Meeting was called to order by President Ripley who thanked everyone for being at the meeting and an extra special shout out to Joe Arnold for gracing us with his presence, “good to have you, Joe. I bet you know the answer to this question,” asked Ripley. “What happened 60 years ago?” Mr. Arnold jokingly said he woke up although the correct answer was the Beatles Invasion, the first time they landed on U.S. soil, “is anybody here old enough to have watched them on the original Ed Sullivan show?” Today’s word of wisdom, “Nothing ruins your Friday more than realizing it’s actually Wednesday.” President Ripley received more unsolicited to share with the club. “I guess my jokes aren’t always appreciated as much,” said club president. “I thought swimming with the dolphins was expensive until I went swimming with the sharks. It cost me an arm and a leg.” Last joke before he was given the hook, “My teachers told me that I’ll never amount to much because I procrastinate so much. I told them, ‘Just you wait.’”

For today’s Commencement ceremonies, Dr. Thad Sandford, Air Force veteran, led us in our Patriotic Moment with the Pledge of Allegiance. Immediate Past President Joe Lins led us in our Invocation with a prayer. “Dear Lord, thank you for the blessings that you bestowed upon this group and our families. We know that you throw trials and tribulations our way and you have that ultimate plan and sometimes we don’t understand that, and when we don’t, you lead by example with your passion. You help us continue to get up and move forward, for that we appreciate the example that you set for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Today’s guests include Richard Fair, guest of John Phelps. John Kawase was in the house today from Japan as a guest of his father Frank Kawase. Welcome to all guests!

President Jim Ripley asked the club’s Songmaster, Johny Hong to come up, “Can I have your badge, please?” Johny Hong has fulfilled all of his newest nine requirements and has become a full-fledged member of the Fullerton Rotary Club. Congratulations to Johny Hong on such a milestone accomplishment.

Today’s Recognition/Fine Master was Travis “McMahon” McShane who to this reporter’s recollection, has not been a Recognition Master yet. Travis had a lot to prove and started off strong, “I was hoping Bob Muschek was here so that I could ask him if he got lucky today.” Travis asked Bob Pletka to stand and be recognized for his 55th birthday celebration, “in the mail, you will find a receipt for $5 fine alongside your AARP card,” joked Travis. Joe Arnold was asked to stand and be recognized for his wedding anniversary on February 8th. Travis asked Bill Mathy to cover Joe Arnold’s fine of $5 to which Bill gladly obliged. Carl Camp was not present, but he was recognized for his wife’s birthday on February 8th, “So, please remind Carl Camp to pay 5 bucks as a reminder of his wife’s Judy Camp’s birthday.” Dan Kiernan was asked to stand and be recognized for his 61st wedding anniversary. Congratulation Dan Kiernan on such a huge milestone as well. Rashawn Underdue was recognized for his second Rotary Anniversary. Lastly, Karen Xie was recognized for her 8th Rotary Anniversary. Good Job Travis McShane.

Today’s Announcements, Brett Ackerman and Cathy Gach were asked to stand and present the Fullerton Uncorked banner that will be placed on Harbor Blvd advertising the event on May 4th, hosted by the YMCA of Fullerton. Those photos can be seen in the club’s Facebook page. Shout out to Brett and Andrew Gregson for designing the banner. President Ripley announces a non-profit organization that works in conjunction with the Belinda Rotary Club, “CORAZON.” It’s a one-day event in Tijuana, Mexico, where volunteers help build a house, “so if you’re a construction kind of person, do it yourself or you would like to get involved in something like this, the foundation is going to pay for the cost of you going down there.” For more information, please visit www.corazon.org. Leslie McCarthy announced that our club is getting closer to having Zelle, no last name needed, which a member can use to make payments to the foundation and the club. Cathy Gach announced that “Uncorked” meetings on Thursday have changed to 12:30, making changes from noon in the past. “It will be at 12:30 and please note that on your tables, there are ‘Uncorked’ task sheets with updated information, but there are still places where people can write their names on the second and third columns.” Anyone involved in helping with this event will have a job to do so please check the list to see if there is an area that you would prefer to work in. Also, anyone with connections to people that may want to sponsor the event, please do so because sponsorships can make or break this event. Dan Ouweleen expressed his gratitude towards James Vanderberg who created the president elect’s training committee which Cathy Gach attended over the weekend, which means that she can’t back out now as president elect. Rick Crane announced the 33rd annual Jim Thompson Track and Field City Championships taking place Saturday, February 24 at Fullerton Union High School. Please sign up because we need volunteers, it’s not a lot of work but it’s a ton of fun. Those that are volunteering can show up at 8 to help set up and we also need people to work the grill because we are going to feed the student athletes as well. This is a very important event for the students and for our club so we need a lot of folks. Another announcement made was the Top 100 banquets for Sunny Hills High School on Wednesday March 27 and Thursday April 25h for Fullerton High School. According to Cathy, next year’s Top 100 will revert to the original format of feeding the kids a full meal and acknowledgements. The future of this city are these kids who are an inspiration because this new generation of students are going to change the world. Anyone that is interested in Volunteering please contact Miko.

