Newsletter - Archive  May 6, 2010

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Rotary Club of Villa Park

Newsletter

Thank You Villa Park Rotary For A Job Well Done!!!

Good Morning everyone we opened our meeting with an invocation by Paul Hudson, who talked about the success of our basketball fundraiser and the good feelings and positive energy  it evoked in the club and community, LInda Bartrom-Olsen led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Teri Brooks led us in the singing of God Bless America. Joe Brand then finished our opening exercises with a group reading of the Rotary Four Way Test. 

Guests:

Marsha Leeg- visiting from Nevada

Brian Lochrie- our guest speaker from the Poseidon Desalinization Project

Announcements:

Steve Stern- Thanked Jay Applebaum for all the work he put into the Harlem Ambassador Basketball event.  Jay in turn thanked all the people in the club who also put in time and hard work to make sure the event was a big success.

Lesslie Giacobbi had bottles of wine to give to several people involved in the event- Jay, Steve Stern and Linda Bartrom-Olsen

Jay Applebaum reported that the event grossed somewhere between $15,000 and $16,000 and that we won't know how much we netted until all the expenses are paid, but it should be around $7.000-$8,000.  

Bryan Nash talked about the upcoming Camp to Belong Fundraising event - Amazing Race O.C.

Date:  Saturday May 22, 2010

Time: 9AM        Place:  2 Irvine Park Road, Orange/ www.outdooreducationcenter.org

For more information, visit:  www.AmazingRaceOC.org

Bob Bell- talked about Wheelchair Basketball and how his grandson Rob Welty is attending

Long Beach State to attain a Master's Degree in coaching-  he and his teammates from the Rancho Renegades enjoyed the opportunity to do the demonstration at Saturday night's event and the crowd enjoyed it as well.

Linda Bartrom-Olsen- reminded us that May 13 is our Annual Awards Meeting

awards will be given for :   Teacher of the Year,  Essay Contest, Above and Beyond and Business of the Year.

May 22nd at 6 PM will be our Interact Awards Dinner at Rockwells- Interact Presidents will receive scholarships and significant participants will be honored with Certificates.  Linda read a list of our members who have signed up to attend, if you want to attend please contact Linda.  She was happy to announce that honorees and their parents will come from Villa Park and Lutheran High.

John Broussard- passed around the list of people who have volunteered to help prepare meals at the Ronald McDonald House for  the 2nd part of 2010.   Contact John if you have any questions.

Teri Brooks read a Thank you letter from the Ronald McDonald House

Linda Bartom-Olsen reada  Thank you letter from one of our teacher minigrant recipients, Donna Johnson who let us know the weather station is up and running thanks to our donation.

Bob  Kreisberg let us know that he will be running a 6 week  Junior Achievement Class for the 7th Grade AVID( Achievement Via Individual Determination)students at Serro Villa Middle School entitled,  What Grown-ups Do for Work.  He hopes to bring in 2 adult speakers every week who will tell the kids what they do for a living and answer questions.

Bob is also looking for "Scouts" to help him find speakers for next year's programs.  He wants people to be reading the newspaper or keeping an eye out for good speakers who can teach us something, rather than hit us up for donations.  He hopes to get us the Director of the New Stem Cell Research Center that just opened at UCI, he is also planning field trip breakfasts- one such trip would be to the new Outdoor Education Center in Irvine Park.

Pam Dunnannounced that the Lobsterfest Tickets should be available next week.  The event is on May 21st at the Yorba LInda Civic Center.

Birthdays/ Anniversaries:

Pam and Art Dunn are celebrating their 43rd anniversary today- no special plans as yet, Art says he'll bring home some food.

Teri Brooks- Birthday is today- she'll work and then do something fun later after she gets home from her Gemology Midterm Exam.

Happy Bucks:

Steven Pollack-  went fishing in Mexico and had a great time and now a freezer full of Yellowtail.

He is also very proud that his daughter Lauren is graduating Cal State Channel Islands and is the commencement speaker.

Bob Bell was happy about his grandson and his affiliation with the wheelchair basketball league.

Bob Meyer is going to Texas next week to celebrate his 88th birthday.  Happy Birthday Bob, we're so glad you come hang out with our club every week, even though you're a member of the Orange Club  He also was happy to report that the troops in Afghanistan received 96 gallons of laundry soap.

He thanked Millie Alexander for her help and Steve Kawa for the checks to pay for it.

Jay LIeberman reported that his granddaughter has been accepted into the Cornell summer Architecture program- which is the equivalent of carrying 22 units of college credit.  He also warned against flying on United Airlines, which lost his luggage and only paid a part of the replacement costs.

Jay Applebaum reported that his daughter NIcole has been accepted at the Summer Research Progarm at Washington University in St. Louis.  This is a full scholarship event that includes airfare, room and board and a stipend. The program lasts for 6 weeks and runs from mid-June till the end of July.

Lesslie Giacobbi was happy to have "Mortal " grandchildren that don't win awards.

Wayne Silzel feels like he should take some dance lessons so next time he gets pulled out from the audience he can really strut his stuff.  You could have fooled me Wayne, you looked like a natural out there.

Speaker: Brian Lochrie

Brian came to talk to us today about the desalinization project that is planned for Huntington Beach.  He told us that Villa Park receives 50% of its water from the aquifer in and around the city and 50% is imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.  As time goes on the population of Arizona and Nevada will put increasing demands on the water supply from the Colorado River.

Did you know that 98% of the world's water is in the Ocean and only a small part of the worlds water is drinkable and is in rivers, lakes and aquifers-

Poseidon Resources  has constructed one other desalinization plant in Carlsbad which should be completed in the next 18 months and will be the sister plant of the one proposed in Huntington Beach.  It will produce 50 million gallons of drinking quality water per day.

There are 21,000 Desalinization plants worldwide and the plan is to have new plants constructed up and down the California Coast.

The proposed plant in Huntington Beach will make use of already existing infrastructure at a power plant that uses seawater to cool the turbines.  The cost of constructing the desalinization plant will be $350 million dollars and it should be completed by 2013 with the capability of producing 50 million gallons of bottle quality water per day.  There is no significant environment impact and the project has wide support from many goups and communities except for opposition from Coast Keepers and Surf Riders who feel some of the fish eggs and plankton may be sucked into the plant.

9 Miles of pipeline will have to be constructed to connect the plant to the main water supply system where it can be distributed to the local communities.  It will supply about 13% of Orange Counties water.  Brian explained that ultimately the cost of imported water will increase, whereas the cost of desalinization will decrease.  The main cost is the need to have energy to pull the water through the reverse osmosis membranes. 

The company is looking to get letters of support that can be used to help get the permits needed to construct the plant from the Coastal Commission.  A full presentation before the Villa Park City Council is planned in the near future.

For more information contact: www.hbfreshwater.com

Check out the Photos from the Harlem Ambassadors Game on the Website Photo Album Page