Stories

• to deliver exceptional vocal performances in an exciting way
• to create  accessible programs for diverse audiences
• focus on community engagement and the transformative power of live performances

• Susheela wished everyone Happy Diwali tomorrow in this Festival of Light symbolizing the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. 
• Congratulations to DG Steve on the birth of his first granddaughter, Noa
• Let Lou know if you can help with Stand Down on 11/22
• We will try to have a hybrid in-person/zoom meeting on 12/4. Details are being worked out
• Another $250 has been donated for Bocce bringing the total to $43K, with a net of $38K. Thanks to members who contributed over half of these funds

• Vicky suggested we have some fun at our 11/17 evening/social meeting by wearing funny hats &  come dressed around the Fall/Thanksgiving theme

• Sean Green talked how Pontem Path is a bridge program for first generation college-bound & low income parochial school students to prepare them, and assist with scholarships if necessary, to be successful at USD or other Catholic Universities

•  38 people filled 40 available spots
•  31 units of blood were give
•  6 members & 1 spouse gave blood
•  13 Rotarians & 1 spouse participated
•  20 donors were contacted by the blood bank,10 were Rotary contacts, 2 saw our flyers
•  The next drive will be April 2021

• One of the highlights of the meeting was inducting Andy Laub into Rotary, the newest of 1.2 million Rotarians throughout the world. Welcome, Andy! He will soon receive his welcome package & pin and will meet with Phil, his club mentor.

• Susan will be ordering new club polo shirts.  Let her know if you need one - they are free for new members and $20+ for current members or family.
• Malcolm continued his fun videos, the first for Beverly's Birthday on November 3. (Video links have been added to all past photos so you can click on them & laugh again)

• We then saw two Halloween themed videos: the Addams Family staring Kevin, Lou, Charlotte, Jan, & Art

• And Herb leading Vicky, Nasr, Bill, and Beverly in the Monster Mash:

• Herb, Vicky, & Phil will meet at the Hilton on Friday, 11/6 at 11am to look at ways to hold in-person meetings. Everyone  is invited to join them.
• November is Foundation Month and the Annual Foundation Seminar will be on zoom on Saturday, 11/7, 9-11am. Charlotte will be highlighting our Global Grant to El Salvadorian families. Everyone is encouraged to attend what is always a touching program
• The BocceFest2020 Celebration of Giving Video is done & the link is here on our homepage, in the top right corner 
• Bill wants visitors to our zoom meetings to know that we stand for the Pledge, so be sure to wear pants

• Steve joined Rotary & our club in 2006 and laid low for 7 years until 2013 when he became our President. He had so much fun being       President & doing his weekly recaps that he decided to get even more involved & became the Assistant Governor to 6 coastal clubs for 3 years. Next was Chief Assistant Governor of 16 clubs, and then on to becoming District Governor in his second try.

• President Herb's participation in the Alzheimer's Walk that he, Beverly, their daughter, son-in-law, Andy, Lew, & Paul did, raised over $450,000. Well done.  He also shared that he thinks we need an astrologer to help guide the club. So far, his Small Acts of Kindness campaign has resulted in Rotarians sharing over 30 stories.

• We learned from Malcolm that Patricia is soooo over 2020:

• And that Andy, Venky, Radia, Charles, and Phil share in that feeling, as evidenced by singing and dancing to I Will Survive, while wishing everyone:

• Herb & Beverly showed off their End Polio Now shirts, and Charlotte modeled her End Polio Now mask - all getting ready for the walk on 10/24, World Polio Day
• Our speaker today was Kim McNeil with Oltre Fit (www.oltrefit.com) who explained how they look at a layered approach to fitness, using  progressive strength, flexibility, mindfulness, & nutrition strategies to "Build Bodies that Last".

• Patricia is selling BocceFest Celebration of Giving hats & visors for $20 that Bill was kind enough to purchase for the club

• Malcolm continues to amuse us with his videos: Lew highlighted with the song Bleeding Love in honor of his chairing the October 31 Blood Drive

• Wishing Susan an early Happy Birthday for her October 24 celebration. Looking Good!!

• Paul encouraged everyone to sign up for the End Polio Now Walk being promoted by the Pacific Beach Rotaract Club on Saturday, October 24 and anytime during the following week. Register at www.pacificbeachrotaract.org, order shirts, shoes, or masks, and join us at 8:45am on the 24th at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar. Currently signed up: President Herb, First Lady Beverly, Sir Charles, Venky Octogenarian, Charlotte & Kids, Patricia the Party Girl, Jan Webmaster, and Paul with Bionic Knee.

• Barbara Khozam was our speaker talking about Zapping Negativity & Igniting Yourself and Your Life.

