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March 2013 Rotary District 5280 Newsletter
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It’s March and the eighth month of the Rotary year is history! February was truely a busy month. Many District leaders par-ticipated in the Zone As-sembly, Rotarians, Interac-tors and Rotaractors par-ticipated in the Chinese New Year Parade, LA 5 hosted the 5 Mayoral can-didates debate at LA Live, 45 Rotary Clubs received thier District Grant Checks, the Presidents Elect attended both Pre-PETS and PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) where they heard from Rotary’s top leaders.
March's theme is Literacy. Many of us connect liter-acy issues with foreign countries, not here at home. Here in California it is reported that only 73 percent of students gradu-
ate from High School. Even worse a significant number can't read or do math. It has an impact on all of us.
On average a high school graduate in California earns $9,367 more each year than a high school dropout. Roughly 139,400 students in California did not graduate from high school in 2011. The lost lifetime earning for that class of dropouts alone totals $21 billion. This data is from the March 2012 report from the Alli-ance for Excellent Educa-tion.
It is gratifying that the Rotary Clubs in 5280 rec-ognize the problem and most have programs to help local schools by pro-viding reading books, dic-tionaries, tutoring pro-
Governor Lew’s Message
J ULY 2012 The New Rotary District 5280 March 2013
PETS 2013 2
District Events 3
Club Happenings 4-6
Literacy Links 7
Got Rotary Friends? 8
District Breakfast 8
Save the Date 8
INSIDE THIS ISSUE :
grams and establishing com-puter labs to increase com-puter literacy, etc.
It is very important to al-ways place a book plate in each book. You never know how many people will read that book or who it will touch. Early this Rotary
(Continued on page 2)
Save the date, April 13th 9 am to 12 noon District 5280-Family of Rotary Event, come one-come all. Rotary mem-bers and family. The outing includes continental breakfast buffet and a tour of battleship USS Iowa (tours available from 10 am to 5 pm .) Breakfast will be served at Ports O’ Call Waterfront Restaurant, 1199 Nagoya Way, Berth 76, San Pedro, CA 90731. San Pedro Rotary, President Rica Viola, will be the host Club.
$35 Early Reservations by 1 April 2013. $45 after 1 April.
Call all reservations into District office. Included in event ticket, continental breakfast, USS Iowa tour and parking in the USS Iowa lot
Don’t Miss the Boat!
PETS
PAGE 2
Governor Lew’s Message
(Continued from page 1)
year our RCA (Rotary Community Alliance) held their first meeting at the Wisdom Academy on Manchester in Watts. It is a privately run school with very limited funding. The Principal told us that, contrary to popular belief, all the parents are very supportive and want the best education for their children. They just don't have the financial resources to support the school. Therefore the Principal is always looking for assistance. She received some books one day and as she looked through them, inside one of the books was a book plate indicating the book was a gift from a Rotary Club. She found our District office phone number, called and was connected with our Rotary Community Alliance committee. The school has a real need and we are helping!
Fundamental education reduces poverty which decreases violence and increases tolerance and peace.
The Class 0f 2013-2014
Photos courtesy of Rick Mendoza
Melody and Linda, not morning people
Doug Baker, the once
and future District
Governor
T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280 PAGE 3
El Segundo Rotarian, Julia O. Abreu-Mason, has coordinated the dedication of Los Cancioneros Master Chorale’s performance to the memory of DGE Jim Dyer on March 24, 2013. A portion of the $25 ticket price will be donated to ShelterBox in Jim's name. If you would like to attend this concert, please order your tickets now as seats are limited. Check the District website for details.
District Events
Visit the District Conference Homepage for registration options
The Homepage address is:
http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/SitePages/SitePage.aspx?accountid=50010&pid=58143
Please be sure to save the date and join the fun on April 6th for the Annual Day of Service. This year we will be teaming up with South Korea District 3700 and part-nering with L.A. City Parks and Recreation to improve the SOUTH PARK Rec-reation Center, 345 East 51st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90011. Participants should plan to bring their own work gloves and Goggles. Registration 7:30 to 8am,Orientation 8am, Event: 8:30am to 3pm, T-Shirts and lunch will be provided. ROTARIANS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY WELCOME (ages 12+)
RSVP by march 15th via the District website: http://www.clubrunner.ca/portal/story/StoryDetail.aspx?accountid=50010&sid=18710&stid=District
Melody St. John 323-459-6148 or Marjorie Heller 323-463-0304
PAGE 4
Rotary District 5280 Rotarians, Youth Celebrate Year of the Snake
About 100 Rotarians, families and guests attended the 15th annual Chinese New Year Gala hosted by the Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary club at the Empress Pavilion in historic Los Angeles Chinatown on Saturday, February 9. The 10-course dinner was punctuated by cultural customs, opening lucky red envelopes and claiming of raffle prizes. The highlight of the evening were the lion dancers, martial arts demonstrations by young students, followed by three traditional dances per-formed by Sydney Wang Kang and her daughter Joyce Kang.
