Success through Teamwork 5/15/13

Dear Fellow Rotarians and friends,

We had great attendance and energy this week. We were joined by Rachel Sunday's special guest, Mimi Donaldson and multiple members of our Animo Venice Interact Club. 

Tom Carson brought us up to date with the status of the Fire Station 63 pancake breakfast, easily our best ever. We have an approximate gross of $5700 with both additional expenses and income to follow. One thing that isn't in doubt is the great participation we had from the membership and the fun we had. 

Rachel Sunday made double announcements of the need for volunteers this weekend at Westchester Playa Village in support of our seniors and to mark your calendars for the June 2nd for Build a Bear and Italian dinner afterwards. When we get the addresses and times we'll post them.

President Jim called Nate Richards to the podium and presented him with his membership certificate and badge. Seems like that ought to cost sponsor Dan $5 for the badge. 

We have added another event to our calendar. In the spirit of support to fellow Rotarians, we will be servicing lunch to the Westchester Rotarians on June first when they do their bi-annual home makeover. We'll be needed from 10:00 to 3:00 to serve lunch from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. We'll pass a sign up sheet at a future meeting. 

President Jim continued with another worthwhile recognition. He designated Tom Carson as Rotarian of the Month for April for Tom's hard work on the great car rally. 

We had a series of very strange fines and brags. Armando got fined $20 for breathing too fast. Sam fined himself $21.95 for not getting a traffic ticket in a while. Bobbie bragged $20 about her new prowess as a pancake breakfast stewardess, balancing cups, sweetener, milk and coffee to keep the people in line, "in line."

Our main speakers for the day were Chris Culton and some of his fellow Interacters from Animo Venice High School.They highlighted the many activities of the Club and awarded internal and external awards of merit. We are extremely proud of our partnership and participation with Animo Venice. They are extraordinary young people! Katie and Don have  done a great job supporting their efforts. It was obvious the Interacters were most appreciative of their efforts. 

President Jim announced it was time to get out the broom. Our gift basket for the District Conference got the most votes and we were awarded $100 for the effort. That's a clean sweep of all the prizes! Congratulations Playa Venice!

Thanks to Don Culton, Gwen Vuchsas, Katie Litsey and Judith Ciancimino for taking pictures at the FS 63 Pancake Breakfast! The photos have been posted on the Club website homepage in a photo album. We were blessed to have Rica Viola, President of the Club of Excellence in San Pedro (medium sized club,) Cynthia Reed President of the Wilmington Rotary Club and Police Capt. Leon Nixon with us to observe how we do, what we do. Market research. If you are on FaceBook you can see how complimentary Rica was about our Club. She's the best. The didn't just observe, they jumped in to serve. It was great having them with us! 

We were able to create an Animoto video with the photos taken. We showed it at this week's meeting and posted on our Homepage. 

There is also information for those people wishing to make donations in memory of Howard's son Roger who passed away recently. Funds will go towards the education of Roger's children. 

Next week's program will be Club member Craft Talks which are always special!

Once again, no one pulled the ace of spades in the 50/50 drawing, so $2560. carries over to next week's meeting! Howard did pull a joker so $25 goes back in his pocket towards next week's ticket purchase.

Thanks to Don Culton and Judith Ciancimino for taking pictures this week.

Save the Date: 

May 16 Member Orientation Meeting 

May 18 District Assembly 

May 22 Venice Chamber Expo

June 1 Westchester Home Makeover Lunch Service

June 2 "Build a Bear" 

June 6 LAX Coastal Area ChamberFest

June 9 Serving dinner at the Midnight Mission

June 15 Getty Villa Visit (get your art on!)

June 26 Club dark in lieu of Demotion Party

June 28 Demotion Party

July 13 Pancake Breakfast at FS 5

July 28 On the Water With BodyGlove

Aug 5 Japanese Student Outing, Venice Beach

Aug 17 Summer Social

Be well.

Yours in Rotary service, 

Tony