• Joke of the Day from Charlotte: What does a blueberry and chicken have in common? Both are blue, except the chicken.

• Suzanne began the meeting with the following words of wisdom:

• On a lighter note, we learned from Malcolm that Paul originally hurt his knee weightlifting at the XXIX Mount Olympus Games :

• With his daughter's help, Ken rode 104 waves for the 100-Wave Boys to Men Surfing Challenge 
• DG Steve has inducted 15 new Rotarians this year & shared the District has approved 86 grants
• World Polio Day is October 24 in honor of Jonas Salk's Birthday. Watch for more info about a Polio Day Walk
• La Portaleza virtual Theatre Night is Friday, 11/13 at 6:00; 7:00 zoom Happy Hour & Discussion
• Blood Drive is Saturday, 10/31, 11:30-5:00. Lew will be sending out a sign-up

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• *Meet JJ Measer, a  Carlsbad High Senior and our fabulous BocceFest 2020  videographer
• Lee and Emily from Seoul, South Korea joined us on zoom today
• BocceFest 2020 has raised over $41,000 to date, and todays meeting added another $987 from happy dollars
• We will be holding a  Halloween Blood Drive on 10/31 and handing out water at a one day drive-by/walk-thru Stand Down on 11/22

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• We began the meeting today, on the 19th Anniversary of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, with a prayer and solemn bell ringing
• We learned that DG Steve is collecting emails for his Governor's library and working with Rotary District 4100 in Baja California to form future projects
• BocceFest Celebration of Giving is at $37,850 in pledges and members are  challenged to reach 100% participation to bring us to the magical  number of $40,000. Donations can be made here on our website
• Beverly requested members email her to sign up for the invocation
• Welcome to returning guests Alex Jack, Andy Laub, and Eric Meehan. Meeting on zoom is an easy way to introduce Rotary to newcomers
• Paul played a video about The Rotary Foundation highlighting how:

• Africa is now polio free. That leaves only two countries with polio - Afghanistan & Pakistan
• Our auction today led by Charles raised $1660! Well done
• Only 11 members have signed up for the BocceFest Celebration of Giving. *Go to Upcoming Events & register
• Dinorah & her mother Emma visited from El Salvador today & thanked us for helping poor families in their country. We helped with supplying food boxes for those in need and 25 families with 50 chickens and grain to raise for food and eggs to eat and sell
• Our speaker today was Larry Ray Hardin who has spent 30 years in law enforcement including the DEA & INS

• Bocce 2020 is cancelled but not the celebration. *Click on the BocceFest Celebration of Giving in the Upcoming Events box on the left to register for this virtual, dynamic, fun evening on Sept. 15 to highlight our donors & beneficiaries
• Patricia gave a touching invocation this morning in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's March on Washington 57 years ago highlighting compassion and generosity
• DG Steve reported he is inducting a lot of new members to clubs and is focusing on diversity, equality, and inclusion
• President Herb will be polling members to see their thoughts about meeting again in person
• Paul reported Vicky is the first member to contribute to the Foundation for this fiscal year

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• Lew is a retired Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
• Sarah is a Property Manager for Smart Self Storage
• Nasr is a UCLA Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

                                           

• Charles reported that sponsors have committed over $30,000 to this year's  non-BocceFest, to be celebrated Tuesday evening, September 15
• Videos & testimonials from sponsors & beneficiaries should be submitted to Patricia by August 28
• Thank you to our two Premier Sponsors so far, Merrill Lynch & Steve Todoruk
• We now accept credit card donations on our website. *See Donate button in the blue menu above

• $1.8 Billion has been donated to end polio over 30 years. The world is polio free except for Afghanistan, Nigeria, & Pakistan
• Welcome to our zoom meeting, guests Savanna Tafish, Andy Laub and Eric Meehan. Keep joining us!
• Jennifer Jones of Windsor-Roseland, Canada is the 1st female to be nominated for Rotary International President for 2022-2023
• The District Membership Seminar will be held on zoom on Saturday, August 15 from 9:00-10:30
• BocceFest Celebration of Giving - name submitted & won by President Herb for our event on September 15 via zoom from 5:30-6:30

• Entrepreneurship
• Operation Thin Mints
• STEM
• Life Skills

This is how we're now meeting - via zoom! 

                                

DMSB Rotary Virtual Celebration of Service 2019-2020

1. What am I looking for?
2. What is the truth?
3. What do I want the outcome to be?

1. We had a new member Rita Albert, who transferred from the Rancho Santa Fe club.
2. Malcolm reminded members about the $2.00 fine for not wearing the Rotary pin.
3. Bill reported that over 5500 chilled bottled water was distributed by our members at the StandDown event.
4. We also had a scout candidate Ken come with his father to give a quick 5-minute presentation about his work with scouts. He said he camped about 250 miles, did Eagle Scout camping at Filmont, trekked 80 miles and went up 12,000 feet.
5. Charlotte and Molly announced that they have about $11,400 registered sponsors so far.

