Newsletter - Archive  Jun 3, 2010

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Rotary Club of Villa Park Newsletter

Getting to Know Bryan Nash... the Man Behind Orange County's Camp to Belong

Its one of life's little ironies that you can know someone and  still not truly knows what shaped them to be the person they ultimately become.  Today we learned a lot more about our own Bryan Nash and everyone came away from the experience feeling proud to know him and have him in our club.

The day opened with an invocation by Steven Pollack who appealed to our sense of responsibility to live our lives by Rotary's Four Way Test.  MIllie Alexander led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Bryan Nash led us through the Rotary Four Way Test.  Teri Brooks led us in the singing of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Guests:

Greeter Kirk Parker introduced our guests:

Lea Goucher- Guest of JIm Brodsky and Eric Sense

Steve Mostero- Guest of Lesslie Giacobbi

Announcements:

Steve Stern- reminded us that the Demotion Party for outgoing President Joe Brand will be on Sunday afternoon June 27th at 5PM.  It will be at the home of Joe and Pam Brand and will be a Mexican Fiesta.

We were also told that last Sunday's  Villa Park Family Picnic  netted almost $1000 in food sales.

Teri Brooks reported on the Villa Park High Sr. Awards Assembly that occurred on June 2nd.

Teri Presented the awards to Villa Park High Interact Co-Presidents Diane Marcus and Daryl Hok.  Both received scholarships for $250.  Amber Koch president of the Lutheran High Interact also received a certificate and $250 scholarship at our recent Interact Awards Dinner.  Diane will be attending USC; Daryl Yale and Autumn UCLA in the fall. Congratulations and good luck!!

Jane McDonald let us know that she heard from Alex Mora and the Tecate Rotary Dance will be on August 28th.  We're hoping to have some members attend.  If you're interested contact Jane..

This will also be a celebration of Alex's 60th birthday.

Birthdays/Anniversaries:

Bob Bell celebrated his birthday on May 30th- he went to the Angel's Game with his grandson.

George and Celia Poulos celebrated their 46th anniversary with a trip to San Francisco.

Happy Bucks:

Steve Stern- Celebrated his daughter Julie's birthday yesterday with a special home cooked meal.

Prime Rib, Beef Wellington and Napoleons.

Teri Brooks announced she is taking her Gemology Test tonight- good luck Teri.

Teri's daughter got married last weekend and Teri couldn't be more thrilled or happy with the event and her new son-in-law. 

Bill Baker attended the Boy Scout National Meeting in Dallas Texas and was pleased to learn they are constructing a new 1,000 acre camp in an old strip mining area in West Virginia.

He also reported that his son Will has taken the Medical School Admission Test and is applying to medical school.

Bob Meyer announced that Ken is going to attend nursing school.

Wayne Silzel- commented on how great it is to have a resource like the Nixon LIbrary so close to Villa Park.  He announced that there will be a program  this summer for children about our U.S. Presidents that will feature actors playing the role of each President and answering questions about historic events that occurred during their terms of office.

He also attended a concert in the East Room and commented on the wonderful acoustics.

Bob Bell was proud to announce that his grandson Rob Welty received a 4.0 grade point average at Long Beach State this semester.  Rob is studying for his Master's Degree.

Jim Brodsky commented on how good Bob Meyer looks in his WWII Uniform.  Bob will be giving a presentation on his role in D-Day at the Main Branch of the Orange Public Library on June 7th at 6:30 PM.

Pam Dunn was happy to announce that husband Art does not require heart by-pass surgery. Art was happy too.

She also commented on the amazing line-up of speakers that Bob Kreisberg has coming to the club over the next year.

Steve Mostero was happy that his nephew with cerebral palsy had a successful lung surgery to help with his breathing issues.

Jay Applebaum reported that his daughter Nicole won several awards at yesterday's Villa Park High Sr. Awards Assembly.  Including a $250 scholarship from the PFSO.  She was also named Spartan of the Year by the school's newspaper, The Oracle.  She will be starting a summer research fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis on June 15th and will be working in a laboratory that is doing Stem Cell Research on Spinal Cord Injuries at the school's medical center.  She will enter the school as a Freshman in September and will be studying Biomedical Engineering.

Lesslie Giacobbi drew a 10; the pot is above $700.

