Today’s special off-site meeting took place at the Fullerton fire station on Commonwealth Avenue.

President Terri Grassi opened the meeting, whereupon Fire Chief Wolf Knabe led us in the flag salute, which he dedicated to soldiers recently killed in Iraq.

The opening “oldie” Fireman song led by Howard Wood, joined by Bill Peloquin, included such eyebrow-raising lyrics as these:

“When it comes to something hot, they are ‘Johnny on the Spot,”… on a rainy day when there is nothin’ else to do, well, you can call a Fireman and he’ll come and clean your flue.  Always live down by the Firehouse and you’ll never be lonesome anymore”

After that one, everyone certainly had a “Smile.”

Terri acknowledged Jim Williams for his stellar representation of our club at the Rotarian of the Year event.

Bill Peloquin provided the invocation, preceded by some sage “Rules to Live By, such as “Good judgment comes from experience, which comes from bad judgment.”

Bill McGarvey introduced guests:

• Beth Jahncke, guest of Bob Jahncke
• Steve Stakley, guest of Jim Lapak
• Marty Burbank, guest of Drew Napolin
• Dr Leroy Lance (a “very expensive” doctor of undisclosed specialty), guest of Dick Mathewson
• Kristi La, wife of Michael La
• T. R. “no show” Shaw, guest of Tom Meyer
• Bryan Fairley (Pres of Rotary south- served the food) and his wife

Despite the presence of several club-member bankers, the passing of (Rotary) coins did not involve them this week.  Rather, Jim Lapak passed his to Randy McFarland; Drew Napolin passed his to Joyce Capelle; Dick Mathewson passed his to Bob Clark, Jr., who passed it on to Warren Wimer; and Kristi La, who had received it from Michael, passed hers to Jeff Hutchinson. 

Art Levine was recognized for his meager Rotascribe efforts (such as this one); Walt Barnes and Bill Peloquin for representing our district in many events, and Rick Crane for spearheading sports and community events.

Wolf Knabe was recognized for his hard work for the city.  Walt Barnes gave Wolf an Aloha shirt to begin wearing on Fridays at the firehouse – the firemen and firewomen in attendance seemed to heartily endorse the establishment of this new tradition! 

Announcements: 

• Car exhibition – May 16^th at the Muckenthaler. 
• Bowling night – May 17th
• District conference - May 4-6^th
• Boys and Girls club brunch- this Sunday morning at La Vie on Rose.  (contact Bob Jahncke or Fred Johnson regarding any B&G Club function). 

• Vern Andrews, on behalf of the North OC YMCA, thanked our club for its $500 donation to support camp and after school programs.
• GSE Team from Philippines – one more host still needed.  Contact Kathy Allred or Walt Barnes. 

Program:

Our club has donated $500 to the Explorer program, helping people interested in fire careers.  (Confidential P.S. to Wolf – my son-in-law is just finishing the fire academy and will soon be available….).

Wolf invited everyone to check out the wealth of information about the Department posted on the City’s website.  Among other programs, it discusses the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program.  CERT educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.  CERT is a critical program for community involvement, because in a disaster, police and fire personnel will be busy performing rescues and fighting fires.  The community will have to pull together to deal with many important but less urgent problems.  The address is: http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/depts/fire/default.asp

We also learned that Dalmatians are the traditional firehouse dogs (although Fullerton has none) because they were good dogs around the old fire station carriages and horses).   Wolf invited attendees to take a stationhouse tour and inspect some of the equipment. 

This meeting was very informative and enjoyable in all respects – but the highlight was President Terri bravely sliding down the pole!  Way to go Terri!