Community Outreach

November 25, 2014 Speaker: Herb Johnson, San Diego Rescue Mission

Herb Johnson, President/CEO, puts his extensive executive experience to work leading the San Diego Rescue Mission, an organization that, literally day-by-day, makes the difference between life and death for many in our city.

Mr. Johnson, who holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School, had a dynamic career in the business world, including leading Summit Concept, a unique Supply Chain and Executive Partnership Firm based in San Diego. He also served as Executive Vice President for Supply Chain Management of Premier, Inc., and as President of Premier Purchasing Partners, L.P., a $14 billion Group Purchasing Organization. In addition, he was President of the Council of Logistics Management, the leading association of supply chain executives in the world.

His record of 30-years in supply chain, logistics and operations management, and national and international distribution have established him among the nation’s most gifted business leaders. He also served with distinction in critical roles for CVS Corporation, a $16 billion pharmacy chain with drug stores across America.

Mr. Johnson and his wife Carol have five children and 12 grandchildren. They live in Kensington and are active members in Christ United Presbyterian Church. Additionally, they both spend significant time serving on several boards throughout the county.

January 28, 2014 Speakers: Rotary 4-Way Test Student Speech Contest

[custom_frame_right shadow=”on”][/custom_frame_right] The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships. The test has been translated into more than 100 languages, and Rotarians recite it at club meetings

The purpose of the 4-Way Test Speech Contest is to help youth, Rotarians and the community-at-large to more completely understand, encourage, and foster the principles of Rotary and the objects of “Service Above Self.”

Today, Rotary Club of La Jolla plays host to local high school students who will seek to express the ideals in our 4-Way Test. The topic for the speech is to be the student’s choice, however, the speech must show clearly the practical application of all four points of the Rotary Four-Way Test.

Of the things we think, say or do:

Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

September 3, 2013 Speaker: Jon Sundt – “Natural” High, Youth Drug Prevention Program

Jon Sundt is the Founder, President and CEO of the Altegris Companies, based in La Jolla. Altegris is one of the leading providers of best-of-breed alternative investments and manages approximately $4 billion and employs 110 individuals.

On the business side, in 2012, Jon received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for excellence in his field and in 2013, Jon was also named to the 2013 Investment Advisor’s Top 25 Industry Leaders. Jon attended the University of California, San Diego with a major in Computer Science and a minor in economics. He is a member of the San Diego Coastal Chapter of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and a long-term member of Vistage International.

In addition to his business endeavors, Jon founded Natural High in 1994 after losing both of his younger brothers to drug abuse. Natural High is a drug prevention non-profit organization that helps youth discover, amplify and pursue a natural high instead of an artificial high.

To date, Natural High provides its programs free-of-charge to more than 16,000 educators who use the materials with more than 6 million students in the United States. In the next year, they plan to completely digitize their platform, in hopes to reach 12 million youth with the Natural High message by 2015.

When he is not working with Altegris or Natural High, Jon is pursuing his other natural highs, spending time with his family or surfing Blacks Beach.

Members of LJHS Interact Club celebrate the success of their 5/24 Car Wash and Bake Sale.

The event raised more than $500 for the club’s Tijuana home-build project. The next home-build, the club’s eighteenth home, will be on Saturday, June 22nd.

LJ Light Article: La Jolla Youth Baseball ready for championship games May 18

Ryan McCasland steals home. Photo by Michele Friszell

By Tom Murphy
La Jolla Youth Baseball (Read on La Jolla Light’s website)

The La Jolla Youth Baseball season comes to a close Saturday, May 18, 2013 with championship games in the Pinto, Mustang and Bronco divisions. Shetland doesn’t have playoffs, but a lot of kids will play post-season games on tournament teams. Pony schedules its inter-league playoffs over the Memorial Day weekend at Tecolote.

LJYB continues to lead San Diego Pony play with Aladdin maintaining its perfect record at 14-0, and On the Inside Design (OTID) moving into second place, following a come-from-behind bottom-of-the-eighth victory over Mira Mesa’s Storm.

Reed Farley pitches four innings last week. Photo by Michele Friszell

OTID went into extra innings tied 2-2 against Storm. La Jolla left the bases loaded three times along the way. Reed Farley pitched four solid innings. Mira Mesa picked up a couple of unearned runs off of closer Carson Greene. Chasing two, the bottom of the lineup produced a hit and a couple of walks.

Ryan McCasland stole home on a passed ball. With runners on the corners, two outs and two strikes, Greene crushed a high fastball into the gap that scored John Murphy from first to win the game — walk off style!

