THE HIGHLIGHTER
ROTARY DISTRICT 5300 NEWS
HIGHLIGHTING THE WORLD OF ROTARY, DISTRICT ACTIVITIES, CLUB EVENTS, AND
THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN
LEE MOTHERSHEAD, DISTRICT GOVERNOR
SEPTEMBER 1998
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free: 800-378-5301 - or spend 32c and mail to: 1963 South Myrtle, Monrovia, CA 91016.
Remember: each reader is a reporter ... don't depend on someone else ...
tell us what's happening in your club ... programs that are working ... pride you feel ...
what we can do together to follow our Rotary dream!
EXCHANGE TO DENMARK NEEDS GOOD CANDIDATES
Rotary's GSE's - Group Study Exchanges - are super opportunities for bright young
profes-sionals in our communities. And you're the key to opening this
opportunity! The Rotary Foun-dation sponsors this educational program to promote
international understanding through per-sonal contacts. Teams of four young men and women,
traveling with a Rotarian team leader in an exchange between districts in different
countries, spend four weeks experiencing the econ-omic, social, and cultural
characteristics of the host country. Team members stay in the homes of Rotarians and spend
time visiting their vocational counterparts.
This year, District 5300 is paired with District 1460 - Jutland, Denmark. Our team goes
to Den-mark from mid-April to mid-May, 1999; later, a Danish team will visit us in
southern California and Nevada. Each club can sponsor a candidate, and now is the time to
find some good people for this rich educational experience. Candidates must live or work
in District 5300, must have been working in a single chosen profession full-time for at
least the last two years, and must be artic-ulate and in good health. They should be
between 25 and 40 years of age. For tax reasons, GSE candidates cannot be Rotarians or
family members of Rotarians.
Each club's International Service Chair has been sent information and GSE Team Member
appli-cation forms. Additional forms and details are available from the GSE team leader
Christine Montan at (B) 626-308-4880, or (H) 626-448-1470. District committee chair David
Beltran can also help: (B) 213-722-4870 or (H) 213-888-2090.
PRLS IS COMING
Two Professional Rotary Leadership Seminars - PRLS - will be held this Rotary year:
- Saturday, October 3, 1998, at Apple Valley Country Club, 15200 Rancherias Road - Begins
with 8:00 a.m. continental breakfast, ends with buffet lunch at noon.
- Saturday, January 23, 1999, in the Henderson/Green Valley area of Nevada [note that this
is a change in the date that was published in our district directory.]
Both PRLS meetings feature the same topic: PUBLIC SPEAKING. Participants will receive
train-ing and advice from experts and will have opportunities to hone their public
speaking skills.
Registration forms can be found at the district net site, and have been sent to all
club secretaries. PRLS is designed to help strengthen future leadership for Rotary.
Registration fees of $20 per person include both meals.
Registrations for the Apple Valley PRLS are due by September 24th at the
District Office. Apple Valley's past president Heidi Larkin Reed and Doug Fowler are in
charge of the October 3 event, and Gary Fox of the Alhambra club is the district PRLS
chair for this year.
GOVERNOR LEE'S BACK-TO-SCHOOL MESSAGE
As
I have been making my visits in California and Nevada, I'm delighted with the enthusiasm
and commitment I've seen. If every club follows through even half way with plans and
goals, we should have a great year in District 5300! I'm very gratified, too, with the
acceptance of the Web Page and our on-line HIGHLIGHTER newsletter. Thanks to those who've
made suggestions; you'll see some of them soon. Remember, the District Web Page is a
constantly evolving tool for communications. If you think it can be made better, let me or
Chris Datwyler know.
Just a reminder to all of us who tend to get just a bit lax at times in our approach to
membership procedures: The steps of selecting and admitting new members are carefully
delineated by Rotary International for very good reasons. These procedures evolved over
nearly one hundred years, and have become what they are because they work. Following them
ensures that we safeguard against any who would use Rotary for personal advancement
without contributing to the world, while permitting clubs to be selective without fear of
reprisal.
Please review the steps for proposing members, selecting members, and confirming
member-ship - then please stick to these steps carefully! I've heard on my visits, for
example, people introduced as "a potential member." This is absolutely
prohibited by the rules! Check those procedures carefully, and make sure your club follows
them to the letter.
