Thursday, September 30, 2010

Roots by Cholly Capps

A Little History of Your Rotary Club

To the Rotary Club of Coral Gables he was Bert Dorgan, a spry young man in his 90's with a keen inventive mind. The rest of the Rotary world knew him as Albert W. Dorgan, the first Rotarian in history to have a Rotary Foundation Scholarship bear his name.

Bert learned about the named scholarship plan through Club Foundation Chair Cholly Capps and President Jack Powers. Bert, age 96 at the time he made this gift, was a retired landscape artist/developer, who devoted his efforts to a variety of energy-related inventions. He was the "front-end" of our Club for many years, greeting and registering Rotarians an guests at the front door.

In October, 1982, The Rotary Foundation Trustees established the "Names Rotary Foundation Scholarship" plan whereby an individual or business enterprise can have a Foundation scholarship named after the donor by contributing the full scholarship cost. Thanks to Bert's generosity, and his $11,000 donation, a qualified Foundation Scholar from our District was awarded the Albert W. Dorgan Rotary Foundation Scholarship.

A Rotary Foundation Minute


This week’s The Rotary Foundation “One Minute Message” is about the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program (RPCS) – strengthening the leaders of today for peace.

Mid-career professionals from around the world, representing a wide variety of fields, participate in an intensive three month course at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. RPCS Program alumnus Richelieu Allison, Regional Director of the West African Youth Network, says, “This course has been the missing link in my [ability] to contribute to the resolution of the numerous problems confronting my region. If I had had the knowledge I am gaining now I would have been in a better position to adequately analyze the conflicts, map out the various actors, go the extra mile, and play a major role in helping to restore peace.” This sentiment has stuck with him, as he wrote in a recent email, “The changes [the program] made in my life cannot be overemphasized.” Take action. Make your annual EREY gift today! “BUILDING COMMUNITIES - BRIDGING CONTINENTS”

Vol. 65 No. 14 Notes from the Podium


President's Time
This Week in America a Kansas City religious mission is being sued by International House of Pancakes. The International House of Prayer says they've been using the acronym "IHOP" for ten years without confusion. Problem is that the church is now serving pancake breakfasts.
And it seems that Texas ranks as number one as the state that has the most sex, including No.1 ranked city, Austin. Statistics were verified by birth rates, sales of condoms and sex toys and STD rates.

7th Annual Rotary Golf Classic is November 4th. New sponsors include, Driving Range Sponsor Fred Woodbridge. Additional Tee Sponsors have signed up including Geological & Environmental Services, Inc., Milian, Swain & Associates, Stanfill Funeral Homes and DeWitt Law. Tito Monroig, George Reeves, Guillermo Villar, Viresh Dayal and Judy Pantoja have all signed up for foursomes. Abe Horowitz and Brent Nagel along with John Wallace are individual Golfers. Call your friends and invite them to play. Maybe they'll buy a foursome too. Remember, proceeds go to the Rotary Foundation of Coral Gables and provides funds for so many worthwhile projects worldwide.
YARD SALE COMETH November 13 & 14 is the second-ever Rotary Club of Coral Gables Yard Sale. Have you visited your storage unit recently? Certainly some of that junque can be donated. Time to clean it out. Kids left for college? All that "stuff" can come to us too. Clean out their room. Make yourself a nice home office and unload the old furniture efficiently.
Schreiber & Trombly are working moving and storage. Let us know if you need a pick up or call Sally B and bring everything to the warehouse at your convenience. Remember, proceeds from this too go to our Foundation. The money helps to fund both our Community Service and International Service projects. And you don't have to open your wallet, just your garage. How easy is that?

Urbane, charming and easily influenced are traits exhibited by the average Libra. Say Happy Birthday this week to Brent Nagel on October 6th.

Past President and long time member Dar Airan celebrates 33 years in Rotary this week too. Congratulations and thanks for all those good years of service.

George Reeves is collecting for care packages for the Marine Units serving in Afghanistan during October. The Navy League supports five U.S. Marine Companies (1,500 troops) presently assigned to Helmand Province. They purchase personal items and ship them via USPS directly to the Company commanders for distribution. Each box contains $100 in personal care items and costs $12.50 to deliver. If you don't have time to purchase the items, cash will do ... the League will purchase for you and it will certainly cover the postage. Things they need include Crystal Lights powder, hand sanitizer, baby wipes, small toiletry items, movies/dvd's, gum and more.


