Coral Gables RotaryGram: Vol. 66 No. 6 Notes from the Podium

President's Time

President Debbie brought us a message from Rotary International President Banerjee about Rotarians recognizing the value of belonging to this powerful organization and passing that knowledge on to others during August, which is Membership Month in Rotary worldwide.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Terry has membership cards so be sure to pick yours up in the back.
Monday, August 15th is day for the Club's Board Meetings. Join us here at the Country Club beginning at 5 p.m. if you'd like to sit in and find out what's happening in your club.
Saturday, August 20 is the Rotary Leadership Institute. Sign up on line if you'd like to go.
Thursday, August 26 is the Community Service Committee meeting. Contact Deena Bell.
Saturday, August 27 is the Rotary PR, Marketing & Membership Summit 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
Monday, September 12 is a District Mixer at Seasons 52 on Miracle Mile beginning at 5:30.
November 17-20 is the District Conference in Bonita Springs. Register at www.ri6990.org.
December 3-4 is Rotary Service with the Dolphins and Game.
May 6-9, 2012 is the Rotary International Convention in Bangkok, Thailand.

2011 Rotary Club of Coral Gables

8th Annual Golf Classic

Chris Morrison announced that this year, the Golf Classic, held in November, will have a co-beneficiary. The way that we work it is whatever is the percentage of sponsorships and golfers the co-beneficiary is responsible for bringing to the tournament, that's the percentage of the proceeds from the event that they will receive. This year the Golf Classic co-beneficiary is the VAVF from Veteran's Hospital. This is the organization (made up of a lot of guys who play golf) that is responsible for raising money for the various programs at the VA Hospital. They are members of many different organizations that pool their resources to benefit the Vets. Look for sponsorship materials to be ready by September 1st.

COMMUNITY SERVICE CALENDAR

Mark your calendar and come to Veteran's Bingo on Saturday, August 20 from 1 until 3 p.m. at VA Hospital. It's two hours of your life that means the world to the Vets. Join us. As an ancillary project, bring old DVD's and CD's, magazines and books to the next meeting. We will be taking them to the VA on Saturday to supplement the slim pickings they have on hand.

Saturday, September 17th is the annual Coastal Cleanup beginning at 9 a.m. at Matheson Hammock Park. Come prepared to work and sweat! Cleaning up South Florida's coastline is the game of the day.

International Service Committee Report

Bill Quesenberry, Chair of the Committee reported that they met on Tuesday evening and heard a presentation from an FIU student for Engineers Without Borders. They are working on water projects in Costa Rica and will be making a specific request to the committee in coming weeks. Anyone interested in getting involved in the International community, please join us on the second Tuesday of every month.

Introduction of Visitors and Guests

Dick Bullman returned today and took back the job from his trainee, Jerry who assumed this task in his absence last week ...there was only one visiting Rotarian today, Joe Witz, Rotary Club of Miami.

Besides Jiana Scipione (who's become a "regular" over the summer months) Terry Long brought Adam Sampson from Home Show Management and Ana Fournaris brought her two dear friends, Pat & Dick Bohn. Pat owns a dress shop in South Miami, Caprice. Her husband Dick, a former Rotarian was a radiology tech at Doctors Hospital for 42 years, now retired. Don't be strangers, come visit us again.

Confident, ambitious, domineering and somewhat pretentious describes Leo natives born on August 11 like Claus Von Bulow, Hulk Hogan, Ben Stein and our own RAMON FERRER. Happy Birthday Ramon!

Formerly honored as the Red Badger of the Year for 2008-2009, congratulations to JUDY PANTOJA who celebrates four years with our Club this week. You GO Girl!

