Community Service Committee First Meeting of the Year.

The COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMITTEE began the new Rotary year with a well attended meeting where fun was had by all. The meeting was held at Committee Chair Deena Bell Llewellyn and husband Charles Llewellyn's home and garden in Coral Gate. Coral Gables Rotarians, significant others, tame pets, and prospective members are all invited to our Community Service meetings. During our meetings, we plan and organize meaningful and enjoyable community service projects for our club membership for the year. Below are a few photos of the festivities so one can get an idea what FUN we Coral Gables Rotarians have organizing our events:

Vol. 67 No. 6 Notes from the Podium

President’s Time

August 10, 2012: Community Service Meeting at Deena Bell’s home at 6 PM.

August 13, 2012:Membership Meeting at 5:30 at Duffy’s

August 16, 2012: International Meeting, 2655 Le Jeune Road. 3rd. Floor.

August 18,2012: Veterans’ Bingo from 1-3 PM.

August 20, 2012: Foundation and Board Meetings at John Martin’s starting at 5 PM.

August 24, 2012: Social at CRAVE, Village of Merrick Place, 5:30-7:30PM.

August 31, 2012: First Fifth Friday at Snow’s Jewelers, 6-8PM, $10.

September 15, Coastal Cleanup at Matheson Hammock, 9am-12 noon

All members are welcome at these events and they count as make-ups
 President Walter reminded us that the date to pay our dues has expired.

Perfect Attendance

President Walter presented Carol Alexander a pin for 13 years of perfect attendance (1year with our club and 12 years  with the Miami Sundown club)

Happy Birthday:

Ramon Ferrer               August 11th

Happy Anniversaries:

Jorge Triay                   3 Years

Group Study Exchange Yoli Woodbridge, GSE District chair, announced that the incoming Team from District 3080 (India) is arriving on October 13.   She will need some help with Host Families and transportation.

Visitors and Guests

Abe Horowitz introduced our guests today: Visiting Rotarian, Andrea Fusero-Miami Brickell. Amanda Hermes, Ambassadorial Scholar, brought a guest and Caterina Jimenez’s guest today was Noble Ropkey.

 

Happy Dollars

 

Dr. Randy once again did his job asking happy Rotarians to come up and help with  the Scholarships: Dick told one of his jokes about an attorney;  Kelly was very happy that she had her fifth grandchild born 23 days early weighing 8 pounds, bearing the name of Caleb Gianni Sastre; Sally was happy because our Exchange Student from France has arrived. Her name is Mailys Ooghe and her father is the Director of a sailing Club, so Bill Q. is taking her to Shake a Leg. Steve M. was very happy and proud that his Grandson, 6’4, blond with blue eyes, graduated from UM and was offered a job with Price Water House. Randy, finally, was happy he didn’t have any grandchildren!

Our Speaker Today

 

Our speaker today was our District Governor, Ted Eldredge.  He spoke about Polio, being the second time Rotary had helped in a world effort to end a decease. The first time involved Small Pox. In 1979 Rotary started the campaign to eradicate polio. Even with all the efforts and hopes, we still have three Countries with polio:  Nigeria, Ahfaganistan and Pakistan.  Rotary has raised 1billion dollars for the eradication campaign and this year India has beedn removed from the list of endemic countries, although  it will take two more years to be declared totally free.

He also told us that is not easy for Rotary to find new members, the problem thus now is to retain them. This is something all the clubs have to work for, getting people involved. We have had 1.2milliom Rotarians for many years. 

The Presidential citation is important, and clubs should try to meet the requirements to obtain it. It used to be very easy but lately has become more difficult.

Rotary needs, all things considered, a stronger public image.

The District Conference will take place from November 9 to November 11 at Hawks’ Cay, mile 61 in the Florida Keys.

DG Ted also stated that many members of our club are involved in the District leadership: Sally B. is the District Secretary, Carol Alexander the District Treasurer, Lan the Communications Chair, Chris Morrison the Foundation Chair and Yoli Woodbridge, Assistant District Governor.

