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The January 28, 2010 Newsletter has been published to the Villa Park Rotary website. A copy has been included below. |
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Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter
The weeks just keep rolling along.... our invocation was done once again by Millie Alexander, who has now done enough back to back invocations to get credit towards a theological degree; Flag Salute was led by Teri Brooks; Rotary Four Way Test was led by Greg Mills, and our song Zip A Dee Do Dah-was well sung despite the absence of the bouncing ball under the lyrics.
Guests: Lisa Stepanski- 2nd week Wayne Silzel- 4th week Both Lisa and Wayne are prospective new members of the club Jeff Elder- today's guest speaker Diane Markus- Co-President of the VPHS Interact
Announcements: Linda Bartrom-Olsen announced the upcoming Song and Speech Competitions will be held on February 11th and February 18th respectively. We are still looking for contestants and judges for both events. The Theme for the Speech Contest is "The Future is in Your Hands" Students from both Villa Park High School and Lutheran High are encouraged to participate. The song competition will feature both Broadway or Contemporary Tunes, plus Classical Operatic categories for both men and women. Cash prizes for both competitions will be $200 for first place, $150 for second place, $100 for third place and $50 for honorable mention. Winners at the local club level can go on to compete at the district level for additional prize money. Entries for both competitions should be filed by February 5th. Contact Dr. Linda Bartrom-Olsen at lbartrom@hotmail.com to enter or get more information. Jay Lieberman has volunteered to be a judge in the Speech Contest, but at least 2 more judges are being sought- contact Linda Song Judges are also needed. These have been very entertaining competitions in years past, so do what you can to help Linda make this year's events memorable. Jill Kuli spoke about the upcoming RYLA in May and our need to select students from Villa Park and Lutheran High- she will be doing lunch time interviews with candidates next week. She also reminded the group that Minigrants for schoolsis coming up and volunteers are needed to review the grant applications- the club will award $4000 as $500 minigrants to deserving teachers. Jill had catarract surgery and asked for someone to take her Meals on Wheels delivery for next monday - Mark Schmidt volunteered. Diane Markus- Found out she has just been accepted into USC for the fall - congratulations! She is Co-President of the VPHS Interact and reported on their project to send boxes to the troops. So far they have stuffed 50 boxes at a cost of $1005 and will be delivering the boxes to the USO in Ontario next month. Teri Brooks updated us on the continuing VPTV story. The city has apparently dissolved the board and is taking over the station and trying to get the assets of the station turned over to the city. The state Attorney General is reviewing the case to see if it's kosher. Teri will keep us posted. Jay Applebaum talked about the upcoming club fundraiser on May 1st featuring the Harlem Ambassador's Basket Ball Team vs our own Villa Park Rotary Wheels Team composed of VPHS Alumni Basket Ball Players, teachers, administrators and coaches. The game will be held at the VPHS Gym and will feature a Meet & Greet Dinner where attendees can get autographs and photos with the Harlem Ambassadors Team Members. We hope this will be a fun and profitable event for the club. We'll need some help with the event and anyone interested in getting involved should contact Jay. Joe Brand announced there will be a Past President's Luncheon in February at Rockwell's Restaurant. Joe hopes to make this a semiannual event where the club can review and reset priorities. Past Club Presidents and current Board Members are invited. He hopes to do it in the next 1-2 weeks. Stand by for final dates and times.
