Service – Page 2

NEW FEATURES on Rotary Club of La Jolla Website: Rotary International News Feed & Voices Blog!

Rotary International HOME page — Click to enlarge & see the SAME News Feed we now have on our Home Page on Rotary Int’l’s Home Page

In an ongoing effort to make RotaryClubOfLaJolla.com “your” website for all things Rotary, there’s a new feature recently added…an “RSS FEED.” You’ll find it at the bottom of every one of our pages just as you find it on Rotary International’s Home Page and can use it to keep up with Rotary’s activities directly from the Rotary International website.

Also…we’re now featuring “Rotary Voices,” also from Rotary International’s Home Page which brings you “Stories of service from around the world.”

Here’s how Rotary International explains RSS Feeds:

“RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a basic form of Web page that sends news headlines and other Web content to subscribers. RSS users register to news feed sites like the ones listed below and have regularly updated news sent straight to them.

Some Rotary club and district websites use RSS news feeds from other sources to complement their existing content. These clubs are encouraged to subscribe to Rotary International’s official news feed, which provides the latest links to official announcements, project stories, featured articles from RI’s website.”

February 26, 2013 Speaker: William Muli of Woni Safaris, Kenya

William Muli and his brother operate Woni Safaris, a safari outfitting company in Nairobi, Kenya and will be talking about Safaris and water wells in Kenya.

He has been the driving force of the Ngu Nyumu water well project with Santa Barbara North Rotary Club in Santa Barbara California, and the Langatta Rotary Club in Nairobi Kenya. Ngu Nyumu village is about 50 miles from Nairobi Kenya.

Related news release (.pdf): Rotary Club of Santa Barbara North Brings Clean Water to Village in Kenya

Mr. Muli has worked with the Community Based Organization in the village of Ngu Nyumu to help them overcome the paper work, he has organized them into a great working group. The well which was drilled in 2011, is still free flowing water to this time. He has worked with the local government to obtain a Grant to put in an electric pump, and is working to get the electric to the area of the well. He has overseen all of the construction of the water storage tanks, kiosk’s, pipelines laid, in order for the water to reach more people. The CBO, have equal men and women on their Board of Directors, have made their By Laws up for the governing of the well and the precious water.

William is in business with his family, Woni Safaris, Ltd., doing safaris in Eastern Africa for many years, he has worked as a Driver Guide taking care of the many tourists who come to see the wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania. William is married, has three children, and two grandchildren.

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/

August 21, 2012 Speaker: Haley Jain Haggerstone, Surf Rider Foundation, S.D. Chapter

Haley is currently the Chapter Coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter. The position entails coordinating local chapter efforts to help protect our oceans, waves and beaches throughout San Diego. She is also President of the Board of Directors for Surfrider Foundation Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Conservation from the University of British Columbia and is currently pursing a Masters degree from the University of San Diego in Nonprofit Management and Leadership. She grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia where she worked as an environmental researcher in forestry, fisheries and coastal resource management. Haley was an active member of the Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Chapter executive committee for nearly five years before relocating to southern California.

With over 75 miles of coastline to cover, San Diego represents one of the largest chapters of the Surfrider Foundation. It is a grassroots organization, which means the people working to protect our local oceans, waves and beaches are volunteers who care about San Diego and want to make a difference.

Globally, Surfrider is involved in a variety of campaigns and programs aimed at protecting our coastal ecosystems. Its campaigns and programs are developed to support its strategic goals/initiatives: Clean Water, Beach Access, Beach Preservation, and Protecting Special Places. The Surfrider Foundation chapter network works on a diverse set of coastal problems ranging from water quality, to single-use plastics in our marine environment, to shoreline armoring and the protection of surfing areas. However, the common thread is that all of these efforts are direct action organizing campaigns, in other words volunteer driven.

The Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter is currently engaged in the following campaigns: Rise Above Plastics, Hold On To Your Butt, No Border Sewage and Beach Preservation. The chapter is also running several programs including Ocean Friendly Gardens, Know Your H20, Blue Water Task Force, Kids for Clean Water and monthly Beach Cleanups.

For more information go to www.surfridersd.org.