The two LJ teams face each other 5 p.m. Saturday for bragging rights. Nine Pony players will be recognized for their “Decade on the Diamond,” playing 10 consecutive years in LJYB.

Bronco division had double elimination playoff games with Pharmatek being the first team to go. Last week it overcame an 11-1 deficit to tie the game 12-12 going into the seventh inning against Morgan Stanley. MS pushed across a run to take the lead and P-tek was unable to match them, stranding the tying run on second. Last Saturday, the elimination game between Mitch’s Surf Shop and Pharmatek was a defensive and pitching battle with a 1-1 tie going into the sixth inning.

Coach Rick Macdonald executed his small-ball strategy with consecutive bunts that each produced runs. P-tek ended the inning on an interesting note with Marcus Scott on the hill, who pulled the infield in for a chat and called a hidden ball play with two outs and runners on the corners. When the ump called “play,” the third baseman still had the ball and casually tagged the runner on third, who was called out. Unfortunately, Pharmatek was out of tricks and Mitch’s won 4-1. Alexandria remains undefeated in the winner’s bracket. Bronco championship game: 2 p.m. Saturday.

Carson Green gets a winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning. Photo by Michele Friszell

With a 14-3 record in the Mustang division, Sector 9 continues its march through the winner’s bracket in double-elimination play. Over the season, it had a commanding lead in both runs scored and runs against, which is the secret sauce to a winning season. PacVentures and Garden Communities are playing scrappy baseball and hanging tough. RAK has been the biggest surprise with its late-season hitting and improved defense, led by Luke Roberts and Nathan Latimer.

B of A Home Loans, Drache Feld and Alexandria have been eliminated. Mustang Championship game: noon Saturday.

With 10 teams in the Pinto division, Scoma Pediatric Dentistry, Donovan’s Steak & Chop House and Retirement Benefits Group have been eliminated in single-elimination format. RBC remains undefeated and like its Mustang counterpart, it dominates in runs scored and runs against, compared to the rest of the teams. Rotary Club of La Jolla, Voices for Children and Party City are very much in the hunt. Pinto Championship game: 10 a.m. Saturday.

• Following the festivities at Championship Saturday, LJYB will again serve as a host for the third annual “Home Run for Chelsea” tournament and benefit for Chelsea’s Light Foundation.

• LJYB will send a dozen teams to represent the league in the Memorial Day Tournament hosted by Tecolote Youth Baseball. Play starts May 21 and championship trophies will be handed out May 27. This tradition is a tuneup for the official PONY Sectional All Star Tournament June 22-July 2.

La Jolla Youth Baseball
Saturday, May 18, 2013 Schedule
• 10 a.m. – Pinto Championship
• Noon – Mustang Championship
• 2 p.m. – Bronco Championship
• 5 p.m. – Pony Home Finale, closing ceremony, league BBQ

• Website: lajollayouthbaseball.org

Reed Farley makes a base hit. Photo by Michele Friszell

Carson Green at the pitching mound. Photo by Michele Friszell

LJ Article: Young Rotarians Build 17th Home

(Read article on La Jolla Light website)

Members of Interact service clubs at The Bishop’s School and La Jolla High built a home for a family in Tijuana. Courtesy Photo

Members of Rotary’s youth Interact community service clubs at The Bishop’s School and La Jolla High, along with their parents and three members of Rotary Club of La Jolla, constructed a new home for an impoverished Tijuana family Oct. 27. The home replaced the family’s dirt-floor shelter.

Rotary volunteers assembled the wood frame home in seven hours, from the first nail to completion, which included paint and a matching dog house for the family pet.

About $3,900 in building materials was raised by Interact students, La Jollans and the Rotary Club of La Jolla. It was the 17th home constructed by the two Interact clubs during the past five years.

Interact clubs are high school student community service organizations sponsored and led by local Rotary clubs.

To contribute to the clubs’ home-building fund, contact Cal Mann at (858) 336-2557 or e-mail calmann@mac.com

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La Jolla Youth Baseball wraps up 60th season (LJ Light Article)

By Tom Murphy

La Jolla Youth Baseball

Watching the Little League World Series on ESPN and ABC reminds us how entertaining youth baseball is and how important the sport is around the world. No other youth sport gets this kind of media coverage. So it’s no surprise that La Jolla Youth Baseball just celebrated its 60th anniversary and the league is as strong as it has ever been.

None of this is possible without enthusiastic kids, their supportive parents, wonderful volunteer coaches, and generous sponsors. Congratulations on a successful season full of milestones and highlights.

