Rotagram - Meeting Notes and Club News
Volume 62, Issue 9	Wednesday, September 11, 2002	Written and reported by Jim Blackburn

Patriotic Beginning

President Mike introduced Chuck AKA "Charles" Munson for the Pledge of Allegiance. Candidate Munson correctly and convincingly asked us to put special effort and vigor in our pledging efforts, and we did.The usual singing suspects were beautifully and more than competently replaced by CPL Christy Romano of the FPD, who led us in "The National Anthem."" Vern Andrews eloquently and artfully supplied the Thought for the Day. (This once again demonstrated that a Big Ten education can benefit anyone.)

A Flock of Visitors and Guests

Bob Savage had to "go extra innings" to facilitate the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests:: Elizabeth Oates (Mike "what's his name"); Kerry Phelps (John Phelps); Jane Mathewson, Merry Rossini and Charleen Modich (Dick Mathewson); Bob Hathaway (Mike Escalante); Kay Ritchie (Chris Fraschetti); John Binaski (Pat "the Explorer" House); James McGrade (guest of Bob "writes like a physician" Sattler); Robyn Mathy (Prez Elect Bill "father of the mountain climbing young men" Mathy); Roy Lequire and Dick Boyle (Fullerton South "home of the Y chromosome")

Presidential Citations

Chuck Munson and Mike Escalante were recognized for littering both the city and the Elks Club.

Announcements:

* Ronnie Hewett featured the upcoming Craft Boutique being offered by the Interact Club at FUHS.
* Roy Lequire called attention to a 9/15 event at the Eastside Christian Church.
* Jim Lapak pushed a current raffle to benefit the YMCA.
* Vern Andrews gave a huge push for the Annual YMCA Crab Fest scheduled for this Saturday.
* Prez Mike reminded us that the annual concert is scheduled for Feb 7. The head line act is the Kingston Trio (Will they finally get Charley off the MTA?) Tom Meyer and Winston Creel are the contact persons.

Raffle

Harry Brown drew the winning ticket, which had been purchased by Allyn Lean. "Half a Deck" Oates determined that they did not teach much about DNA in the Canadian schools, i.e. Allyn did not know what di-oxyribo nucleic acid is. So, the pot rolls over.

International Recognition

Jim Williams assisted by Jeff Mathy recognized several Rotarians for their international activities. Chung Lee, a consultant to colleges and universities re international education. Phil Strauss, awarding winning use of PRC labor and joint venture. (Strauss' attorney, U. Ben Had AKA Phil Silverman, attempted to have Williams placed under a temporary restraining order). PDG Jim Young was recognized for Paul Harris' 356 performances on at least three continents. Frank Kawase was recognized for his service to RI int'l efforts, e.g. RYE, GSE and Ambassadorial scholarships.

Really Getting to the Top

Bill Mathy introduced with great pride and merciful brevity, Jeff Mathy, UC-D graduate in Biological Anthropology and the son of Robyn and Bill Mathy. 

After Boy Scouts and modest hiking efforts, Jeff decided to get serious about "mountaineering". After college, a trip to Australia provided a chance to climb the highest mountain on that continent. He had already climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro in Kenya (trying to win the Ernest Hemingway run-on sentence contest?)

Not yet yielding to the tug of the corporate world, Jeff set about to gain sponsorship for a campaign to become the youngest person ever to reach the summit of the highest mountain on each continent. Two hundred plus proposals and countless phone calls later- Lipton Tea consented to fund his on-going and so far successful effort. Only two mountains are left, and the quality of his presentation makes it clear that success is a highly likely outcome.

The photographic record of the successes of Jeff and his teammates is stellar. His concluding dangling video of 500-foot Himalayan crevasses was enough to scare the @3#?!! out of several combat veterans at this writers' table.

An extraordinary program for an extraordinary day.

Cpl. Roman helped dismiss us with "America the Beautiful". It was beautiful and in a higher key than anyone with an Y chromosome can sing without life changing surgery.