Jay Kremer welcomed Andre Fahie to the club. Andre is the replacement at the local Boy and Girl Scouts for Will Abbott who was promoted to a position in a new area. Terri Grassi welcomed her guest, RYPEN member Patricia Chiu who is the niece of the current International Rotary President, Gary Huang. It is nice to have friends in high places. Patricia is a CPA working with Terri Grassi.

Treasurer Bob Muschek announced that our Rotary Club had too much money in a low interest bank account so these funds are going to be transferred to the Fullerton Foundation account where they may earn up to 7% per year. Another $10,000 is being given to the local District 5320 Foundation which results in a credited donation of about $71.40 for each of the 140 club members. Another donation from District President Rae Shirer, after recently winning our opportunity drawing, resulted in an additional per member credit of about $2.14. This total of $73.54 is close to a never attained goal of having each member be a $100.00 a year donor to the District Foundation. A later statement from Dan Ouweleen that $5,000 is also being given to the District Foundation from proceeds of the recent Jog-A-thon will raise the total to about $109.25 per member. This should result in some commendation from the District !

Bob Radde mentioned that $800 has been given to assist the local Junior High School concert this Saturday evening. Larry Bennett was absent so could not receive his winnings of $116 from last week’s opportunity drawing. Several comments were heard to allow this money to be added to the current opportunity drawing as Larry had forfeited his claim to the $116.

Jim Williams thanked Dr. Geiss for having a larger plate full of food that his. Jim especially likes the tortilla lunches but is usually embarrassed by his huge plateful of food. Thanks to Dr. Geiss for his over indulgence! Jim also recommended that members visit other clubs to make up missed meetings. Club flags and a CD of Jim Young doing the Paul Harris impersonation are available for you to give to the club you visit.

Griff Duncan gave a very entertaining and tune-full introduction as the actor from the play “The Music Man” to tell the club that Winston Creel now has the tickets for the Collage Concert on March 21 at Cal State Fullerton. This impressive Rotary event has dinner at 6:00pm followed by the concert at 8:00. Tickets are $100.00 with all members designated for at least two tickets.

Dan Ouweleen gave a short summary of the recent Jog-A-Thon event. A total of $15,000 from the event is being given to the Rotary International Stop Polio Fund. The local schools also had significant contributions to their club and athletic funds. As noted above, $5,000 was also given to the District 5320 Foundation.

Vern Andrews requested that members submit their applications for the Fullerton Rotary Community Investment grant fund awards. Applications need to be in by February 18th with the awards being finalized by February 25th.

Recognition Master Debra Sanchez bemoaned the fact that she had been scheduled for the RM job at Christmas but had been cancelled. She had gotten a Santa costume (watch out Bob Clark) and had a major event planned for that day.

But Debra did a good job today in recognizing Bill Kincaid for a spousal birthday. Bill is going to the Summit House for dinner followed by a visit to the Chinese dancing show at the Segerstrom Center. Allyn Lean and Duane Greenleaf were absent for their January 27 BD recognition. (Per Deborah this is the date that Rotary founder Paul Harris passed on.) (Also, should fines be doubled when members don’t appear to take the BD fine?) Deborah fined Joe Lins $10 for an effective ad sent to persons at the Capriano senior home.

Deborah recognized all CPAs and accountants for their upcoming absences from club meetings due to income tax time. The fine was $5, including Bob Muschek who volunteers his time. Bob Muschek claimed that Deborah had missed his 77th BD today. Since in actuary tables the average life span of a white male in the US is 77 years, Bob felt he could go at any time. He believed he needed to be recognized today. (A comment is that perhaps half our club has beaten the 77 year average).

In the opportunity drawing, Patricia Chiu won the right to draw the blue chip for $25. She missed it.

Bob Radde introduced the speaker today, Michael Sheperd, the Housing and Community Engagement Manager for the Pathways of Hope organization. His company began as the Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Services organization that was started by a group of Fullerton area churches. The purpose was to coordinate the emergency services rather than have them available over many churches. The original services were to provide food and some other emergency help to persons in distress. The organization changed its name to Pathways of Hope a few years ago and is now operating in cities outside of Fullerton. It was estimated by Michael Sheperd that over 750,000 people have been furnished with emergency food over the 40 years of the organization.

In 1986, the organization expanded its services to providing emergency housing and physical and mental referral services to persons in need. At the present time they serve primarily distressed families with food and shelter for short periods of 90 days or so. In this time the families can develop their abilities to provide for themselves. Their facilities can now provide for 20 families with plans for facilities serving 14 more families. The facilities planned by Fullerton and Anaheim to serve the homeless are primarily for single persons and not for families. Pathways of Hope coordinates with the cities but they are serving different needs.

Please remember to get your ticket orders in for the Collage Concert on March 21st.

Thought for the week.