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After the traditional sounding of the Rotary Bell, Mike Cochran, Randy McFarland and Griff Duncan performed the Pledge to our country’s flag, the Invocation and leading us in Song respectively. The importance of the first two traditions are self-evident, but within the past year, the importance of the singing tradition was brought into question, with mention that it was “old fashioned” and might turn off millennials. True, it may make some uncomfortable, but that’s why God invented “lip syncing”! Besides people going through discomfort together has a bonding effect….singing together, smiling and shaking hands is an icebreaker as we “work the room” connecting with our fellow Rotarians and guests, breaking down barriers. Traditions also create a sense of security and comfort, like in the sanctuary of church. “Domestic tranquility” is a tradition of our American society that we enjoy and may take for granted, but is not the norm for many countries. While we need to respect differing opinions, we must remain vigilant and draw the line regarding our tradition of civility and we must counteract those who wish to disrupt our society. Enough preaching to the choir… now, let’s get back to today’s meeting…… WELCOMING OF GUESTS AND VISITORS President Dan Ouweleen welcomed Larry Bennett’s guests Howard Genrich and Steve Mayberry who were also mentioned in Larry’s presentation which was today’s program. Janette Pyun, also a Rypen member, was also welcomed. SPECIAL CEREMONY
For the second week in a row, we were pleased to induct another new member to our club. President Dan reviewed important points about what it means to be a Rotarian in relation to our character and profession. Minard Duncan and Scott Dowds also spoke in support of Laura. I was going to list all the bling that was presented to the world’s newest member, our own Laura Macias, but if you were here, you would have seen it and witnessed the joy on her face! Laura spoke briefly and thanked those up there with her as well as Past President Dick Daybell who was charming and gracious in his support of her joining. Speaking of traditions, the membership gave Laura a standing ovation during the unquantified number of moments that she remained the world’s newest Rotarian. Congrats and welcome, Laura, our Newest Member! ANNOUNCEMENTS Before relinquishing the microphone, our wise president announced a Jog-a-thon meeting at 3PM that afternoon as well as a board meeting at PacMin Thursday 7:30AM . He also reminded us that the latest iteration of the club website is up, including the club calendar. Please give Dan any suggestions that come to mind to further enhance the website. Speaking of tradition, some aspects of the previous website are still being incorporated into the current one! Sandy Hayes announced signups for the Fall Fellowship Luncheons are being accepted. Another Rotary tradition was the Fellowship dinners back when wives were called “Rotary Anns” as opposed to being allowed as regular members. (Not all traditions remain forever, fortunately! Should we be considering reparations to the women? ) Sandy reminded us that this is a perfect opportunity to invite a perspective Rotarian so he/she will meet other club members so when they are a guest at luncheon meeting, they’ll recognize some familiar faces! If you didn’t indicate your interest on the form, please contact her with a call or an E mail. SPECIAL PRESENTATION President Dan proudly announced that his choice of “Rotarian of the Month” is Judy Atwell. She is always stepping up to help events large or small, but the implementation of her organizational skills for the recent “Taco Night” while just recovering from an illness elicited a standing ovation by her appreciative fellow Fullerton Rotary members! Great job and thanks to you and those who assisted! OPPORTUNITY DRAWING Miko Krisvoy accomplished the first requirement to win the pot, but the mini-owls apparently didn’t give a hoot about continuing her good fortune and didn’t rearrange themselves in time to have the winner appear under her hand. RECOGNITIONS Ken Kaisch our recognition master of the day, had us thinking that this portion of the day’s program would be cut short because he couldn’t find the birthday and anniversary list, nor could he find the club roster on the website. He intimated aloud that it could possibly be a website shortcoming. Ken also had our hopes up when he said he’d be NICE for once as he allocated the fines. As you’ll find when you go online, the website is a nice combination of old and new features and when these features were shown to Ken on Dan’s cell phone, he not only fined Dan but he tried to assume ownership of Dan’s phone. With the NICE part