Meeting was called to order by President Jim Ripley, “So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, it’s only appropriate that I have a Valentine’s Day Joke.” Jim graced us with some beautiful Valentine’s Day jokes, something like poetry in motion. “What do you call a romance that starts at an aquarium? Guppy Love.” This was just a warmup for what’s to come, “How do vampires know if they’ve had a successful Valentine’s? If it’s love at first bite.” Someone from the crowd yells out that his jokes are getting better. “What is Cupid’s favorite band? Kiss.” After he warmed up the crowd, President Ripley asked to be serious for a moment, “So, if a cow doesn’t produce milk, is it a milk dud or an utter failure?” Let’s get our program started today!

For today’s Commencement Ceremonies, Dan Ouweleen gave us our Patriotic Moment leading us on the Pledge of Allegiance. For our Invocation, Carol Morris led us in a prayer attributed to St. Francis, “Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand. To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.”

Today’s guests include Kerry Phelps, guest, and wife of Mr. John Phelps. Suzy Lins, guest and wife of immediate past president Joe Lins. Kevin McCarthy, guest, and husband of Leslie McCarthy. Robin Mathy, guest, and wife of Bill Mathy. Ann Kiernan, guest, and wife of Dan Kiernan. Debbie Hutchinson, guest, and wife of Jeff Hutchinson. Please welcome two prospective members and guest of our club, Mr. Bill Christianson, older brother of John Christianson, and Ricky Fair guest of Mr. John Phelps. Welcome to all guests!

Our Song master today was the irreplaceable Bill Edman who crooned something special for Valentine’s Day. “We are going to sing, ‘Love Me Do’ by the Beatles for all you mop tops.” Alongside his piano, Bill led us in a verse and chorus of “Love Me Do,” without a hitch. Great job, Mr. Edman.

Today’s Recognition/Fine Master was Ms. Beverly Berryman who wore her big shoes today. “Hi everybody, this is a real full house today.” She recognized people who have birthdays and anniversaries this month. Although not present, Brett Ackerman was recognized for his 18th wedding anniversary. Leland Wilson, not present, was recognized for his Rotary Anniversary. Also not present were George Lowe who is celebrating a wedding anniversary this month and Matt Reekstin who has a birthday on February 17. Bill Hite, who was in attendance, was recognized for his birthday on February 19. “Bill, you shouldn’t be fined because you are actually here.” Beverly fined him $7 for his 77th birthday. Beverly then recognized St. Valentine’s Day and asked all those members who brought their significant others to please stand and be recognized, “if you brought your significant other today, I know it’s because you didn’t want to be without them the whole day, right?” Beverly fined all those that were standing for bringing their spouses to a Rotary meeting instead of a nice dinner, with champagne and flowers. She then asked those who have significant others at home to please stand and be recognized, “if you’ve already purchased or have reservations somewhere this evening for dinner and you’ve already bought the flowers, you’ve already got the chocolates or what have you, please have a seat. For those that haven’t, please put $5 in the fine net.” And in honor of the Year of the Dragon celebration, Beverly asked all those that were born during the years celebrated to please stand and be recognized. “For that, you will also be fined, and then I’ll fine myself for making a plug for our LOVE is FUNDRAISER at Crittenton Services.” Great Job Ms. Beverly Berryman.

Today’s Announcements: President Ripley thanked those six members from our club who will be going to Mexico to volunteer with Corazon for a day of house building. Matt Howells announced Tara’s Chance 10th annual “Under the Stars; Fore a Cause Glow Ball Golf Tournament” on Saturday March 02, 2024. For those looking for sponsorships please contact Matt Howells or visit, www.taraschance.givesmart.com. He also announced that his Craft Talk has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances, but he promises to make the story even better. The new date for Matt’s Craft Talk will be May 22, when his vessel finally makes it back to this country. We are in need of food and wine vendors for our “Fullerton Uncorked” event, “probably the most important thing you can do besides getting us some vendors is coming to the event with all your family, friends, and significant others.” Again, if anyone knows anyone that wants to sponsor this event, please get a hold of them because sponsorships will be what actually provides the funds for our charitable giving for next year. There are several opportunities, please check your email this week for all those details. Sponsorships are available from $250 up to $5,000 in increments thereof, and sponsorship benefits will allow you to reserve a table, and so much more. Please contact Cathy Gach for any questions. 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.

