Rotary Club Newsletter Wednesday May 3, 2006

President’s Message: First and foremost, I want to thank the M&M club and all volunteers who turned out to help make our 14th Annual Golf tournament a success. Fortunately, we had plenty of Rotarians and friends and family of Rotarians who showed up the day of the event to give of their time. As Mark & Marc have noted, we can never have too many volunteers. The Golf tournament was a huge success and we will meet on Friday, May 12th to “wrap up” and take notes for next year.
Well, only eight more meetings until I’m tossed to the past-president bone yard. However, I am in good company. I have told our next president (Vatche) that he has my full support in his year. I hope you will do the same.
Our “Our Throw-Out” party is scheduled for Saturday, June 24, 2006. More details to follow, please mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Celebrity Golf Tournament -- April 24th, 2006.
The tournament was a huge success. Thanks to Mark & Marc for all their hard work. And thanks to all the volunteers who helped put together such a great event.

Golf Tournament Wrap Up Meeting: Friday, May 12, 2006, 6PM
Avolios Pizza Italian Restaurant
15975 East San Bernardino Road ( by Irwindale Ave)
Covina, CA 91722
626-960-2839

Meeting news: The last several meetings have been busy for the Sgt. of Arms. It seems a lot of our members like to vacation! Miriam and her husband went skiing in Mammoth, which cost her an additional $20 at the wheel. Kris Kelso and his girlfriend went to Death Valley – his spin was worth $25. Mark Tedesco and his wife went to Mexico on a kind-of-second- honeymoon -- their daughter just got married and is on her honeymoon and since dad forked over the cash for the wedding it seems he thought he deserved a little vacation too, and that cost him $15 at the wheel. Bruce Simms went to Needles with his family, and his spin cost him $25 – really cheap considering Carolina Chacon was trying to sell photos of Bruce posing in rabbit years for Easter……. Lastly but not least – we had a BIG 50 Birthday spin. None other than Luis Chacon. He got away cheap – a measly $15.
Oh, I almost forgot – Bill Tarozzi wasn’t wearing his pin and spun for $15. He tried to get out of spinning, claiming we were all lucky to see him fully dressed! It seems his wife is out of town and he is having problems ‘locating’ his clothes…..
At the latest meeting, Greg Benton got to spin. It seems he was featured in an article in a local paper. He is getting some attention as he tries to change the general public’s opinion about lawyers, trying to convince us that they are not all bad….

Member news: Gary, Gary, Gary… the length you will go through to get some attention….
All joking aside. I hope you are healing well and will have one of the best looking noses in town in a couple of weeks.

Group Study Exchange : What are 5 strangers doing in our District? If you didn't already know, we are currently hosting 5 individuals from the Group Study Exchange with District 1910 Austria-East, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia. Chris Leydolt is the team leader and recently retired from natural gas and investments. Masa Ostruh a lawyer. Iris Marlovits works with the chamber of commerce. Szabolcs Horvai is an ENT doctor, while Simone Scholz works in the telecommunications industry.
They are here to travel through our district, experience our culture and visit with Rotarians of their same vocation. We are charged with hosting them, showing them a good time, cultural and civic experience. In return they will speak to a few of our clubs while they are here. In these talks they will share their experiences and describe their lives back home. Please contact GSE Chair Charles Barr for more information about this group. They arrived on April 22nd and will finish off their tour with our District Conference on May 20th.

Now our district needs your help. We're looking for a few great Rotarians. Do you fit the bill? Do you know someone else? We need some applicants to travel to Austria-East, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia next April. Yes that's right, we need to find someone willing to travel through Europe and lead a group of young professionals. This is an incredible opportunity for anyone. Please contact Greg Custer, 2006-2007 GSE Chair. He can be reached at 626-441-5111.

There is a team leader application at the following District 5300 website.
The general schedule for the next few months is as follows:
Team Leader Applications Deadline - June 1, 2006
Team Leader Interviews - July 8, 2006
Team Member Applications Deadline - August 25, 2006
Team member Interviews - September 16, 2006


Good Friday Breakfast: The San Gabriel Valley YMCA’s annual Good Friday Breakfast at South Hills Country Club on April 14th, 2006 was a great success. The speaker, David Frost, a former Angel’s pitcher, was a riveting story teller. It was fun to hear his stories of his days in major league baseball. And also his way of re-finding Christ after years of ignoring his basic beliefs. I hope we get invited again next year.

Night out on the Town: The West Covina Lions are hosting their annual Night out on the Town on June 1st at the Lakes Plaza by Edwards Cinemas. For $20 you get to sample great food from many local restaurants and to finish off the evening – you get tickets to the theatre.

Here’s your chance at winning $1,000.00 (One Thousand Dollars) CASH $$$: The East Valley Community Health Center will have a raffle on their Gala night, June 2, 2006. Winner need not be present to win. Tickets are $10.00 each. Please see Carolina Chacon for tickets.

Program: The speaker was Officer Ken Plunkett with the West Covina Police Dept’s special Graffiti Task Force. He gave an informative presentation about the graffiti problem in West Covina. I had no idea that the police dept gets over 900 calls a month for graffiti in West Covina alone. One of our own, Jessika Martinez, has had some personal experience with etching at her store location, and the problem is much more widespread than I think most of us realized. Officer Plunkett also passed along several ‘art’ books confiscated from taggers. What a shame that talented youth choose to vandalize vs. doing something creative in the arts.

Calendar: The information below and more can be found on our very own web site www.wcsunrise.org

May 10: Regular meeting
May 12: Golf Wrap Up meeting
May 17: Regular meeting
May 24: Regular meeting
May 31: Regular meeting
June 1: Night out on the Town, West Covina Lions, Edwards Cinemas, 6pm
June 24: WC Sunrise Rotary Throw-Out Party

Places you should visit regularly:
District’s Newsletter: http://www.district5300.org/newsletter/news0507.pdf
Rotary International member website: https://riweb.rotaryintl.org/
Rotary International: http://www.rotary.org/