September 7, 2001 Issue

ISSUE NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 7, 2001 OUR 80^th YEAR

www.RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org

HUGE DAY AT BEACHES –

PLAN TO BE THERE

In 1985 a small group hereabouts started an activity called “Heal the Bay.” In following years many Santa Monicans waded in – not only helping with the half-day drives that cleaned our beaches, but also raising money and churning out information.

Heal the Bay kept growing. Now it has a $1.5 million yearly budget and 21 full-time workers. Its clean-up day has spread so far that it now is California Coastal Clean-up Day, which its backers call “the biggest volunteer day on the planet.” On that day as many as twelve thousand volunteers pick up more than a hundred thousand pieces of trash, including 5,000 pounds of recyclable stuff.

The big day this year is Saturday, September 15, from 9 a.m. to noon. Rotary is one of the sponsors and coordinators. So is Rotaract – which sent half its members to the drive last year. It’s a great chance for our members and their families to get acquainted with the younger Rotaract people, who are likely to be in our club a few years from now.

Let’s all be there on the 15^th. We will be meeting at State Beach, located at Pacific Coast Highway and Temescal Canyon. You needn’t bring any equipment; all supplies will be provided. Questions? Phone the point man for our club, Tim Shannon, 310-394-5778.

Our usually cool President Hal changed his mood swiftly when he found (by a show of hands) that Shirley Dowling and Ray Corvan had received their federal tax rebates in the mail. Since he hadn’t received any as yet, he levied a $50 tax apiece on Shirley and Ray. He called it a Jealousy Tax. Is this the kind of achievement to be recognized by our kinder and gentler club?

The Los Angeles Police Department is collecting old or unused cell phones. The phones will be reprogrammed and given to Sojourn Services of Santa Monica, which will distribute them to battered or at-risk women.

Our club will help. Bring your phone to our Rotary lunch, any Friday through October 13, or drop it at the Santa Monica Red Cross, 1450 Eleventh Street. Our contact member is Harris Levey, 310-822-9067.

Most of our members stay with us for many years. But each year we lose a few, because their personal or professional positions change, or for other reasons. In recent months we’ve lost 18 members. They are:

Major Ron Bawden, Dr. Paul Bohn, Erik Brandin, Aiko Brum, Mike Chesser, Stephanie Droker, Dan Ehrler, John Hearne, Chet Hoover, George Ishizuka, Viktorija Joga, Yale Keckin, C. J. Kim, Rev. Robert Ned, Mark Olson, Jeanne Rennell, Neil Schmidt, Phil Smalec.

Each of our current members has been provided with an up-to-date set of individual roster sheets for their club Roster Book. If you haven’t picked yours up, Barbara Hopper is holding it for you. Updates not picked up by the September 7 meeting will be sent out in the U. S. Mail.

Among the speakers at our Rotary meetings in future weeks will be top executives of four important organizations.

One is scheduled to be with us this Friday: the pastor of the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, now being built in Los Angeles. He is Rev. Monsignor Kevin Kostelnik, who was Cardinal Roger Mahony’s priest-secretary for ten years before becoming pastor of the new cathedral in 1999. Presumably he’ll tell us something of the problems arising during construction of a huge new cathedral, and during selection of personnel to get it off to a smooth start.

On September 21 our speaker will be the Italian Consul General, the Honorable Massimo Roscigno. He is the man to see in the Los Angeles area when any resident, or any Italian in transit, needs help or information from the Italian government.

The president of Pepperdine University, Andrew K. Benton, is to be our speaker on November 16. He has served in various positions at Pepperdine since 1984, and became president in 2000.

And then on December 7, Dr. Richard J. Corlin, the president-elect of the American Medical Association, will be our speaker. He lives in Santa Monica and is an assistant professor at UCLA, but has also been a leading figure in the AMA for the past twenty years, most recently having served for five years as speaker of the AMA’s House of Delegates. Early in his career, in 1978-79, he was president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. His medical field is gastroenterology.

It’s always pleasant to welcome members’ friends as guests at a meeting. Rotarians who brought guests to our August 24 meeting were Jack Siegal (he brought Petra Knieper); Bill Bullock (brought his wife Mildred); Robert Adams (Vanita Nicholas); Lorraine Jossel Sylvia and Sol Jossel); Jim Westbrook (Jeff Fromberg); and Dave Rogers (his wife Anna.)

Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"2001/2002 - A Rotary Odyssey"

Rota-Monica