THE LAMORINDAN 9-25-09

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Don Reichert reminded us of those Golden Rules that govern so much of domestic Life. You know, things like "if you open it, close it" and "If you turn it on, turn it off." Somehow, with this crowd, I'm guessing they made as much of an impression as when our parents told us the same stuff when we were but wee bairns.

VISITING ROTARIANS

Robbie Kunkel - Orinda

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

Lena Shuskova - Yet another former Youth Exchange Student we hosted, back after 5 years (and more on her in a bit)
Bruce McDougall - a prodigal son (and Charter Member) returns
Agatha-Sue Lee - Cal's reason for living
Carol Chaffey - George's RFL
Paul Chisalsky - somebody's reason for living, but we don't know whose
Tina Bettancourt - Joe's dearly beloved
Troy Federon
Ulrich Luscher - Mr. Joanne
Gwen Reichert - Don's favorite traveling companion ever

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Brad Davis' birthday found him at Lake Tahoe (north shore). Ernie Furtado's anniversary found him on a charity bike ride with Barbara. Last Sunday marked Curren Oliver Arnold's debut in the world as Alex's first ever grandkid. Kevin Croak's birthday saw him gaining 25% more usable space in his house as his daughter headed off to UC Santa Barbara (bringing rapturous support from Skip "Mr. Gaucho" McCowan). Not surprisingly, money changed hands.

GOOD, HEALING WISHES GOING OUT

Mary Elena Dochterman is not doing so well these days. A card was circulated for the Club to sign and to be forwarded to her. If you see this, Mary Elena and Cliff, please know that you are in our hearts, thoughts, prayers and good wishes.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

Aymeric is still living at Casa de Ware. In the past couple weeks, he has been to two Cal football games, posed with Cal cheerleaders at said games, gone sailing, water skiing, wake boarding and tubing. Oh, and he's been going to school, too.

So how do I get to be a Youth Exchange Student?

LENA'S BACK!

Lena Shuskova was our incoming Youth Exchange Student five years ago. She visited us today, more gorgeous than ever, full of news and pictures. The news items included the good word that sister Natalia (also a former LSR incoming Youth Exchange Student, back in the last century) is a mother (Congratulations!, Natalia), living in St. Petersburg and looking for a job. Pictures were circulated, of course.

Next, Lena reports that her Mom is still working, still doing skiing and other sports. Not surprising, but good to hear.

Finally, Lena went on to get a degree in Engineering at Moscow State University (no, it's not in the same Moscow as the University of Idaho). She did not credit her time at Acalanes High for her academic excellence, but we did. Her friend, Natalia (not her sister, Natalia) was coming to the US, specifically the San Diego area, for a school program and invited Lena along. Long story short, Lena fell in love, got married (more pictures, of course), and is living in the San Diego area looking for work. That means that we will be seeing her every now and again, as she is only down I-5 a few hours.

Welcome back to the US, Lena. You know you are welcome here in Lamorinda any time.

MORE ABC's OF ROTARY

King John is apparently carrying over one or two things from the previous administration, including assigning members to peruse Cliff "What's Rotary?" Dochterman's seminal work, "The ABC's of Rotary" and report back on an eye-catching aspect. Chuck Bove did the honors today.

Chuck noted that Harry Ruggles was the fifth Rotarian, joining the First Four back in the halcyon daze of 1905. The good Mr. Ruggles liked to sing, and encouraged Rotarians to incorporate singing into their weekly ablutions. Many Clubs do, in fact, sing on a regular basis. This is especially so in Asia and South America, although you do not have to travel that far to hear singing Rotarians: Rossmoor and Fremont-Niles are two Clubs in the region known to break out in song on a regular basis.

Fortunately for the world, we are not one of the singing Clubs, although we did regale (?) King John with something vaguely resembling song in response to something or other he said at the beginning of the meeting. But for the most part, Lamorinda Sunrise still adheres to the rule that was handed down at the very first organizational meeting back in 1987: Sing a song, go to jail - it's the law.

DO FOLD, BUT DO NOT SPINDLE OR MUTILATE

Ron Brown, he of immense talent (for example, his judicious editing is the only one who manages to make me sound like I understand the concept of subject-verb agreement or any other fundamental rules of English grammar), rose to show off his latest contribution to the Good of the Order. Okay, he gets to share the credit with Paul Fillinger for the tremendous photos and layout, Tom Black for more tremendous photos and first-rate idea input, Chuck Yeager for arranging to get the things printed pretty much free, and Hays Engelhart for the initial idea. But it was Ron who took this thing from a glimmer in Hays' eye and made it a reality in about a month.

So what is this "thing"? A truly eye-catching, informative tri-fold brochure to hand out to prospective new members. It is a take-away that encourages one to dig in and learn more about Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary.

There was one remaining detail, though: the tri-folds needed to be folded after first being trimmed. The ever-creative Ron had the thought that, if we can use a TGITLFOTM to prepare dictionaries for distribution, we can use a TGITLFOTM to trim and fold tri-folds. And thus Ron announced that, at tonight's TGITLFOTM at the Ware Estate, tri-folds will be trimmed and folded under the watchful eye and kind tutelage of the Head Trimmer Paul Fillinger and the Folder, who just happens to be none other than Glenda.

Many, many special thanks to you, Ron. Yes, you had help, but you kept the project moving forward and made sure a first-rate product emerged at the end of the day.