1. 1918 - first woman enlisted in the Marine
2. 1978 - first woman in USMC was appointed Brigadier General (Col. Margaret Brewer)
3. 1985 - first woman (Gail Reals) competitively selected to Brigadier General role.

1. Patricia reminded all about the social gathering at Casa Sol y Mar on Sunday at 3:30 pm.
2. Bill announced that Stand Down starts on June 28, 2019 and ends on June 30, 2019. He had sign-up sheets passed around.
3. Charlotte talked about a new plan for Bocce to move forward with requesting the beneficiaries to help promote the event. She encouraged members to bring in more sponsors.
4. Charlotte said that she is hoping to have the new site ready by May 13, 2019 unless there are any critical issues.

1. Diane Huckabee announced that she just got her 2nd grandson!
2. Steve Weitzen announced it was his 33rd anniversary!
3. Ken Barrett was celebrating his 50th birthday!
4. Herb showed pictures of devastating floods in Malawi that destroyed many homes.
5. Ken showed the club a video about education and healthcare in Uganda -- video link.

1. Cookout Social on Sunday April 7, 2019 from 1-4 pm at the San Dieguito park.
2. Rotarians at Work on Saturday April 27, 2019. Options are still to be finalized.

1. Ignore the clock - don't stop living.
2. Remember to look up - she talks about her mom one day just wanted to go into a store and look around because that was her favorite store & the store clerk did not even bother to look up.
3. Always have a sense of humor - she talks about a story of how her mom was watching TV and saw a fire outside and had her daughter call 911 and it turned out in the end to be just a waving flag reflected in the neighbor's pool that looked like fire :-).
4. Spiritual energy - she refers to a red dragon fly that gives energy and shows how to let go of anger.

1. Need more revenue and member participation
2. Promote the "beer" part of the fest more
3. Member participation needed during the "preparation" stages weeks before the event day
4. The goal for 2019 is to raise at least $65K
5. Patrica said her company Capital One has already committed $5,000!
6. Steve has committed to $1,000
7. Venky said he will bring $5,000 one way or another
8. So, we are already $11,000 into the fund raising!! That is awesome!
9. Charlotte is heading up Marketing as per Charles
10. Molly will help with Sales
11. Sanjiv to be involved in the web stuff and will help the Auction chair with Auction related technology stuff
12. Bev has made a list of all the other volunteers

1. She said she was in Belgium for few years with her sister and she learnt French during her time there. That was an exciting experience for her.
2. Then she joined Rotary many years ago and was introduced to Richard Fogg, who was a Rotarian. In due course he gave her a job at his firm and she grew into a partner role there and very soon she will be able to acquire the entire business from Richard. She also said that George & Lou Sousa inspired her a lot and she enjoyed every community project at Rotary.
3. Finally her engagement to Sean Hunter was a life-changing event. Sean called her one day and said he found a great deal to fly to Belgium and had to leave in few days. He took her to Bruges in Belgium and proposed on a boat ride. She said YES! Apparently Sean surprised her by inviting 6 of her old friends. It was the most memorable event of her life.

1. Don't be ruled by tyranny of events
2. 905 of your worries are wrong
3. Thinking is overrated -- it seems a person goes through 30,000 to 70,000 thoughts each day and 70% of those are repeats!

1. She talked about how she decided to become a Christian and started believing in Jesus especially having grown up in a Jewish family. She joined a group called "Mystic Christians" and went to Bible study and when she read "Mark" in the New Testament she was convinced that Jesus is Messiah.
2. She grew up in Beverly Hills with a wealthy dad and had butler in the house. She had a tough time then. Years later a book was born - "Incest Repressed: Faith & Healing". Members can order it here on Amazon.
3. The highlight of her life was meeting Herb. They had a drink and dinner on the first date and Bev asked if he wanted to split the bill and Herb jumped at that offer & said "Yes!" :-). They then dated for 4 years and got married. Then once she went with Herb to feed homeless people and she could not stand it. But when she started serving them her perception changed and since then she has been involved in helping the less privileged.

1. Amazing Road Trips with family
2. Compassion - helping others
3. Bonding time with daughter

1. Rabbi - In his early days his rabbi influenced into community service and that has changed his perspective on life immensely.
2. Attorney - He said he has represented over 2000 clients throughout his career and that has impacted his life to know that he has served so many people and helped them in various challenging issues.
3. Rotary - Joining Rotary has fulfilled his passion in life of serving the larger community. His trip to El Salvador to help the under-privileged people taught him many things. His selection to the District Governor role has been a great experience. It has been a major learning process and he has enjoyed it a lot.

