Rotagram for Wednesday, May 12,, 2021

President Kaisch began today’s meeting with a ring of the bell. “Welcome to the Rotary Club of Fullerton”. I have been musing on music this past week. As you know, I love to play and listen to music. It is my favorite way of getting high and whattaya know, it’s even legal. Music is a simple way of uniting people, both emotionally and physically. Emotionally, when we sing or listen together, many of the same emotions are evoked in each of us. It’s a quick way to leave our differences behind, our ‘me-me-me,’ and ‘mine-mine-mine,’ and enter a common emotional space.

Physically the same thing happens. Our brain waves quickly synchronize to the beat, so we are all “on the same frequency” as it were. You see this at rock concerts and symphony halls, at clubs, and just listening with the family at home.

Music is composed of distinctly different parts. There is the bass line, carrying the rhythm. There is a melodic line, sometimes even 2 or 3 different melodic lines as with Bach and his multi-part fugues. Every instrument has a part to play, and if someone doesn’t play their part at the right time and in the right key and right tempo, then the music collapses into cacophony.

Rotary is like this. It has different parts, and they each do different things. Each one of these parts is important, and if any part is missing, the music collapses. There is Rotary International, overseeing our global mission and bringing direction and cohesion to the different parts. There are the Districts, each with a staff and a governor. Our fellow Rotarian, Dan Ouweleen, will be our district governor in another year. The districts coordinate the activities of all of the local clubs. Finally, there are the local clubs like ours, carrying out Rotary’s larger mission in communities like Fullerton in countries around the world.

In our club, I think we tend to focus on our local community to the exclusion of the rest of Rotary. I know I consider myself a “club” guy – just focused on our local Fullerton club. And that is a mistake on my part. It is a mistake because I tend to lose sight of Rotary’s larger mission. It’s a mistake because you and I and all of Fullerton do not live in a vacuum. We live in a worldwide community, and we need to take the larger community into account before we act.

Today our speaker will talk to us about the Rotary Foundation Super Grant addressing the Long Beach Rotary Malaria project. Today we get to hear about the work of another club in our district, the Long Beach Club, and I hope, something about the Rotary Foundation Super Grants.

I invite you to stretch a little bit today. Open your hearts, and let’s see how other Rotarians are opening their hearts and pouring love into this needy world.

Dan Kiernan led today’s patriotic moment and Faisal Qasi provided the invocation. Today’s guests included Ernie Delfin, as well as Jennette, and Alex Lopez from the Rotary Club of Downey.

Club news and announcements: On May 19th, we will be presenting the Top 100 awards to the Sunny Hills Top 100. Miko Krisvoy informed us that Sunny Hills High School will proceed with this year’s Top 100, but it will be a modified walk-through so she will not be needing volunteers. Dan Ouweleen announced that our virtual district conference is coming up this Saturday, May 15. Flyers are available, and it has some great speakers! I encourage you to tune in. Ken Kaisch reminded us that next week, our meeting will be via Zoom again. For the next several months, we will alternate in-person with Zoom meetings, so watch for those weekly emails to clue you in. Check our club’s website and see the posts on FSGT, Love Fullerton, and the Top 100. Other announcements: Glynnes Speak gave us an update on the most recent Reading by Nine project that took place at Raymond elementary school with 100 students participating. There were eight readers and they were able to give away several books to the participants. GlynnesChristian Esteban for his assistance in putting the program together. Dan Ouweleen announced that fellow Rotarian, Scott Scambray is retiring from the school district this June and asked that everyone reach out to Scott to congratulate him and to thank him for all the work he has done behind the scenes organizing our programs with Fullerton schools to include this year’s Fullerton School’s Got Talent. Susan Ouweleen also requested that we be sure to RSVP to all in-person meetings so she can order enough food for everyone.

Club members that deserve special recognition for Service Above Self: Today I thought about recognizing a fellow Rotarian who hates to be recognized. But, humble man that he is, I knew that this would embarrass him. So after long and extensive thought, I finally remembered that behind every great man, there is a great woman who kicks his butt and keeps him in line. So, Sally Williams, I want to give you special recognition for Service Above Self. Not just for what you do with Jim but for your cheery smiles, and your constant helping presence when we have a club event. You always help set it up and we thank you and your confederates for your always beautiful decorations. Sally exemplifies Service Above Self!

Today’s recognition master was Larry Bennett. Larry recognized Dan Kiernan for his birthday today. Dan self-fined for $84 and we all sang the Happy Birthday song to Dan. Mike Cochran was recognized for his Rotary anniversary, Mike Oates for his Rotary anniversary as well. Mike Oates also self-find on behalf of his two grandsons who made the Top 100 this year; Jim Vanderburg and Joyce Capelle were recognized in absentia for their Rotary anniversaries; Howard Minkley was recognized and self-find a dollar for each of his 11 years as a Rotarian. Joe Lin is celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary; Joe then fined Ken Kaisch for not supporting Nick’s Super Burgers for his lunch meal; Scott Dowds with Farmer’s and Merchants Bank was recognized for being a prominent sponsor for this years Love Fullerton event. Kim Barlow was recognized as well for being a sponsor along with her law firm, Jones and Mayer. Christian Esteban was fined for being the face of Love Fullerton on their website and Ken Kaisch fined Marty Burbank for playing guitar while on Zoom.

Dan Ouweleen introduced today’s speaker, Adriana Lanting who is a long-time member of the Long Beach Rotary club and has accomplished many good things as a Rotarian among her most recent mission to end malaria in the world. Adriana is working with Malaria Partners International to eradicate malaria in Africa and around the world. According to Adriana, 500 thousand die each year from malaria, most of whom are children. Malaria is parasitic and is carried by mosquitos who infect their hosts. The program got its start in Zambia with a mission to spray, train, and test. Currently, people have to travel between 5 and 10 miles to reach the nearest doctors and medical facilities, which makes it very difficult to treat and contain the spread. One of the primary missions of the project is to bring the testing directly to the villages. The Gates Foundation has agreed to partner in this mission by matching monies raised by Rotary International. Other organizations like UNICEF and World Vision are also participating in the matching of funds to support the efforts of training community health workers with the anticipation that they will be able to reach over 1.2 million people.

Ken Kaisch conclude the meeting by thanking our guest speaker and guests. I have several quotes to close our meeting today: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.” Charles M. Schultz: “The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they are ok, then it's you.” Rita Mae Brown and “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” Charles Dickens, and with that, my friends, “Go out and be good people and great Rotarians!” The meeting is adjourned.