The President then called on Andy Duchan to give an update on the arrangements for our Poker Tournament slated for November 8^th.

Andy then requested that Volunteers would be needed on the day of the tournament to help out.  He said he’s made preparation to bring in Professional Dealers, Security would also be provided as well as a professional caterer.  He distributed flyers to all members and requested Catherine to put up a PDF copy on our website.

 

Mac Tapper introduced our guest speaker for the day. Jeffrey J. Hagen (Attorney at

Law).

His speech was centered mainly on PESA” Teen Court Project for Justice” a non-profit organization focus on helping troubled youths in our schools.  He said through the PESA’s projects: Students are provided opportunities to learn about their community through FIELD TRIPS funded by PESA where they meet elected officials, judicial officers, lawyers and other community representatives.  Also, Students learn about Fairness & Justice as Teen Court Members, through discussions about the Teen Court cases during Teen Court Club sessions, students obtain the skills that allow them to obtain the necessary information to make better-informed decisions.  He went further to say that PESA is able to turn the lives around of many “at risk” students so they can become productive members of our community through this project.  He ended his speech by asking for volunteers to help out with the project.  Any interested should contact him.  Please visit PESA’s website at www.pesaforbetterschools.org to learn more.

 

Our meeting ended at 1:25 PM

 

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Flag:  Maria Martinez      Invocation:  Wynne Ritch              America: Judy Coates

 

Daniilo Alcocer Penaloza and Boria Villegas Fuentes, riders of 2ForThe World, visited for a last time to say good-by as they now head for Las Vegas – Chicago and points east.   Our club had raised nearly $2,000.00 of their $10,000.00 goal.  Mike also introduced the Vice Pres of his company, Tony Quinoa.   Edgar Montes, who was a Van Nuys Rotarian back in 1989, also came to visit.  Wynne introduced Chad Mender from the Mid-Valley YMCA.

 

On April 2^nd at 6:00 we meet at the Odyssey Restaurant in Mission Hills.  Bobbie Arias, who has been a disk jockie for many events and received our Service Above Self” Award on July 4, 2014, at Hanson Dam will be helping confer the ‘Service Above Self” awards at our banquet. Wynne requested volunteers show up at his home at 2:00 on the second to help move all the many auction items to the restaurant.

April 25^th the Tack meet at Birmingham High begins.  Wynne passed out the sign-up form for us to take part in our favorite activities.    On April 8^th the Board will meet at Wynne’s home to consider club business for the month.

April 9^th volunteers at the Track Meet are to have dinner at Don Reinken’s home and arrive at a great plan for that day of fun with the kids.

This afternoon, after our meeting from 3:00- 5:00 , members can join Diana Sanchez at the Airport for the presentation of the Young Achievers awards – and the awards to the teachers of projects about air travel and transport.

April 19^th “Feeding the Community will be held at Soba, 6605 Odessa Street.

Richard brought t-shirts from Last Saturday’s walk/run for Polio.  He had presented $1,200.00 from our polio pig.

A Mr. and Mrs. Smith donated $50 million to USC to study Alzheimer’s disease, the illness featured on the latest edition of The Rotarian.

Mike reported $1,900.00 went from our area to the Bolivian projects for burn victims and cleft palate treatments.  He submitted an application to make this project an ongoing work for our club.

Don Reiken is celebrating 21 years of wedded bliss.  Rich was thankful for completing the Polio 5 mile walk/run.  Marie’s husband has a ’56 T-Bird he had wanted for a long time.  Jim celebrated getting up today.  Diane was happy to be here with us, and Wynne is happy to be working on the Track Meet and the Service Above Self Awards dinner where 120 people have already committed to come.

Marie Valencia and Less Grossman reported on their trip with 110 other District Rotarians to Guatemala.

The carried with them backpacks filled with pencils and paper and other school items for all the kids in one underprivileged school.

 Marie went to a medical clinic where she saw how the cleft palate kids came to be screened and some sent home with food supplements and instructions to return when the patient was strong enough for the surgery.  For others, surgery was scheduled; the patient and caregiver would return for at least 4 days where housing and medication and food for both patients and volunteers are provided in addition to the surgery itself.  There are only about 15 beds in the clinic.  Mayan is their first language and they are very proud of that, Spanish is second, and yet they all spoke English very well as the Mayan sounds are much like English.

Les was involved with a sanitation project in which our club had invested about$2,500.  They drove at least 20 minutes up a mountain to a remote village that has a school.  The waste from the village had flowed down to a town below the village.  The project was to place a BIG concrete “septic tank” next to the school.  He passed out pictures of the building of the facility; it went faster after they left as there is nice big tractor moving dirt on the photos.  

The temperature was 72 when they walked through the jungle where they saw a strange turkey-peacock bird and spider monkeys. 

Because a volcano exploded, there were no flights back to Guatemala City so they stayed at a wonderful place in the jungle where they saw crocodiles in a small lake.

At another project, bricks were used to make small stoves; the attached stove pipe carries the smoke out of the huts.  Before this, fires had been built in the center of the huts and the smoke caused many health problems.  About 1,000 stoves were planned for the houses in that area.

At the wheelchair factory in Antigua they learned that about 80 wheelchairs are being built in a day and are distributed to the needy.  Many are also “refurbished.”  Each wheelchair costs about $125.00 to produce. 

Next year there will be 4 projects in Panama for District Rotarians to participate in.

Marie signed the book to go to Casa Esperanza.

Boria, our Bolivian guest, had the winning raffle ticket and was given $40.00.