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The February 4, 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 Haiti on our Minds.... Getting to Know New Member Pete Moriarty Haiti is still on our minds as this week's District 5320 Newsletter focuses on what needs to be done to help this earthquake ravaged country now and in the coming months. District Governor Brett Gerdes addressed the issue in his monthly Governor's Message. He points out that " Rotary is about what happens when the media moves on to the next story". He notes that providing sanitation facilities and clean water are both immediate and long term problems. Providing Shelterboxes is something that we can do now to alleviate some of the housing problems. Visit www.shelterboxusa.org for more information.
Contents of a Shelterbox So far our club has donated enough to purchase 2 Shelterboxes through the Rotary Foundation.
On a Lighter note... Today's meeting began with an invocation in Hebrew by Stan Van Denberg; Flag Salute by Jim Glenn; Four Way Test by Greg Mills and an attempt at Louis Armstrong' s "New Orleans" and "attempt" is a polite way for how we did on this one, if you know what I mean.
Guests: Introduced by Greeter Lesslie Giacobbi Lisa Stepanski- 3rd Meeting Wayne Silzel - 4th Meeting Steve Lopushinsky- Orange Club and Frequent Visitor
Announcements: Linda Bartrom- Olsen- RYLA interviewswill be conducted over the next few weeks. Any interested high school Jrs from Villa Park or Lutheran are invited to apply. This year we hope to send 6 campers. Jill Kuli will assist with the interviews. The camp is in May. Singing Competition is next week - February 11th Speech Competition is in 2 weeks- February 18th- Topic "The Future is in Your Hands" Thank you to those members who will serve as judges. Minigrants for Schools- March 11th- Jill Kuliand friends will evaluate the requests- each minigrant will be in the amount of $500 Interact Awards Dinner- May 22nd *********** Eric Sense "burned" Ed Howard -all in good fun of course, who apparently burned the roast he was barbecuing on Christmas Day- Ed reported that despite the flames and fuss he was able to save the roast and that everyone enjoyed their Christmas meal. Milt Stamos announced that Bob Bellhad cataract surgery Jay Applebaum talked about our upcoming Harlem Ambassadors Basketball Fund Raiser on May 1st. This will be a family friendly event with tickets in the $8- 10 range and a Sports Lovers Package for $30 that includes a pre-game meal, VIP seating, a chance to win an autographed basketball and a meet and greet with the team. Sponsorships are also available at $50- 25 and all sponsors will be honored in the event program. The event will be in the Villa Park High Gymnasium, which Ed Howard says can seat up to 1,500 people. The Harlem Ambassadors will play a Rotary sponsored team, The Villa Park All-Star Rotary Wheels, featuring Villa Park and LuHi faculty, coaches and alumni basketball players. The Harlem Ambassador team travels the country providing an entertaining and humorous basketball experience with an anti-drug and stay in school message. The star of the team is a women named Lady Majic who is both a talented player and comedienne. This should be a fun and exciting event for the club. More to follow in coming weeks. Greg Mills reminded us that it is Girl Scout Cookie time and his daughter Abbie needs us to partake. Teri Brooks reminded us that this is send a snack to the troops month and the cookies can be purchased and sent to the troops overseas as well as other snacks. Ron Accornero announced that on February 18th that there will be a fund raiser for the Villa Park Library. Just go to Rockwell's for breakfast, lunch or dinner and say "I Love My Library" and a portion of your bill will go to benefit the library. Ronalso brought in discount coupons for a new Lebanese restaurant call Cedars Restaurant which is located at 1840 North Tustin Ave, in Orange. Lisa Stepanski also has eaten there and gave it a rave review. Ed Howard- announced that March 24th is Principal for the Day- the "acting principal" will serve from 7:45 to 11 AM. He will take them on a tour of the school and show them the ropes. Lesslie Giacobbi volunteered and promised that the kids would have an unforgetable day. Ed's one rule for the day is you can't cancel school. Joe Brand- announced that there will be a Past President's Luncheon at Rockwell's on February 10th starting at 11:30. All past presidents, president-elects and current board members are encouraged to attend. Greg Mills reminded everyone about the Make a Wish Eventnoted in last week's newsletter that will be happening on February 27th.
