September 1, 2010 

Announcements: September must be wine month: September 9th, Habitat for Humanity, Food and Wine Pairing, $100 per person, 6pm, Visalia Marriott Hotel; RSVP to Bill Cole at 636-111. September 11th, $80 per person, Rotary Wine Tour leaving the Visalia Holiday Inn at 8 am, returning about 11 pm; RSVP to Krista Rollin at 972-1618. September 25th, 4th Annual VSR Wine Trip leaving SJVC corporate office on Akers at 10 am; returning to Visalia about 8:30 pm; RSVP to Tina Nelson at 622-9955. 

Awards of the Month:  Student of the Month:  Jeff Hohne, of Mt Whitney High School, introduced Pricilla Cornell.  Pricilla has a bilateral hearing loss and uses a bone induction hearing aid.  With a 3.78 weighted GPA including several AP classes and participating in various leadership programs, scholastic honor societies, and campus organizations, she doesn’t believe in letting her hearing loss restrict her. Congratulations to an excellent student and inspiring young person. Rotarian of the Month:  Congratulations Tom Seidler and thank you for your various and assorted support of Rotary and its programs! 

President’s Club:  Jim Wohlford joined the club because of his picture with Doug (Whitey) Hurzog upon Whitey’s induction into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Stan Simpson also joined the club, but he might not have known it! 

Our Second EVENT Program:  Dale Darling delivered a wonderful program recounting his journey to climb the “Seven Summits” (i.e. the highest peak on each continent.) climbing them in this order: 1) Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa; 2) Elbrus, Russia, Europe; 3) Aconcagua, Argentina, South America; 4) Mt. McKinley, United States, North America; 5) Everest, Nepal/Tibet, Asia; 6) Vinson Massif, Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica; and 7) Kosciuszko, Australia (the whole country is a continent!) He trained by using a Stairmaster with a 52 pound pack for an hour 3 times a week, seven mile run once a week, swim 80 laps once a week, 50 pull ups and 200 sit ups (daily?) Ooof! When a summit is over 25,000 feet (aka Everest!) you can’t eat solid food but you expend 7,000 calories a day (I don’t think Ensure will do the trick!) He found when he left Tibet that he had lost 22 pounds!  To stay warm you wear a down suit (it’s like a down sleeping bag with arms and legs.) You sleep in your down suit in your down sleeping bag! The goal in climbing a summit is not to make it to the top…the goal is to get back down! (He’s scared of heights…REALLY!) His message: don’t live vicariously through others; turn your dreams into reality! (I’m sorry, but I’m a great fan of living vicariously through others…like when Steven Seagal does his thing or one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s characters gets his hands on two automatic weapons at once! Here we go!)