Coral Gables RotaryGram: Vol. 66 No. 44 Notes from the Podium

President's Time

Don't forget to buy your ticket for the Winner's Choice Raffle. The drawing will be held May 24th. The prize is $20,000 cash. There will only be 150 tickets sold. Take another chance ... GO FOR IT!

We're taking nominations for the 2012 Citizen of the Year. Contact Vocational Service Chair, Frank Sexton, if you know someone deserving of this recognition.

The Story of the
Pledge of Allegiance to The Flag

by Ron Gerstl

Rather than just recite the Pledge of Allegiance today, Ron decided to give us a short history lesson, to wit:

Flag Day 1892

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, and a Christian Socialist. The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism by selling flags to public schools and magazines to students. The Pledge was formally adopted by Congress in 1942. It has been modified four times since its composition, with the most recent change adding the words "under God" in 1954.

Gulliver Interact Banner Presentation

Up until last year our Club had only one spectacular Interact Club at Coral Gables Senior High School. Last year, due to the closing of their sponsor Rotary Club, the Gulliver Preparatory Interact Club became our Club as well. Recently, at the Interact District Conference, we discovered that the Club did not have an official banner. Through the efforts of Terry Long we were able to rectify that situation and today the current President, Dillon Patel and the officers of the 2012-2013 Board of Directors received their banner on behalf of the Club. Seen here is the banner in the company of Hank Langston, our Club liaison and Michelle Cooper, Teacher Sponsor.

We also had the opportunity to meet next year's Officers. Seen here are Nicole Tufts (President), Nicole Rubin (VP), Nikita Kulkarni (Service Director), Rishi Gurnani (Treasurer), Carlos Silva (Secretary), Ravi Patel (Fashion Show Chair), Michelle Cooper (Teacher Sponsor)

Community Service Project Benefits

Shake-A-Leg

Our annual Service Project for St. Patrick's Day with John Martin's benefits a different charity every year. For 2012, Shake-A-Leg was selected. Today, Harry Horton, founder of the organization, expressed his gratitude for all that Rotary and our club members do for his organization - and to pick up the check! He specifically called out Bill Beckham and Bill Quesenberry for their extraordinary support of SAL and voiced his amazement at the attitude that all of us Rotarians share when it comes to supporting charitable projects. He graciously accepted a check for $2,102 ($1,000 donation and the tip money from the event $1,102) which we know will be put to good use. He invited us to come and participate once again in Shake-A-Leg's annual Bay Day on May 19th.

Persistent, determined, reliable, inflexible, stubborn warm hearted people are born under the sign of the Bull. Say Happy Birthday today to Joe Lancaster, tomorrow to Kirk Landon, Carol Brock on Saturday and Swiss Chris Tyson on Monday.

Catarina Jimenez and Jordan Steele are both celebrating their Rotary Anniversaries on May 1st. Catarina's been in our club for four years, Jordan is an "old timer" with 30 years in Coral Gables. Thanks for all your years of devotion to the Rotary cause!

Introduction of Visitors & Guests

by Dick Bullman

Mr. B was really pleased today to have so many visitors to introduce. He loves it when there's lots of new people at our meetings. Randy Groh brought his partner, Dr. Richard Souviron; Gloria Burns introduced us to Thomas Russo, Executive Chef at Westin Colonnade Hotel; Joe Lancaster brought his dad, former Rotarian Richard Lancaster; Yoli Woodbridge introduced us to Alex who was the Team Leader for the GSE to Australia earlier this year; Chris Tyson brought his daughters Ellen and Natalie who are visiting for his birthday; Lan Nghiem-Phu brought his son Mac Long; Ana Fournaris introduced us to Paul Crespo, a former Marine, Paul is a community activist, a Republican and is currently running for the State House of Representatives; Mead McCabe introduced us to Mark Dacy who accompanied Harry Horton from Shake-A-Leg; Andrea Couvre introduced us to Dr. Alicia, his dentist; Chris Morrison brought his Mom, Margery to see us once again; Hank Langston introduced us to Robbie and Dillon Patel from Gulliver Interact; President Debbie brought husband John in honor of their 32nd wedding anniversary (strange place to celebrate!) Thank you all for coming and please come back again soon.

