moraga rotary newsletter - april 5, 2016

8/18/2019 Moraga Rotary Newsletter - April 5, 2016

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April 5, 2016

NEXT MEETING : Tues., April 12, 2016Evening meeting at 6 pm

Holy Trinity Hall

Program: Assembl ywoman CatherineBaker: “A Report from Sacramento”

Greeter and Invocator – Jim Campbell

~~FUTURE CLUB MEETINGS~~

* April 19 -- Michele Robbins – “Shalom CanChange The World.”

* April 26 – Marielle Smallheiser – “What We ShouldKnow About Medicare.”

* May 3 -- Linu s Eukel – “The John Muir Land Trust and Carr Ranch Project.”

** May 10 – Agnes Moore (The official 94 year oldRosie The Riveter)

(Evening Meeting at Soda Center)

*May 17 – Diane Hardy & Tim Farley “Annual ReportFrom St. Mary’s College.”

*Regular Noon Meeting ** Second Tuesday Evening

~BUSINESS MEETING~

President Roger, still stoked after theDistrict Conference , opened the meetingwith a very robust ring of the bell, andDoug Damaschino offered a fewprofound quotes as the Thought for theDay, and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Guests in attendance were: ElizabethMurphy , Vice President of the SMCRotaract Club; Steven Burchik , authorand our speaker today, and Bill Eames ,our designated guest.

~HAPPY BUCKS & RECOGNITIONS~

Dick Vance, back from Giants springtraining (he didn’t make the team), offered $20 instead of a spin of thewheel, but the cagey Rajah spun for$35 to the Club. Dick allowed as thatwas fair because he also took anundeclared side trip rafting on theColorado River near Glen Canyon.

Roger and Elizabeth Murphy, VP of Rotaract

Debbie Roessler gave a couple HB’sfor her time last week as serving as Aide to Cliff Dochterman at theDistrict Conference, and for getting off

jury duty. (I heard the defendant gave5 HB’s). . . . Al and Marilyn Simonsen attended some sand volleyball gamesin Santa Barbara where theirgranddaughter played and won all hergames except against an undefeatedpair, and gave 2 HB’s. . . JohnErickson , holder of the Fine Free Hat,had some pretzels and Acepropaganda on every table (let’s hopethe next Hat auction gets a few morebidders).


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Cliff Dochterman donated his $1,000 speaker’s honorarium from the DistrictConference to the Mary ElenaDochterman Scholarship Fund.

~ANNOUNCEMENTS~

The next E -Waste collection day will be April 30. Come out for some real fun in thesun. Rich Render will circulate the signuplist sometime.

The District Bocce tournament will be heldon Saturday, June 18 at the MartinezBocce courts; signups are being taken byCaptain Angelo . He will conduct a coffee

& doughnut -fueled practice session a fewweeks before the tournament.

There will be a Past RI Presidents’ Dinnerheld at Blackhawk Country Club onTuesday May 3, and will feature PRIPsRick King, Gary Huang (from Taiwan), and Cliff Dochterman . For informationand signups, talk to Debbie Roessler .Cost is $45 pp which incl dinner and wine.It’s a hot ticket! Link to info:http://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-

presidents-summit-registration

Debbie Roessler announced that theChamber of Commerce mixer which Rotarywill host will be on Wednesday, Sept 21.We should use this event to raise moneyfor the playground project.

The “A Nite at the Races” committee for2016 met to recap this year’s event and toplan for the future. The net proceeds to theClub were about the same as last year,plus additional donations were: $7,600toward the 2017 playground project and$500 toward Polio Plus.

~DISTRICT CONFERENCE REPORT~

The Rajah speaks: “ What a great Annual District Conference we just hadat the Yolo County Fairgrounds inWoodland, CA. The event began with an

April Fool’s Party on Friday (April 1st

).The Rajah was let out and he ranaround for the whole evening with histurban on. Raj’s turban was much biggerthan Governor Ken Courville’s. Thespeakers were great. The venue waspleasant and Rotary had it all toourselves. Great dance band onSaturday night too. Raj and Rajette

danced until there were just six peopleleft.

Random acts of kindness exhibit

Cliff spoke Sunday morning about thedrops of Rotary, the ideas, which havecome together to create a wonderfulstalactite of great beauty which we callour Rotary International organization. Itwas nice that Moraga Rotary wasrepresented by John & Mary SueErickson, Debbie & Lou Roessler,Cliff Dochterman and myself & mywife, Jan.

http://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-presidents-summit-registrationhttp://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-presidents-summit-registrationhttp://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-presidents-summit-registrationhttp://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-presidents-summit-registrationhttp://www.sanramonvalleyrotary.com/ri-past-presidents-summit-registration


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Cliff Dochterman discusses rotary at DC

Attending a District Conference is a funthing to do – so don’t miss that chancenext year when the conference will be inBerkeley. Calling all Cal-people – pleaseplan to return to the campus for Rotaryfun ” .

~CAMPO INTERACT PROJECT~

The Campolindo Interact Club ishaving a used clothing drive the week ofMonday, April 17 th . The clothing will besent to the White Pony Express, FreeGeneral Store for distribution tohomeless and destitute people in ContraCosta. The clothing drive will run for twoweeks so bring your clean, used

clothing donations to our regularmeetings on April 12 th and 19 th and wewill make sure they get to the InteractClub. Remember it is important that ourInteractors get a good project undertheir belts as they move to the end oftheir school year.