— The Pony Division fielded three teams and participated in the 11-team San Diego Metro Youth Baseball Inter-League. The teams and managers finished up the season in the following order: RBC (Roy Agbulos), Simpson Delmore Greene (Jack Marshall) and Rotary Club of La Jolla (John McColl).

Both All Star teams advanced to the PONY Regional Tournament (13s and 14s). Brandon Nance and Michael Marshall led the league in home runs. Paul Delmore retired as Pony President, ending his five-year LP reign.

— The Bronco Division had five teams that finished the regular season, led by Aladdin Bail Bonds (Kris Smolinski), Harry’s Coffee Shop (Mike Campagna), Las Patronas (Dave Hammel), On the Inside Design (Mike Wintringer) and Mission Imprintables (Brian Moses & Kevin Mahony).

Aladdin beat Harry’s in the championship game. Coach Hammel led the 12s All Star team into the PONY Regional Tournament. Garrett Brown was LJYB’s Home Run King with 9 round-trips. Eric Brown was Bronco President.

— In the Mustang Division, Mitch’s Surf Shop (Wayne Young) finished the regular season ahead of Morgan Stanley (Bob Meyerott), Garage Door Medics (Brian Kelly), Pharmatek (Tim Scott), Drache Feld (Geoff Longenecker) and Baxter Foundation (Billy Egan).

Garage Door Medics beat Morgan Stanley in the championship game. Three All Star teams played in the PONY Section Tournament but did not advance. Patrick Ryan and Josh Newman hit the only home runs in Mustang. Neil Hyytinen served as Mustang President.

— With 12 teams competing in the Pinto division, the regular season ended with a tie at the top between Retirement Benefits Group (Jim Duffy) and Capital Growth Properties (Chris Hobbs), followed by Patterson Bike (Emmet Holden), Voices for Children (Bill Leutzow), PacVentures (John Dobak), Sector 9 (Dave Klimkiewicz), Solis Chiropractic (Michael Solis), Empire Beauty (Bryce Goldman), Herringbone Restaurant (Brian LaGrange), RAK (Doug Gans), San Diego Pools (Charles Hartford), and Garden Communities (Greg MacLean). Underdog PacVentures beat Capital Growth Properties in the championship game.

Three All Star teams competed in the PONY Section Tournament with Coach Duffy’s Red team advancing to the Region Tournament. Alex Brown led Pinto with three home runs. Brad Kates did an outstanding job as Pinto President.

— The Shetland Division experimented with smaller rosters and breaking the teams into Majors and Minors. The intent was to better prepare the older kids for tournament play and Pinto baseball the following year by introducing the pitching machine at the beginning of the season and allowing for more skill development. Minors were mostly first year players who used the batting tee for the first half of the season.

The eight Major teams were Bank of America Home Loans (Chris Circuit), California Bank & Trust (Mitch Yaruss), Donovan’s Prime Seafood (Marc Howard), La Jolla Playhouse (Jim Weaver), Makaira Partners (Greg Hansen), Party City (Mike Gibbs), SD Storage (Roy Clark), and Willis Allen Real Estate (Rick Macdonald).

The Minors teams included Brockton Villa (Michael Cairns), Jersey Mike’s of La Jolla (Mike McBride), Kiwanis Club of La Jolla (Philip Boczanowski), Murfey Construction (Scott Murfey), and Scoma Pediatric Dentistry (Ellen MacLean).

The two Shetland All Star teams placed 1st and 2nd in the Tecolote Memorial Day Tournament and for the second consecutive season sent a team all the way to the PONY World Series led by Coach Walter Birnbaum. Kudos to Shetland President Greg Hansen for introducing innovations with great results.

— Behind the scenes, LJYB is run by a hands-on volunteer Board of Directors under the leadership of President Jim Benham, Tom Murphy (Vice President & Sponsorships), Tim Scott (Fields & Equipment), Jim Duffy (Registration & Technology), Brian LaGrange (Uniforms & Awards), Rick Macdonald (Player Development), and Dan Ryan (Treasurer). Heidi Dowd is the new part-time administrator and the only paid person in LJYB.

More than 50 volunteer coaches were certified by the Positive Coaching Alliance for attending the “Double Goal Coach” workshop hosted by LJYB and underwritten by a generous family.

LJYB became a better league because of its partnership with PCA. The workshops will be available to all LJYB parents in 2013. Look for a notice in early January.

