Presidents Corner

Dear Fellow Rotarians,

May 10 is Mother's Day, so Happy Mother's Day to all our Rotarian Mother's. I want to welcome Tony Nicassio in the classification of law enforcement, our twelfth and newest Rotarian. He is Captain of the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department at Twin Peaks and was sponsored by Sherwin Grossman. I want to also congratulate Andrea Willerth and Dede Carroll on becoming our newest Paul Harris Fellows.

I want to also thank our Foundation Chair John Lorenz with Paula Porter's help in leading the recent Foundation drive collecting over $12,000 to add to our previously submitted $5,080 for a total of over $17,000 to the Rotary Foundation. This is an average of over $230 per Rotarian. I want to especially thank all of our members for their generosity to make this possible. Our Fine Master Stan Sievers will be offering additional matching funds over the next few weeks.

On April 1, we disbursed $2,000 as our latest distribution of "We Care Sticker Program" funds to Arrowhead Arts Association for the voluntary Early Childhood Music Program at Valley of Enchantment Elementary School. This music program for the K-3rd grade was stopped due to lack of instruments. These funds will replace musical instruments and teaching aids lost in the October 2007 fires. We also disbursed an additional $5,000 on April 8 to the Rim Park and Recreation District towards completing Rotary Centennial Park. This now brings the amount we gave this year for this park to $57,800. This does not include the approximately $50,000 of concrete work donated by Rotarian Duane Banner and the significant in-kind service coordinated by Jane McNairn. Your Board also approved the following funds distributions: $1,000 to Hearts 4 Africa and Habitat for Humanity; and $250 to the Science Club at Rim HS for the Family Math and Science night in May.

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) 2008 Conference held on Apr 4-6 at Big Bear was a success. Our club covered all costs for students Sophia Angelis, Katy Engle, Cody Gonzalez and James Lane.

A number of our Rotarians attended the April 17-20 District Conference at Ontario. Thanks to Dwight Zinn who built our club display we won a third place award. You might also want to know that next year our very own Ron Green will be District 5330's Community Service Chair and our Aylene Popka will become District 5330's Vocational Service Chair. Congratulations to Ron and Aylene. And to further keep next year's leadership on the mountain, our Paula Porter's husband Gerry (Morning Club) is the District 5330's International Service Chair.

A big thank you to Bob Hill and to the 22 volunteers from our club that used their talents to help fix up homes of the needy on April 26 as part of the annual Rebuilding Together activity (previously called "Christmas in April.") Our Club donated $5,000 towards fixing up one of the six homes worked on in this effort.

We held our Police and Fire Appreciation day at the Lake Arrowhead Resort on April 29. It was well attended by our Rotarians who gave thanks to the over 40 representatives serving us from the seven Police, Fire and Emergency response agencies from Running Springs to Crestline. Ron Green did a great job putting together a slide show honoring these public servants. He also designed a medallion that I personally gave to each one of our honored guests as a small tribute of our appreciation and remembrance of this day. A big thank you to Ron who put in many long hours towards this effort.

Your Board designated Tuesday, May 20th as "Rotary Park Work Day." So, in lieu of our regular meeting, we will all meet at Rotary Centennial Park in Twin Peaks to eat lunch and help in assembling some of the picnic shelters. This should be a fun activity, and make this park a reality this year.

Finally a reminder that our Art and Wine Festival is coming next month on June 21 and 22. Over the next few weeks you will be asked to sign up for the many positions needed to make this annual fund raiser a success. All our Rotarians are expected to participate.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Joe