Coral Gables RotaryGram: Vol. 66 No. 43 Notes from the Podium

Presidents Time

A packed agenda required that President Debbie shorten the announcements today. Most important was the fact that we are moving towards the end of the Winner's Choice Raffle. In order to wind it up and have the drawing on May 24th, the Board has agreed to the sale of just 134tickets. This affects only the prizes ... the Fiat 500 and the Mako Flat Boat are no longer an option. The winner will receive $20,000 cash, to do with what they like. The odds just got a lot better! Only 15 tickets left to sell. Think about buying another one!

COMMUNITY SERVICE UPDATE

Saturday, April 21 is Bingo at the VA from 1 until 3 p.m. Two hours of your time means the world to the Vets! Sunday, April 22 is the very first Coral Gables Earth Day Celebration. Rotary is the official volunteer organization for the day. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, April 24, 25, 26 from 9:00 until Noon is Special Olympics Golf. Thursday, April 26 we are joining the Interactors from Gulliver at the Easter Seals Alzheimer's Day Care Center from 3 until 5 p.m. Friday, April 27 is the next Community Service Meeting at Deena Bell-Llewellyn's house. How's that for a really packed Service Schedule!

Rotary Club of Coral Gables

Sweeps the District Honors!

Every year the Governor of District 6990 recognizes the "best clubs" in the District. The awards are always given out at the District Assembly which was last Saturday, April 14th.

For 2011-2012 our Club and members received six significant awards. Yolanda Woodbridge received the District Governor's Citation for her efforts on behalf of the Group Study Exchange and the District Newsletter. Chris Morrison received the Distinguished Service Citation as District Annual Giving Chair. As of March 31, 2012 he had achieved 98% of the District's Annual Programs Fund Goals and our district is ranked 6th in the world in total giving. Rolf Frankfurter was recognized for his unselfish Service Above Self for the Club and the Community. Deena Bell-Llewellyn received Service Above Self recognition for leading the District with Community Service activities. Abe Horowitz was recognized for his exceptional service to The Rotary Foundation representing the District. In addition, President Debbie brought home the 2011-2012 Change Maker Award which was given to her (and she says she's keeping it!) as recognition for our EXCEPTIONAL CLUB!!! Great work everyone! You've made us proud!!

City of Coral Gables

April Employee of the Month

Finance Director Diana Gomez took great pleasure in introducing us to Elsa de Bruzos Fuentes, the April Employee of the Month. Elsa has been a dedicated member of the team in the Finance Department for 22 years. Ms. Gomez said that Elsa was her most valuable asset when she first came to the department a few years ago. She does whatever it takes to get the job done and works hard for the citizens of Coral Gables. Congratulations Elsa. Keep up the great work!

Marie Pappas - Honorary Coral Gables Rotarian

We were saddened by the loss of our friend and Rotarian Ted Pappas last July. He was one of our most memorable people. But nobody misses him quite as much as his wife Marie. She channels him whenever possible!

Membership Chair Greg Martini reached out the Marie, as a member of the family of Rotary, and asked her to join us as an Honorary Member of our Club. Today, Marie officially became an honorary Coral Gables Rotarian. So expect to see her at meetings, functions, parties and community service projects in the coming months and years. We're looking forward to getting to know Marie better. Welcome to Rotary. We're glad you're here.

Perfect Attendance Abounds!

President Debbie and President-Elect Walter rewarded each other today for their Perfect Attendance. Really! Who's going to give the pin to the President if not the President-Elect? And vice verse.

Congratulations to Debbie who celebrates seven years of perfect attendance on April 14 and to Walter with eight years on April 22. See the advantage of being in leadership? You're everywhere, all the time, and it all counts towards your Club Service. Between them it's 15 years. Thanks for all that you do!

Moving into the sign of Taurus the Bull we're ready for people who are warmhearted, loving, determined, possessive and a little inflexible. Say Happy Birthday to Patrick Morris today, Diane Thurston tomorrow, Rosendo Castillo on the 22nd, Bonnie Blaire AND Kelly Sastre on the 24th.

In addition to her honor from Rotary International, Noelle Galperin has yet another thing to celebrate. She's been a Rotarian in our Club for five years today! Happy Anniversary to a great Rotarian!

Introduction of Guests & Visitors

by Dick Bullman Jr.

