Newsletter - Archive  Mar 11, 2010

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Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter

Teacher Mini-Grants

Today's meeting was our annual Teacher Mini-Grant Awards Day.  Our evaluation team led by Jill Kuli and assisted by grant readers Bob & Fran Kreisberg, Eddie Nash, Greg Mills and Linda Bartrom-Olsen received 22 grant requests.  They each read ,reviewed and rated each request and the results were tabulated independently by Dennis Kuli; 12 grants were awarded totalling $4000.

 Our opening ceremonies  started off with an invocation by George Poulos, the Pledge of Allegiance by Steven Pollack and the song "Zippity Do Dah" led by Teri Brooks.  Greg Mills led us in the Rotary Four Way Test.

Linda Olsen then introduced Jill Kuli and presented her with 2 pink roses for her efforts in putting today's program together.  Jill introduced each of the award recipients and had them give a brief description of their projects.

The Grant Recipients:

Recipient                           School                                      Project Title                         $Award

Jody Beckham               Serrano Elementary                "Colonial Day"                             $250

Jill Bonk                         Cerro Villa Middle School        "Book Expansion"                       $150

Elizabeth Fisher              Cerro Villa   "         "               "Battle of the Books"                   $500

Dianne Hannah                Cerro Villa   "         "               "Orchestra Instruments"              $310

Jennifer Hunt                   Villa Park High                       "The Impact of Health"                 $300

Celeste Ivory                    Serrano Elementary                "Music Melodies Madness"          $350

Donna Johnson                VP Elementary                       "Weather Station"                       $400

John Muelmester              Cerro Villa Middle School         "Literary Library"                        $250

Victoria Schmuhl              Serrano Elementary                 "Fit & Fab 5th Graders"              $500

David Schorr                    Villa Park High                         " Math Standard Practice"          $295

Sara Petrella                    Villa Park High                        " Mastering Math Standards"       $295

Jennifer Wong                   Cerro Vill High                        "Dissection and Science             $400

                                                                                                 Olympiad"

See photos of this event in our Photo Album.

Guests:

Gus Assad- guest of Bob Kreisberg and owner of Cedar's Restaurant in Orange

Wayne Silzel- candidate for membership

Lisa Stepanski- candidate for membership

Plus many teachers and principals  from our local schools.

Birthdays/Anniversaries:

Paige Baker-  Bill is taking Paige out to Mr. Stox and joining them will be the Catholic Preist who presided over their wedding and Bill's Catholic Education.  There was too much fun going on to hear if this was a birthday or anniversary but congratulations either way.

Announcements:

District Assembly this Saturday from 8- 12 at Argyros Hall on the campus of Chapman University

this is a great opportunity for new members and particularly incoming club board members and president-elect to learn more about Rotary and the roles they will play in their clubs.  Sign up is on-line at the www.District5320.org website.   You can sign up for classes and get your parking permit. 

Harlem Ambassadors Basketball Game Fundraiser- May 1st - Villa Park High Gymnasium.

Tickets are available from Pam Dunn.  We will be setting up tables at Ralph's, the Indian Princess/Guides Breakfast and Little League games in the coming weeks.  Linda Bartrom-Olsen has been enlisting team members at the high school, the latest is Head Football Coach Ducin Ancich.  Our own Ed Howard, Principal of Villa Park High School has been asked along with his Vice Principals to serve as honorary referees.  This should be one enjoyable,  memorable evening and another great opportunity to showcase our club to the community.    Let's get out there and sell some tickets and pack the house!!

Villa Park City Picnic- May 30th-  Villa Park Rotary will brave the smoke and cook up a mess of hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hotdogs.  Once again, it will be at Irvine Lake.  Mark your calenders.

Villa Park 5K- Run/Walk- sponsored by the Friends of the Villa Park Library.  This year we're hoping to have our club walk the event as a group to show our flare to the community.  We're looking into purchasing Rotary Wheel emblazoned  polo shirts so everyone will see us out there. We'll get prices and get back to you. 

