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Our meeting started on a somber note as PRESIDENT BOB called for a moment of silence in honor of honorary member CHAR ERNSTEIN, who passed on Saturday, July 20th. All members are invited to celebrate CHAR’S life on Saturday, August 10th at 1 pm in the chapel of Angel Valley Funeral Home.
VICKY JACOBS led us in the pledge and song, and after a rousing rendition of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” played by master musician GARY HIRSH, EMPEROR BOB honored GARY’s years of keyboard servitude with a mug depicting two German shepherds on bicycles.
Our inspiration was the story of Malcolm Mitchell, “the bookish football star”. The New England Patriot overcame his own challenges with reading as an adult, and went on to write a children’s’ book on the magic of reading and formed his own literacy foundation. Be inspired and watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spUXAZp5sQ4
COMEDIAN BOB then kicked off birthday festivities with a knock-knock joke! “Alpaca Who?” “Alpaca the suitcase, you load up the car!” Each birthday girl and boy celebrated in a different way- CINDY GODWIN highlighted Help and Hope for YOUth and their work destigmatizing and improving mental health for teens, ROBIN STODDARD remarked that through his program Wright Flight he has flown 40,000 kids to new possibilities, and we discovered that skydiving enthusiast ANDY KIEL has jumped out of a plane 700 times! Don’t let him near your students ROBIN!
We were then introduced to our newest member by JOHN LEWIS, and were amazed as JIM MURPHY took the podium to give her a Blue Badge immediately after! Who is this Rotary superstar? JEANNE FLOWER, who is already a very active member of three committees, and earned her blue badge in 5 months.NINA TRASOFF earned a hearty Rotary thank you for her work pulling together the Mayoral Debate. If you missed it, go to our Facebook page linked above and watch the debate!
Rotarians were reminded to report to the Sheraton on Grant next week- lest they be shamed. JASON GRABOSCH kicked us into gear with Car Show ticket sales and revealed that ticket teams will be by birth month. Hey- did you know that since our club has over 70 members there is a 99.9% chance two people share the same birthday? But we better aim for growth because the only way to 100% is with 367!
JON WANG and EL HEFE BOB shared a moment of Club history with life-saving the San Carlos ShelterBoxes, and how our gifts from Santa had already benefited two generations.
SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE BOB introduced John Adams, Deputy Director of Biosphere2, who gave our club a fascinating overview of one of Time Life’s Top 50 Marvels of the World. John shared that “there is no such thing as a failed experiment” and that the Biosphere2 is the only large scale facility to study earth’s ecosystems in the WORLD! Want to see the UofA’s research on water, corals, ecology, and food in action? John is giving every Rotarian and one guest free admission! Contact CHIEF SCIENTIST BOB for details.After John signed “Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years” for the MWFB library, we were left with this all too appropriate quote: “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