Jerry Santeiro was told that he needed to be here and ready to fill in for Dick this week. He promised that he'd do his best to fill the empty shoes. He lucked out - we only had a few guests. Sally B. brought Bram Fiebelkorn to the meeting today. Bram is a member of Coral Gables Rotaract Club and a former Ambassadorial Scholar. Chris Tyson was happy as always to be accompanied today by both of his lovely daughters, Natalie from Massachusetts and Ellen from Switzerland. Ana Fournaris introduced us to Christina Pappas. Thanks for coming. We hope you come back again soon.

Happy $$$$

Randy was here again today and he does manage to make Scholarship dollars Groh. He was really happy to see his former neighbor Marie Pappas at the Club. It brought back warm thoughts about Ted and a bag of tootsie rolls. Bill Quesenberry was happy that his Barbershop Quartet Chorus placed 2nd in the State competition. If you'd like to hire four of them to serenade your mom on Mother's Day, give him a call. He paid a little more money to tell us about a Swedish fellow that he went sailing with at Shake-A-Leg. He had no arms! And he was amazing. He even was able to drive a car. Walter Alvarez is happy that his Board will have two really fine people - President-Elect Donald Trombly and Past President Debbie Swain. He was also happy to announce that his youngest son has been acepted in the FSU Theater Program - he's going to have a Thespian in the house! Steven Spann wasn't particularly happy - more like nervous. His wife is off to New York for the weekend and he's staying here to take care of their two children ... Pat Morris is happy that today is his Birthday; that FCATS are oer for his nine year old and that the YMCA is moving forward with their big gala on June 19th. Carlos Ruiz is really happy to see Bill Beckham here today. He's also really happy that Sunday is Earthfet and then it will be done! Bill Beckham wanted to thank everyone in the Club for their support since his son's accident. He especially wanted to reotnize Rick and Margarita Tonkinson for their help and assistance and Bill Quesenberry for all that he's done with Woody at Shake-A-Leg. The Woody Foundation is now raising money for the Buoniconti Fund so please come out and join us on May 17th. We've been missing Dick Golden ... so Felix Pardo made an attempt to fill the void today - no comment! Happiness pays so keep on smiling!

Working Rotarians - April 19, 2012

Greeter - Steven Spann & Rolf Frankfurter

Registration - Aaron Glasser

Collections - Bill Quesenberry

Head Table - Rodney Langer

Special Needs - Lan Nghiem-Phu

Open the Meeting - Gene Mariutto

Invocation - Rodney Langer

Pledge - Aaron Glasser

Singer - Bill Quesenberry

DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Jerry Santiero

Given to - Allan Heard & Steve Magenheimer

Pin Drawing Gift - Joan Reitsma

Pin Drawing Winner - Deena Bell

50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns

50/50 Winner - David Mitchell

4 Way Test - Carlos Bolado

Today's Program

Marc Buoniconti introduced us to the Marina Project at Matheson Hammock Park. It is something that he has wanted to do since he was a kid. Growing up here he used to see all the boats on trailers (as many as 500 a weekend) stacked up along Old Cutler Road, waiting their turn to cast off fron the boat ramps at Matheson. It always seemed that a good solution would be a boat storage facility right there by the ramp, especially since they only have 200 wet slips for boats at the marina.

The proposed project uses only one acre of the 630 acres that make up the man-made park. Is it to be a masory building, 45 feet high, that sits completely on the existing parking lot at the marina. It does not intrude into the mangroves at all. They have cleared DERM, did two traffic studies, a parking study and there was a public hearing. On July 31, 2011 the project received approval from Miami-Dade County after the second reading. It is now being presented to the City of Coral Gables for their input, recommendations, approval and permits.

The project has generated a lot of controversy. Marc and his people have done everything possible to address everyone's concerns and solve the problems that have been forecasted. The building is designed to blend right into the park - they hired a new architect who's using textured concrete and ivy to disguise the building completely. It's actually a very attractive addition to the water front. It will be conpletely green, recyclng not only all the oil that's currently dripping into the mangroves but also recycling all of the soapy water that's used to wash the boats before storage. They've even got special mufflers for the fork lifts to minimize the noise they make.

Marc is confident that they will get their approval from the City of Coral Gables despite all the fallacies that are circulating around about it. He's received letters of support from all of the homeowners organizations in the neighborhood. So stay tuned!

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: State District Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rudle.