Business of the Year- Pam Dunn is taking nominations for Rotary Business of the Year.  This is an award usually bestowed on a non-Rotarian business that is involved in the community and has been helpful to our club.  Pam will circulate a list next week.  Joe Brand nominated Brian Kalchman of the Villa Park Magazine, Bill MacElony was also mentioned for his support of the club.

Above and Beyond Award-  Pam is also looking for nominations for this award.  Rick Barnett was mentioned for the wonderful job he does in bringing marines to our community to celebrate Thanksgiving with Villa Park Families. 

Pam will head up a committee to decide on the awardees.

Carpet Cleaning in the City Hall Council Chambers- apparently we've been a bit sloppy with our breakfast coffee and there are some stains on the carpet.  We will find someone who can clean the carpets in the coming weeks.  Be careful not to spill.

Recent goings on:

Millie Alexander just returned from two weeks in Nashville, Tennessee where she helped her company relocate to their new facility.  Millie will not be joining them, because if she relocated, husband, Craig threatened to retire.  Millie feels that if anyone is going to sit home for a while it should be her.  This lead to a very comical exchange between Lesslie Giacobbi and Bob Bell.  Leslie you see told how husband, Peter announced that he would be a "stay at home dad" once the kids grew up and left home.  Peter does occasionally help out by doing Open Houses for Lesslie,  and Bob Bell quipped that "Peter only does Open Houses on the homes Lesslie doesn't want to sell".  Lesslie went on to say that all of Peter's friends want to marry her so that they can be stay at home dads.

Happy Bucks:

Bob Kreisberg announced that his wife Fran is having major surgery on March 12th at St. Joseph's Hospital.  He thanked Chanda for helping to coordinate Fran's care.  The club also wishes Fran our best and hopes for a speedy recovery.

Bob also announced that he and Pam Dunn are going to meet to coordinate our speakers program for the next year.  They're hoping to have the whole year's program laid out in advance.  He intends to get new members involved since they have access to speakers that we may not have had in the past.

Jill Kuli thanked the committee that reviewed all the grants for todays event.  She particularly thanked Steve Kawa who wrote out all the checks before the award ceremony.  Lesslie Giacobbi also thanked LInda Bartrom-Olsen for all the events she has put on in the last 4-6 weeks.

Steven Pollack is going to San Diego later today to see his nephew graduate from Marine Basic Training. He hopes to go on and do Seal Training with the US Navy. 

Steve Kawa recounted how one of the maintenance men at Santiago Canyon College accidentally shot himself in the chest with a 2 inch nail gun.  He calmly came into Steve's office and made the announcement.  He wound up spending the night in the hospital for observation and was fortunate to have no major injury to underlying organs or blood vessels.  That's a real happy buck.

Stan Van Denberg is happy that Bob Meyer is coming to speak to his church's men's club.

Gus Assad- says he's been looking for some positive energy and was happy he found it while visiting our club.  Gus, as mentioned before, has recently opened a new Lebanese Restaurant in Orange called the Cedar's Restaurant. He was in construction, but decided it was time to try doing something he really loved.  He invites us all to stop by and check out the food and ambience.

Bob Kreisberg, Jay Lieberman and Sylvan Swartz all had lunch there the other day and gave it rave reviews.

Jane MacDonald enjoyed Gus's sense of humor that we all got to see during today's meeting.

Eric Sense proudly told about his son's heroics on the Lutheran High Baseball Team. He is 12/12 at bat and hit 2 home runs that brought in the winning runs at a recent game.  Congratulations Eric.

Greg Mills talked about his plans to revamp some of our tired projects in the coming year.  He plans to review the projects we've done in the past and eliminate those that are stale or outdated.

Induction of New Member:

Steven Pollack did the honor of inducting Lisa Stepanski as our newest member.  Lisa and her sponsor Eric Sense joined Steven at the podium.  Lisa, whose category is Attorney, talked about her prior involvement at another Rotary Club as a non-member.  She decided to join our club because it is closer to her home.  She looks forward to helping us with our projects and has already agreed to help Pete Moriarty with the Membership Committee.

Wayne Silzel has also completed the requirements for membership and will be inducted in the coming weeks.  Wayne's category will be Real Estate Finance his sponsor is Jim Glenn.