Working Rotarians - August 8, 2012

Greeter                                                 Keith Phillips

Registration                                          Aaron Glasser

Collections                                            Elena Heath

Head Table                                           Steven Spann

Special Needs                                       Lan Nghiem-Phu

Open the Meeting                                 Jack Witty       

Invocation                                            Steve Magenheimer

Pledge                                                  Keith Phillips

Singers                                                 Dan Scipione

Introduction of Visitors/Guests              Abe Horowitz

DeWitt Silver Dollars                            Rick Beltz

Given to:                                              Gloria Burns and Kelly Sastre

Pin Drawing Donated by:                      Andrea Stone

Winner                                                Sally Baumgartner

50/50 Raffle                                        Gloria Burns

Winner                                                Rodney Langer

 Four Way Test                                    Kelly Sastre

Next Week Program: August 16, 2012 Commercial Trends in Local and Residential Real Estate Markets. 

Thought of the Week

Sally Baumgartner 

"If you believe you can, you probably can. 

If you believe you won t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad."

                         Dennis Waitley

 

AUGUST -  IS ROTARY MEMBERSHIP & EXTENSION MONTH
Emphasize the importance of exciting and effective service projects to
help attract new members and retain existing ones.

FELLOWSHIP

 

inbound Rotary Youth Exchange Student Arrives!

 

From left to right:  Aminta Clinton, Mailys Ooghe, RYE, 

JP Clinton and George Clinton.  

The Clintons are the parents of Outbound RYE Ashley. 

They are hosting Mailys for her year here in Miami.

 Hello Rotarians,

My name is Mailys Ooghe.  I am 16 years old and I live in France in a small town in Northern Brittany called Trebeurden.

I live with my father (my mother died in 2008), my little sister Coralline who is twelve and my 20 year old brother Thebault.

My two other brothers no longe live at home, Romain the elder is 22 and studying nutrition in Paris.  Joris, 20 years old, is a Folk and Country Musician.  Although they do not live at home I see them over the holidays or whenever I spend the weekend in Paris.

I am currently in my second year of high school, studying Economics and Social Sciences.  My high school is 13 km from my home so I take a bus every morning at ten past seven which gets me to school at twenty to eight. I arrive home at six in the evening.  Classes begin at eight and end at half past five.  We have an hour and a half for lunch.

I have five hours of classes in economics and social sciences a week. It is one of my favorite subjects along with English and history. I really like languages and have been learning English and German since my first year in middle school.  I have been on two school trips to Germany between ages twelve and fourteen. Homework takes up a lot of my time especially this year because I dedicate four and a half hours of every Saturday to handball.  That is why I have to spend a lot of time in my room doing homework.

I live in Trebeurden, a seaside resort in the northwestern Cotes-d’ Armor (the pink granite coast).  Trebeurden is situated a distance of 10 km from Lannion.  It is a town of about 4,000 inhabitants, many of whom work in Lannion where the industrial section and main schools are to be found.

My house is situated in a quiet neighborhood, 1 km from the seaside.  My father, my brother, sister and I each have our own rooms. Our house has a guest room because we enjoy having visitors.  We like to spend time in the garden, weather permitting.

My brothers and I share a passion for sports and music.  Furthermore two of my brothers are musicians.  I regularly go to concerts and I like alternative rock and pop music.  This year I went to see All Time Low and Thirty Seconds to Mars, two American groups.

I have been playing Hardball since I was ten years old.  I go sailing occasionally and as my father is the Director of the Trebeurden Sailing Club we like to go sailing together from time to time.  This summer I started surfing.

Sport is very important to me as an opportunity to meet people with a shared passion.  My passion for sport came from my brothers, the eldest, Romain plays in the best French American football team.  My father, who makes a living from his passion for sailing, undoubtedly had an influence.

I also love animals, especially my two cats.  However I have rodent phobia.

Liking languages and foreign cultures, I discovered linguistic exchanges in middle school.  My school, in Pleumeur-Bodou, College Paul le Flem, had an exchange with a German School, Comenius-Gymnasium in Datteln.  During one week, I had the chance of getting to know the language better and of discovering and sharing a new culture with my host family and the other students.  I returned for a second visit two years later.

I also went three times to London with my father and my sister for Christmas when Romain and Joris were living there. We like the city a lot so every winter we go back there for three or four days.

