The morning started with the happy faces of our greeters
Joe Nunez and
Susan Seary giving each of us a happy Rotary smile and a ticket for our fantastic drawing.
President Kay called the meeting to order precisely at 7:00 am. Providing the invocation in the absence of the assigned Rotarian, Mike O’Doherty, was Mike Stepanovich. Mike O. did arrive at about 7:10am and was promptly fined $20 by our president.
The flag salute was led by Jerry Starr in the absence of Pat Paggi.
Song was led by our song leader, Neil Walker, who led us in a nostalgic rendition of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
Guests included the Independence High School Interact advisor, Dorothy Stout, and the Interact leadership from Independence High School. In addition, Marilee Reagor introduced her lovely granddaughter, Allison.
President Elect Nominee Ron Nelms celebrated his 5th anniversary on the very day of our meeting while Past President Neil Walker and Pete Leveroni celebrate 21 years in Rotary on December 1st.
Past President Craig Holland celebrated his birthday at our meeting while Sandy Magley celebrated her birthday on November 29th and Michele McClure celebrates her birthday on December 3rd.
Happy Spots were many. President Elect Denise Haynes recently visited Belize and in her own words ate and drank her way thru the week. Dedicated Rotarian that she is, Denise attended a Rotary Club meeting in San Pedro, Belize. The club was just chartered in May and members could not have been happier to have a visitor from sunny California! Since she brought the president coral and attended a Rotary Club meeting, a fine seemed unnecessary.
Mary Breckenridge sang the praises of zip lining in Hawaii. Mary made the mistake of bringing a question rather than a gift to President Kay which was worth $20.
Marilee Reagor shared how thankful she is that her sweet granddaughter, Allison, is doing so well after a very serious auto accident some months ago. Her thankfulness was well worth $25.
Marlene Heise visited Cuba recently completing a variety of projects and visiting five cities in eight days . While she loved every minute of her stay as well as the wonderful people she met, she was so reminded about how great life in the USA is. She also brought President Kay a Cuban cigar.
Ed O’Donnell visited his son and his family in Southern California over the Thanksgiving holiday and had the opportunity to go to a production shoot with his son. That was certainly worth at least $20.
Past President Michael O’Doherty indicated that 2016 was a great year for him. He won a $10,000 trip to Tuscany at a fundraiser benefiting Antelope Valley College. He was able to make three trips out of the raffle money going to Hawaii, Niagara Falls, and Dallas and still had $,3500 left which he returned to Antelope Community College. In addition to that, his eldest son and his daughter-in-law had a baby girl. Yes, indeed, Mike has a lot to be thankful for. Since he had already been fined, the discussion of $$ didn’t occur.
Michele McClure enjoyed a trip to the central coast as well as a trip to San Francisco with her brother when he visited. At Avila Beach, Michelle had the chance to see whales while she kayaked. She said she missed a responsibility as greeter at some time in the past and felt $25 would be appropriate. Mary Jo Pasek announced that Tom Burke has been selected as the new chancellor for the Kern Community College District. She also announced that Condor Town would be at Bakersfield College between December 23rd and January 7th. That was well worth $25.
President Kay noted the Wound Heroes newspaper ad that recognized Rotary volunteers. She also recognized Michelle Cooper, Adoree Roberson, Neil Walker, Sami Abiaoui, and Mike & Claudia Stephanovich for photos in SNAP. No fines were requested.
President Elect Nominee Ron Nelms shared a photo of the children at the Tijuana orphanage with the backpacks purchased by our club.
Jeff Bell reminded all of us of the Target Shopping event on Saturday, December 3rd at the NE Target. Volunteers are appreciated for this worthwhile event. Side note: this event has been rescheduled to December 10th.
December 17th is the annual placement of wreaths at the National Cemetery. Be there no later than 8 am. BBRC will be providing and servicing coffee and hot cocoa to the dedicated folks that attend the event. Mike and Shari George are coordinating.
Darin Blunt put out a plea for someone willing to host our annual Christmas party. Sandra Quigley saved the day by volunteering her home for the event which will occur December 16th.
President Kay pointed out the cards at each table that advertised Christmas in the Village (as in Pioneer Village) which will occur Sunday, December 11th noon to 4 pm.
Past President
Craig Holland proudly introduced his brother, Russell Holland, as our speaker. Russell is retired from the federal government anti-drug enforcement. Since retiring, he contracts with government agencies to continue to put a dent in drug trafficking. Russell spoke to us about the federal government’s strategies to fight the war on drugs. He indicated that the end of the Cold War and fall of the Berlin Wall freed up resources that could be directed to the war on drugs. President Bush 41 established three task forces with one in Florida, one in El Paso, Texas, and a third in Alameda, California. Russell worked at the Alameda site. All the tools in the military arsenal were redirected to these sites and others. 1990 legislation allowed the military to provide support to law enforcement. Law enforcement was trained by the military on Intelligence. The DEA could not go to court so a Chinese Firewall was created by training law enforcement on how to take individuals to trial and obtain convictions. Military equipment such as the B-52 were used to fly over the Pacific Ocean to look for drug boats. Submarines and destroyers were used as well for surveillance. Planes going in and out of the Persian Gulf helped as well by taking pictures of camel caravans coming to the coast to off load drugs. “Band-aid” reflector strips were issued. The strips were placed on the roof of vehicles to identify which vehicles in a caravan were carrying drugs.
Russell suggested reading Rosa Brooks book, Tales from the Pentagon , for more information of how and why the military has been pulled in a myriad of missions beyond strictly military tasks.
The raffle winners were an Interact member and your scribe for this meeting. Paul Harris points went to Frank Wooldridge.
President Kay left us with these words: a good friend tells you when you have spinach in your teeth. A great friend tells you that ordering the sundae instead is the best way to avoid getting spinach in your teeth.
