Newsletter - Archive  Aug 27, 2009

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"All the News That's Fit to Print and More"

Newsletter

It's Hot, Hot, Hot and We've Got Lots(of Shrimp and Clams) Cooking this Weekend!!

Good morning everyone.  John Broussard kicked off the morning meeting with an invocation reminding us all that what we do in Rotary makes a difference. Linda Bartrom led us in the flag salute and George Poulos reminded us it's still baseball season with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and of course Greg Millsjumped up to lead us in a quick "Roll Out the Barrell"; yes, it's that time again!!

Guests:

Craig Beinlich- who is officially in the 10 day review period for his membership to the Club

Larry Dick- Orange Club- auctioneer for our upcoming Oktoberfest on October 7th

Robert Carey- Villa Park High School Band Booster

Steve Lopushinsky- recently returned from a 3 week bicycle safari in Africa

Lisa Adray- librarian from Serrano Elementary School

Lorri Gallaway- today's speaker, Anaheim City Council Member, Founder and Chairperson of the Eli Home for abused children, and one of our club's Charter Members

Announcements/ Happy Bucks

Robert Carey- Introduced himself and his mission to help the Villa Park High School Band

The band is willing to perform at various functions in exchange for our assistance.

Last Weekends Food Collection netted 12 baskets of food for the Orange County Food Bank

Thanks to Bob Bell, Jane McDonald, Jill Kuli, Millie Alexander, Milt Stamos, Jay Applebaum and Joe Brand who manned the door at Ralphs and Asst Governor Ken Caplin who made all the arrangements throughout the district.

Tree Farm and Shed Project-   thanks to Tom Davis, Greg Mills, Ken Fischer and Craig Beinlich who's already pitching in to help out.

Linda Bartrom announced Club Rush is today at VPHS and she's hoping to have a massive Interact sign-up... the goal is 400 members.

Bob Kreisberg announced that he has gotten some golf outings donated for Oktoberfest.

Steve Lopushinsky reported on his recent trip to Africa to help raise awareness and funding for the

foundation   Children of the Wilderness.  Steve is still raising funds and donations can be made at www.backabuddy.co.za/stevelopushinsky . A handout was provided for more information.

Steve was happy to report that after all the beating his equipment took during the 3 week bicycle safari that his camera still works.

Lesslie Giacobbi was both happy and sad to announce that her grandchildren returned to Italy.

She thanked Ken Fischer who performed some emergency dental work on her grand daughter.

Jill Kuli announced that the Read by Nine books have arrived and that we are donating $500 worth

of books to Serrano Elementary School- Lisa Adray was present to accept the donation and says that the children love when she puts the books out on the "New Books Table" in the school library.

Many Thanks to all.  Improved literacy is one of Rotary's Goals.

Big Doings This Weekend-  Saturday August 29th

1) Love Pack Stuffing Work Party at Jane McDonald's home 9-1 PM

2) Clambake at Three Arch Bay, Laguna Beach- 1 PM pick-up till dark and beyond-

Special Thanks to Deb and Steve Hart and Pam Dunn for making all the arrangements

and to the Interact Club from VPHS who will serve as our sherpas for the event.

Birthdays/Anniversaries

Bill Baker hit the big 6-0 and celebrated over 2 weekends with trips to the Concorde D'elegance at Pebble Beach where he won a pass to attend the Pro-AM Golf event- which he generously donated to the club for Oktoberfest and a trip to Haydn Lake Idaho- for some rest and relaxation.

Membership

Steve Sterm was happy to announce that Craig Beinlich's membership application has been approved by the board and he is in the 10 day review period.  Nagi Ibraham has also been approved to rejoin the club.  The new member induction ceremony is scheduled in 2 weeks.

Oktoberfest Update -Greg Mills

Keep Collecting those Silent and Live Auction Items!!

Tickets- Pam Dunn distributed the tickets- the top part is for the door prize- Please write the ticket # on the checks

Ken Fischer has created a database with over 400 potential contacts

Bill Baker was the first to purchase $600 worth of tickets!!

Our speaker and Anaheim City Council Member Lorri Gallaway donated 4 ticket to an Anaheim Ducks game in the City Council's Box and Auctioned off 2 tickets for any upcoming Angel's Game in the City Council Box- Jane and Bill McDonald donated $300 - Lorri sweetened the pot by also giving free parking.

The next Oktoberfest meeting is on Sept 3rd at Pam Dunn's home from 7-9 PM

Opportunity Drawing - John Broussard drew a 5- the pot is up to $975

Speaker- Lorri Gallaway

Q& A with the Anaheim City Councilwomen

Lorri has been a city council member for 6 years- this is an unpaid position with a $2000 per month expense account-  she says the job is not considered a full time job, but requires an unbelievable commitment of time.  She has a very professional and dedicated staff that makes life a bit easier.

- The annual city budget of Anaheim is $1.47 Billion; the city owns it's own utilities company

-Hi-Speed Rail is in the planning with Anaheim being the central hub- a station is planned by Anaheim Stadium in the vicinity of JT Schmid's Restaurant- the city is also planning to develop

a magnetic levitation train system-  projected finish date 2014

funding for this will come from the recent stimulus bill and cost estimates are $8 billion

to complete the Anaheim to Las Vegas loop- total time travel will be under 1 hour

Time from Anaheim to Los Angeles will be approximately 15 minutes.  San Francisco will also be

connected by this system.

- Angel's lease ends 2014 and the city will do what it can to extend the lease

- Tourist revenue for the city is down about 10% based on some of the taxes raised by hotel tax revenues.  Tourism is down, but the city is looking into creative ways to bring the tourists back.

- Boeing left its Anaheim complex along the 91 Freeway and the city is going to create a medical

oriented zone with a new Kaiser Facility and medical office spaces.

 - with Boeing went a number of high paying jobs and the city is faced with creating housing for the tourism based employees who earn less and require cheaper housing and more services.

Lots of good information was provided and Lorri was very generous with her donation of Angels and Ducks Tickets for our Upcoming Oktoberfest.

Parting Message: Oktoberfest is upon us- go out and get those donations for our live and silent auctions and sell those tickets.  We live in a very generous community; they will support us- we just need to ask.  Greg is doing an incredible job and needs our help- as we used to say at the Beckman Laser Institute:  No Bucks,  No Buck Rogers... the same holds true for our club. Lets make this a fun and profitable night.