Our Irvine Rotary Club welcomes visitors. If you are thinking of joining a Rotary club, please check us out. We have been told our club is one of the most welcoming.
Visitors this week included: Visiting Rotarians, former Irvine Club members Becky and Bob Larson, now living in Des Moines, WA.; Newport Balboa Club President Bill Hospil, and Club member Ray Benedictus' son Ian.
News from our President Mark Brubaker: "Club members, make your rotary experience more interesting by joining a committee. "Many Hands make life work".
Committees include Public Relations, Website, Programming, Community Service, Club Foundation, International Service. There's something for everyone's interest. To find out more, please attend a board meeting and see our board and committee chairs in action. Board meetings are once a month on Tuesday at 5:30 pm.
Paul Harris: Way to go Dale Ford, he received his Paul Harris Plus 8 Pin. Rotarians receive a Paul Harris Pin for each $1,000 donation to The Rotary International Foundation. As Dale says, "Just $83.23 per month per year, and you've got a $1,000 donation completed."
The District 5320 Rotary Foundation contributions from our club hit our target. We received third place over all of the other clubs (total of 41) in our district. We contributed an average of $482 per capital in giving. Way to go club, next year our goal is #1!
How we support the community:
Cisca is organizing a Chili Cook Off team before the Angels Game on August 20. All club members and spouses and significant others are welcome to come for the fellowship before the game, even if you will not be staying to see the Angels win! Have a family Chili recipe you want to share?
Jewelry Trunk Show is this Thursday, 3-8 pm. If you need more info, contact Cisca for a flyer. A portion of every sale is contributed to another worthy cause our club supports.
Rotary Book Drive – Bring a new or gently used book to donate. Cynthia will be bringing all our book donations to the OC Fair grounds on Fri. July 29. Time to clean out your bookcase, or donate those boxes of books you have in your garage. Book drive volunteers are also needed to work the booth at the OC County Fair. Volunteers get free admission to the fair too. Ask Cynthia how you can help!
Craft Talks: Several times a month, a rotary club member has the opportunity to conduct a Kraft Talk, it's all about sharing who you are, what you do, and what's your passion with club members. And yes, you have the opportunity to plug your business or work,
without a fine.
Today's Speaker: Visit our Rotary Club and one of the first people you will meet is Barry Brown. He's always there to offer a smile and a warm welcome to members and guests. He wants all our club members to get to meetings early so you can shake his hand.
He's busy and out an about during the rest of the week, as he tells us. Some of the club projects and community support Barry does includes working at the Irvine Senior Center talking to seniors, shopping for those that cannot do for themselves, and other projects like building a ramp for a disabled gentleman's home. Barry has been a long time Rotarian; he first joined the Placentia Club and when he moved to Irvine joined IRC. This was the first time in five years he's done a craft talk, lots to tell. In five months he'll turn 76, he was born in 1935.
He's so fit and active. Priscilla, his love of the last 12 years, is a bit younger and helps keep him moving! But Barry is self-motivated. His joy is in "Building and doing in the community." His job for the last four years, working part time from 9am-1pm every weekday. Barry gets to walk up to four miles a day in his job working for a commercial door company placing stickers on the backs of business doors. Who knew how those signs and stickers got there! Before that for most of his adult life he worked in the perishable food business. His son is a Global VP of Bank of America.
"The greatest joys in life are my memories," says Barry. He reminisces of his younger married life (before Priscilla he was a widower), finding butterflies in camp when he was a youngster; meeting interesting people. His joys too are six grandkids; all are well and growing. Barry's Bugaboo: Rotary members, please be attentive when others speak. Turn those cell phones off!