I am energetic and open, impulsive and frank, and sometimes shy. I like to have fun and make people laugh.  I seem shy at first-sight but once you get to know me I am very open and communicative.

I like cooking and hope to share some French culinary specialties with my host family.  Once I have my high school diploma in Economics and Social Sciences, my dream is to study at at Community College in California.  If however, this is not possible, I intend to go to a French university and study Law or International Trade.

I see this exchange as a wonderful opportunity in my life, as much on a personal as well as a future, professional level.  I am also very curious and studious; I get deeply involved in all that I undertake.  I feel ready to live this adventure, even if I know that there will be difficult moments.  This adventure will be an opportunity for personal development, as well as a fantastic opportunity to discover a new culture and new people.

By the end of this experience I think I will be more open minded owing to the contact with another culture and having the chance to improve my language skills would certainly be a bonus for future studies.  

I am looking forward to visiting your club soon.

 Mailys Ooghe.

President Walter's FIRST 5th Friday

The First 5th Friday of the new Rotary Year is August 31st. 

That's Labor Day Weekend, 

and we don't want to throw a party and have nobody come. 

So if you're in town and planning to come, 

let us know EARLY.  

If the response is puny, we'll reschedule!

Membership Development Soiree August 24th

Our Outbound Rotary Youth Exchange

Ashley Says "Good-bye"

This year, our club is sponsoring it's first Outbound Rotary Youth Exchange Student in over ten years.  We first met Ashley Clinton back in August of last year when she approached our club to sponsor her for her senior year as a Youth Exchange.

Ashley attends Miami Arts Charter High School.  She has been selected to go to Stockholm, Sweden for her Senior Year.  Needless to say she is VERY excited.  She has two older sisters and a younger brother. 

She originally applied to go to Paris and study music but since her alternate language is Spanish, she really didn't qualify and was chosen for Sweden instead.  Her oldest sister was a Rotary Youth Exchange Student to Sweden herself some 20 years ago.  That was one of the reasons that Ashley was so intent on being part of the program ... the time that her sister spent in Sweden changed her life and she made friends - forever.  Ashley wants the chance to do the same thing.

George Clinton & Sally B. YEO

Ashley is scheduled to leave on Sunday and she is so excited that she's literally vibrating!  She took a few minutes to thank the Club for their support of her Exchange and told us about some of the training classes that she has attended and how well they have prepared her for this coming year abroad.  Her dad, George came to the meeting with her today and although he's going to miss his lovely daughter, he is so pleased that she will have the amazing opportunity that he is considering becoming a member of Rotary himself!

Of course when a club sends out a student for the year, we are expected to assume responsibility for an inbound RYE as well.  Ashley's parents have signed up to be a Host Family for a young lady from France for the year that Ashley's gone.  In essence they're just exchanging daughters!  So Mailys Ooghe, the inbound student arrives on August the 8th. 

Ashley promises to take lots of photos and blog to us over the course of the year.  We look forward to hearing all about her year when she returns next June.  Good luck and Godspeed  Ashley!  You will have the time of your life!!

Meet RI President Sakuji Tanaka 2012-2013

RI President Sakuji Tanaka

RI President: Through service, we can bring peace

It’s a great honor to serve as your 2012-13 RI president and represent you in Rotary.  Since joining this organization in 1975, it has changed my life and given me more than I ever anticipated. I look forward to sharing some of that with you.
Through Rotary, I learned the purpose of my life wasn’t to earn more, but to help others.  Through our service, we learn that the problems that may seem large to us are really very small.
I also learned that through Rotary, we could build peace.  As part of the first generation to grow up in Japan after World War II, I understand the importance of peace and its connection to our well-being.

Peace can mean many things for many people, but however we understand peace, Rotary can help us achieve it. Rotary helps us meet the basic needs of health care, sanitation, food, and education.  These can bring peace. In addition, we need peace as well for vaccinators to go into countries such as Afghanistan to prevent children from getting polio. It is through our work as Rotarians that we help to build the foundation for a more peaceful world.

Through service, we can bring peace. This is why our 2012-12 Rotary theme is Peace Through Service.
During my year as your president, I look forward to hearing from you on LinkedIn and when I post on the blog. I also hope to see you at one of my three Rotary Global Peace Forums.