HAPPY $$$

Dandy Randy was on hand today to make scholarships Groh. First up was Sally B who was not happy to be back from an outstanding cruise vacation aboard the Serenade of the Seas last week. Sigh ... Hadley Williams suggested an easy way to get your child or grandchild off on the right foot for retirement savings ... consider making a payment to a Roth IRA for them. If they're 16 and you put in $5,000 now, they'll have $217,000 by age 65. That should at least be able to buy them food for a year by 2060, don't your think? George Reeves invited everyone to sign up now to hear the Marine Corps Band at the BankUnited Center at UM on October 14, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. It's a free event but you've got to register in advance as seating is limited. Look for an email blast with details. Steve Magenheimer enjoyed a Grandpa moment as he recounted (again) how his 12 year old grandson shot a white tail buck a few months back. Now he's on the cover of Woods & Water magazine ... Ana Fournaris announced that her daughter gave birth to an 8.8lb baby girl on Saturday, Daniella Nicole Rossellini. That officially makes Ana the hottest Grandma in RCCG! Pat Morris was happy to be back at the Club (Finally!). For those that didn't know, he stepped on a mahogany nut and broke his ankle in three places, requiring surgery, pins and a very long period of recovery. He's still using a cane to get around. Susan Guttman on the other hand (broke her ankle the very same week as Pat did) is happy to be back in high heels again. Dan Scipione is very happy to learn about new research that has accomplished a cure for Leukemia for two patients in Pennsylvania. Rick Tonkinson announced that Tonkinson & Associates is the proud sponsor of Festival Miami's August 26th concert starring the great Jackson Brown. Don't miss it! Chris Tyson was pleased to receive his dividend check from Charles Schwab this morning. The amount? One Cent!! The good Dr. Groh announced that there are only three slots remaining for his photographic safari to Zambia in November. See him for details. Remember, KEEP ON SMILING. HAPPINESS PAYS.

Working Rotarians - August 11, 2011

Greeters - Rolf Frankfurter & Steven Spann

Registration - Aaron Glasser

Collections - Bill Forshee

Head Table - Rodney Langer

Special Needs - Hadley Williams

Open the Meeting - Jack Witty

Invocation - Steve Magenheimer

Pledge - Hadley Williams

Singers - Dan Scipione & Bill Quesenberry

DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Chief Jim Skinner

Given to - Kelly Sastre & Ed Morris

Pin Drawing Gift - Sally B.

Pin Drawing Winner - Chris Tyson

50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns & Fred Baddour

50/50 Winner - Tom Dixon

4 Way Test - Kelly Sastre

Today's Program

Sgt. Winston Fiore, USMC: The Smile Trek: A 5,000 mile walk through Southeast Asia to raise funds and awareness of the need for facial reconstructive surgeries in the developing world.

Recently back from his third tour in Afghanistan with the Third Battalion, 25th Marines unit, Sgt. Fiore began the first leg of his trek on motorcycle from Los Angeles on July 6.

His repeated tours of duty made him acutely aware of the preponderance of birth defects in this part of the developing world. Here in this country when such birth defects occur the children routinely receive corrective surgery between the ages of 12 to 18 months. Not so there. In Southeast Asia and the Middle East the children are dependent upon the kindness of strangers and non governmental organizations that undertake such life changing work. The primary malformation is known as a Cleft Palate. There are many reasons why children are born with this deformity. Some suffer from Stickler Syndrome. Some have a genetic cause as carriers of the GAD-1 gene. Often it is caused by environmental conditions, smoking, chemical exposure or nutritional deficiencies.

Sgt. Fiore explained about the complications that arise for the children that suffer from Cleft Palate including feeding, hearing, speech impediments, as well as the social implications. Social is the most devastating because these children do not go to school, don't get hired for jobs, don't marry and have families because of how they look and the long term care that is required when the deformity remains untreated.

He has devoted his fundraising efforts to the support of one particular organization, International Children's Surgical Foundation (ICSF) because after extensive research he found that this organization differs from others in that it is a 100% volunteer organization - no salaries are paid to anyone. They have no administrative costs. They do no advertising. They have the best program for post-operative care, the operate on the principle of quality instead of quantity. ICSF also has a program for training local physicians to do the surgeries. AND they are the only group willing to undertake the most complicated surgeries and do the required follow up so the kids have the best results.

Sgt. Fiore begins his Smile Trek in Singapore at the end of this month. If all goes well he will return to Singapore in 11 or so months having traveled the entire distance on foot. For more information or to donate go to www.smiletrek.org.

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: "Service Above Self" a presentation by Community Service Chair Deena Bell-Llewllyn and her committee.