Happy $$$

Dr. Randy urged everyone to keep their happiness quick and financially beneficial today so that he could Groh scholarships ... first up was Yoli Woodbridge who was pleased to announce that the GSE Team for 2013 will be going to India and she's seeking a Rotarian to be the Team Leader. If you're interested, call her. Dr. Phil Boswell was happy to see Gulliver Interact here today and wanted to update us on the Tuesday elections at Coral Gables High School. The 2012-2013 officers and board of Coral Gables Interact is a great bunch with tons of energy and lots of great ideas. Join them for the Installation Dinner at his home on Saturday, May 5th at 6:30. All are welcome! Donald Trombly was trying to get Bill Oates to set up a collection for Carol Brock since she was injured playing tennis with Bill last week and it's the "least" he can do. George Reeves was the RAG member selected once again to donate the proceeds from the losers of the month (i.e., winnings) to scholarships. Walter Alvarez forgot to introduce us to Brad Vogt, a Rotarian from Ft. Lauderdale South and the District Grant Coordinator for 6990. In closing, Randy was happy to be in the same room with Bill Martinez and nobody was laying down! Happiness pays so keep on smiling!!

Working Rotarians - April 26, 2012

Greeter - Steven Spann

Registration - Aaron Glasser

Colletions - Bill Quesenberry

Head Table - Rodney Langer

Special Needs - Lan Nghiem-Phu

Open the Meeting - Jack Witty

Invocation - Rodney Langer

Pledge - Ron Gerstl

Singer - Bill Quesenberry

DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Julio Velis

Given to - Diane Thurston & Walter Alvarez

50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns & THE Donald

50/50 Winner - Rolf Frankfurter

4 Way Test - Walter Alvarez

Today's Program

Katherine Fernandez-Rundel really doesn't need any introduction. She's been the State Attorney for Miami-Dade County for nearly 20 years. Appointed to the post in 1993, she has been re-elected five times. She's a long time Miami resident, graduate of UM with her Jurist Doctorate from Cambridge.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's office is the fourth largest in the US. They have 330 lawyers, 1,200 employees and they handle an average of a quarter million cases representing 2.7 million residents in 37 municipalities in Miami-Dade.

CRIME: Despite a bad economy, high unemployment, an unprecedented growth spurt and the SAO office being cut by 21%, her people were successful with all of the prevention programs they have implemented. The crime rate in Miami-Dade is the lowest that we've had in the last 30 years! As of December, 2010, violent crimes are down 31%, rapes have declined 51% and property crimes down by 35%.

CORRUPTION: Miami-Dade has, she believes, adopted the right attitude about prosecuting corruption cases. They have a 50% success rate because they have learned not to spend a lot of time chasing after the lazy and the stupid, despite their errors they're not criminals. Her people confine their efforts to catching the criminals. They have established an entire division that has 13 lawyers and a financial analyst assigned. She has been successful in securing an Auditor who is exclusive to this division and cannot work for any other government agency.

PREVENTION: They have established a program that will allow people who have committed non-violent crimes to get their records sealed. Even though this is supposed to happen, it rarely does. The end result is good people never get a chance to redeem themselves because their record follows them around. The department holds Sealing & Expunging Fairs several times a year to help felons get their lives back on track so they don't repeat their offenses in an effort to survive.

They have implemented a program among Law Enforcement called Safe Surrender to assist the officers in minimizing the danger level of stopping and holding people with outstanding warrants. They are teaching officers START, and acronym for Stop-Think-Act in order that they know what's expected of them when they are dealing with the public.

A new program that they have established in the schools is called Snitch. It keeps the bad guys from winning by establishing a crime watch program in the schools are rewarding the whistle blowers.

In closing she took a few minutes to praise her outstanding and dedicated staff that work so hard for so little money to make life better for the people of Miami-Dade. Certainly that's Service Above Self!

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: "Return to Cuba" Hear the stories and the memories of members Rosendo Castillo, Carlos Ruiz de Quevedo and Jerry Santiero from their recent return trip to Cuba.