Speaker:

Many of you have heard some of Bryan's story of being abandoned by his mother and his ordeals

 in the foster care system.   What Bryan wanted to share with us today was how he overcame his

his circumstances to become the successful businessman and philanthropist he is today.

After aging out of the foster care program and graduating from high school Bryan attended two semesters at Cal State Fullerton.  Running short of funds he decided to try his hand at construction.  He learned how to use a pneumatic nail gun and after 6 months bought his own gun and began a succussful business using the  gun to install roofing on supermarkets all around Southern California.  This led to him getting a contractors license and expanding  his business to doing room additions and remodels.  Soon Bryan was able to purchase some property and tore down an existing structure to build a multi-unit apartment building.

All during these years Bryan maintained a special relationship to a women he calls his  "adopted grandmother". When he moved out of his foster home at age 16 his foster family moved leaving the women behind and alone.  He visited with her two times a week to help do her laundry and talk. She had always been kind to him. Bryan says that he learned that "you're either serving somebody or somebody's serving you."  This is where Bryan learned about responsibility, love and affection.

Through a friend who was a private investigator Bryan sought to find his biological father.  He had met his mother briefly at age 13, but he really wanted to see where he came from; he needed to connect.  He had reunited with his biological sister Cindy who he  had  not seen in 5 years.  They have gone on to become close despite the lost years ; Cindy is a board member of  the Eddie Nash Foundation. The search took 21/2 years, but he finally located his father who was living in South Miami and had spent a considerable amount of time in jail because of mob affiliations.  Ironically, he was living in a place called Treasure Island, a fitting place for someone who Bryan referred to as a "pirate".  Bryan traveled to meet his father and found out he had a brother and sister he didn't know existed. On the airplane ride home Bryan cried tears, but not of sadness, these were tears of healing/closure.  Bryan's father and brother came to visit him on one of his birthdays and his father gave him a gold Rolex Watch with an inscription; Bryan to this day wonders if the watch was stolen property.  He gave his father and brother one of the Phoenix Medallions mentioned later.

At age 30, Bryan decided he wanted to leave construction and do something different.  At the time his wife was studying to be a nurse and was using  5x8 index cards as a study aid.  Bryan made up some cards and took them to a trade show, where he received very encouraging feedback. After making some modifications he began printing up study aid cards and marketing them to students in the health care areas   His company was called Flash Anatomy and later became Bryan Edwards Publishing.  The company now has 34 products that are marketed in the US and Abroad and has sold over 1,000,000 copies.  Bryan keeps the price low - about $20, to compete with the high costing medical text books.  Several people in the audience have either used or heard about the cards.

Bryan wears a necklace that depicts a Phoenix, the mythological bird that rose from the ashes.

He is also the author of a book about his early life entitled, "A Phoenix Rising".

At some point in time Bryan was asked to speak before a group about his experience as a foster child and after the talk he was approached by an audience member who invited him to be a speaker at a camps.  Bryan had never been to camp himself and had a great time, but he observed the behavior of the kids attending.  As each bus arrived they would be watching as the kids came off, trying to see if they could identify their lost siblings. Bryan was moved by this experience, he himself had when he found his sister. He commented how common this is in foster kids, who may not even recognize their own brothers or sisters after years of separation.  He saw the  bonding that occurred over that week in camp and decided that this was something he wanted to bring to Orange County.  Shortly after that he was invited to join our Rotary Club and decided to present the idea to the club.  The rest is history.

One of the questions asked at the end of the presentation was to tell us what "The Camp to Belong" is all about?  Bryan explained that the camp is an opportunity  for brothers and sisters who have been separated by aging-out of the foster care system to spend a week together for bonding type activities.   The youngest child attending this year's camp which will be held at the Outdoor Education Center at Irvine Park is 8.  He has a sister that is 10 and another sister that is 22 who will serve as their counselor.

Bryan refers to himself as the pied piper of awareness for kids who have been separated from their families by the foster care system.  If nothing else today we heard from someone who could have chosen to be angry about the circumstances in his early life, but instead chose to prove to himself and others that he could still come out a winner.  His success is not measured by his financial  status, but by the choice he made to serve others who shared similar circumstances.   This was a very uplifting and well received presentation.   Thank you for sharing Bryan.