Last week, our club had the privilege to hear a tear-wrenching story of a local Polio survivor, who opened up for the first time publicly about the condition that he lived with, the pain he endured as a child being ridiculed for his physical appearance but being hurt more emotionally by the hurtful words he heard growing up. He shared the courage his mom had to immigrate to Hong Kong and then to the US and that with multiple surgeries he could become independent. His “rocks” were his mother and his wife helped who him to heal the wounds of his early years giving him hope and courage to be the best at everything else he did and to develop empathy towards others. Ed became a very successful financial advisor with UBS and has been involved in the PTA with his 2 boys, now he wants to get involved in the community and share his story with others who might be disabled or believe they have some impediment that keeps them from striving for the best. He wants to inspire and motivate people to make “lemonade from lemons” and to reach their full potential despite challenges and adversity.
The Rotary International Foundation celebrated its 112 years on February 23, look at what other clubs did to celebrate: Link: https://blog.rotary.org/2017/02/24/10-lessons-from-a-rotary-club-pilot/#respond
Tis the season to get trained, I just returned from a weekend retreat at the Palm Spring Hilton where the District Conference will be held on May 18 – 21, 2017. Reserve your room now by visiting this link: http://district5300.org/543-2/
The weekend was the Presidents Advance, I had very low expectations about the program, but came back refreshed with new ideas to carry out the next 4 months. We did a lot of small round table discussions comparing what our respective clubs do with regards to every aspect of running the club and learned some creative ideas. We also learned about Southern California Nevada Rotary Leadership Institute (www.scnrli.org) which Is a more comprehensive program for Rotarians looking to learn leadership skills in whatever role they have – the 3 day program meets once a quarter and has a 6 hour class teaching you the various areas of leadership needed to run an effective club. Visit this link for signing up for this class.
What’s happening in March?
This month our programs include the Dan Stover Music Contest where students from Southwestern and SMHS will perform their best and take the award to the next level in District competitions. On March 9 our very own Mike Driebe will tell us about Arcadia Methodist Hospital. On March 16, Roberta Gunderson will share with us some of the challenges our mental health system faces today that may not be the best for the patients in the system. On March 23 we celebrate at the Huntington Gardens for our annual Paul Harris Luncheon recognizing Dick Durant for his accomplishments in our community. On March 30 we host our annual Chili Cook Off Contest brought to you by the Dream Team – the ladies who bring fun and jokes to our meeting.
Save the 2017 Rose Float and the Future of Rose Floats:
At Presidents Advance, we got a report from Lu Arredondo, who is the District Governor Elect and will serve after Raghada Khoury in 2018-2019. Professionally she is a fundraiser and has some great ideas to save the float. Some of you might know her from when the West Covina Sunrise club, some years ago she came to our club and multiple others to get our help as her club was downsizing and was soon going to fold. Guess who saved her club? You guessed it, we were one of the clubs who were able to help by encouraging her to buy 50 of our Motor Classic Ticket, they were able to recoup $1100 and other clubs helping them and mentoring them allowed them to survive. Today they are 26 members strong, and they have some wonderful support from the community and schools. So, Lu has a number of ideas to save the float including promoting the float at Dodgers stadiums and Amusement Parks on 3 occasions where a percentage of the proceeds goes to the Float.
Speaking of Lu Arredondo, she is also the host of a radio show and has given us a 1 hour interview with Aaron Weiss to bring publicity to the Motor Classic. The show will be edited and we will inform you when it will air. You can share the show with friends to garner support for this very successful fundraiser. She has offered this 1 hour spot to us at no cost (a $10,000) value.
Motor Classic Fundraiser Corner:
Our June 11 date is fast approaching. We’ve got lots to do, tickets to sell, vendors to secure, sponsors to find and Gala tickets to sell for the 7th Annual Motor Classic Fundraiser. Member tickets will be distributed in April some time. If you want them earlier, ask Dennis Kneier. Don’t stop at 10 – get out there and encourage more people to buy singles and/or packs of 50. Single ticket is $25 a pop. Pack of 50 tickets is $6.25/per ticket, for bundle price of $312.50, then you can turn around and resell them for $25 and recoup your money and then some, something like $937.50 will come back to you.
New business in town? Looking for clients? Become a vendor and get a booth – a 10×10 going for $500 for the whole day.
Our club has garnered the support of various generous sponsors – thank you! We need more though! There is sponsorship opportunity from $50 – $15K
Follow this link to get more info and if you have a friend who is a car collector? Invite them and/or consider having them enter their car. https://www.sanmarinomotorclassic.com/
Member Business Share Their Profession:
Last week, we heard from 2 businesses – Coldwell Banker Realtors, Rob Feidler and Molly Woodford and Fang Ho sharing with us how they got into the industry.
