Thursday, September 29, 2011

Vol. 66 No. 13 Notes from the Podium

President's Time

Debbie shared a story that appeared in The Herald this week about Woody Beckham.  He donated $20,000 to Jackson Hospital's Rehab Center.  The funds came from the foundation that was established after his accident in January.  You'll recall that Woody, (Bill Beckham's 17 year old son) broke his neck in a Rugby accident and is now paralyzed.  But that's not going to stop him!

CELEBRATE FRIDAY AT 5TH FRIDAY.  Join your Rotary friends at Snow's Jewelers, 6 until 8 p.m.  In a way, our host Eddie Snow is sort of responsible for this Friday event ... years ago a steadfast group of members would cruise the local watering holes on Friday nights.  Invariably we would run into Eddie and his first comment, every time, was the same, "does this mean that I get a makeup?"  So we came up with a party every month that has five Fridays.  And guess what?  It's a makeup!  Join us tomorrow night at Snow's, 299 Miracle Mile.  Bring your best girl (or fella) and your credit card!  It's going to be fun.

ROTARY DAY AT GABLES FITNESS is this Saturday.  Join your fellow Rotarians in a Spin-A-Thon.  Or sign up for the weight circuit.  It's $20 to join the fun and all of the registration fees are being donated back to our Foundation for the Jo Burke Memorial Fund. The Fund was established to continue to fund the projects that were near and dear to Jo's heart.  So you'll get fit and the VA will benefit!  Come ready to work out at 10 a.m.

GABLES BIKE DAY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED.  President Debbie asked everyone to volunteer for Sunday, October 23 for Coral Gables Bike Day.  Rotary is a major supporter and in charge of securing more than 100 volunteers who are needed to work this day long event.  If you sign up to work you'll get to come to a pre-event party on October 18th.  But the location will only be divulged to those who volunteer.  Sign up in back.

CIVIC & CHARITY CHAIR, Kelly Sastre presented  Sally B. a check for the Merrick Festival's 25th Caroling Competition.  For the past 15 years our club has sponsored the Rotary Music Award.  It is a $500 cash prize for the school that presents the most unusual piece of holiday music. The winning school performs that song and their entire holiday program at our Club's Holiday Meeting on Thursday, December 15th.  Don't miss this year's Caroling Competition - you'll be sorry if you do.  It begins on Wednesday, November 30th and runs through Sunday afternoon December 4th.  The Grand Prize winners return to collect their checks and perform a short program on Tuesday, December 6th.


2012 MAJOR FUNDRAISER planning is well underway. It will be held on Friday, March 9th right here at the Country Club.  The theme is "A Night at the Oscars."  We'll be doing a raffle in conjunction with the event and the winner will be announced that night.  Details on the raffle will be given out shortly but save your pennies because the prizes are cool.  You will have a choice of a car, a boat or the cash instead.  Stay tuned for more information.

New Generations Month Update

Pat Morris, Chair of the Youth Committee (New Generations) had lots of information to share about our Rotarians-in-training. He stopped by Coral Gables High School last week on Interact sign up day.  He was asked to speak to 115 kids who are thrilled to be part of our organization.  They're full of great plans and will do great things this year.They even end their meetings with the 4-Way Test!  Next week he will be visiting with Dillon, the President of the Gulliver Interact Club too.  He met with Maxwell Kirshner, Rotaract President the other evening and urged us to support these young professionals whenever possible.  They're the future of Rotary.  

And speaking of the future of Rotary, President Debbie, Past President Sally and President Elect Walter along with Pat met with a young lady, Ashley Clinton, and her father on Saturday morning.  Ashley wants to be our Rotary Youth Exchange student for 2012-2013.  She's bright, poised, charming and smart and a Jazz singer!  She attends Miami Arts Charter High School on Biscayne Boulevard as a Junior this year.  Her folks are enthusiastic about her Exchange and they will be the host family for the inbound student for that same year.  Everyone will get a chance to meet Ashley soon.  

NO BIRTHDAYS or ROTARY ANNIVERSARIES this week!!

 Introduction of Visitors & Guests

In his own inimitable fashion, Dick Bullman introduced our visitors and guests today.  Our speakers brought a few interesting people with them including Marela Malfield, an attorney in construction law.  Carlos Bolado brought his lovely wife Terry.  Carlos Ruiz Quevedo brought his friend Dan.  Yoli Woodbridge brought a lovely architect named Vanessa.  Mead McCabe brought his friend Jean Marie, an old friend of Pat Morris.  Gloria Burns brought Ray the Printer again this week.  Thank you all for coming.  Please come back again soon.
IT WAS GOOD TO SEE TO KIRK LANDONTODAY!