Dr Steven Goldstein

Today’s Program at Hand was introduced by Dick Ackerman, “we’re privileged to have Dr. Steve Goldstein from UC Irvine speaking with us today. He is a nationally known scientist; physician doctor and he’s taught and attended at many universities and institution. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs at UCI, where he runs the medical center, the hospital, the medical school, and around two to three thousand staff and personnel. He also indicated that he has a special accommodation to our club that he would give anybody free medical advice after the meeting. But keep in mind, his specialty is pediatrician. Please welcome Dr. Steve Goldstein.” Dr. Goldstein received a very warm greeting from club members as he took the microphone, “it is a pleasure to be here.” Dr. Goldstein’s presentation consisted of his past five years at UC Irvine, having moved from Chicago, Illinois to California to fill his current position. “So, what I’ve seen in the last five years and the trajectory that the university is on overall health is just remarkable.” According to Dr. Goldstein, the University of California at Irvine is an incredibly young university, tracing back to 1964 when President Johnson dedicated the land to build the university. 50 years later, President Barack Obama came to UCI to celebrate the 58th anniversary. Dr. Goldstein says that just last year the university had around 143,000 applications for undergraduate education, making it the fourth highest number in the entire nation in the last 10 years. He credits President Gilman’s leadership for its growth and for being in the top 10 public university every single year, making it the most elite universities in the entire country. “We care for the patients, and when we learn what we don’t know well enough, so that it brings us to studying what we don’t know, so that we can make it better. It’s an incredibly exciting environment!” His healthcare facility is one of 116 academic centers in the United States which according to Dr. Goldstein, it makes it incredibly rare. The University of California at Irvine is a very collaborative place, it includes a School of Engineering and a School of Computer Science which comes in handy if the hospital is in a sudden need for new tools to be used by the hospital, “it’s not just the docs thinking about it, they are working directly with the engineers.” In 2022, UCI opened its doors to two new buildings, the College building, and the Nursing building. These have become the homes for all of the schools so that when they’re working together, it’s not a disparate, they’re actually bumping into each other as they’re doing the work. To finish his presentation, Dr. Steve Goldstein summarized the last five years at UCI, “we had just an incredible growth in our external research dollars, about 77% the last five years.” Just last year, they brought in $384 million of external funding, and with the help of the philanthropic wing of the hospital, they brought in an additional $100 million a year to help support all of their research. Dr. Goldstein took questions from members in attendance and wrapped up his presentation. President Ripley presented her with a Rotary pin, the four-way test, and a certificate in her name to Working Dogs 4 Warriors which rescues dogs and trains them and teams them up with veterans and first responders.

Last thing on the agenda was the tr50/50 drawing worth $32, lucky ticket holder ending in 4948 wins the money. “All right, before you leave today, we need you to sign up for an event to volunteer in, so get your pens out. Next week is going to be interesting, ‘It’s a Fiddler on the Roof! A Valentine’s Day Program: The Story Behind the Scenes.’ So, bring a friend and don’t forget to hit that like button and subscribe. Meeting is adjourned.”