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Opening Traditions - President Dan Ouweleen struck the antique Rotary Bell signaling the start of the meeting after which Gregory Hickman proudly led us in the Pledge of Allegence and Randy McFarland delivered the Invocation followed by Karen Xie introducing our guests and visitors: Terri Grassi brought two guests, her brother, Vinny Appice and her associate, Jim Ripley. Bill Klinghoffer’s guest was Fred Harsany, Dick Daybell brought his wife, Lois. Andy Ersek visited from his Orange North Rotary Club and Janette Pyun of Rypen joined us, taking the reins of the Muckenthaler now that Zoot has departed for Bakersfield. Griff Duncan commented on the year’s mascot for President Dan’s year being an owl. He cleverly evoked other fowl examples which he cleverly included in his diatribe and concluded by claiming that he used no puns in the making of his comments. Griff led us in a verse of “Old MacDonald’s Farm” that featured an owl which ended up being a “Hoot”! We then glad-handed our way around the room singing “Smile”. Announcements President Dan announced a board meeting tomorrow AM at PacMin and explained the reason for the Owl being his mascot was the similarity of the sound of his last name. A wise choice I must say! Be the end of the year we should all know how to pronounce “Ouweleen” just like we all learned to recite the “Four Way Test” last year! Taco Night on Thursday evening July 29 at the Elks Lodge will take place in lieu of our Wednesday meeting that would have taken place July 28th. Be sure to indicate your intended attendance on the sign up sheet next week! If you pre pay your lunch fee, it will covered at taco night. will be honored… otherwise the cost will be $21/person. Great news! Dan announced that we received a matching grant to help with expenses with next year’s “Rotary Cares” project! President Dan honored and thanked Jim Williams for his role in organizing the most recent “Demotion Night” and acknowledged his instrumental part in may years’ “Demotion Nights”. Jim took the opportunity to present Vinny Appice, the guest and brother of Terri Grassi a vintage “Rotary Rocks” T-shirt. A box of these original T shirts. has been saved in a time capsule and are now offered for sale at only $10. each. Vinny and his brother Carmine, both famous drummers, are the rocker influence that were the inspiration for theme of Terri Grassi’s demotion night. Vinny was in Black Sabbath and other heavy metal bands back in the day. New invoices are on the way and a plea to catch up was made. Bill Schenk announced an upcoming Angels vs Royals game on September 10 which will help raise funds for Fight Polio. Bill shared an interesting fact that if the Angels win every game from now until that game, they have a good chance of being in the World Series! Pastor Greg Hickman asked for more volunteers to join in the rotation to deliver Invocations during this year’s meetings. That reminds me…. We are in need of 2-3 more Rotascribes to share the load of writing this newsletter. If you are not willing to be invited to help write, please E mail me ASAP. Randy@sunnyhills.com. Opportunity Drawing Prez Dan explained our new protocol for the drawing. The winning ticket-holder will try to guess which of the 10 owls has “WINNER” on the bottom. Today’s winner was Vern Andrews and he gave a good try, but he didn’t pick the winning owl, but he did receive a fine Rotary writing instrument from our president. Recognitions Terri Grassi proceeded by immediately fining our immediate past and our current club presidents for our dry spell of no “Recognitions” for the past month. I suspect this was why Terri had so much to catch up on today! Here is what I heard: Belated fines included Blake Smith, Claude Jones, Don Bankhead Janet Pyun. Current fines: Birthday Don Ludwig. Spousal birthday Bill Klinghoffer’s wife Jean, Mike Oates wife, Elizabeth. Wedding anniversaries: Bill Mathy and Robyn, Brett Ackerman and and Heidi, Vern Andrews and Barbara, Bill Peloquin and Wilma, Joe Arnold and Voiza, Frank Kawasi and Joan, 54 years, Lee Brockett and Marion, 48 years, Dick Jones and his wife, Norma. Past president Dick Daybell and Bill Mathy were fined for reasons that you’d know if you were at the meeting, and President Dan Ouweleen had a Rotary Anniversary. Program Mike Cochran introduced Jay Williams, director, and Amy Gaw of OC United, a local non-profit organization devoted to serving or local at-risk population, including the hidden and visible homeless population, the Valencia Park neighborhood, children in Orange County’s foster care system, and victims of domestic abuse. The importance of relationships in the lives of people is evidenced by stunning statistics which point out a common background that many of our incarcerated population. In Orange County, only 0.03% of the general population has been in foster care, but 70% of prison inmates had been in the foster system. Amy pointed out that many of the kids who “age out” of the foster system have no safety net in place as they are suddenly thrust into the world with few or no life skills to survive. Amy had us attempt an eye-opening exercise of trying to create a picture from different “connect-the-dots” pages. The first page and all the dots clearly numbered. The next page and some of the dots numbered, the third page had numbers in the wrong places and the final page had no numbers at all. The dots represent “choices” we have in life and the numbers represent the “guidance” we receive or are exposed to during our formative years. This exercise demonstrated the different possibilities that a child may face and experience as they start making decisions that impact their life path in the real world. Without good guidance in how to make appropriate choices, many are tempted to take a path which leads them nowhere productive, unable to support themselves and they end up in crime or self-destructiveness. Common sense isn’t common for those who haven’t been exposed to rational thinking that impacts big picture, long term consequences in one’s life. Only 57% complete high school and 715 of the girls become pregnant by age 21. Some of the children come from damaging relationships and the foster parents may not have the training to deal with the emotional damage which frequently leads to inappropriate coping mechanisms and behaviors, like not listening or acting out, not caring, giving up and worse. There are 62,097 kids in foster care in Orange County and 13,0091 waiting to be adopted. OC United focuses on help to foster parents with parenting skills that lead to healthy interactions with the foster child so he/she will learn problem solving techniques and better ways to process situations they will continue to face in life. OC United is always looking for rental properties to house these at-risk youth and they need furnishings for the homes. Basic needs are important to anyone if they are expected to focus on educating themselves towards independence from dependence on government entitlement programs. Donations of unwanted cars help raise funds for OC United programs and one time or recurring financial support is needed and job placement opportunities, mentorship, tutoring, and time is needed for these youth. Visit OCunited.org for more information on this important and impactful organization! President Dan told us that Rotaract will be presenting next week and Dan’s concluding thought of the day was, “The game isn’t over ‘till it’s over.”
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