Rotagram for Wednesday, July 24, 2024

President Cathy Gach called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone in attendance.

Frank Kawase provided the invocation today and Marty Burbank led the pledge of allegiance.

With COVID-19 on the rise, Cathy encouraged members to greet fellow members with a fist or elbow bump.

Today’s guest included Beth Jahncke, wife, and guest of Robert Jahncke (married 61 years); Wills Min, who is a potential new club member; Captains Jose Arana and Pedram Garah from the Fullerton Police Department and guests of Tom Knoll.

This day in Rotary history, president Gach shared a story regarding a creative sustainable project by a club in western New York state. A member of the club discovered that local farmers would throw out slightly blemished or misshaped fruits and vegetables that could not be sold. So, he asked the farmers if he could take the discarded food so it could be distributed through local food banks. This farm to family project has now expanded to three farms, and with the help of club volunteers, they are now able feed 3,000 families annually.

Announcements today: President Gach announced that the Fullerton Heritage Magazine recognized the Fullerton Rotary Club for their CIA gift which they will use to provide plaques to the Hunt Library, so there is now another connection to the Hunt Library. Farrell Hirsch announced that over at the Muckenthaler, on August 8th, Monet Velasco will be performing a benefit concert for the Muckenthaler; Jeff Hutchison reminded everyone of the upcoming Angels Baseball game on Sunday, September 1st, there are only 10 tickets remaining at $40 each; Lana Erlanson announced that Radiant Futures is still in need of volunteers for their upcoming back to school event. There are also in need of used clothes, especially clothes for young and adult males. President Gach also brought to our attention that there is a club survey on everyone’s table regarding this year’s holiday party in December as we need your opinion and preferences for location, food served, as well as days of the week and time.

President Gach also brought to our attention that invitation cards on our tables on our tables that can be used to invite someone to attend a future meeting.

Jim Ripley was today’s recognition master asked the club members if they remembered him having been past president of the club. Jim began by thanking everyone who had a hand in putting together his demotion night and asked those in attendance to please stand to be recognized. Jim then pardoned all of them from any fines today. The only club member’s birthday coming up is Dan Ouweleen, who was not in attendance, but will be celebrating his birthday on July 25th. Jim also recognized Bailey Kline for purchasing lottery tickets for each club board member last week and told her he did not have a winning ticket. Jim did fine Dick Ackerman for referring to Jim as a “has been” president. Jim then called for any brags: Bill Edman bragged that his daughter just graduated with her Master’s Degree in Nursing; Bett Ackerman, bragged about his dad, Dick Ackerman, had recently hiked a six mile trail that neither Brett, his wife, or kids could complete; Lana Erlanson bragged that she will be going on a vacation with her kids as her son is visiting from Sweden, in addition to the newest member of the family, six-month old, Henry. Dick Ackerman announced that they have been running a slide show of pictures of the kids currently visiting Japan as part of our exchange program.

President Gach introduced and welcomed our guest speaker, Detective Luis Ramirez, of the Fullerton Police Department, who is here today to talk about Fullerton’s “Go to the Skies Patrol,” drone program. The program got off the ground (figuratively speaking) in 2017 after a lengthy governmental and FAA approval process of governmental and FAA approval. The program has been vital for law enforcement and other agencies here in Fullerton and surrounding cities. All officers involved must be licensed and certified annually by the FAA. We were shown pictures of the various models that FPD is currently using. They also brought a drone with them today and sent it up over the club building and golf course and presented a live feed so we could all see the drones’ capabilities in real time. He also presented video recordings of the drones being used around the city to assist officers in their law enforcement endeavors. The videos captured by the drone can also be used in court as evidence. The drones add an additional layer of safety to officers as the drones can feed real-time video images from locations that might potentially put an officer on the ground at risk of injury. The drones have also been used for search and rescue situations where pedestrians have either gotten lost or injured on Fullerton trails. Detective Ramierz also stressed that there are serious restrictions for using drones to simply watch and record without a crime or emergency being reported.

President Gach thanked our speaker and visiting Fullerton PD officers and presented Detective Ramirez with two children’s books that he signed before they will be donated to the Hunt Library.

Detective Ramirez was asked to pick the winning 50/50 ticket, and the winner was Raco.

Before concluding today’s meeting, President Gach thanked all of today’s guests and our speaker before asking everyone to recite the Four Way Test.