Happy $$$

The good Dr. Randy returned today to Groh scholarships.  Happiness has been down in his absence so we hope that he comes regularly for awhile.  First up today was Abe Horowitz with the happy news (at least he thinks it's happy news ... it's actually pretty scary, for him anyway) he is GETTING MARRIED!  Kelly Sastre is happy that October 1st marks 34 years since she and Ari tied the knot.  They're off to the Canadian Rockies to relive their honeymoon and on the way back they're going to stop off and visit their six and a half month granddaughter.  Eddie Snow was happy that we're all coming to his store tomorrow night for 5th Friday.  Bill Quesenberry and his wife Melissa are leaving on a trip to Maine to watch the leaves change.  But he's most happy about his sailing trip this afternoon with Bill and Woody Beckham.  It's the first time since Woody's accident that he's ventured out on the water.  Swiss Chris Tyson is leaving for Switzerland immediately after today's meeting.  He'll miss us.  Tom Dixon is happy to have his son Andrew working with him successfully for six years now.  Luis Boue, married for 30 years, was happy to give Abe some marriage advice ... 4,000 ... that's the square footage of the house that Abe needs to buy to make his marriage a success.  Then each partner has enough space to leave the other in peace!  Abe Horowitz came back up to express his happiness and gratitude to Eddie Snow for all his assistance in purchasing the right engagement ring for his lovely bride-to-be.  THE Donald Trombly was still trying to unload his booty.  He tried to give it away but decided it was valuable enough to sell to anyone who was attending the District Conference.  John Wallace paid $20 just to shut him up.  Then he gave it all to Yoli.  Ana Fournaris wanted to add to Luis' advice to Abe by telling him that she has just the house he needs for a successful marriage.  It even has a remote door that you can close and open at will (or when the spirit moves you).  Frank Sexton came up to ask Abe to consider the importance of legal advice and a prenuptial
agreement.  Finally Dr. Randy suggested that Abe might want to have Karin's teeth checked before he commits!  But he was most happy to have spent last weekend at Georgia Tech with his daughter Amy.  Happiness pays so remember, you gotta keep on smiling!

Working Rotarians - September 29, 2011
Greeters - John Wallace & Rolf Frankfurter
Registration - Aaron Glasser
Collections - Frank Sexton
Head Table - Rodney Langer
Open the Meeting - Jack Witty
Invocation - Pastor Perry
Pledge - Aaron Glasser
Singer - Bill Quesenberry
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Deena Bell
Given to - Abe Horowitz & Carlos Bolado
Pin Drawing Gift - Rodney Langer
Pin Drawing Winner - Pastor Perry 
50/50 Raffle - THE Donald Trombly
50/50 Winner - John Wallace
4 Way Test - Jim Hirschmann

Today's Program

Edwin Perkins,Ballpark Community Relations Manager with an introduction to the Miami Marlins Ballpark.

This is the premier new ballpark in the nation.  It has all kinds of features that make it special.  First is the retractable roof. Natural grass.  Seats 36,903 fans.  53,000 sq.ft. of retail space.  It cost $515 million (hard and soft costs) and produced $25 million in infrastructure improvements as well.  The stadium is owned by Miami-Dade County.  The City of Miami owns the four parking garages that have parking for 6,000 vehicles. They built short so that the residents in the area will still be permitted to park cars during the games.  There will be shuttles from the Metro Mover Station to the park at all times.  The Miami Marlins are the developer and the operators.  The architect was Populous who also did the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets Stadium.  

The stadium is designed to have both inside and outside events.  It's completely air conditioned and can maintain a comfortable 72 degrees at all times.  In addition to the retractable roof, it has a retractable wall facing east.  There isn't one bad seat in the whole place.  It will be the first stadium to achieve the Silver LEEDS Certification as a completely green building.  It maximizes natural light, has all energy efficient equipment, uses recycled and  sustainable, regional materials in it's construction. 59% of the workers were from Miami-Dade County, 29% from City of Miami, 52% of the firms used were from Miami-Dade as well.  There were a total of 4,066 workers provided by 872 subcontractors and vendors.  

Construction began in July, 2009.  It is 75% completed.  There will be a soft opening in March with an exhibition game between the Marlins and the Mets.  The official opening is April, 2012. 
It is a beautiful sight to behold.  A stadium we can be really proud of.  Be sure to come to one of the opening games and see it for yourself.
NEXT WEEK'S MEETING:  Actors' Playhouse presents selections from their latest production, "Hairspray".  Don't miss it!

Thought for the Week
by Abe Horowitz


"Yes dear, you're right as usual!"
Abe is learning early ...



Scene Scenes




Join us next week, same time - 
             Thursday at 12:15 p.m.
Same place - 
             Coral Gables Country Club
Same great bunch of Rotarians!

1 comment:

Deena Bell Llewellyn said...

Yesterday's meeting was especially funny, entertaining, and informative! I have a small correction: I gave the silver dollar to Carlos Ruiz (not Bolado) because he and his wife Cathy have been so gracious to host our Community Service Committee at their gorgeous home lately for our meetings. If you haven't been to one of our CS meetings, they are a lot of fun as well as being productive!