District Conference

by Peggy Stalter

At the District 5320 Sunday brunch, our club joined in honoring our own member, Bret Gerdes, as the incoming District Governor.

In addition to enjoying the festivities, a well-prepared (and consumed) brunch and good fellowship, Diane Kessel Knight, from Rotary International, provided the keynote thoughts to the group.

While it is impossible to bring her spirited words to life in print, here are some of her more salient thoughts for Rotarians to celebrate, as well as ponder and digest:

To paraphrase Helen Keller, “A Rotarian is only one, but still is one. That person cannot do everything, but still can do something; and because he or she cannot do everything, will not refuse to do something.”

Right now Rotarians are achieving wonderful things, both locally and throughout the world. Examples abound in the District:

For our club, notable efforts include our support of the Reading by 9 project aimed at helping kindergarten through 3rd grade students read at grade level by the age of nine, the semi-annual Dental Clinic projects in Mexico, and the Stoves project to uplift living environments in developing countries.

Other clubs in the District distribute dictionaries to 5th and 6th graders to assist their education, bring books for the children of Project Amigo or send needed textbooks to the Sacred Heart Seminar in Uganda.

Globally, more than half of Rotary's 33,000 clubs are attempting to break the endless cycle of poverty and misery through alleviation of mass illiteracy in developing countries. Throughout the world Rotarians have participated in helping bring normalcy to devastated areas struck by natural disasters, and water projects abound to construct water distribution, storage and sanitation systems to millions in the needy areas of the world.

We continue to assist in distributing polio drops in places such as Caborca, Mexico, preventing blindness in India, providing wheel chairs in Korea and aid hospital workers to provide medicine and treatments to ailing poor populations.

As we go forward, our Rotary Foundation, working to fulfill its mission, Service Above Self, must do whatever every one of us can do – no matter whether small or large – to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty.

The Foundation has been developing a Future Vision Plan to direct us into another century of work. We have an opportunity to be a pilot district. As we have worked successfully at polio eradication, we now have the support of the Gates Foundation to assist us in working with partners like WHO, UNICEF and Centers for Disease Control.

Every Rotarian has a reason to celebrate. These few examples help explain why Diane is a Rotarian and what she encouraged each of us to consider and become. If you didn't attend, you truly missed something meaningful.

The celebration gave our club a special reason to spread the benefits and opportunities of Rotary as Bret leads our District this next year. Let's give him a Standing-O as he goes forward!

Past President Mary Mar

Today's past President, Mary Mar, told us about her time as our club President and her years in Rotary. Like many others, she was brought into the club by Rick Topping. She was also one of our Charter Members. Mary was the sixth President and served as President from 1995-96. She was President the year the Rotary International convention was in France, which she said was a true honor to attend.

There were 30 members at that time. She assured us she was on time every week during the year she was President. (She does have a reputation of arriving just in time to add her contribution to the day's fining.)

Mary has also always been very involved at the District level and over the years has made many friends at both the District and International level. Next year she will be our District Treasurer.

One of her greatest interests has been the RYLA program for high school students. She also takes a large part in the planning and running of our District Conference and District Assembly. Due to the amount of work on the district she has more accrued make-ups than anyone in the club.

Our speaker today was Michael Tye, who spoke on the possibility of universal health insurance in the future and how it could affect each of us.

Ensenada Dental Clinic

by Austin Wall

Dr. Tozzer and I, along with Dr. Dave Levitt and his wife, and Drs. Stephanie and Peter Dolas drove down to Maneadero to the orphanage on Friday to finish up cases that were started several weeks before at our February clinic. We were helped out  by Dave Cerrie, Dave Wills, Cindy Levitt and John Carlson. We spent about six hours at the orphanage including set up and take down and provided a great deal of dentistry in that period. Ray Sanford and Barbara Foster from the Laguna Niguel Rotary Club came by about halfway through to cheer us on. We then stopped at the (justifiably) famous "Tacos el Poblano" taco stand for a late dinner, then back to the hotel and some sleep.

Up early, we headed for the school selected for us by the Rotary Club of Ensenada Calafia where we set up the clinic in the classrooms. The roof project for the school's new library was already underway. We were joined there by Rotarians Barbara Foster, Ray Sanford, Bob Yaap, Kummar, Marla Noel and Rick Topping, along with Bharati Kummar and Marla’s friend, Joe. 

Everyone pitched in and helped where they could and things went pretty smoothly except for a couple of the younger kids (ages 3 and 4) who made things tough for some of us. Joining us in the clinic were Tristan and Megan Galloway (USC Dental and PA student at Loma Linda) who worked together well and helped carry the load along with Fabiola, a dentist from the local Ensenada club. 

Ofelia and several other members of the Ensenada club helped with translation and keeping the kids (and parents) under control. Take down went very smoothly with everyone pitching in, making it as easy as it gets. We then went to dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant named Haliotsis where everyone seemed to have a good time. We were joined there by past RI Director Paco Creo and his wife Lupita who is a PDG, a real Rotary family.

The border crossings went smoothly both ways as the Mexican customs people liked our paperwork.

Dr. Tozzer and I thank everyone who participated in the clinic and hope it was a satisfying experience for all and hope to have more participation next time, later this year.

Laguna College of Art & Design

Sammy Macias and Patsee Ober, from the Laguna College of Art and Design, were our guest speakers. We learned this is a fully accredited private non-profit college located in Laguna Beach. It offers both BFA and MFA degrees in a variety of disciplines.

You may recognize the campus by the statues in front of the campus as you drive down Laguna Canyon Road. The school has 360 students, making for small class size (5 to 15) and the ability for personal attention for the students. The school teaches all forms of fine art, drawing, animation, game art, illustration and design, as well as watercolor, oil, painting, and various art forms. They seek to promote the development of an artist's talent and awareness.

The college encourages visitors to enjoy their student's talents, and offers both individual or scheduled group tours of the college. Call Patsee Ober at 949-230-3774 for more information about visiting the school.

Another former president, Toni Fenton, also spoke to us. She was the 5th president of ISR; only two years after women were able to participate in Rotary International. She served on our Board of Directors for 7 years. Here are some of the key things she shared for future leaders of the club:

• Enlighten everyone; keep members informed on what is happening, and what the club's needs are.
• Engage everyone and give all members a chance to participate. Sometime people just need to be asked; they are willing and happy to step up and be involved.
• Search out talent from people in the Club; be aware of the skills each member brings and how it can benefit the club.
• Talk to former leaders in the club; ask, as they are happy to share from their experiences.

By Peggy Stalter