Birthdays: Jim Glenn- dined out with Lorraine Steve Stern- enjoyed a family meal at Magianno's Ralph Jamesonwas treated to a Laker's game by his sons, serenaded by Anita and will continue the celebration with a trip to Palm Dessert.
Happy Bucks: George Poulos just returned from a cruise through the Panama Canal and highly recommended it. Brad Reese- thanked Steve Lopushinsky for the wonderful photo of his family that appears on the cover of this month' Villa Park Magazine. Pete Moriarty- celebrated his 26th wedding anniversary Craig Beinlich and his daughters competed in the PInewood Derby via the Orange YMCA Indian Princess Program and came in 1st and 3rd in their nation. Jane McDonald mentioned that the club donated 20 sewing machines that were collected by Steve Sternto the Graceworks Foundation. The machines will be shipped to Kenya. While visiting Steve Stern's shop Jane just happened to buy a new bracelet which she showed off to the club. Lesslie Giacobbi is picking up her 97 year old mother from the airport. She is visiting from New York. Eric Sensetook his daughter to a Daddy Daughter Dance. He is also off tonight for his annual SuperBowl adventure where he somehow manages to attend the game without a ticket. Last year he actually appeared in the news photo when the Steelers were awarded the Lombardi Trophy on the field. Let's see if he can repeat the magic this year.
Greg Mills drew a 9 in the opportunity drawing- $300 plus in the kitty.
Speaker: Pete Moriarty- Craft talk Pete was born and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana where his family had lived for 5 generations. He attended Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and while there joined the Army ROTC. He graduated in 1957 with a BS in Economics and went on to begin his 24 year career in the Army. During his career he served in a variety of places from Limestone, Maine with its annual snowfall of 122 inches to the steamy jungles of Vietnam where he was an Artillery officer for 2 years. From there he went on to serve in Palm Beach Florida and had an opportunity to get a Masters Degree in History from Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Some of his favorite assignments were in Germany and Brussels where he was a military attache to Nato. During his time at Nato he was impressed with the fact that everything was done by consensus / common agreement and just one vote of "no" could derail a program. Pete thoroughly enjoyed his military career and felt it gave him and his family great opportunities, but his jobs often required spending a lot of time away from his family and this did cause some stress. He retired as a Lt Colonel when they told him his next assignment would be in Washington, D.C.
In 1980 he went to work at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton working in the Air Defense/ Air Traffic Control area as a system engineer and later as project manager. There were 36 countries that were using his products and as a consequence there were many subcontractors in different countries. So Pete traveled widely to supervise the work and found that engineers "never want to go into the production phase, they prefer design" which slows down the project and increases costs. He also had to control the "creative" instincts of the engineers which could produce unwanted "surprises". In 1985 then President Reagan pushed for the SDI or Strategic Defense Initiative, or as it was known "Star Wars", now creating space based applications for air defense and the development of early high speed computers. Pete was charged with building a computer that could do 7 million MPS (messages per second) in a room that was 6ft by 6ft and all they could do was 6,75 MPS. He showed us his cell phone that can do about 50 MPS and fit in his pocket and commented that newer smaller devices were being developed. Hughes Aircraft was sold to General Motors in 1995 and Pete noted that the family atmosphere that once existed was replaced by "efficiency" and the plant moved further from his home, causing a longer commute. Pete retired at age 60.
He wanted us to know that there is life after retirement!!! His wife, Diana, of 26 years(today) is from Britain and inherited a 500 yr old thatched roof home that requires frequent maintenance. They often spend months visiting there. The home is not far from Oxford and it allowed Pete to pursue his interest in Patriotics- the study of the Fathers of the Christian Church. Which has led him to learn much and meet some fascinating people. One such person he met while at Oxford was a visiting professor from the states who was opening and cataloging specimens from Darwin's voyages to the Gallapagos Islands that had never been seen.
It was a great talk with lots of references to historical events. I'm sure we'll all get to learn more about Pete over the coming years. We also learned that Milt Stamos spent his college years at LSU and his early career in the New Orleans area.
Upcoming Events February 17th- Fireside Chat/Board Meeting- 6:30 at the home of Steve Stern - All members are welcome to attend particularly the new members who have not yet attended a Fireside Chat.
Singing Contest- Feb 11th Speech Contest - Feb 18th |
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