of Ken’s Opportunities performance started to crumble, it was only a precursor of what was to follow. Despite not gaining full access to the club website, it was clear that Ken was well-prepared with as many fines as I remember witnessing and I had to double check that he wasn’t the program for the meeting. Ken invoked the Four-Way-Test in a desperate attempt to expose birthdays and anniversaries and first to fess up was Kimberly Nguyen. No anniversaries were admitted to. Janette Ryun a club member who is also a RYPEN member was recognized and honored by the rest of the members at her table when they each paid $1.00 for getting enjoy lunch with her. Mike Cochran was recognized for being a “blue hair”, but he denied using any dye to achieve that effect. It must have been trick photography! Bob Pletka was welcomed back with a fine. David Hoeltzer was harassed for sitting in the back of the room but not for his dedication to working the registration table (as he frequently does) and so missed out on the prime seating opportunities. Brett Ackerman paid dearly for his efforts to shorten the Opportunities portion of the meeting by declining to share details of a recent hike. He must have sensed that his hiking tales might be soon overshadowed by the Program that was to commence shortly. Irene Lange was not fined for being so peaceful …just like the meaning of her name. Chuck Munson paid the maximum fine for the spousal birthday reminder although I’m sure he would have remembered sooner given more time….. Yours truly was fined for not “spiking” his hair for a long time. Despite his early promises, Ken started ramping up the fines as each minute passed. PROGRAM Larry Bennett went all out to share the flavor of his recent John Muir Trail hiking adventure by actually popping up his tent and bringing his backpack, hat and hiking regalia which no doubt smelled better than it did at the end of the 241.4 miles over three weeks. He also brought a map profiling the mountains and 13 mountain passes his group of 6 negotiated. The peak of the trek was Mt. Whitney at 14,497 feet above sea level (famously known as the highest peak in the continuous United States) and the lowest point was 4035 feet, meaning that oxygen didn’t come easily for them. Larry went into the history of John Muir and his role in creating the national park system which helps preserve some of our country’s most beautiful areas, like Yosemite National Park. Mention was also made of Theodore Solomons who used at $10,000 grant to assemble trails into a larger system in these areas. Larry told us about the three adults men and the three scouts that embarked on this impressive challenge and his connection with this Scout Troup 93 since 2003 when his own son was a member. Larry fell ill in the first days of this trip but he got right up and kept on trekking. In his determination to complete this third JMT adventure, Larry got up early to start some days of his hiking just to make up for his slower pace during the early part of the 3 weeks. This level of grit and determination is seen only in Olympic athletes, top business people, people with incredible challenges just to survive life’s daily trials, those at the top of their professions and people running for public office. An acronym Larry used to be prepared for communications was “PACE”. Plan, Alternate, Contingency, Escape plan. Kind of like plan A, plan B, etc. to handle whatever might happen so that everyone can make it back safely at some point. He did have a satellite radio for a last resort, apparently still preferable to smoke signals. One of Larry’s motivations to keep on going was all the preparations he had gone through and also the fund raising opportunity the hike presented. In fact, they raised $4100 for La Joya Scholars !! Larry narrated a nice presentation of the highlights of many days that featured incredible landscapes they viewed and traversed which no doubt helped them focus on something other than how their muscles and lungs must have ached. Larry’s closing thoughts included, “Planning and mental toughness gets you through”, “A shower is a wonderful thing” and “Your bed is incredibly soft”! Thank you Larry for sharing your third JMT adventure so we could vicariously go where no lazy man would dare to go! Next time, get Google to mount one of their multi-directional cameras on your backpack so we can virtually join your 4th adventure in 3D! It’s amazing to think that all that natural beauty is still out there right now as we are sitting here in Orange County reading this, isn’t it? The website www.scoutingdollarsforscholars.org is designed to accept donations if you feel like supporting scouts through this organization!
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