Happy $$$$
People were really happy for the Diva today. She can Groh things without any help from HIM !! Debbie Swain made the switch from AT&T to Comcast for her office phones and expected all kinds of trouble. She was disappointed, everything worked great. Except her internet. She used Dan Scipione to fix it for her...Rotarians do great work! Gene Witherspoon is happy that his daughter turns 4 this week and her 22 and 24 year old sisters are coming home for the occasion. Chris Morrison was blowing the Stanford horn again because they're 4/0 and "really something" ... (yawn). Jon Arthur is happy to be back from Hendersonville, N.C. He's really happy that he went to our own Dr. Groh for his teeth work. Randy doesn't do root canals so he sent him to some specialist who saved him $600. Deena Bell is finally going on her honeymoon just in time for her first anniversary. She's anxious to do this right because the late Jo Burke told her you gotta do it before your first anniversary or your marriage won't work. Taking no chances, they return on the day they got married! Dick Golden is out of control as usual ... some story about working out with a St. Bernard ... he's done better! Under the heading of you just never know, Carol Brock received a donation of 5,000 bags of cement for our Clinic in Petite Goave, Haiti from Jose Selach of Alfalit after he visited our club last week. Very cool! Digger Martinez just returned from Chicago where he gave his niece the keys to his new lakefront condo since she's attending Northwestern for the next four years. Ramon Ferrer had four tickets to the races on Sunday for anyone who wanted them. Greg Martini wanted them. Enjoy. Rick Tonkinson was REALLY happy today because 1) the Shelter Box mission in Haiti is complete and his son Steven was honored for his work in distributing 23,000 Shelter Boxes - housing for 230,000 people; 2) October 28, Festival Miami will be presenting the Music of Motown and honoring the man who penned 51 hits for the label. Tonkinson Associates is the exclusive underwriter for the event; 3) He's really happy for his friend Bill Beckham and his continued support in all things Rotary and 4) If you are not currently a Rotary Foundation Sustaining Member expect to hear from Rick. He's going to treat you to lunch anyplace you want ... but it'll cost you! Judy Pantoja was pleased with the great turnout for Special Olympics and the help of all involved. She hopes that more Rotarians can participate in Basketball and Golf later this year. Margarita Tonkinson is happy to be leaving for a visit to her family in Bogota Colombia. She'll return in a few weeks. Keep smiling, happiness pays.

Working Rotarians - September 30, 2010
Greeter - Rodney Langer
Registration - Aaron Glasser
Collections - Abe Horowitz & Carlos Bolado
Head Table - John Wallace
Open the Meeting - Dick Golden
Invocation - Keith Phillips
Pledge - Diva Guttmann
Singers - Arne Themmen, Carol Brock & Rosendo Castillo
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Tom Dixon
Given to - Gene Witherspoon & George Reeves
Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione
Pin Drawing Winner - Jack Witty
50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns & Donald Trombly
50/50 Winner -???? Somebody won it ...
5-Way Test - Mead McCabe

Today's Program

Eric A. Eimstad, Vice President Sales and Marketing
Christine Rodriguez, Public Relations Director
Miami SeaQuarium

Some notable milestones in the Miami SeaQuarium's history: 9/24/1955 - the SeaQuarium opened, it was the third and largest oceanarium ever opened. 1955 - first manatee ever rescued (“Mamie”). 1960 – the dome, designed by the late Buckminster Fuller, was constructed and is still, today the unique feature that identifies the SeaQuarium. 1964 – “Flipper” TV show started and filmed there. 1968 – Hugo, the first killer whale east of the Mississippi River arrived. 1970 – Lolita came to SeaQuarium, 1976 -- the first manatee ever
conceived and born in captivity. 2006 – SeaQuarium re-opens after six feet of water covered it during Hurricane Wilma.

