Francie's
View...June 17 General Meeting
This
week we had a start-of-meeting-twist with two visiting Rotarians
doing the honors of leading the flag salute (Marv Hansen)
and the invocation (Brian Malison)…that’s kind of
different! Must have something to do with this being President
Ed’s LAST
meeting! (Cheers!…applause!) Even though this
was President Ed’s last meeting, nobody “volunteered” to
join Sully’s Sailors, however, Dave
Burr joined
after a substantial bartering session…from $12.50 to
$250…even though Dave has reservations about an Air Force guy
being captain of the ship instead of a Navy guy! Welcome Aboard,
Dave! Former
Visalia Rotary member George
Lavenson was
here visiting from Hawaii…Good to see you, George!
President Ed presented the Four Avenues of Service Citation
Award to Phil
Hornburgfor all he does for our club and the Visalia Rotary
Community Foundation. Congratulations, Phil! (Cheers,
applause, AND a standing ovation!) Laurie
Isham presented
President Ed with a plaque for the support received from our
club for ProYouth Heart. ProYouth Heart serves 3,500
children and recently received a grant to serve at the high
schools. (Totally awesome!)
Al
Fisher’s Meet
the Press segment (guess
that sounds better than interviewe d/interrogated?)
focused on Frank
Serpa. Frank has been in our club for three years.
He grew up in the Azores as the second oldest of 18 children.
(Oh, my!) His dad was a carpenter, they had more kids
than chickens, and the house had a dirt floor, 2 bedrooms and an
attic. Eventually a 3rd bedroom
was added. There was no electricity and water had to be
brought from the village. Their mattresses were stuffed
with corn leaves. Frank came to the United States in 1971
with 3 quarters and a penny. He worked in a factory making
jeans. His next job was as a car salesman…and the rest,
as they say, is history…or in this
case his
story! Frank thanks his family for their support.
We’re so glad you’re here, Frank!
Don
Hutton passed
out Rotary shirts to members as reverse-fines (aka: awards!):
Bill Nash because his wife is a fina list
for Visalia Chamber Commerce’s Woman of the Year; Greg
Meis
for his dedicated meeting setup; Glen
Stanton
because his son is engaged; and Susan
Welch
for superb efforts scheduling programs. And speaking of
programs, sometimes programs cancel (Rats!), and then the
replacement program cancels (Boo, Hiss!) and then we have a
program like today: We enjoyed a small preview of the play
“Into the Woods,” a variation
on the “Little Red Riding Hood” theme, presented by the League
of Christian Actors. This play is going to be at the Fox
Theater Friday and Saturday, June 26th and
27th.
Contact the Fox Theater for tickets and times. Glen
Morris also
presented today, touching on the Chamber’s Man and Woman of the
Year Awards. The Chamber first awarded Man of the Year to C
T Buckman in 1953; Annie Mitchell was the first Woman of the Year
in 1974; 1986 brought us the first Business of the Year (Real
Fresh); and 1995 Business of the
Year was split between Small Business of the Year and Large
Business of the Year. Several of our members or their
spouses are nominees for awards this year, the theme of which is
“Best of Visalia” (they certainly are!) The Chamber is
recruiting for the Sequoia Regional Leadership Program.
Applications are available on their website. Thanks for
stepping up with programs this week (with what must have been
REALLY short notice)!
The
deadline for Team Leader and Team Member applications is July 1,
2009 for our Rotary District’s outbound GSE (Group Study
Exchange) with District 4670 Brazil (April 10 to May 9, 2010.)
Team Members must be between the ages of 25 to 40 and CANNOT be
Rotarians or immediate family. For more information and
applications, contact: Fred
Scott, Harvey May, Bill Evans, or visit the District GSE
Chair website: http://www.
montereypacificrotary.org/
brazil/
We
are dark at Noon next week. Please RSVP for President Ed’s
Demotion (June 24th, 6 pm at the Visalia Country
Club) to Don
Sharp, 734-9246. It’s free, so plan to attend!
Although you are supposed to choose to dress as a sailor or as a
pirate, Captain Ed indicated that as long he is captain the
consequences will be dire indeed for Pirates! Yo Ho, Arrrgh, and
Ahoy, Maties!
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