IF WE KEEP ADDING NEW MEMBERS AT THIS RATE, WE'LL SOON HAVE TO MEET IN THE PARKING LOT

Our latest inductee is Dan Rogers, whom we welcomed into our midst today. George Chaffey officiated, recounting the history of the world starting with the first single-celled organisms. Mark Roberts did the pinning honors, and the entire Club did the traditional handshake of welcome thing.

Dan is married (Lindsey) and has four kids (Henry, Nelson, George and Mia). He was raised in central Pennsylvania and in Baltimore, Maryland. He received his Bachelor's degree at Lafayette University of PA, and has an MBA from Penn State. He is the CFO of Bling Nation, which has to be the coolest company name with which anyone in the Club is affiliated. His idea of fun is competitive swimming and miniature trains.

Welcome, Dan.

ART AND WINE FESTIVAL UPDATE

Alex Arnold (or should we be calling him "Gramps" now?) reported that our involvement in the annual Art & Wine Festival was a roaring success. Did we mention that we humiliated the noon Club by turning out many more volunteers than they did? We did? Good. Expect the Lamorinda Club to rub their noses in it every chance we get. King John obviously succumbed whilst at PETS to the old "give a bunch of this year's pins as a reward for service" gambit, because he handed out a bunch of this year's pins to everyone who helped out at the Wine and Art Fest, the Dictionary distribution, and pretty much anyone with a pulse.

AND SPEAKING OF DICTIONARIES . . .

All that effort to distribute the dictionaries does not just float off into the ether. It comes back to us in the form of letters. King John read a few today, including one from a class of third-graders, which was adorable, and one from a Mom. She recounted how excited and proud her child was to show off their new dictionary, and how Mom and child have been spending quality time looking up words.

Oh, and the Lafayette School Board sent thanks, too. It should go without saying that getting positive attention from the Powers That Be is never a bad thing for the Club. It should be, but since this reporter's motto is "never use a sentence where a paragraph will do," it is being said anyway.

Once again, extra-special thanks go out to Tamara Raeth, who for the last few years has spearheaded the effort to get the dictionaries, coordinate with the local schools, and generally make this an annual project that goes like clockwork.

And kudos to Thomas Raeth, who has enough sense to get out of the way, cook the brats, pour the beer, and do the heavy lifting.

PROGRAM

There are a few words that come to mind for those of us who have known Don Reichert for a while. "Scaffolding" is one. "Gymnastics" is another. "Taciturn" is not. "World traveler" most decidedly is.

"World traveler" was the theme for this installment of "Expose Yourself," as Don showed us a tiny fraction of the roughly 38.2 gazillion slides, prints and digital images he and Gwen have amassed in their journeys in a presentation he called "Around the World in 80 Years."

The images we saw were drawn primarily from a book put together by his and Gwen's daughter, who sifted through the photo archive, choosing the best of the best and the most meaningful of the meaningful and, through the miracle of modern technology, produced a book of wonderful images of decades of the Reicherts from literally every continent on the globe.

I cannot begin to do justice to the beauty and the impact of the photography. All I can do is to give a hint of how far and wide Don and Gwen have gone in their 58 years of marriage by listing the 42 countries in which these shots were taken. (Don says that he and Gwen have visited over 80 different countries.) So here they are, in order of appearance:

Kenya; Sweden; Costa Rica; Ecuador; Australia; Turkey; Botswana (Don and Gwen were there on 9/11); Belize; British Virgin Islands; Greece; France; India; China; Egypt; Tanzania; Uzbekistan; Kazakhstan; Pakistan; Ireland; Vietnam; Russia; Germany (where there is a town called "Reichertshofen" and where Don found his ancestral village); Mexico; Guatemala; Bhutan; United Kingdom; Zimbabwe; Norway; Chile; Peru; Denmark; Antarctica (okay, it isn't exactly a country - so sue me); Netherlands; Japan; Bolivia; Switzerland; Nepal, Austria; South Africa (where the Reicherts ran into Charlie and Teri Franklin); and Thailand. Add in some shots from Canada (British Columbia) and the US (Alaska and Hawaii), and that's 42 different countries.

Don reports that he and Gwen love meeting the people and enjoying the great food in the different areas they visit. They also enjoy seeing the wildlife, demonstrated by photos of penguins, a lioness in a tree (one hopes a long telephoto lens was used) and cape buffalo (one hopes a really long telephoto lens was used - cape buffalo are often regarded as the most dangerous of the African big game animals).

TGTLFOTM

Friday evening at Laurie and Steve Ware's home was a lovely occasion. The secluded setting of the house, surrounded by trees and a setting sun, was a perfect fit for the friendly mood of the party gatherers. Tasty hors d'oeuvres and beverages were in ample supply to complete the festive atmosphere.

As mentioned earlier in the Newsletter there was a small project to be completed tonight. Paul Fillinger and Don Reichert brought paper cutters and set about trimming the edges on 200 newly created Lamorinda Sunrise brochures. Another set of volunteers performed the brochure tri-fold function, and voila, we had a new membership recruiting tool for the team of Hays Englehart and Walt Nelson to put into immediate use. It has been said before, but many thanks go primarily to Rich Shearer, Paul Fillinger, Tom Black and Chuck Yeager for cheerfully making this happen.

CALENDAR

Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4 - Annual District Conference for District 5160, Lake Tahoe.

Friday, October 2 - Weekly meeting at Postino 7:00 a.m. Human side of Humane! David Stegman, Executive Director of CC Humane Society.

Friday, October 9 - Weekly meeting at Postino 7:00 a.m. Gus Kramer, County Assessor

Friday, October 16 - Weekly meeting at Postino 7:00 a.m. Sheriff Warren Rupf - No illegal activities today please!