U.S. Border Patrol

Jose Ortiz, of the Border Patrol, was our guest speaker. He has been with the Border Patrol for seven years, and shared a few of his experiences during this time. This was great timing in view of our upcoming trip with our Dental project to Ensenada.

We learned many interesting things. For example, by the end of 2008, the federal government had already completed 500 of the 670 miles of congressionally mandated fence between Mexico and the United States. The San Diego sector in which he works has increased their ranks to 2,300 agents. These new agents are part of the reason the Patrol has successfully increased the number of apprehensions of illegal crossings, and substantially increased the amount of seizures of marijuana, cocaine, and heroin coming across the boarder. Their current goal is to curb violent attacks, which recently escalated. With their increased fence infrastructure and dedication of personnel to this, he felt 2009 would lead to further successes in his sector.

In addition, Bob Yaap spoke about his years as president of our club. He was our third president. At that time we had only 35 members. He explained what a great learning experience it was for him and how very much he enjoyed it. He told how great the President Elect Training (PETS) program was and encouraged anyone who is interested to take up the challenge and enjoy an experience of reward; both working the membership and seeing the good that is accomplished in the community and larger world, because of it.

Ambassadorial Scholar

February18th was our President's Day meeting. We were honored to have Dale Ford (1993-94), Toni Kay Fenton (1994-95), Mary Mar (1995-1996), Warren Willard (1996-97), Ed Hardenburgh (1997-98),  Woody Jones (1999-2000), Rick Topping (2000-01), Kris Khurana (2002-03), Richard Milo (2003-04), Dr, Bob Larsen (2004-05),  John Alcorn (2005-06), and Ray Sanford (2006-07). That is 12 of the 18 Presidents since the club was formed. Most are still active in the club, but some are unable to be involved. It was a real treat to have them with us and to share many stories of fun times. The tradition continues. This week we are gaining a new member, Gregory Lambourne. He will be our 59th active member.

Our speaker was Drew Curiel, one of Rotary's Ambassadorial Scholars, who studied in South Africa and will be starting his new career as a foreign service officer with the State Deparment next week. Drew applied, and was accepted, to study in South Africa as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.

His graduate work was to study the causes and effects of poverty. He spoke of his experiences in Africa and how he and a fellow student lived for 3 months on the average income of a poor person in Africa. He shared how the experience had changed his outlook on what you really needed in your life; the difference in 'wants' and 'needs'. These differ. In America, we want a cell phone, but also have land lines. In Africa, cell phones are needed since there is no telephone infrastructure.

Engineers Without Borders

At the February 11th meeting our speaker was Peter Do. He talked about Engineers Without Borders and how they help people around the world. They frequently partner with Rotary in their projects around the world.  The Irvine EWB group is working on a project through Rotary International at this time. They are constructing a bridge for a village in Africa, in order to supply clean drinking water to the village. Mr. Do ask us to consider our participation with him in other EWB efforts. He would like us to be a local partner with him in his future efforts.

Joan Sarver / Dental Equipment

On February 4th a newer member, Joan Sarver, gave a craft talk about her background and business. She works in money management and had some interesting ideas and thoughts of what to do in these difficult and challenging times. She urged investors to take a more active role with their investments and to invest more cautiously. We also learned she had been president of the Saddleback Rotary club before joining our club.

Austin Wall and his assistant, Al from Dental Care for Children were also at the meeting and showed us how to set up the portable dental equipment we are taking on the Ensenada dental trip in March. Its compactness is remarkable. The design was taken from earlier military set ups. Many members of our club look forward to another successful trip to Mexico with Doctor Tozzer and his staff.