SeaQuarium has “Four Pillars of Commitment” – Entertainment, Education, Wildlife Conservation, and Community Involvement. Education programs include school field trips, day camps, school break camps and camp outs for Scouts. The wildlife conservation activities include rescue, rehabilitation and release of the endangered manatee and sea turtles. Community involvement encompasses discount coupons and fund raising for non-profits, and partnerships with Make-a-Wish and Lighthouse for the Blind providing swim programs (swimming with the dolphins).

Christina Rodriguez
The SeaQuarium family now includes dolphins (all but one were born at the SeaQuarium), Pacific whitesided dolphins, harbor seals, sea turtles, crocodiles and parrots. “Dolphin Harbor” opened in 2007, and allows guests to swim with dolphins in deep and shallow water.

To celebrate Lolita’s 40th anniversary at the Miami SeaQuarium, go to their website, and download a form to pledge $4 to go a charity that is helping wildlife affected by the oil spill, take it to the SeaQuarium, and get 40% off of the regular admission price. And coming up in October, the annual Monster Splash. Three days of trick n' treating with the animals. Take your children or grandchildren and celebrate Halloween at the Miami SeaQuarium.

And the Winner is.....
Our speakers graciously gave us two tickets to swim with the Dolphins at Dolphin Harbor. They are open ended and provide an experience of a lifetime. Master Auctioneer Dick Bullman did his thing and Catarina Jimenez bought the two tickets with proceeds going to our Foundation! Thank you Miami SeaQuarium, thank you Dick but most of all THANK YOU Catarina!!! ENJOY.

Thought for the Week
by Chris Morrison
"Folks who don't know why America is the Land of Promise should be here during an election campaign."  "Uncle Miltie" Berle


NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: "The Real Estate Collapse & Recovery" Michael Katz, Jones, Lang & LaSalle Real Estate.
See you next week, same time, same place.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Community Service - Special Olympics

Our club has a big heart... and it shows in that our members are always eager to render Service Above Self. Special Olympics is one organization that we get involved with on a regular basis. Our members go one step further and we go to these community services anytime and not only during the weekends.

So, on a Monday like today, Community Service Chair Judy Pantoja took these photos... with her cell phone and please ignore the fuzziness you see. The event took place at the Bird Bowl in South Miami today, which is an annual bowling competition for Special Olympics athletes. Many if not all of them have physical and/or mental challenges and they do appreciate the help they get from volunteers such as our group. We are there to provide them the special support they need, and we enrich ourselves in the process. The annual bowling competition spreads out over several days and we do come to all of the other days too.

Special thanks from Chair Judy to Yoli Woodbridge, Bill Quesenberry, Gene Witherspoon, Bob Schreiber, Dick Golden and Mead McCabe who came today. If she has forgotten some of you.. she is truly sorry, but thanks go to you too.




Saturday, September 25, 2010

Community Service - Coastal Cleanup



It is becoming a tradition of our club that we gather a host of volunteers to engage in a weekend's morning of coastal cleanup. Today is the day and the event was scheduled 8 AM - Noon. The place? Beautiful Matheson Hammock park... and we want to keep it sparkling clean.

First to arrive were President Sally and Philip the German youth exchange student. Our own Dr. Phil and Deena and her colleagues, former RCCG member Ross Johnston and wife, all arrived well before the Miami-Dade official crew (in charge of tent, table and liability waivers - and very welcome ice water.) Later still, Eddie Alsina from Gables Interact joined the group for the fun job.

Our intrepid group elected to scour the south end of Matheson Hammock Park which turned out to be remarkably litter-free. We did not give up easy, and eventually found a trove with serious plastic trash and eliminated it completely. That took some serious mangrove crawling as can be seen in the following photos. Can you identify our Prez Sally B?

The tough but satisfying morning of labor came to an end with a congratulatory moment with our RCCG banner. Most of the crew reportedly headed for Scotty's for a well deserved refreshment and some food too.

A great Saturday morning was had by all concerned... To be repeated again next year or earlier.









Thursday, September 23, 2010

Vol. 65 No. 13 Notes from the Podium


President's Time
This week in America was a good time for pampered pets with the opening of a $4.4 million pet hotel in Ft. Worth.  The Spa Paws Hotel features custom upholstered beds, satin blankets, a wellness center,  and18-inch flat screen TV'sAll for only  $200. a night.

