President Terri Grassi used her ceremonial drumstick to deftly strike the famous Rotary bell thus commencing the meeting. 

PLEDGE- Joanne Brannock prefaced the pledge by quoting Jay Leno’s comment questioning the wisdom of taking God out of the pledge during these challenging times. 

SONGMASTER- Howard Wood led the group in “Sing a Song of Rotary” and ‘Smile”

INVOCATION- Mark Geiss reminded us to focus on things we are grateful for.

WELCOME- Cameron McCune welcomed Rotarian Kathy McKnight from Renton Washington and the following members introduced their respective guests.

Dan Kiernan –Bob Hillhouse

Vern Andrews- Dick Rocke

Jim LaPak- Taunya Moore and Sean Klever

Jana Bogart- Mike White   (Jana “Shared Rotary and passed it on”)

Don Bankhead- Carol Bankhead

Tony Amato-  Dan Demain  Tony passed his Rotary coin to Minard Duncan

PREZ TERRI ANNOUNCED THAT NEXT WEEK’S MEETING IS OFFSITE AT THE FULLERTON’S MAIN FIRE STATION (Commonwealth Ave., east of Lemon)

Announcements-

Prez Terri announced a May 17^th bowling outing at Carter Bowl.

Fred Johnson announced the upcoming La vie En Rose fundraising Sunday Brunch for the Boys and Girls Club on April 29.

Greg Hickman announced a showing of the film “Happy Feet” at Christian Life Center.

Jay Kremer announced a program meeting at Carrows at 7:30PM Thursday April 19^th.

Jim McKamy reminded us of the Wine tasting party at Bob Clarks home 4pm on 4/21.

Rick Crane encouraged members to attend the CSUF baseball game on Sunday April 20.

Theresa Harvey announced a one day Metropolitan Water District Tour outing on 4/20.

Dan Kiernan encouraged RSVPs for the May 10 5-8PM joint 70th birthday party for him and John Phelps.

Bill Mathy encouraged entries for the car show for the offsite May 16 meeting at the Muckenthaler center.

Minard Duncan spoke of the Faces of Fullerton event on April 28 at the downtown plaza and the FIES fundraiser event Sat. May 12 from 7-11.

Kathy Allred told of a need for one more host for an English-speaking GSE team member from the Philippines.

David Schoen announced an April 28 Fundraising Dinner for Eastside Christian School at Biola.

RECOGNITION MASTER Dick Jones informed us of a special breast implants for women that play music, (so they would be heard) but I’m trying to figure out  how one would adjust the volume!

Tom Meyer was fined for protecting an executive suite at the Cal State baseball stadium from certain gluttonous Rotarians.

Paul Dudley was fined for his son Ryan’s recognition as a distinguished alumnus from Collins School of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona.

NEXT MEETING IS AT FULLERTON FIRE STATION ON COMMONWEALTH AVE. JUST EAST OF LEMON.

Jim Blake was fined for recently hosting the Metropolitan Water District in Fullerton for a recent 3 day meeting.

Pat Frank was fined for an anniversary and Bill Schenk was fined in absentia for his wife’s birthday and an anniversary.

Dick observed “Time flies like a bullet and fruit flies like a banana”

SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS President Terri brought up Buck Catlin and presented him a special Rotary pin in recognition and appreciation of his efforts on the Community Investment Awards. Jim Young was recognized for his tireless efforts representing our club, district and Rotary in general with his tribute performances of Rotary founder Paul Harris. Well-deserved recognition for both of them! 

Prez Terri gave us an update on Bill Schenk, saying that despite his desire to attend today’s meeting, Bill was overruled by his physician and relegated to another week of rest at home. (Bill is recovering from a quadruple bypass and aortic valve replacement.)

Not wanting to see the fun “opportunity drawing” come to a close, (Walt Barnes won $180. last week and kept the winning card) Prez Terri started with a fresh deck of only 20 cards and one joker, assuming that if the joker wasn’t pulled during our regular meetings, a special drawing would be held on Demotion night to assure that SOMEONE would win.  Imagine her surprise when Paul Simon’s ticket was drawn and he walked right up, picked out the joker and promptly won $90.!! That’s $270 won by Rotarians in two weeks! 

PROGRAM  Jim Lepak’s  presentation began with a rousing rendition of the Village People’s song “YMCA”. Our normally overenthusiastic Rotarian membership resisted the urge to stand up and join in the choreography that normally accompanies this song…probably in the interest of saving time. Jim mentioned that the YMCA was founded 61 years before Rotary by George Williams. One of the most impressive parts of the presentation was when Jim asked people to stand if they had some interaction with the YMCA in their lives. Virtually the entire room stood. Even more moving were a few stories by a few Rotarians whose lives were positively impacted by the YMCA. Ray Ashcroft and Tom Meyer gave touching personal accounts. Jim concluded by discussing the two stage renovation for which groundbreaking takes place in a few months.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY – Presented by President Terri: (listen up Bob Radde!)

 “Every day is a new beginning.”

OK, POP QUIZ: Where is the next Meeting? No peeking!     OK, here’s the answer:

OFFSITE AT THE MAIN FULLERTON FIRE STATION ON COMMONWEALTH JUST EAST OF LEMON. PARK TO THE LEFT OF THE STATION OR BEHIND IT!