~SPEAKER OF THE DAY~

Our speaker today was Steven Burchik,the author of the book “A Compass and

a Camera”, a compendium of hisexperiences as a combat soldier in theViet Nam war. He served as a Sergeantin mortar platoon in the First InfantryDivision from June ‘68 to June ’69. He’sa graduate of Manhattan College in NewYork, a Christian Brothers institution.

Pres. Roger and speaker Steven Burchik

While in -country, he took about 4000photos on 24 shot rolls of film (rememberthose?) of the terrain, his troops,indigenous people, and some combatsituations. After his discharge in 1968, hestored the photos until recently, when hewas asked by several groups to share his

experiences. At one presentation, he wasasked “When will the book be available?”.So Steven published his book.

His unit in Viet Nam only lost four men,which was well below average for acombat company. For two months, theywere assigned to guard the Saigon watersupply plant, and for another two months


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they guarded the Saigon electric powerplant.

More intense combat duty included somesearch & destroy missions where theywere ferried to and from the combat areaby helicopter, but had to cross rivers, ricepaddies, and other wet terrain. They alsoset night ambushes and cleared outtunnels. They also set up night defensivepositions with water & supplies,surrounded by razor wire and fortified withsandbags.

His company got to meet celebrities JoeyBishop and Tippi Hedren, who he later

saw at a reunion in Bodega Bay on the50 th anniversary of her movie, “TheBirds”.

~MARCH MADNESS POOL~

The winner of the Rotary NCAA collegebasketball championship pool was AngeloCostanza , winning $40 due to his skill andcunning. John Erickson won 2 nd placeworth $20 , which he donated back to theClub. The Club also received $20 off thetop for putting up with this nonsense.Thanks to commissioner Al Simonsen forrunning the pool.

~SMC ROTARACT PROJECT~

The SMC Rotaract Club is planning an Adopt - A-Pet day project for Saturday, May7 at the Moraga Commons. Mark yourcalendar; details to follow.

Southern-most Rotary wheel in the world!.

The winning green raffle ticket was held byBill Eames, but he settled for just tenbucks but won the privilege of hosting the

Last Friday Social at his house inRossmoor. Bill’s address is: 1901Lakeshore. Phone is: 510 -604 -9592. Gatpassword is: rotary. Carpets and wineshould be: white.

CA LENDAR OF FUTURE EVENTS

Apr 16 – District Assembly - Benicia Apr 29 – Last Friday Social at Bill Eames’ Apr 30 -- E-Waste Rec ycli ngMay 3 -- Past RI Presidents’ Dinner May 11 – Rotary Field DayMay 14 – Moraga Commu nity FaireJun 18 – District Bocce Ball ChallengeJun 28 – Demotion party dinner

Aug 5-7 – OMPA swim meet food boothSep 21 – Chamber of Commerce mixer (sponso r)Mar 24-26, 2017 – District Conference


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MORAGA ROTARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2015-16

President……………………………………….Roger Gregory President- elect …………………….….…........Kevin Reneau Past President……………………………….Debbie Roessler Secretary…………………………………….... .Kevin Reneau Treasurer………………………………………….... Lad Lynch Community Service Chair………………......Barbara Bruner New Generations.…..……………………… …...Rich Render International Service Chair ….…………….Tony SchoemehlPublic Relations ………………………………...…Gary Irwin Membership……………………………………........Frank May

Director at Large…………………………….…..John Erickson Director at Large………………………………..Marv Ellenberg Director at Large…………………………… Cliff Dochterman Director at Large …………………………………...Linda May

President, Rotary International………Ravi Ravindran District Governor…………………….……Ken Courville Assistant District Governor…………..…Mark Roberts

Apr il Edi tor – Gary Irwin

Future Greeters/Invocators April 19 Ron Mucovich

April 26 Tony SchoemehlMay 3 Evie MichonMay 10 John Erickson

May 17 Frank MayMay 24 Herb Wehmeyer

List of upcoming programs :

April 19th

– noon at the SodaCenter – Moraga Rotarian,Michele Robbins, “Shalom CanChange the World.”

April 26 th – noon at the SodaCenter – Marielle Smallheiserspeaking on Medicare

May 3 rd – noon at the SodaCenter – Linus Eukel speaking

on the John Muir Land Trustand the Carr Ranch Project

May 10 th – evening at the SodaCenter – Agnes Moore, “Rosiethe Riveter.” 94 years old.

May 17 th – noon at the SodaCenter – Diane Hardy & TimFarley speaking about St.Mary’s College

May 24 th – Open – noon at theSoda Center

May 31st

– Open – noon at theSoda Center

June 7 th – Open - noon at theSoda Center

June 14 th – evening at the SodaCenter – Gary & Carol Irwintell us about their recent trip toAntarctica

June 21 st - Open - noon at theSoda Center

June 28 th – Evening, 6:00 pm atthe Soda Center, Claeys Hall – Demotion Dinner

Moraga Rotary Board meetings: (All Tuesdays@ 5:00 pm in the Trinity Center at the Serbian

Orthodox Church on School Street):

April 19 th May 17 th June 21 st July 19 th

moraga rotary newsletter - april 5, 2016

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