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December 18, 2009 Reporter: Ron Brown Editor: Ron Brown Photographer: Tom Black President: John Fazel, 2009 - 2010
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY "On this Christmas, may we, the people of every race, nation and religion, learn to love one another and to forgive and be forgiven? Then the peace of Christ will prevail." Coretta Scott King via Dan Rogers VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS Don Jenkins - Orinda Club Dr. Gene Voelkel - Concord Club Caroline and Thomas Kunkel - Robbie's kids Kim Edmondsen - Stafford retirement community representative BIRTHDAYS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS Chuck Bove turned 49 last Sunday. He was somewhat miffed in that King John Fazel seemed unaware of this momentous occasion. Blame for the transgression was liberally passed around amongst the members until Chuck finally sat down. Krysten Laine was celebrating a wedding anniversary and hubby Rene's birthday at the same time. A $100 donation to the Lamorinda Sunrise Endowment and another $100 donation to the Rotary Foundation ensued. Buddy Burke and Tom Black were both recognized for joining the club on the same date in 2005. Funny, this didn't seem to register as anything significant or even memorable with either of them. A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC Aymeric is on the move. He has taken up residence with Eileen MacIntyre for the next three months. This makes him a close neighbor to Buddy and Brad Davis. Fortunately he has proven to be capable of holding his own against the probable antics of these two. David Waal and Joanne Luscher have signed him up for a Lake Tahoe skiing trip during the Christmas holidays. Aymeric is a member of the Acalanes choir and has enjoyed participating in two Christmas concerts. He is also an eager student in a cinema class in San Francisco which is currently shooting a documentary film. Paul Fillinger took note of Aymeric's very serious pursuit of a possible career in film making. Paul learned what was really needed was for Aymeric to have his own camera to maximize the cinema class experience. Paul researched the camera requirement with Aymeric's instructor after getting some decidedly unhelpful suggestions from several eager, but uninformed members and tracked down the exact camera that met all specifications. The club contributed the necessary funds and Aymeric got a big surprise Christmas present. We expect to see great things from this young man sooner, rather than later! SUCCESSFUL "ADOPT A FAMILY" PROJECT Mike Edwards loaded up his vehicle for a trip to Concord to deliver the presents so generously donated by LSR members to brighten up the holidays for deserving families. This project originated with Blair Howard, a freshman at Acalanes High School, who was carrying on the tradition started at Stanley Middle School. This young lady is truly amazing. LAST CALL FOR RENO TRAIN TRIP December 23rd is the last day to reserve your spot for the Rotary weekend in Reno, January 24/25, 2010. As previously reported, you can make ala carte reservations for train, accommodations and food. George Chaffey introduced a short video, made by Chuck Kenney, with many interviews on the train and in the city. This year Rita Moreno, the guest speaker at the luncheon, will be on the train for discussions and comments. Make your reservations today at http://www.keyholiday.com/rotary.html. RAFFLE Aymeric and Ernie teamed up on this week's raffle. Aymeric conveniently pulled the ticket for Ernie, who was sitting at the same table. Just the way they planned it! PROGRAM Retired marine major Ed Stevenson is currently serving as the Building Manager at the Veterans Memorial Building in Lafayette and the Rockridge Masonic Temple in Oakland. He is the former Commanding Officer of the San Francisco Marine Reserves at Treasure Island. His professional career has included experiences as a trucking executive, retail store owner and mortgage and marketing executive. However the real reason he was today's speaker had to do with his being a 25 year member of the Tournament of Roses Association in Pasadena. The Association has 935 members, all of whom must live or work in the neighboring communities of Pasadena. Members are usually recruited from thousands of volunteers who work on float decorations or other committees or activities each year. Even though Ed now lives in the Bay Area, he was asked to retain his membership when he moved up here six years ago. The annual Tournament of Roses event is far more than a parade preceding the New Year's Day bowl game. It is actually a five day event taking place pre-and-post parade. The pre-parade events include an equestrian show, band festival and tours of float decorations. The post parade event focuses on a three-day theme park