JUNE 19, 2012 Speaker: Eric Frost – SDSU Visualization Center, Center for Information Technology & Infrastructure (CITI)

The SDSU VizCenter is a physical space but one that largely represents relationships between people and organizations collectively attempting to positively impact the worlds of Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief, Community Resil-ience, Search and Rescue, and aid to operational Emergency Responders and Homeland Security. The VizCenter specializes in organizing and delivering geospatial data (dots on maps) over small networks (terabytes to the handheld) for emergency response and disasters. By linking emerging technologies, innovative back-end processing, and operational needs especially for disaster, the Viz Center community is attempting to assist our community, region, nation, and world in responding to difficult situations with critical information, knowledge, and decision-support tools.

Dr. Frost is Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Homeland Security as well as the Director of the Visualization Center and the Center for Information Technology and Infra-structure. He works with geospatial imaging and data fusion as a means to support Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief globally, especially in joint projects with the US Navy and other Federal agencies in areas such as Central Asia, Indonesia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Africa. His years with the Geology program at SDSU continues to link him to natural disasters globally as well as alternative energy, resilience networks, sustainability, global imaging, fiber optics, and cloud computing.

Rotary International President’s June 2012 Message

Rotary International 2012 - 2013 President Sakuji Tanaka — Rotary International 2012 – 2013 President Sakuji Tanaka

My dear brothers and sisters in Rotary,

June is a time to reflect on the Rotary year that has nearly passed, and to look forward to the one that is soon to begin. We look back at what we have accomplished and measure our progress toward the goals we have set for ourselves. In Rotary, we may pause to reflect, but never to rest on our laurels – for as much as we have achieved, we are always aware of how much there is still to do.

The 2011-12 year has been a time of significant progress. Binota and I have been fortunate to have visited different parts of the Rotary world and seen the many ways that Rotarians everywhere Reach Within to Embrace Humanity. In South Sudan, we met with Rotarians who are determined to make a difference despite tremendous challenges. The humanitarian problems in that nation are enormous, and begin with the most basic: At the moment, South Sudan lacks a single functional hospital. I am confident that in the coming year, Rotarians around the world will reach out to our newest Rotary country with the support and help it will need.

In Uganda, I was delighted and heartened to discover how many government ministers and officials are Rotarians, and to see them bringing the ideals of Rotary to life in their service. In Kathmandu, I was overwhelmed as countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – came together to vow to make the region 100 percent literate by 2017.

In Fiji and Vanuatu in the South Pacific, I was moved by Rotarians who are helping to lower child mortality and provide safe housing. In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, I was delighted by the statement of Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al-Nahayan, minister of higher education and scientific research: “We are looking forward eagerly to Rotary starting its first club here.” And in Valdivia, Chile, as close to the South Pole as Binota and I have been, we were moved by Rotarians’ work with children who have mental disabilities.

But most of all, we found our hearts warmed by the welcome we received all over the world – and by the sight of so many Rotarians living the Rotary ideal, and choosing to Reach Within to Embrace Humanity. I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your president, and look forward to working together to build Peace Through Service. Visit President’s Monthly Message Page on Rotary International’s Website

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).

WELCOME…to Rotary Club of La Jolla’s NEW website!

Powered by WordPress, the leading content-management system (CMS) and built by Edward A. Sanchez of La Jolla’s own Brass Ring Multimedia, the new website is a great tool with the potential to significantly raise Rotary’s profile on the web, bringing Rotary’s message and mission of “service above self” to a larger audience.

Ryan Sutton's "Bird Rock At Night" image is 2011's winner of La Jolla Historical Society's student photo contest — Ryan Sutton’s “Bird Rock At Night.” 2011’s winner of La Jolla Historical Society’s student photo contest

Additionally, we plan to make this site a much more useful informational point for members of Rotary Club of La Jolla. News of recent events, advanced notice of upcoming activities, comments & commentary from members, better access to current membership information and more will be at your fingertips here on the new improved website.

On an aesthetic note, we’re fortunate and grateful to have some fine images from local photographers which convey the beauty of our La Jolla. Our thanks to Leon Chow of C&H Photo on Fay Avenue and Michael Mishler of La Jolla Historical Society along with the photographers themselves for helping greatly in making the site look great.

Bookmark the site and make a point of checking back from time to time to see what’s new and what’s happening!