November 4, 2011
               Reporter: Cal Lee       Editor: Ron Brown        Photographer: Tom Black                      President:  Alex Arnold, 2011 - 2012          

������������������������

NO EXCUSE IS A GOOD EXCUSE

2 mike m 1-2
Well, EXCUSE ME!

Gary Fulcher probably didn't want to hear excuses from anyone who did not work on Tippy. His Thought for the Day was that "anyone with good excuses isn't good for anything else." Those ship captains are a rough bunch.

GUESTS

Rotarians ��������

��������� David Dacus, Governor of District 5160

��������� Tara Dacus, his irreplaceable helpmate

�� Jay Lifson, Lafayette Rotary and Chamber of Commerce Tsar�

�������� Alicia Cragholm, Lafayette Rotary

�� ����� Tom Henry, Lafayette Rotary

Other�����������������

Norm and Janet Pease, smiling uncontrollaby

Kevin Cragholm, LSR wannabe and soontabe��

Ashley Englehart, before another exotic move

� � ������� Carol Chaffey (been there and done that, DG)

CELEBRATIONS

We celebrate all things, great and small, or vice versa.

A Veterans Day Celebration will be held, you guessed it, on Veterans Day which is next Friday. It will go from 11:30 to 4:00, and will share the life and times of veterans who helped to make our country a safer place to live. The place to be is in front of Collector's Choice Antiques, 3574 Mt. Diablo Blvd., right across the street from Postino. It would be nice to support Collector's Choice owners, who were helpful to us during our successful display of Tippy during the Lafayette Arts & Wine Festival.

2 mike m 1-2
Go fly a kite

Veterinarian extraordinaire, Paul Bettelheim, had a birthday that was small, or at least was so long ago that only the razor-sharp Mark Roberts would ever have remembered it. The celebration was kite flying on the Berkeley Marina. Presumably it was $50 worth of fun.

Mark also remembered that we have TGITLFOTMs coming up in January, February and March, all of which so far were without a home. What a salesman! Mark Lassoed three volunteers on the spot.

David Waal was dressed up like a celebrant, causing quite a stir.

2 mike m 1-2
Don knows Woz

Don Reichert somehow got pictures of Steve Wozniak at his (Woz's) wedding and somehow mixed this in with a trip to Bhutan with Tom Henry to hang out with the King.

Thomas Peeks gets the Good Boy Award for his upcoming celebration of wife Yolanda's birthday. But he kept saying "off the record" so much that this scribe is going to play it safe for fear of litigation. Let's just say that Thomas was negotiated, somewhat painfully, up to $40.

Ashley, a dolphin's best friend

Hays Englehart's daughter Ashley, who as we know befriended� the dolphins of Dubai for a couple of years, has found another job. Not one to seek the pedestrian, she has taken the road less traveled and will be off in a couple of days for employment of indefinite duration as the head dolphin trainer in the Dominican Republic. Now, SHE knows how to celebrate! Fittingly, she was the winner at today's Raffle. If Ashley could only figure out how to get that white ball ........

Alex knows how to celebrate

But the BIGGEST CELEBRANT was our glorious leader. He and Mary Jane celebrated their 28th anniversary by hosting a gourmet dinner for the lucky board members who gave the District Governor and his helpmate the lowdown, and the highdown, about Lamorinda Sunrise. Even Fazel's pumpkin cake was a signature item. Somehow, all this did not camouflage Alex's and MJ's 28 years, which were rounded up to $30. But Alex was happy with the leftover bottles of wine.

SO LONG, TIPPY, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA��

Ron Brown described it as a bittersweet day. A labor of love was consummated with $16,750 in the bank and a handoff of the Tippy Canoe to the worthy winners, Norm and Janet Pease, who are among Orinda's most notorious citizens. Notorious for their community good works, that is. Among their LSR friends is the Canoemeister, Gary Fulcher, so it all seems appropriate, to say the least. Tippy will have a good home with very gentle treatment at Elk Lake, near Bend, Oregon, probably more hanging out on a wall as a work of art than struggling through rough seas.

2 mike m 1-2

John Fazel, another old buddy, described the final scene of the drawing, which was serendipitous indeed. Norm participated in the Lafayette Reservoir Run, and finished 2nd in his age division. The Peases consumed pancakes served up by of Lafayette Rotary right adjacent to where Tippy had set up. Just to quiet Fazel's haranguing, Janet bought the Big Ticket, putting Norm's name on it, 20 minutes before the drawing.

2 mike m 1-2
This is as good as it gets!

Ron Brown explained a bit about the great consequences of this project. Several other clubs participated in ticket selling, in exchange for being able to keep 20 percent of what they themselves generated in sales. The Lafayette Noon Club was on a special level. Their member, Jay Lifson, was personally responsible for assigning LSR a prime spot at the Art and Wine Festival, where $5,000 worth of tickets were peddled. In addition, the Lafayette Club was responsible for a significant percentage of the total tickets sold. Therefore, 30% of the entire net total is being donated to them, earmarked for their Reservoir Performing Platform (stage) project which they have worked on for years, with the end now in sight. The entire community will benefit in perpetuity. And for this, a Tippy of the hat to the Nooner gang. You done good. �

2 mike m 1-2
The winners, surrounded by the usual suspects

THE D.G. HAS BEEN AROUND

��

2 mike m 1-2
LSR warmly welcomes the Governor

.... To about 50 clubs, that is. Gov. Dave Dacus picked up on claims made by certain Board members at Alex's party that this 50th club is "unique" a descriptor which might be interpreted in a number of ways. But Dave referred to it in favorable fashion.

