Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"2001/2002 - A Rotary Odyssey"

Rota-Monica

IT’S AN HONOR

             “I hate prizes,” Alfred Nobel once proclaimed.  He never took seriously the Swedish Order of the North Star, nor the French Order, which he himself received.  Nevertheless, to avoid leaving his fortune to relatives, he changed his mind two weeks before he died, in 1896.  With four witnesses, he wrote his last will on a torn half-sheet of paper, creating the five major Nobel Prizes.

            He was one of the world’s richest men.  After patenting a combination of nitrogen and gunpowder, which killed his brother and four others in accidental explosions, he came to believe that explosives might bring peace to the world, as deterrents against warlike countries.  He created a mixture he called dynamite, and 355 other substances that he also patented.  When he died, he owned 15 factories and 53 tankers.

             His will set aside the interest from $9 million (an enormous sum a century ago) for annual awards to persons who have benefited mankind in physics,

chemistry, medicine, literature and work for peace.  Winners are chosen by Swedish academies.  At glittering ceremonies in Sweden each December, winners receive gold medals, illuminated diplomas, and envelopes containing pledges of anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000 (tax-free for American winners).

            Our speaker this Friday will tell us about Nobel and the prizes, particularly some of those won by Californians.  He is Andreas Ekman, Consul General of Sweden in Los Angeles.  He is a career diplomat, having served at Swedish embassies in Tokyo, Paris, Kinshasa, London and Dar-es-Salaam. 

PLEASE COME EARLY.  Our program will start at precisely 12:30 because Mr. Ekman must leave early to catch a plane.

 SARA’S MULTIPLE SIDELINES

(One of a series on new Rotary members)

             Sara Frank is secretary of a group called the Pit Crew at the Petersen Automotive Museum.  She helps the city’s community relations projects.  She makes collage art works.  For years she has taken courses at UCLA and Santa Monica College, not with a thought of obtaining a degree, but primarily for enjoyment. 

            Her business life, she decided at an early age, would center around banking, bookkeeping and later taxes.  Her first job was with the Bank of Encino, which merged with United California Bank.  She spent twelve years with the bank, four of them at their branch at Fifth and Wilshire, becoming the first woman installment loan officer in the bank’s history.  When data processing emerged, she studied programming and became a consultant for Decimus Corporation, a leading financial services company in the 1970’s. 

            She married Sherman E. Frank, owner of Frank’s Furniture Co. on Fourth Street, whom she got to know through banking transactions.  He retired in 1980 and passed away in 1992.

             Since 1982 Sara has operated her own accounting firm.  “I enjoy working with people and their finances as they go through life’s changes,” she says.  In l992 she added a tax-preparation service for clients.

             When the Peterson Auto Museum opened six years ago, Sara became a docent, and creates art projects for children visitors, naturally with an auto theme.  Diane Margolin recruited Sara into the ranks of volunteers helping at community events, including SMC’s Celebrate America, National Night Out, and PAL’s Halloween Party.  Sara’s other business, Frank “N” Friends” does face painting at private children’s parties.  After a friend showed her collage, she began taking classes in collage art.  She also does watercolor painting and merges them into her collage works.  In recent years she has been guiding tours of artists’ studios.  She loves being a member of a book discussion group.  Last fall she became a member of Rotary.  What will she think of next?

REACHING TO HIGH SCHOOLS

             “We have hidden our light under a bushel,” writes the president of Rotary International in the current issue of The Rotarian.  “We want to reach millions of prospective members who are not yet Rotarians.”

             How can this be done?  For several years now, the leaders of Rotary have been suggesting ways to do so.  They are pushing a 22-point program called Rotary’s Global Quest to put Rotary clubs into joint action with non-Rotarians in many communities.

             One part of this program is to organize Interact Clubs for high school students, and then help the clubs plan and carry out activities attuned to civic service, as in Rotary.  A decade from now, Rotarians hope, many of these Interact members will be Rotarians. 

            That’s why our district has organized Interact Clubs in 33 high schools, and sends a Rotarian to their meetings to help keep them going.

             Jack Siegal, as our club president in 1999, lent a hand to the neighboring Sunrise Rotary club in starting an Interact club at University High School.  Words about its doings spread to Samohi, where an Interact club got started and has been going strong with Clyde Smith as adviser. 

            With about 15 members, the club meets each Monday during the students’ lunch period from 12:30 to l:00.  It works steadily on service projects.  During Christmas season, the club assembled gift baskets for senior citizens, and went in person to help present them. It sang carols at the Salvation Army shelter, and helped decorate Rotary’s float for the Rose Parade.  Each month it has been making sandwiches for the Salvation Army shelter, and collecting books for an orphanage in Mexico.  When Samohi organized its annual Club Day, the Interact Club was part of it. 

            Gift baskets, sandwiches and other supplies cost money.  The club doesn’t look to Rotary for financial support.  Instead, it raises the needed funds by selling candy and brownies at Samohi and nearby.

             The club hopes to send representatives to Rotary’s Youth Leadership Assembly at the Alpine Conference Center April 27-29.  At some future date, a major project at the orphanage in Mexico is in the works.  If you know students at Samohi who might like to become part of all this, call Clyde Smith at 450-0517.

 FOR YOUR RECORDS

             The Rotary Club of Century City no longer meets at the hotel there.  Its Wednesday noon meetings are now held at the Century Club, 10131 Constellation Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90067.

FRIDAY MEETINGS ON OUR CALENDAR 

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