Escondido Sunrise Rotary; Meeting to Serve our Community in Person and via Zoom; and “Finally, An Appropriate Demotion of Not One, but Three Past Presidents… A Real, 3-D Demotion”…June 26, 2022
Notice of Upcoming Meetings…
There will not be meetings on June 30 and July 7… Our next meeting, at the Chamber of Commerce will be on Thursday, July 14…
The Sunrise Rotary “Three-D” Demotion Event…
As is the Sunrise Rotary tradition, Presidents are demoted in style… The demotion event is to celebrate a successful Rotary year and to thank the outgoing President for his/her leadership throughout the year… While having lots of fun…
At this “Three-D” event, we celebrated the leadership years of Past Presidents, Brian Murphy (2019-20); Chris Miller (2020-21) and Richard Agnew (2021-22)… Due to the Covid Pandemic, we were unable to send-off Brian and Chris in true Sunrise Rotary fashion… Thus, the Three-D (3 Demotions) event…
In this week’s news bulletin, we will recap the Demotion event fun, and provide some updates on Sunrise Rotarians, and share an overview of our philanthropic efforts as a Club over the years…
Welcome to the “3-D” Demotion Event…
As we arrived at the Ritz facility in downtown Escondido, we were welcomed by a great marquee sign…
After a pleasant cocktail reception, our Emcee, Past President, Jim Ponder set us for the evening events, including dinner…
Thanks to the great efforts of the Planning Committee headed by Past President, Rich Aeling, we enjoyed a great dinner…
The Demotion program began in a “Jeopardy” format, hosted by Past President, Mike O’Malley…
A "Triple D" Demotion Event...
The three Past Presidents were hustled off-stage to be prepared for their “time in the barrel”… The culprits were; Past President, Brian Murphy as “Wood Man”; Past President, Chris Miller as “Covid Boy”, and Past President, Richard Agnew as “Tech Dude”…
And, of course, every young boy dreams of someday becoming President…
Many of the Jeopardy questions had answers related to Sunrise Rotary and including hints on how to properly conduct a Rotary meeting… Most of the lackey contestants began their Rotary Year with no clue on how to conduct a meeting, and not surprisingly, they ended their Rotary Year without having learned a thing about conducting a quality Sunrise Rotary meeting…
All of the Jeopardy clues and answers were directed to the contestants by Mike O’Malley, whether the category was chosen by the Lackey contestant or not…
This was not a “fair test” of the lackey contestants knowledge, but rather intended to make them look foolish…
Mid-Program, a commercial break was staged by the beautiful and rustic “Rancho Descanso”… Authentically shared by Past President, Mark and Glynna Hoekstra with appropriate “galloping pony” sound effects…
Naturally there needed to be a question about the Sunrise Rotary Bell...
Of course, the program needed to include the details of the “Bell Heist” and “Bomb Scare” perpetrated by Tech Dude… As his Rotary year was primarily focused on not having his bell “swiped” by any Past President…
But, the wiring mechanism was dismantled, the wires were cut, and the Bomb Squad saved the day…
The Jeopardy questions continued until final Jeopardy…
To all the lackey Past Presidents, they were roundly hooted and sent packing… “You’re Outta There”!!
The final note to all in attendance was from our incoming President, Tina Pope who was unable to attend… See her excuse below… Her parting words for us were…
Past President Richard Receives His Presidential Plaque and Thanks all Those that Served with Him During the Successful, 2021-22 Rotary Year…
Immediate Past President, Chris Miller presented Richard with his Presidential plaque…
Richard shared gifts with Board and Committee leaders, and especially thanked his wife Marcia for putting up with his Rotary Year activities and schedule…
President, Tina Pope was Missed at the Demotion Event, but Plans to be With us on July 14… In Spite of Her “Shattered” Ankle…
President Tina chose a crazy excuse to miss her first meeting as our new President…
She had a bad fall and shattered her ankle… She will be rehabbing for some time and her ankle is held together by plates, pins and screws… Expect to see her in a wheelchair for her first meeting on July 14…
She appreciates all the prayers of support and good wishes from Sunrise Rotary members…
Sunrise Rotary at Work; both Doing and Giving…
In this year-end summary bulletin, we also will remind all members of the great work that we do as a Club…
Specifically, work and projects related to the funds we raise through our Grape Day 5K Event (make your contacts and help support all that we do); and through the Rotary Foundation…
Past President, and Foundation Chair, Kevin Svetich recently sent an email encouraging year-end gifts to the Rotary Foundation… I hear there are some matching opportunities, so get your gifts to the Rotary Foundation by June 30…
Escondido Sunrise is at $465.45 per capita, and just $29.22 per capita shy of third place in the District…
Do your part, if you can… See Kevin’s e-mail of Monday, June 27 for details on how to donate on line to Rotary International…
Many of the projects we have undertaken have involved matching grants through the Rotary Foundation, and gifts to our Club’s efforts through some very generous donors…
A Snapshot of Escondido Sunrise Rotary’s Philanthropic Efforts Both Locally and Throughout the World…
As this Rotary year ends, it’s good for us to know how we have served effectively as Rotarians, “Serving Above Self”…
This is a partial list of the many projects we have completed over the years… Some were in person work projects and others were facilitated by our monetary donations, grants and gifts from Sunrise Rotary supporters…
Below is a list of 36 grants through the Rotary Foundation; 34 of which we completed, representing over $4.5 million in expenditures. Some of these were projects where our club was the only club providing funds… most but not all received District Designated Funds…
Most of the projects were done in foreign countries… One was done on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. Our little club has truly reached around the world identifying needs and helping others.
Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of these projects is the source of the moneys used to complete the projects. Funds came from the members of our club, but also from non-Rotarians who trusted us to use funds they provided. These donors from outside of the club include:
- Lenore Combs; who gave us funds to build homes in Tijuana; to send dictionaries to all of the elementary students in an African country; to provide prosthetic limbs to hundreds of amputees in India; to build cabins for would be campers in wheelchairs; and who was so impressed with Rotary that she left the Foundation $250,000 upon passing and becoming an Arch Klumph Society Member.
- Doris Stimson; who gave us funds to help build a memorial wall on Camp Pendleton which listed the names of all of the Marines and Navy Corpsman killed in our conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq (and which our club recently contributed an additional $10,000 to add the names of the final service members to give the ultimate sacrifice); and also to support our handicapped cabin projects; and who was so impressed with Rotary, she is listed as one of our club’s Major Donors.
- Jean Paul Jacob; who gave us funds to do a project in Brazil to provide therapeutic equipment to a facility that works with mentally or physically challenged individuals to enable them to eventually live independently; and other funds to provide Braille equipment to a Brazilian school for the blind. Jacob wanted to help challenged youth in the USA or Brazil and upon his passing left over $5 million to the Rotary Foundation establishing an endowment which will support projects in perpetuity, also becoming a member of the Arch Klumph Society.
One of the interesting facts about all of these individuals is that none ever attended a Rotary Club meeting. They participated in none of our projects, liked helping others, and trusted us to use their funds to do good.
Our community has supported numerous projects through our fundraising as part of the Grape Day 5K Event…
- Support for the Fisher House
- Provide hundreds of bicycles for needy elementary students
- Scholarships we give to college or tech school bound students
- Providing support to an orphanage in Tijuana
- Taking hundreds of Mexican orphans to Padre baseball games and providing hamburgers and hotdogs
- Delivering Meals On Wheels in Escondido
- Building a park in downtown Escondido
- Supporting a Kiwanis Club in building a handicapped playground
- Providing a pontoon boat designed to accommodate fishermen in wheelchairs to the City of Escondido.
- Helping at vaccination clinics
- Helping at food bank distribution sites
- Formation of a community foundation that has raised and distributed millions of dollars to charitable causes
- Taking needy kids Christmas shopping
- Providing well over $1.5 million to build 14 handicapped cabins
- Providing thousands of pounds of beans to clubs in Ensenada when their District Governor asked for food for the hungry
- 37 years of financial support for the eradication of polio
And so much more!
Past President, Constance Larsen Planning a Move ‘Home’ to Idaho…
Past President, Constance Larsen previously shared this photo of her new home under construction in Eagle, Idaho… Eagle is located near Boise, and Constance has family members in Boise…
Constance is leaving Escondido on July 1 with her 9 cats; yep, nine of this little, snuggly felines… Should be a “cat-nippy” trip… Bob will follow in a month or so as his job is to get the house on the market…
Constance assured me that she will have adequate charging capacity for her Tesla with two charging hook-ups in the garage… Not sure if there’s another Tesla hook-up spot in the state…
Constance served as Sunrise Rotary President in 2006-07… She assures me that she will affiliate with a Rotary Club in Idaho once she is settled…
Constance, you will be missed… It has been a pleasure serving our community together with you…
Our Next Meeting:
A Reminder: We are dark on June 30 and July 7… Our next meeting will be Thursday, July 14, 7:30 AM at the Chamber of Commerce…
Be there for President Tina’s first meeting…
Support for our Escondido Community …
Our great community and the success of its businesses is all of our responsibilities… Support the businesses that are doing all they can to survive during this challenging time… Take out some chow… Be ready to support them when the economy begins working again…
The ‘Giving Arch’ on Grand Avenue and Centre City Parkway reminds us that Escondido is a caring, giving community…
To all; be safe and be well…. God Bless those men and women that carry the load at our medical facilities, and God Bless our first responders… May our governmental leaders be wise, thoughtful and smart as this pandemic is overtaken by our hard work and collective support…
