Newsletter - Archive  Mar 18, 2010

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Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter

Master Gardening 101; Welcome New Member Wayne Silzel

Today's meeting was chock full of events, announcements and great information for all the wanna be gardeners in the club.   Our opening ceremonies began with an invocation by Mark Schmidt; Millie Alexander led us in the Pledge of Allegiance; our song was " When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and Greg Mills led us in the Rotary Four Way Test.

Guests:

Don Blake - from the Orange Club

Amber Walker- from the Boy Scout Council

Tom Farrell - Master Gardner and today's speaker

Tina Spindler- Master Gardner

Dr. John Strand- Liaison for the Friends of the Villa Park Library 5k run

Lane Calvert-  PDG and District 5320 Youth Activities Coordinator

Secret Greeter- Steven Pollack  had a very profitable morning for the club. We should let him do this more often.

New Member Induction:

Wayne Silzel was inducted by Steve Stern along with his sponsor Jim Glenn.  Wayne's category of membership is Commercial Real Estate Finance.  He has already been very active with the club assisting as one of the judges in our recent Speech Contest.  Welcome Wayne we all look forward to working with you and getting to know you better.   Photos of the ceremony are on the website at the Photoalbum page.

Announcements:

Linda Bartrom-Olsen- talked about the upcoming area Speech Contest.  Our winner BreeAnna Baeyens will participate.  She also told us that the VIlla Park Interact Board met yesterday and a full club meeting will be held in Dr. Bartrom-Olsen' s Classroom today or tomorrow.

Jay Applebaum, Steve Stern and Pam Dunn all talked about the upcoming Harlem Ambassador's Basketball Fundraiser that will occur on Saturday May 1st at the Villa Park High School Gymnasium.  Tickets are on sale now at very reasonable prices.  Jay has additional posters if anyone needs them and Pam is in charge of ticket distribution.  Jay will send a copy of a flier to the club membership in an email and encouraged everyone to make copies and circulate them to neighbors, family and friends.  Steve Stern pointed out that this is a very family friendly event and  people should think about bringing  children or grand children.  If you know Steve Sternthe pre-game dinner will be fabulous- the menu includes chicken, steak and veggie kabobs, rice, salad and dessert.  We've had a great response from Villa Park High School and member/ VPHS Principal  Ed Howard who has made a great effort to help this be a phenomenal event.  We haven' t had much success getting Lutheran High involved, but Eric Sense, whose son is a baseball phenom there will see what he can do to get us some participants.

Ron Accornero introduced Dr. John Strand who is in charge of this year's 5k Friends of the Library Run/Walk on June 26th.  This is the 6th annual event and we learned that Dr. Strand has run in marathons in every state and all seven continents.  This year's event features the 5k Run/ Walk but also adds a new Progressive Marathon, where the participant can run 1 mile every day for 23 days  and complete the final 3 miles on the day of our event.  Entry fees are $25 for the Run/Walk and $35 for the Progressive Marathon.  Participants will get a t-shirt and medallions for finishing early in the Run/Walk  or  a special participation medal for the Progressive Marathon. 

Joe Brand announced that our club was donating $100 to put the club logo on the T-shirt.

PDG Lane Calvert announced that Christie Villaforte from Villa Park High had been this year's Interact Youth Governor and had done an outstanding job.

He encouraged everyone to attend the Speech and Song Competition Finals and talked about the upcoming Rotary Workabilty Days at the Outdoor Education Center on Wednesdays March 24, June 2nd and Thursday April 15 from 9 AM- 1PM.  This program assists students with disabilities with job training.  The goal of the Workability Program is to help build self-esteem, confidence, friendship and  a chance for adult volunteers to share their work experiences with the participants.

Contact Lane Calvert at LANEC@OCBSA.ORG  for more information and to sign up. Lunch will be provided.

Lane introduced Amber Walker who works with him at the Boy Scout offices

and Don Blake, who is serving as the District 5320 area representative for Interact Groups.