Birthdays: Steven Pollack is celebrating his birthday with a 2 week trip to India to attend the wedding of a family friend and to see the sights. Pete Moriarty- celebrated his 75th Birthday with dinner at Pinot Provence Jane McDonald celebrated her birthday with a trip to Death Valley Jim Glenn will be celebrating a birthday tomorrow and is waiting to see what wife Lorraine has in store for him. Happy Birthday to all. Happy Bucks: Jane McDonald announced that there will be a Villa Park Women's League trip to the Rincon Casino on Wednesday March 3rd. Jane says both women and men can attend and that there will be a bus that leaves from the Ralph's Shopping Center. Contact Jane for more information. Teri Brooks- was so moved by Pastor Stan's Craft Talk last week that she attended Sunday Services at his church. She says she felt like she had "come home" after many years of not attending services at a Presbyterian Church. For those of you who might have missed the email, we had some wonderful feedback regarding Pastor Stan's talk from Eric Sense and many other members have expressed similar thoughts. Bob Meyer reported he had some good news and bad news. The bad news was he had cancer surgery, the very good news is the surgery was a success and Bob expects to live to be 100 years old. Pete Moriarty- was happy to have celebrated his 75th Birthday and wanted to give a shout out for the New Orleans Saints Football Team who will be making their first appearance ever in Superbowl XXXXIV. In his own words, "Who Dat". Milt Stamos went on to explain in his own inimitable way why Louisiana is the "happiest state in the USA". Sylvan Swartz has joined a Past Rotary Presidents Site on LinkedIN and says a great fuss is being made over a Rotarian who offered up a "happy buck" when a former District Governor ended his talk. Lots of Past Presidents are up in arms over this. Mark Schmidt spent three days in Oklahoma City and brought back lots of photos to show the group. Greg Millsattended the Indian Princess Winter Campout at Green Valley Lake last weekend. His tribe of 12 girls and 7 dads enjoyed playing in the fresh fallen snow.
Drawing - $305 - Joe Brand drew an 8
Speaker: Jeff Elder Jeff came to talk to us about the Make a Wish Foundation and to promote an upcoming event that they are having on February 27th from 6-11 PM. More on this later. Jeff and his wife Karla have 4 children and live in the Orange/Villa Park Area. Jeff works at Trojan Battery a company that makes deep cyle batteries used in Golf Carts, Boats and for many other purposes. The company was began 85 years ago by a former USC Alumni and Football player. Jeff and karla become involved with Make a Wish when a niece was granted a wish to have a Princess Party at Disneyworld in Orlando. He now serves on the board of the Orange County/Inland Empire Branch of the organization. Jeff also told us about his recent trip to Katmandu and Bangla Desh where many homes have no access to electricity. These individuals are using solar power to charge batteries that can provide them with enough electricity to light their homes and maybe power a small black and white tv. It has been a life changing experience for many of these families. The total cost of the solar system is about $300 and many people finance this through microfinancing. It was also interesting to learn that many of these families who live outside the city have to trek everything in over small mountain trails- even items like refrigerators have to be carried in on their backs sometimes it takes several days to make the trip. There are Volunteer opportunities for those who wish to go to these locations and help with the installations of the solar systems.
Make A Wish is an International organization whose mission is to grant the wishes of children with terminal and non-terminal medical conditions. The wishes serve to create positive memories to help the child and family get through the tough times of serious childhood illnesses. It has also been demonstrated that a positive attitude can be helpful in dealing with disease states. Jeff says that every 20 minutes someone's wish is being granted and his organization produces about 300 wishes/year in this area. No reasonable wish is turned down and the average wish usually costs about $5000. The group is always looking for volunteers to help make the wishes come true.
More on the upcoming Make a Wish fund raiser: Date: Saturday Evening, February 27th Place: Grand Street Center- 146 N. Grand St., Orange, Ca Cost: $65 per guest- includes dinner, wine and beer and $100 of gambling money Opportunity Drawing for Condo in Puerto Vallarta for 7 days/6 nights- $25 each; 5 for $100
Contact Karla Elder at 714-921-2616 or via the website www.rollingforwishes.clubspaces.com
Upcoming Events in February: Speech and Song Competition- Feb 11th and 18th Past Presidents Lunch at Rockwells- date to be announced. Lesslie Giacobbi is the chairperson for February speakers. Contact her if you have anyone wishing to give a presentation to the club. |
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