The town council in Riverhead NY voted to stop using Google Earth to located backyard swimming pools whose owners didn't get permits.  

And, Lady Gaga, the steak-wearing pop singer, admits to channeling the late Andy Warhol who's directing her career from the great beyond!

YARD SALE UPDATE   November 13 & 14 is the date but you don't have to wait to get the good stuff out of your garage.  Don Trombly, Fred Baddour, Dan Scipione and Bob Schreiber have all volunteered to do pick ups in the absence of Hicks Moving & Storage.  Just let us know when you'd like us to pick up your junque and from where.  Proceeds from our second-ever yard sale will benefit our many community and international service projects.  And you don't even have to reach in your pocket.  Just clean out your storage facility.  We'll take it!

7TH ANNUAL ROTARY GOLF CLASSIC is November 4 at The Biltmore.  Our meeting will be held on the 19th hole that day.  Why not buy a foursome and play with your friends?  In fact, consider becoming a Tee Sponsor.  Contact Chris Morrison for details.


GATES CHALLENGE GOLF BALL DROP will happen at the end of the Tournament.  In Yoli's absence, Walter Alvarez is selling balls.  Buy one, or two or four or more.  The prizes are terrific, cruises and other such goodies.  And it's our last major fund raiser to End Polio Now.


ROTARY DAY AT THE DOLPHINS is scheduled for Sunday, December 5th.  There are still two seats left on the bus.  $45 includes the bus ride and the tickets to the game.  There's talk of a killer tailgate party.  Dick will be in touch with everyone individually but wanted you to know now that should you decide to partake it will add $5 to the cost of your ticket.  Still, Rotary, Beer, Food, Fun and Fellowship ... how can you beat that for only $5?

If you want to be the last two on the bus, contact Dick by email 










Diva Susan Guttmann


            Vocational Service Minute
Bruce Kerestes' classification is really misleading. It's Banks-Trust Companies.  But Bruce isn't really a banker.  True he works for Northern Trust.  However he's the Trust part.  Bruce is in charge of the  management  of properties which the bank holds in Trust for either individuals or estates.  If you need to make arrangements for your estate after you're gone or you want to keep your income producing properties producing income for your family, give Bruce a call.  He'll make sure you get the best service in the business.


Working Rotarians - September 23, 2010 

Greeter - Rodney Langer
Registration - George Reeves
Collections - Abe Horowitz & Carlos Bolado
Head Table Assignments - John Wallace
Special Needs - Frank Sexton & Hadley Williams
Open the Meeting - Dick Golden
Invocation - Keith Phillips
Pledge - Ed Morris
Singers - Dan Scipione & Arne Themmen
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Tom Dixon
Given to - Betty Metcalf & Chris Tyson
Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione
Pin Drawing Winner - Greg Martini
50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns & Donald Trombly
50/50 Winner - John Wallace
5 Way Test - Mead McCabe

Thought for the Week
by Jack Witty
 
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." 

Mark Twain                     

 
              Today's Program
 Douglas R. Maymon ,District Governor 
Rotary International District 6990

District Governor Doug Maymon has been a Rotarian since 1988, and has a been a member of the Rotary Club of Weston since 1994. He has served as president of two clubs and been named Rotarian of the Year three times. He is able to serve as District Governor due in no small part to his wife, Deborah who holds the position of Governor's Aide this year. Doug  is a staunch RI Foundation supporter and a Major Donor of The Rotary Foundation.

DG Doug spoke of RI President Ray Klinginsmith’s theme for this Rotary year, “Building Communities, Bridging Continents”. Building Communities recognizes the  need to instill life into communities, helping them prepare for the future, and even rebuilding nations.  Much like the efforts taking place in Haiti. Rotary is not a first responder to any situation, Rotary is the organization that is still there working after the photo ops are gone. Bridging Continents is more than land masses and oceans. It means sharing resources and ideas, and collaboration.

