Opening Stuff

Before the meeting officially commenced, recognition was given by Prez McKINLEY to SANDY HAYES and SALLY WILLIAMS for their excellent work on the Boys Club Sock Hop  Each received the coveted FPD patch and coffee cup.  The Prez followed up by solicitation for ads and sponsorships at the April 24^th country music concert.  Then our esteemed Prez told us that next week we would have assigned table numbers – a little lost freedom in pursuit of a worthy goal – is this a precursor?

Ultimately, DICK MATTHEWSON was asked to lead us in the pledge to start the meeting with invocation by coach MARYALICE, followed by Songmaster LEROY dodging the Rotary Song in favor of “My Country Tis of Thee” and “Smile.”

The introductions of visiting Rotarians was ably handled by FRANK KAWASE, who welcomed CLIFF NELSON, PDG;  RON HOBART, Fullerton South, and GEORGE LOWE, Fullerton South, to the award winning Rotary Club of Fullerton.  FRANK called on BLAKE SMITH, who introduced his toy busting baby brother, ED SMITH; then BILL PELOQUIN, PDG,  introduced his wife, WILLA; ZOOT introduced DUANE from Collette’s Catering; and JIM WILLIAMS introduced wife Sally (complete with coveted new Fullerton PD patch) and son MIKE.

Announcements

Past President TERRI reminded us of the upcoming MATHY party on Super Bowl Sunday.  Bring a dish for 12.  She also reminded us that the District Conference will be at the end of March.  RICK CRANE announced that the community investment award applications are due no later than February 17.  Hand or mail to BUCK CATLIN.  RICK also reminded us that the basketball game is tonight (Wednesday) with chow starting at 6:00 p.m. and game time at 7:00 p.m.  The opponent is Cal State Northridge, which Interim Coach McKINLEY was aware of, but then admitted that he had neither a scouting report nor a roster of players.  Both were then provided to Interim Coach McKINLEY by RICK.  McKINLEY then promised a coveted victory for the Lady Titans (which, by the way – he failed to deliver, but TOM’S not gloating much).  Captain DICK DAYBELL reminded that the fellowship lunch sheets were on the back table and should be picked up by those that signed up.

Recognitions

Finemaster MIKE OATES started off in good form by fining Prez PAT before he even got the microphone in his hand.  Coach MARYALICE then popped up, announced that she had been contacted and agreed to do the recognition, was prepared to do it, but somehow OATES posted her up.  In any event, Coach MARYALICE, on the way to a game day shoot-around, advised “When we act as one, play as one, we win as one.”  In a preview of her pregame talk, we did “WE ARE THE POWER OF ONE” Getting back to Finemaster OATES, he immediately tapped his entire table for generalized obnoxiousness, dissed DREW NAPOLIN for preempting this week’s birthday and anniversary recognitions, and re-fined ED ATKINSON, FRANK KAWASE, CRAIG WALKER and BILL KINCAID for birthdays and spousal birthdays.  Inexplicably, he let ZOOT off the hook.  Then, attempting to make up for the lack of income generated last week, all UCLA affiliated members (FRANK, FRED, JEFF, GRIF, WINSTON) were fined, together.  Moving on, he recognized the 13 attending Newest Nine (which are really 18) because they don’t get recognized enough and fined enough: JIM ARABIA, LARRY BENNETT, MARTY BURBANK, BILL GOETSCH, ZOOT, PAT HARTNETT, CLAIRE McKENNA, BLAKE SMITH, DEACON JAY, KIMBERLY NGUYEN, Deborah SANCHEZ and VIMAL SETH, all contributed the total of $39 netted by RANDY today.

Program
Craft Talks

Today, as is usually the case when we have craft talks, we had one of the better programs as BLAKE SMITH and Deborah SANCHEZ provided us with their life stories and experiences.  With apologies from a Rotascribe  -that never was introduced to Gregg - for the inevitable inaccuracies, here is a summary:

BLAKE, born in 1927 in Garden City, Long Island, New York, already had enough experience with the devastation wrought by hurricane and  the Great Depression by the time he was 12 so that he does not want to have a repeat of either.  After a stint in the US Navy on the original crew on the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, and a brush with mechanical design in college, BLAKE went to work for US Steel in New York City, learned the steel business and was astute enough to move to Southern California in 1958.  Soon he got married, started a fine family, found out the hard way that being a minority partner in a small business does not provide long-term job security, and started his own manufacturer’s representative company in 1962.  In a small world story, one of BLAKE’s first customers was MARK GEISS’ father.  BLAKE had a long and successful career with his own company, has had many outside interests, primarily focused on antique and classic cars, having owned more than 125 himself.  He has been past president of the Mercedes Club, an active judge of classic cars and instrumental in the success of the Muckenthaler Car Show.  The SMITHS have two sons, a daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  BLAKE closed by saying that his uncle, a Rotarian who was proud of his 60 years’ perfect attendance and who used to make up at the award winning Rotary Club of Fullerton, would be happy that BLAKE finally saw the light and has joined our Club.

Next, Deborah SANCHEZ supplementing her talk with a well put together Power Point presentation, told us she was the product of her forebearers, including an immigrant from Yugoslavia, and West Coast transplants from Chicago.  Born Deborah Kay Perisich, Deborah was raised in Huntington Park, attended Catholic schools and Cerritos College.  At the age of 12, she was in a serious car accident, in a coma for a month, and had to learn how to walk anew.  She said she had no lasting effects, but I suspect it gave her great respect for the nursing profession.  In a first career that spanned over 26 years as a nurse, she had a varied positions in direct care, school nursing and with the Red Cross, where she developed and wrote procedures that standardized care consistent with best practices.  Deborah met her husband, PHIL SANCHEZ, a cop, on a ride along.  Must have been a heckova ride because they soon  married and now have four children.  Raising the children and having a varied and successful nursing career, Deborah also got heavily involved in many charitable endeavors in the North Orange County area, primarily focused on support of worthy medical related institutions.  She also led a group from St. Catherine’s Military School on a civil war battleground tour to the East Coast and became aware of the woeful level of ignorance that California school children have of our country’s history.  That motivated the patriotic Deborah to start a “Civil War” [Ed. Note:  Yankee term, those south of the M-D line call it the “War Between the States”] learning project that has become a model program.  Having raised four children, taken care of stray dogs and been involved in nursing for 30 years, plus lots of charitable work,  Deborah was up for a  new challenge!  She took a real estate course, passed the tests, joined Century 21 and has embarked her current real estate career.  Welcome, Deborah, to the Rotary Club of Fullerton.

Closing

The meeting adjourned following PAT McKINLEY’s quote from President Reagan...[I ran out of ink – sorry, wbw]