He recognized old friend PDG George Chaffey and our Assistant Governor Debbie Roessler, who is one of Dave's outstanding group of 10 AG's.

Next year the District Conference will be conveniently located in Napa on November 2 - 4. The Conference has a number of inspiring events and speakers. An example of a speaker at this year's recent event was one of the Band of Brothers, who had learned the good things about Rotary and vowed to join when he got home, which he did.

Tara Dacus, who, of course, also visited the 50 clubs, has a project of her own, which she selected after inspecting most of the booths at the last International Convention. This is to combat through education the "shaken baby syndrome," blamed for as many as 10,000 casualties annually in the US, including 1,500 deaths. Tara was directly affected by this when a girl of her acquaintance who had come from a foster home had a baby who literally died at the hands of her boyfriend. According to Tara, a third of these incidents are caused by boyfriends of single moms, a third by parents, and a third by caregivers including teenage babysitters. �

2 mike m 1-2
Seeing is understanding

The Dacuses brought and demonstrated a simulated baby which was electronically rigged to show the parts of the brain which are affected by the shaking; the demo infant "cries," then upon shaking the brain lights up in the affected areas. Certainly drives the point home. Tara asked that our club support this educational project. A "baby" costs $636 including an educational DVD.

In something of a change of pace, Dave took back the microphone and remarked that on entering Postino he didn't see the badge box. However, espying all that wine in the racks in the foyer he� thought maybe THIS is what make LSR "unique?" Sorry Dave doesn't pass the Four-Way Test, although we are happy to drink to the very idea. He then told one about the cattle rancher and the bull and "show him your badge," as another exhortation to wear your badge with pride.

At the International Assembly in South Dakota where District Governors-Elect are trained, Dave learned that the way to put a face on the Rotary story is to show the impact of projects on people's lives. Such as the Venezuelan girl's thanks to Rotary for the face surgery that took her from loneliness to playing with other kids, and the baby whose parents made a 14 hour trip for its surgery which, due to a mix up, would have been cancelled but for Rotary's intervention, and the African kids being saved from hours of carrying water and allowed to go to school instead because of a new water well. In other ways, perhaps closer to home, kids' lives are changed by Camp Royal, Camp Venture, Ambassadorial scholarships, exchanges - the list goes on. All this is from ordinary volunteer Rotarians living our mission statement, "Service Above Self." The service rendered benefits mankind. DEFINITELY passes the Four-Way Test.�

As stated by International President Kalyan Banerjee, what allows us to make a difference is the Rotary Foundation. There are so many challenges in addition to polio which Rotary will address. The RF is set up to do it. Every dollar received is saved for three years, then goes to local districts, with the interest during those three years paying for overhead. Matching grants play an important role in supporting projects.

An avid supporter of the RF is Bill Gates, who has said some very nice things about Rotary in public. He also observed that even small amounts given to credible organizations can add up to a significant difference. And Rotary has established that credibility through the Four-Way Test.

2 mike m 1-2
Tippy is making its own November Foundation donation and is honored to pose with distinguished guests Debbie, Tara and Dave.

Dave demonstrated the power of accumulating small contributions by having each person in the audience shout his/her individual name simultaneously, then having whole group do the same with the words "Rotary Foundation." The power of combining the group was striking. To enable this power, Paul Harris started the organization with just a few business friends in Chicago. Today, more than a hundred years later, there are over� 1.2 million members worldwide and 33,000 clubs.

Dave's motto this year is "Rave On for Rotary." This stems from an admired classmate and pro basketball friend, Dave Stallworth, who was known as Dave the Rave, and also from Buddy Holly's "Rave On": "The little things you say and do / make me want to be with you." (Did Buddy actually shed a tear at this point?)��

We all should Rave On (though not with Ecstasy), out in the community, showing we love what we do, and telling about it (e.g., Rotary's efforts have led to eradicating all polio in every country in the world except Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and India - and in India last year only one case was reported). It sure doesn't hurt that the Gates Foundation's #1 objective is to take this polio eradication the rest of the way. That they're honored to have us as a partner and they're with us all the way to the end.

November is the official Foundation Month. Dave has started a Green Blood Drive, for which he says we all have the same blood type, RI Positive.�� He'd like to see everyone become a Sustaining Member ($100 for the year) in November. Use of the "OPM" philosophy is encouraged. If you don't know what that is, authorities such as Steve Ware will be happy to explain it.

Our club's thanks go to Dave and Tara for all their good work and for their flexibility in being able to relate so well to our not-always-easy, but always-unique club. �

CALENDAR

Friday, 11-11, 7:00 am, Third grade dictionaries�

Friday, 11-18, 7:00 am, Ron Oldwin, Professor, St. Mary's College

Friday, 11- 25 �Dark

Friday, 12 - 2, 7:00 am, Susan Captain, Lamorinda wine growers

Friday, 12 - 23, Dark

Friday, 12 - 30, Dark

Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary Links

Lamorinda Sunrise Web Site

Lamorindan Archives


ADDITIONAL PHOTOS OF THIS AND OTHER LSR EVENTS MAY BE FOUND AT WWW.LSR.SMUGMUG.COM. SHOULD BE YOU SMITTEN BY A PARTICULAR IMAGE, PRINTS MAY BE ORDERED FROM THIS WEBSITE. (THE QUALITY IS EXCELLENT.).
Contact Us

Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise
PO Box 1491
Lafayette, California 94549
www.lamorindasunrise.org
E-Mail Us