Rotary adds value to people’s lives. DG Doug gave the example of the youth exchange program and GSE teams. Not only are the students and young professionals’ lives changed, but the host families lives are changes as well. He shared another example – Polio Plus.  When it was started in 1986, polio was endemic in 125 countries. Now it is only found in four and the best news is there have been no new outbreaks in the past three months! This is all due to the efforts and funding of Rotarians worldwide. Thousands of Rotarians have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to vaccinate children throughout the world.  During each NID (National Immunization Day), 100,000 vaccinations are administered.

DG Doug closed by saying that every Rotary Club's goal for this year is to become  “Bigger,  Better and Bolder.”

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM:  "What's News at the Miami Seaquarium" Erick Elmstad, VP of Marketing and Sales. 

Scene Scenes



                                                                                               See you next week!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Vol. 65 No. 12 Notes from the Podium



President's Time

This week in America, 7-year old Julie Murphy made headlines in Oregon when officials shut down her lemonade stand. Either she had to obtain a $120 temporary restaurant license or pay a $500 fine. So this little girl learned the hard way that selling something even as simple as a glass of lemonade requires government approval and a tax payment...capitalism in action?

Two Montana teenagers trying to buy some marijuana accidentally texted their request to the Sheriff's office. The Sheriff thought it was a joke when he got a text that said, "Hey Dawg, do you have a $20 I can buy right now?" Rather than arrest them, he took the teens home to their parents. He felt that punishment would be far better and swifter than the judicial system.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS BOWLING will need volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and the following Monday again. If you're free on those days, sign up to help. It's a truly fun and rewarding project.

HALLOWEEN 5TH FRIDAY is coming on October 29th. Our "shared" Exchange Student, Philip will be on hand and in costume. He's expected to come as a German boy. Also invited are the members of the Miami Sundown Rotary Club (his host family) and South Miami Rotary Club (who shares in his upkeep). It will be a great party with many people disguised as RYE students! Make plans to attend.

Drum Roll Please!!! The 7th Annual Rotary Golf Classic Sponsor's list continues to grow. Thanks to Corporate Sponsors; Brandt's Billiard Restoration & Rick Tonkinson & Associates. Tee Sponsors; Chris & Chris Tyson (third hole) and YW Associates. Golf Foursomes - Captains (they pay for one and invite three other players) Chris (himself) Morrison, Bob Schreiber & Wiley Hicks. Individual Golfers; John Wallace. In-Kind Sponsors; Hole-in-One Insurance; Williamson Cadillac; Brochure Design, Vortex Communications. If you haven't heard from Chris yet, get ready. The Golf Classic is scheduled for Thursday, November 4.

We were visited today by Milagros Bello from the Dominican Republic. She came to say a personal thank you to our club for the amazing work we did with Alfalit for literacy in her country. Due to the efforts of our International Committee and Carol Brock, our club partnered with Alfalit Int'l and raised $56,000 to support the pre-school and adult literacy programs in the Dominican Republic. Milagros was accompanied by Roberto Perez, President of Alfalit and Dr. Marcus A. Ramos also from the Dominican Republic. This is just one of the many literacy efforts our club has fostered all over Latin America. Rotary Rocks!


CORAL GABLES EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
September, 2010
Sponsored by EWM

Congratulations to Karla Green from the Human Resources Department at the City of Coral Gables. According to her supervisor, Karla goes above and beyond what's expected of her in every job she undertakes. She's the best employee who's worked for her in 11 years of public service. Keep up the good work Karla!



Practical, charming, flirtatious perfectionists describes those born on the cusp of Virgo and Libra. Say Happy Birthday this week to Ana Fournaris on September 18, George Corrigan on September 20 and J. Guarch on September 22.


Celebrating their Rotary Anniversaries this week are Andrew Dixon who has been a member of the club for five years and the incomparable Diva Susan Guttman who has been with us for 11 years. Service with a smile.