On the following Saturday, February 16, 290 Interactors, Rotaractors, Rotarians, families and friends, carrying American flags and a huge Rotary banner, led the 114th Golden Dragon Parade in LA Chinatown. At the Broadway Street bridge and Ord Street, the marchers with their distinctive red shirts and black slacks joined the members of the Chinese Historical So-ciety for the 14th year. As the head unit in the parade, the combined contingent was impressive, stretching out over three city blocks.
Rotarians accompanied their Rotarian youth from the following high schools: University, West, Hawthorne, North, Culver City, Bell, Port of Los Angeles, Carson, Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach, Downey, Torrance and El Segundo, as well as Mary-mount and Harbor Colleges. The largest group of 82 were Bell High School students who arrived in two buses to march for their 10th year in the parade, and organized by Dr. Joel Tepper. Chair for both Chinese New Year festivities was Past President Angi Ma Wong who was assisted by President-nominee Roger Schamp, both from Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary Club.
PAGE 5 T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280
Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown Participates in
Feeding Program
The Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown wanted to share pictures of the visit of Club President Cirilo Pinlac and International Co-Chair Cecille Ramos to Philippines this February, 2013. They were part of the Feeding Program.
In February there was a special occasion for our Palos
Verdes Peninsula Rotary, as District Governor Lew
Bertrand presented the charter to representatives of the
Chadwick School Interact Club, along with campus
adviser Becky Noble. The brief ceremony marked the
completion of the first step of a three-step project
called “Bridges to Songdo.” Steps Two and Three will
the creation of an Interact Club at Chadwick’s sister
campus in Songdo, Korea, and the formalization of a
sister club relationship with a Rotary Club in Songdo.
At that point, we will have a four-club network: two
Rotary Clubs and two Interact Clubs on two continents
sharing a partnership in International Service. The PV
Club is planning a Bridges to Songdo fundraiser, the net proceeds of which will help support Chadwick Interact’s
international service projects.
Present to accept the charter for the new Chadwick School Interact Club were, from the left, students Patty Dean, Aniger Oriol, and Juri Wata-nabe, and Chadwick’s director of community service programs, Becky
Palos Verdes Peninsula Charters a New Interact Club
PAGE 6
Shelterbox Fundraiser
The Marymont College Rotaract Club in conjunction with the Palos Verdes High School Interact Club and the Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary Club will be conducting a fundraiser for Shelter Box from March 10 thru March 25. They would like to contrib-ute at least 1 Box ($1000) in honor of Jim Dyer who was the District 5280 Shelter Box coordinator. If you would like to participate or contribute please contact Presi-dent Victoria Perez ([email protected]) or Don Reeves ([email protected]).
Westchester Rotary Embraces Vision to Learn, in Honor of
Literacy Month
Vision To Learn (www.VisionToLearn.org) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity, which provides free eye exams and free eyeglasses to elementary school students in low-income communities throughout Los Angeles, California. They change how well children perform in school and provide them with a foundation for a better life. LAUSD has determined that over 15% of the elementary aged children in K-5 have untreated vision problems. With over 360,000 children enrolled in LAUSD, paro-chial and charter schools in the Los Angeles area. 15% is over 50,000 kids! It has been determined that at least 80% of learn-ing before the age of 12 is visual. If a child cannot see, how can they learn?
Since Vision To Learn started in March of 2012 they have visited over 90 schools, examined over 5,600 children and provided over 4,100 pairs of free, brand new, prescription eyeglasses.
As with Rotary's philosophy of service above self, Vision To Learn is about bringing a community together to help others in the community succeed. As Father Gregory Boyle, HomeBoy Industries founder and Vision To Learn Board member, put it "That we acknowledge that everybody belongs, that everybody matters, that everybody counts."