Steven Pollack talked about the upcoming "Dancing with Heros" Event at Camp Pendleton on April 17th  from 6-11 PM

Birthdays & Anniversaries:

Lisa Stepanski is celebrating 22 years of marriage- She's taking her son to a Little League Game and then to All-Star Basketball Practice, while dad shuttles the other kids about.  She hopes to meet up with her husband for dinner tomorrow night.

Jeannie Hankins celebrates another year on March 25th.  Happy Birthday Jeannie!!

Happy Bucks:

Bob Kreisberg was very happy to announce that his wife Fran's surgery went well and that she is on the road to recovery.  Bob says her full recovery make take years, but he is optimistic that she will recover and have less pain and he was very pleased with the care she has received to date.  All the best Fran for a speedy recovery!!

Steven Pollack attended his nephew's Marine Boot-camp graduation ceremony last week at MCRD in San Diego and was quite impressed with the proceedings. His nephew will now go on to have advanced training and will ultimately spend a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He then hopes to apply for Navy Seal Training. Steven also noted the article by Amber Gonzales that appeared in today's  Orange City News about our Teacher Mini-grant Awards last week.

Eric Sense thanked Paul Hudson for his prompt and professional service with refilling his ink cartridges.

Teri Brooks was just happy... must have been today's song about the Irish Eyes Smiling.

Millie Alexander related a story about running into a Marine just back from overseas duty who was happy to receive our Rotary "Care"  Boxes.  She thanked Bob Meyer for making this possible.

Mark Schmidt just returned from a trip to the midwest and brought back a photo album to show the club the large homes he saw in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and some of the office buildings in the Detroit Area.

Nagy Ibrahim- said "Kiss me I'm Irish" and that business is good.  I always thought he looked Irish.

Wayne Silzel was happy to say that Bob Meyer spoke at his church and gave a very enjoyable presentation.

Bob Meyer will be speaking on June 6th at the "Flying Aces of WWII Symposium"

Lane Calvert- pointed out that Rotary and Scouting both recently celebrated their 100th year.

He thanked Bill Baker and Greg Mills for their service on the O. C. Boy Scout Board along with 2 Villa Park High Interact students who have been very helpful.

George Poulos had the winning ticket and his surrogate card drawer Milt Stamos drew and Ace.

That means there's over $300 in the pot.

Speakers:  Tom Farrell and Tina Spindle- Master Gardeners

     Spring is here and with the warmer weather its time to start planting your spring vegetables.

Vegetables grown at home are more flavorful,  come in more varieties than what you can buy in the market,  have more nutritional value and you get the added reward of growing it yourself.

Tom pointed out that the best planting months are March, April and May.  Soil of course is very important to the success of your garden and its best to amend the soil, plant the seeds and once they reach an adequate size transplant them into the larger container or your garden.  Its also important to rotate your crops... don't plant the same vegetable in the same place every year.

If you buy plants that need to be transplanted Tom says remove them carefully from the pack  and "Tickle" the roots, i.e. spread the roots out in the transplanted location. Tom talked tomatoes and his favorite varieties are Celebrity, Better Boy and Better Bush. These seem to grow best in our area. 

    If you don't have a large garden area many of the vegetables can be grown in containers.  Again soil choice is important, don't put plain garden soil in the pot, get potting soil and add amendments like Perlite and Peat Moss.  Larger containers tend to do better and Tom says you can place an old coffee filter over the drain hole at the bottom to allow drainage and prevent soil loss through the hole. Make sure to water your garden and drip irritation is the best option to insure regular watering.

Fertilizers are also important and he prefers time-released products. Plant your garden where it will receive a minimum of 5 hours of direct sunlight.

   Overall, this was an information packed session with a very thorough haNd-out.  Tom and Tina were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their topic. From a show of hands during the presentation many of our club members have home gardens and probably picked up some very helpful tips from today's speaker.