1. Jon Fish tallies all the money and prepares the profit-loss sheet.
2. Jon distributes the monies that go to the various beneficiaries - almost 40% to the top 2 beneficiaries.
3. Charles follows up to do the press releases and other PR activities.
4. Thank you letters have to be mailed out to all the sponsors and people that made $50 and above donations.
5. Susan mentioned that the biggest challenge is getting all the proper addresses of all the donors and auction items.
6. Auction committee tallies all the collections from raffle, ships out any auction items, prepares reports for Jon, etc.
7. Bill mentioned that the new format of Bocce+Beer did please many people and it went well.
8. Malcolm reminded everyone that the target is to reach $100K in net within few years and that he will chair it until that time. He added that this year the net was $41k.
9. Molly added that we need more members to carry out a huge event like this.

1. "Beer in the fridge" incident :-). This was hilarious where he (at 10 years of age) and his brother decided to try out a bottle of beer. Their dad later decide to drink that last bottle that he knew was in the fridge. When he did not see it he asked the kids, his wife and his maid and no one knew about it. The dad suspected the maid, who was with them for years and fired her. Everyone was sad to see the maid  getting fired and Malcolm confessed to his dad. However, his dad never apologized to the maid but the maid decided to continue working there.
2. Terrorist contact. At the age of 17 he was sent to the army and he was placed near the Angolan border. They caught some terrorist and imprisoned them. One day he came near the cages and had eye-contact with the terrorist and he could see the burning passion in his eyes that showed that he did what he (the terrorist) believed was right even though they were doing bad things and Malcolm believed that he and his army team were doing what was best for the country.
3. At age 19 he came to the U.S. and he said that is the first time he really questioned what Apartheid really was. His belief is that when you have to choose between what is legal and what is moral, it is always best to pick the "moral" choice.

1. Sponsorships have reached $40,000
2. Auction proceeds have reached $5,000
3. Brewery competition had 18 breweries that participated. Each brewery donated 2 sixtel kegs, which is 80 pints total

 

Following this we had our District Governor Mel Gallegos give a talk about his life and how Rotarians are helping the world. Susie Callahan and Steve Weitzen introduced Mel. Steve had invited many guests.  Mel was born and raised in Central California. He received his BS in Nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mel served our country as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy stationed at San Diego Naval Hospital, Balboa. Mel joined the staff of Sharp Memorial Hospital in 1981 working on the Cardiac Care Unit. In the last few years he transitioned to the Information Technology department to work on the electronic medical record-keeping system.

 

Mel was recognized as a Partner of Health and Pillar of Philanthropy by the Sharp HeathCare Foundation. A multiple Major Donor to The Rotary Foundation and Bequest Society member, Mel is dedicated to making the world a better place. He also actively supports Project Mexico and Mana De San Diego and is a member of the American Legion. Mel is Past President of the El Cajon Breakfast and San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Clubs. In addition to serving at the club level, he has served the District in many capacities including Assistant Governor, Foundation Mentor, Rotaract Chair, Community Service Chair, Foundation Gala Chair and District Conference Chair. Mel’s wife, Hey Jude, is a member of San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club.

 

Mel’s first trip to Africa was to participate in an NID in Eritrea. That was the beginning of several trips to East Africa for Mel and Hey-Jude. They have attended District Conferences in Mexico and East Africa.

 

1. He said that our DMSB club has given out over $322K to The Rotary Foundation.
2. He said that our Rotary district was #1 in our zone.
3. He said we are down to 12 polio cases in Afghanistan and 3 in Pakistan. We are almost there to eradicate polio from the world.
4. His advice was to find ways to retain members since many clubs lose members in the first 1 to 2 years.

1. Go through the ClubRunner database to see which member forgets their or their spouse's birthdays and fine members accordingly.
2. Keeps track of members who are absent and if they did not inform him ahead of time then they get fined.
3. Looks for members that are NOT wearing their Rotary badges.
4. He looks for interesting areas and scenarios to fine members.

1. The role involves a lot of interaction with the administrators at Rotary International.
2. He has orchestrated over $400,000 in global grants since the past 5+ years.
3. He has successfully completed grants for various countries, such as, India, El Salvador, Uganda, Madagascar, Zambia and Monrovia.
4. The process was a lot easier in the early days, however, now there are lots of checks and balances and takes a lot longer to get approval.
5. He said a recent global grant for Paraplegic/quadriplegic clinic in Kerala, India took almost 5 months from start to finish.