attracting 100,000 visitors -- more than Disneyland attracts at 10,000 people per hour. It has been judged the best festival in the world. Check out some of the interesting facts concerning this event: The first Tournament Of Roses was staged in 1890 by members of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club, former residents of the East and Midwest eager to showcase their new home's mild winter weather. During the next few years the festival expanded to include marching bands and motorized floats. The games on the town lot included ostrich races, bronco busting demonstrations and a race between a camel and an elephant (the elephant won). Reviewing stands were built along the parade route. Eastern papers began to take note of the event. In 1895 the Tournament of Roses Association was formed to take charge of the festival which had grown too large for the Valley Hunt Club to handle. In 1902 the Tournament of Roses decided to add a football game to the festivities - the first post-season football game ever. Stanford agreed to play mid-western power house Michigan. It was a sad day for Stanford which trailed in the game 49-0 and gave up in the third quarter. The lopsided score prompted the Tournament to give up football in favor of Roman-style chariot races. In 1916 football returned to stay. The first great modern football stadium was built in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco area and hosted its first New Year's football game in 1923, nicknamed the "Rose Bowl." The tradition of never playing the game on Sunday was adopted. The unofficial reason given is "we will never play the game on God's day if God will agree not to rain on our parade!" It is estimated that 80,000 hours of volunteer services by the 935 Association members are donated each year to put on the festival. This does not include untold thousands of hours more by volunteers. The floats on the parade use about 60 tons of steel and 5,000 gallons of glue. All organic matter must be used to cover the surface of the floats. The floats are first painted so that it is known where the various materials are applied. The roses are maintained in individual vials to keep them fresh. Artists end the painstaking process of each float's decorations.
The Rose Parade was first shown on TV in black and white in 1947. It was also the first event to be featured in color and now in high definition. A million viewers line the parade route. 40 million people in the U.S. watch the parade. There are an estimated 400 million viewers world-wide. It projects a great image of the U.S. for people of all ages and nationalities. The Rotary float this year is entitled "Service Above the Rest." The float dimensions are 15 ½ feet high, 18 feet wide and 35 feet long. It amounts to about a $150,000 investment by Rotary to be a parade participant. Corporate floats, featuring extensive animation and automation, will cost up to $400,000 to build and exhibit. There are 42 floats entered in this year's parade. The number of entries is determined by the length of time required to get every float past the TV stations in two hours. The resultant revenue to the area is about $300 million! One final interesting note about the Rose Queen and her court of six Princesses; every girl who is a senior from a high school in the area is invited to audition for one of these positions. It is not a beauty contest. Selections are determined by achievement. And the bonus for auditioning is two free tickets to the highly coveted Queen's Ball. What a good idea!! Ed represented The Tournament of Roses Association well. In his 25 years he has worked on Parade Operations Float Liaison, University Entertainment and Communications Coordination, Float Construction and Decoration Post Parade Logistics and VIP Tours. Many thanks for this lively, entertaining presentation of a one-of-a-kind, world-class event.
CALENDAR
Friday. December 25 - DARK, Merry Christmas
Friday, January 1 - DARK, Happy New Year
Friday, January 8 - Club Assembly
Tuesday, January 12, 7 a.m. Board meeting
Friday, January 15 - Larry Swindwell, World's foremost expert on baseball, back by popular demand
Friday, January 22 - District Governor's report
Friday, January 29 - Adarsha Shivakumar, the Jatrophia Miracles
Friday, February 5 - Terry Englehart, Seniors without walls | |
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ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THIS AND OTHER LSR EVENTS MAY BE FOUND AT TOMBLACK.SMUGMUG.COM. SHOULD BE YOU SMITTEN BY A PARTICULAR IMAGE, PRINTS MAY BE ORDERED FROM THIS WEBSITE. (THE QUALITY IS EXCELLENT.).
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Contact Us
Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise PO Box 1491 Lafayette, California 94549 www.lamorindasunrise.org E-Mail Us
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