Opening Meeting: President for a short time, Joyce Capelle opened the meeting with a spirited “Good Afternoon.” John Phelps gave the pledge to our wonderful country and Howard Wood and Don Ludwig led Rotarians in a more organized rendition of “In the Good Old Summertime” and the Rotary "Smile" song. The invocation was given by Carl Camp who gave thanks for many blessings as well as the blessing of the last day of Joyce Capelle’s presidency.

Visitors and Guests

Nate Kvetny welcomed visitors and guests. Adrianne Barnes noted she was a guest of Rotarian Walt Barnes. Lee Brockett introduced his guest Rebecca Harver who is the Fullerton/LaHabra administrator with the Boy Scouts. Joyce Capelle introduced her guest Michelle Wulfestieg, Director of the Fullerton College Foundation. Visiting Rotarians Allan Stark and Bret Gerdes were also welcomed.

Announcements

Rick Crane announced a Rotary day at Fullerton Flyers on Sunday, July 30, 2006. All three Fullerton Rotary Clubs are participating. Gregg Hickman announced an event at his church on Sunday, July 2 to celebrate Independence Day. Jim McKamy announced a poker party to benefit Preventable Blindness on Friday, July 14 at the Fullerton, Farmers and Merchants Bank. Mike Oates invited all to the Muckenthaler’s jazz festival on June 21 and 22, later reported to be free. Mike Oates also requested donations for Rotarian Junior Ambassadors now going to Mexico and Japan. Several need funds for the trip. Leslie McCarthy thanked all who worked for the Top 100 Banquets. Robert Jahncke brought good wishes and a Rotary flag from the Loch Ness Rotary in Scotland, which he visited on his vacation. 

Allan Stark and Bret Gerdes from Rotary District 5320 welcomed Walt and Adrianne Barnes into the Paul Harris Society and gave them a plaque for their commitment to give $1,000 each year to the Rotary Foundation.

Recognition and Fine Masters

Recognition Master Jim Williams noted that time was passing and passed the ball to the Fine Master Tom Meyer. Tom, a banker, brought some money samples to the podium, $100 bills with Tom’s picture on them. He awarded the bills instead of fining persons for recognition.

Recognition and Fine Masters (cont)

Rotarian birthdays included Craig Walker, Warren Wimer and William Peloquin. Rotarian spouse’s birthdays included Bill Klinghoffer (Jean), Mike Oates (Elizabeth), Bill Mathy (Robyn) and Howard Wood (Doris).

Rotarian anniversaries included Buck Catlin, Lee Brockett, Frank Kawase, Jeff Hutchison, Dick Glaus and Dick Jones. Tom Meyers noted that Jeff Hutchison previously played baseball for the Fullerton Titans and celebrated his last wedding anniversary in Omaha as the Titans won the College World Series of Baseball. Jeff said his wife would not allow that this year.

Special recognition was given to Jo Anne Brannock who established the Brannock Foundation to give scholarships to worthy college students. Several other Fullerton Rotarians have also given to students through this foundation which has disbursed over $75,000 in student gifts.

Program

Eli Reyna Director of Community Relations of the Orange County Human Relations Bureau gave a talk on developing better relations among groups of differing ethnic backgrounds. Chet Schultz won an award for coming closest to the number of languages commonly spoken in Orange Co. homes, which is 86. Reyna came here from Mexico over 20 years ago. He described how he took advantage of the opportunities available in this country to obtain  bachelor and master degrees at local universities.

In an interesting and funny story he described how he obtained his first job at McDonalds. Because he could not speak English well he first worked in the back room. As he spoke better English, he worked the counter and then the ultimate drive through window. A complaint by a customer about his accent was handled by claiming (falsely) that he spoke three other languages in addition to English.

He described his work in developing better relations between police and new immigrants. Immigrants are generally suspicious of police as in their original countries the police are frequently corrupt. New immigrants usually do not call the police when there is a crime as they are afraid of compounding their problems. His work has developed better working relations between immigrants and police.