Westchester Rotary has embraced Vision To Learn and their
mission. To honor Vision To Learn and to help them in their
goal of giving children the gift of proper eyesight that will im-
prove their ability to learn and to succeed in life, Westchester Rotary members have donated over $5,000.
PAGE 7 T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280
Listed below are “literacy link” for additional information of Rotary International partnerships and available literacy support mate-rials.
International reading association
http://reading.org/
RI Fact Sheet
http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/factsheet_ira_en.pdf
Dollywood Foundation, the Imagination Library
http://imaginationlibrary.com/
RI Fact Sheet
http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/rg_literacy_imagination_factsheet_en.pdf
Rotary International and the International Reading Association Literacy Project Guide
http://www.rotary.org/RIdocuments/en_pdf/literacy_project_guide_en.pdf
Rotarians are invited to attend the upcoming Rotaract Ethics Forum
Team Presentation Competition, to be held at Loyola Marymount Uni-
versity at the Conrad N. Hilton Center for Business on March 23rd.
The competing Rotaract Clubs are USC, UCLA, LMU, Santa Monica
College and Hawthorne/Lennox. The teams will be presenting their
positions on ethical issues, while applying the Rotary Four-Way Test.
The topics selected by the teams are Cyber-Bullying, Food Justice in
South Los Angeles, Mortgage Meltdown / Role of Corporate Ethics,
High Speed Transportation, and Marine Animals. The event promises
to be very stimulating and highly competitive. If you are not a member
of any of the Rotaract sponsoring Rotary Clubs and wish to attend,
contact Cozette Vergari at [email protected]. COME
JOIN THE EXCITEMENT!
Rotary International Fellowships, with an S, are separate but RI-approved groups of like-minded worldwide Rotarians, spouses, and Rotaractors who share a common interest, pro-fession, or hobby. Make friends all over the world by joining one or more! If you are al-ready a member of any of these Fellowships, or you would like more info, please e-mail D5280 Fellowships Chair Mel Powell at [email protected].
March is Literacy Month. This makes the first Fellowship for this edition a no-brainer! Rotary Fellowship of Literacy Providers has a simple purpose: “for Rotarians to share ideas, information and techniques for improving literacy throughout the Rotary world.” Their website is a bit out of date, we must admit, at http://www.literacyproviders.org/ , but you can reach them via e-mail to [email protected].
While you’re catching up on your reading, carefully flip open the Rotary International Fellowship “Old And Rare Antique Books and Prints.” Based out of Italy (but of course international in scope), this group seeks to share, and impart, a love of very, very old reading material. You can read all about them in a modern way, at http://www.rotaryoldbooks.org/ on a fascinating multi-lingual website.
And if you don’t like anything you’ve read, write it yourself! Waiting for you is the Rotari-ans' International Fellowship of Authors & Writers. Whether you’ve been published or not, this group is for Rotarians who share a common interest in writing. Visit them at http://www.authorsandwritersrif.org/. Write on? Right on!
Rotary: a world of fun, friends, and opportunities for service.
Save the Date
Mar. 9 Arts, Speech, Music and Dance Contest
Mar. 9 Camp Pendleton Trip
Mar. 12 District Breakfast
Mar. 23 Ethics Forum: Rota-ract Team Competition
Mar. 24 Los Cancioneros Con-cert
Apr. Rotary Day of Service
Apr. 13 Don’t Miss The Boat
Apr. 26 RYLA
Rotary District 5280
Office 8939 So. Sepulveda Blvd. Ste.
210
Los Angeles Ca 90045
Phone: (310) 670 9792
Fax: (310) 670 9795
Rotary5280.0rg
Emily Blair-Charnelle,
District Office Administrator
Got Rotary Friends?
Quarterly District Breakfast March 12th
Mark Tuesday, March 12th for the final District Breakfast of the Rotary year which will be hosted by New Generations and will feature speaker, Amanda Wirtz who went from Rotary Youth Exchange Student to accomplished Public Health Advocate. You won't want to miss hearing Amanda's personal story of triumph and service. If you would like to attend this Breakfast, please submit your club's reservation and payment as soon as possible. Clubs are highly encour-aged to submit their reservations collectively as a club and consider sponsoring your New Generation Members! Full tables of 10 will ensure a table assignment. The early bird rate of $35 ends March 4th!
