilets and repair leaking pipes, rebuild to contain erosion, and so on. “We receive no money from the Government of Mexico,” he said, adding, “it costs about $10,000 a year just to operate.”
Meadors is spearheading an effort for a $49,999 Rotary Global Grant, “though in reality we need $100,000,” he said. “We are developing a sustainability site plan for four orphanages in the area. We are trying to build a model for all orphanages and use Rotary as a partner to help. We are trying to build institutions that last,” he said.
Humor: Joke Master Chantel King lived up to her title with a belly laugh tale. Meanwhile, President Karen announced one more appointment. Michael Jackson, president of the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, will serve as our Jocularity Enforcer. Now there is a combo!
Next week the club will present its Police Officer of the Year award.