A special thanks goes to the San Diego Padres for including LJYB in their Youth Baseball Initiative in 2012 and 2013. The brainchild of Padres CEO Tom Garfinkel, the YBI was designed to put a Padres jersey on every Little League kid in San Diego — more than 11,000 authentic MLB Majestic jerseys were donated in the 2012 season alone.

This initiative has never been attempted before in Major League Baseball and the program attracted significant national attention. LJYB is the only PONY league to be included in this incredible outreach program and we are deeply appreciative of their generosity.

We want to particularly acknowledge and thank Sue Botos, the Padres Vice President of Community Affairs and her tireless team for taking on this monumental task and turning it into a huge success for the all of the kids included in the program. More information at lajollayouthbaseball.org

Read article online at: http://www.lajollalight.com/2012/09/07/la-jolla-youth-baseball-wraps-up-60th-season/

LJ Light Article: Rotarians award $150,000 to La Jolla graduates

By Pat Sherman

The Rotary Club of La Jolla awarded $150,000 in college scholarships to 22 graduating La Jolla High School seniors during its May 22 luncheon at the La Valencia Hotel.

“Parents, you should be real proud of these students, the way they interview, the way they present themselves, the accomplishments they’ve already made — and they’re only at the beginning,” said Cindy Goodman, chair of the club’s scholarship committee.

Goodman said applicant interviews took place during a blackout.

La Jolla High School graduate and scholarship recipient Christian Gimber will be headed to the UCLA in the fall.

“There was no power, the elevators weren’t working and the stairwells were locked,” she said, addressing the students. “You accepted that challenge with great humor and grace and dignity. It proves that when you go on to school you’re going to do well under stress.”

Rotarian Russell King, associate director for strategic initiatives at UC San Diego, served as master of ceremonies.

King noted that the percentage of students graduating from high school or receiving a high school equivalency certificate in San Diego County is only 74 percent.

He said socioeconomic barriers were the most prominent factor in whether a student attends college.

“Socioeconomic issues should not stop someone from getting an education,” King said. “There are students that are in this room that are beating the odds. They’re getting into some schools I know I couldn’t get into, and they worked really hard to get there. We’re here to help you get to the next level.”

King said the number of outstanding federal student loans is currently $900 billion, while the number of private student loans is about $140 million — the former being greater than both the country’s overall mortgage debt and credit card debt.

Ricardo Rivas of The Preuss School at UCSD receives the Gilbert Martin scholarship from Rotarian Roger Anderson. Rivas heads to Northwestern University in the fall.

“We need to fill that gap,” he said. “We need to make sure that these students, when they get out of college, are not in debt.”

More Scholarship Winners
The following is a list of scholarship recipients and the universities they plan to attend in the fall.

• Riford Scholars (Recipients must attend a California college or university and maintain a GPA of 3.1 in high school and 3.5 in college to remain eligible for the scholarship in subsequent years.)
Elli Desaegher, The Bishop’s School (Point Loma Nazarene); Christian Gimber, La Jolla High, (tentatively UCLA); Kathy Ha, The Preuss School (Cal Poly); Alexandra Kirby, La Jolla Country Day (Santa Clara University); Lindsey Kostas, La Jolla Country Day (Stanford University); Linda Lam, The Preuss School (UC Irvine); Zack Lana, The Bishop’s School (UC San Diego); Kiriti Lin, La Jolla High (UC Davis);Minh Trang Vy, The Preuss School (UC Berkeley); Tom Wheeler, La Jolla High, (Santa Clara University); Ni Na Xaun Vo Diep, The Preuss School (UC San Diego).

Twins Megan (left) and Kaitlin Woods of La Jolla Country Day School receive their scholarship certificates from Rotary Club President Ron Jones. The sibling graduates will be headed to Notre Dame in the fall. Both served in the Spanish Honor Society and Cum Laude Society, and as co-editor and chief of their school’s yearbook.

• Rotary Scholars (Non-needs based, funded by a donors and Rotary activities. Recipients may attend any college or university in the country, and must maintain a GPA of 3.2 in both high school and college).
Tiffany Lo, The Bishop’s School (John’s Hopkins University); Mustafa Malik, The Preuss School (Yale University); Jessica O’Dell, The Bishop’s School (Brown University); Madison Pachoe, The Bishop’s School (Brown University); Ricardo Rivas, The Preuss School (Northwestern University); Amara Tang, The Preuss School (UC San Diego); Amaris Tang, The Preuss School (UC San Diego); Sharon Vongvanith, The Preuss School (University of Pennsylvania); Kaitlan Woods, La Jolla Country Day (Notre Dame); and Megan Woods, La Jolla Country Day (Notre Dame).