Happy $$$

Dr. Randy likes the fact that he can help to Groh Scholarships with Randy Dollars ... but he's a little disappointed at the comments on the blog that say he's crossed the line. He's happy that his plan is working. Maybe we should rename it Bawdy Dollars??? Yoli Woodbridge is happy that now, in addition to playing bingo she's also bowling. She really had a good time at Special Olympics. She also wanted to let us know that she will not be here to monitor our behavior for three weeks. She's off to Europe. Dick Golden commented on the lemonade stand story by saying that he couldn't make any money with his as a kid so he burned it down and collected the insurance. He said his ego is a little bruised because when he was growing up he was home schooled and the teacher kept telling him he was a stupid idiot! But no jokes! Certainly threw Randy a curve...Bill Quesenberry also had a great time at Special Olympics Bowling. It was gratifying to see the elementary school students paired with the Olympians having no problems bowling as a team. He was also not-so-happy to learn that he can't make up during his upcoming trip to Shanghai ... there's only one Rotary Club and it meets on Tuesday when he's on his way to Tibet which has NO Rotary Clubs. Terry Long is happy to be leaving next week with Dr. Randy to photo shoot Africa along with seven other women ... hmmmm. Gloria Burns has three things she was happy about today, 1) Junior Orange Bowl is having an Auction at the Miami Rowing Club next month, please come; 2) Rick Tonkinson was featured in the UM Magazine; 3) She's a Gator and is happy to see that it only took one and a half games for them to learn to play without Tibo. Bruce Kerestes started out on a very sad note with the news that 49-year old Scott Harlin, a friend from Northern Trust, passed away unexpectedly this week. He admonished us all to take advantage of every day and enjoy life to the fullest because you "never know." He was happy because he participated in a seminar recently that was led by a sex therapist and ... well ... Dick Golden was jumping up and down in the back of the room because tonight's the night. `Nuf said. Former Coral Gables Rotarian Michael Baird was visiting us today. He just came in from California, said it was great to be home for awhile, invited us to visit him in LA and said that he always thinks about Chris Morrison because his office is across the street from Stanford. Carol Brock is happy to be back from Tennessee and even happier to see Roberto Perez and the people from the Dominican Republic who were involved in our project with Alfalit. Chris Tyson forgot what he wanted to say so Randy gave him his money back. Bill Beckham invited us to the upcoming Share the Vision luncheon for Lighthouse for the Blind at LaGorce Country Club on October 5. He's got a Rotary Table. Anyone who'd like to come is welcome, just contact him. Chris Tyson returned his $5 to Randy because he remembered that he wanted to invite us to play golf on the third tee - in his backyard. Keep smiling. Happiness pays.

Working Rotarians - September 16, 2010

Greeters - Rolf Frankfurter & Rodney Langer
Registration - Debbie Swain
Collections - Abe Horowitz
Head Table - John Wallace
Special Needs - Chris Morrison
Invocation - Keith Phillips
Pledge - Pastor Perry
Singers - Bill Quesenberry & Dan Scipione
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Mr. Everything Scipione
Given to - Chris Morrison & Dick Golden
Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione
Pin Drawing Winner - Gene Witherspoon
50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns
50/50 Winner - Ramon Ferrer by proxy
5-Way Test - Debbie Swain

Thought for the Week
by Tom Dixon



"The greatest things in life are not things."

Stella Kugler




TODAY'S PROGRAM
Anders Gylenhaal, Executive Editor
The Miami Herald
“The Future of Print Media”

The face of the news media has changed over the last ten years. The Internet as a source has had the greatest success, while news on commercial radio has nearly disappeared. The Herald newspaper had 1.5 million readers 10 years ago. While circulation (the number of papers) has decreased significantly over the years, the number of readers decreased only slightly to 1.4 million. Except now, six million people read The Herald on the Internet, and more than 350,000 hear The Herald on WLRN radio everyday, or through mobile news. Web TV is the second largest driver on The Herald’s website. In other words, six times more people access The Herald than ever before. They have also partnered with community news sources, like Coral Gables @ Home.

Mr. Gylenhaal explained the role of newspapers when there is so much coverage on a developing story by the video media, like the earthquake in Haiti. Within hours, a Herald reporter was in Haiti, and because she had covered Haiti for years, and had established relationships, she was able to reach President PrĂ©val, determined he had survived the collapse of the Palace and broke the story. The Herald used social media to provide news updates, and to set up “Haiti Connect” to help people find their missing family members

Though it's role and focus may be different, he predicted that the printed newspaper will be around for a long time.

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: District Governor Doug Maymon, "Rotary Goals for 2010-2011"

Scene Scenes












See you next week!