Today’s Program at Hand was introduced by Farrell Hirsch, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to introduce to you a really special event. Something that’s going to entertain and inform you. I want to tell you about the Electric Company Theater, this is the Muck’s resident theater company. It is the first time we’ve had a resident company since Dr. Joe Arnold had a company, around 30 to 40 years ago. It’s important for you to know that there’s a reason that we chose this company to work with us, Callie Prendiville Johnson, who you’re going to meet, her and husband and partner, co-artistic director, Brian, what they’ve got that a lot of other companies don’t have is ambition. They have a vision for what they are doing. Please welcome, Callie from the Electric Company Theater.” She received a very warm welcome from those in attendance. Callie is the co-artistic director and co-founder of the Electric Company Theater. She thanked our club for giving her an opportunity to share her story. Callie is very proud and thankful to be a part of the Muck, which has been home to ECT since 2021, “Brian and I have been producing theater together since we got married in 2012.” Prior to their move to the Muck, ECT had produced hundreds of shows, teaching and traveling from San Diego for a theater festival to performing in Tijuana, Mexico, which she calls a very exciting opportunity. Another festival her theater company has performed in is the Hollywood Fringe Festival which opened doors for an Off-Broadway performance in none other than the SOHO Playhouse in 2018. “That was very fancy. It was before we came to the Muck,” she said. CHANGE, CONNECT, CRAFT; that is the motto for ECT, “our time at the Muck over the last three years has been a great experience.” A lot of the plays produced by ECT are musical plays, it is their thing, a lot of their actors play instruments, “that show was called the Old Man and the Old Moon. And a fun little Rotary connection, we actually performed some songs at Fullerton Uncorked!” Shout out to Matt Reekstin for creating the opportunity for her theater company to perform for a new audience. ECT’s unconventional methods of producing is what attracted Farrell to offer them residency at the Muck, like performing on the south lawn instead of the amphitheater, bring your own lawn chair environment instead of being “benched” up. This set up what would become their signature style, which worked out because as soon as the guitars began strumming, the audience knew what to do with their chairs and more showed up. Don’t think that their production uses no props, “we created a set for our story and creative an environment unlike anywhere else.” Giving back to the community is something her and Brian are committed to doing; since 2020, each year they dedicate one production for elementary school students. The name of the production is called “Alice an Immersive Adventure.” For those who aren’t familiar with immersive theater, it basically is what the name implies, “an immersive interactive experience of the audience where they get to use all five senses to experience the story.” Unorthodox theater production has worked well for her but sometimes, keeping it traditional is the way to go. The Muck’s amphitheater has been used for Shakespeare performances like Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare in Love, and one day, they performed both shows back to back with a brief dinner intermission in between. She called this an incredible challenge for ECT’s actors because everyone played at least 2 roles. After the success of those two amphitheater productions, they took on the challenge of producing a full outdoors musical called “the Drowsy Chaperone,” a funny and smart musical with a live orchestra. The next show for the elementary students will be based on Fullerton legend and local inventor of the Fender electric guitar, Leo Fender, “we wrote a whole musical about his life, including the challenges of losing an eye as a child and then losing his hearing as an adult, along with his hundreds of inventions and patents.” ECT has performed this show in front of thousands of students from the Fullerton School District, including students from Orangethorpe Elementary which is special because that is Leo’s alma mater. “The Sound of Music” a Rogers and Hammerstein musical production was up next for Electric Company Theater. They decided to go unorthodox once more with their production as they traveled around the grounds of the Muck with the audience coming along for the ride, “we and all the audience were everywhere, all over the grounds.” Going back to her roots of acting, Callie performed in her favorite musical called “Once,” a musical based on the 2007 film of the same name. Proving her dedication to her craft, she learned how to play the accordion specifically for that role, “I did not play the accordion before I learned to play it because I love this show so much that I wanted all the actors to play instruments.” For this production of ONCE, they brought in several musicians that had never acted in a play. The show sold out before opening night and the demand for it was high that they added two more shows, which also sold out as well. And of course, their most recent production is “A Fiddler on the Roof” with a ECT spin on it. “We are again taking a classic musical that people think they know and performing it in an unusual way.” It takes a lot of people power and hours in the making of musical productions, the building and tear down of the set is something that is done every day. She compares this to the circus coming to town, everything is loaded up into a moving truck that they rent for that sole purpose. Portable bathrooms are brought in for the actors and audience because they perform away from the main bathrooms. ECT is a 501 non-profit so if any Rotarian has any connections that can help reduce the cost of productions, please contact Callie Prendiville Johnson at Callie@themuck.org. To end her presentation, two actors from the Electric Company Theater performed a snippet of “A Fiddler on the Roof,” for our club members in attendance. They then took questions from audience members. A Fiddler production runs from Feb. 12 through March 6, at the Muckenthaler Event Center. 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 50/50 drawing, with the help from Callie, lucky ticket holder ending in 5020 wins the drawing. Due to circumstances beyond our control, next week’s program has changed and will be the City of Fullerton Economic Development Report. Shout out to Andrew Gregson for helping secure our last-minute change. “Thank you for everybody who puts these meetings together for us every week. Don’t forget to hit that like and subscribe button. Meeting is adjourned.”