September is YOUTH ACTIVITIES MONTH, a good month to get started on the project
involving children that RI President Lacy asked each club to do this year. You should be
contacting your schools about the Dan Stover Music Contest, the 4-way Speech Contest, and
our youth leader-ship program (RYLA) during the month of September.
October is the month of the FEINSTEIN CHALLENGE. Each club president has information,
and if your club is going to participate, you need to get organized right now!
Keep up the good work - what the clubs in District 5300 are accomplishing is truly
impressive!
--Lee Mothershead
'ROTARTANKS' ARE SIMPLE WAYS TO COLLECT WATER EFFICIENTLY
Australian Rotarians have shipped some 58 "Rotartanks" to New Guinea and
Samoa during the past year, providing impoverished areas with a source of safe drinking
water. These sturdy, lightweight water tanks require no special skills to set up but can
hold about 7,400 gallons. The inspiration came when District 9800 in Australia built six
plastic-lined takes in Papau New Guinea in 1995. The district learned this type of tanks
would rust in the sea-level conditions of Samoa, and searched out a polymer-coated
galvanized steel that would not rust and that was lightweight enough to allow easy,
convenient shipping.
Constructing a Rotartank is so simple that visiting Rotarians can help do it. A rolled
section of the coated steel is set up inside a circular frame on top of a steel or
concrete base. A nearby structure catches rainwater on its steel or aluminum roof. The
circular tank wall is sealed to the base with silicon, and a steel roof fits on top.
Drainpipes from the nearby roofs are attached to the tank to collect the rainwater.
The first Rotartanks were set up at schools, hospitals, and churches on Saavi Island,
Samoa, last year. Rotarians shipped the tanks, then traveled to the island to assist with
the construction. "The key is the compact size and light weight of the tank
kits," says District 9800 Secretary Donald Gibb. "Only screwdrivers, wrenches,
and silicon guns are needed in construction, mak-ing it attractive for all Rotarians who
want to visit the countries and participate alongside the vil-lagers in erecting the
tanks." Design information is available for other clubs wanting to consider this
hands-on service project.
YOUTH EXCHANGE COMMITTEE PLANS PRESENTATIONS TO INTERACT CLUBS
Presidential skills for our high school INTERACT clubs, as well as for leaders from the
ROTARACT clubs we sponsor in colleges, and the lower-school MIDERACT, YOUTHACT, and
KIDERACT, are developed at the INTERACT LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM. This year's symposium is at
Idyllwild, California, over the weekend of November 13-15, 1998, and applications are
needed NOW.
Starting at 5:00 PM on Friday the 13th, through Sunday the 15th,
teams of Interact presidents and their school and Rotary advisors will be building working
plans and exchanging program ideas. The deadline is October 1, but the organizers need and
appreciate immediate responses for their planning.
This is an ideal weekend for Interact teams to get together, meet other students and
adults who are committed to Interact, learn how to run a club, and return from the weekend
charged up for a great year of service.
Clubs wanting to send more than their "prime team" can send in money, data
sheet, and parental permissions for the students, for each person. They will be placed on
a waiting list in the order they are received, and will be able to come if there is space.
Mideract, Kidderact, and Rotaract leaders are also welcome on a space-available basis.
Sessions include goal setting, membership development, fund raising, the four Avenues
of Service, and leadership skills. Clubs pay $275 for one or two people, $325 for three;
$100 for each additional person. All Rotary sponsors have been sent information and
registration forms, but extras are available from:
Registrar Margaret Cooker, 15267 Tatum Road, Victorville, CA 92392; phone 760-243-5928;
fax 760-243-8012; e-mail: acooker@ix.netcom.com
Or from: Katie Roberts, District 5300 Interact Chair,
200 North Cherry Avenue, Ontario, CA 91764; phone 909-988-6481 x7570; fax 909-391-0601.
URGENT: All club presidents that haven't given the district the name and phone
number of their club's INTERACT CHAIRMAN/COUNSELOR are asked to call, write, or fax this
ASAP to:
PAUL WARNER, District Youth Exchange Chair (East Los Angeles Rotary); (B) 213-721-5306;
(Bfax) 213-721-2802; (H) 213-728-6009; (Hfax) 213-721-2802
LEARNING THE HARD WAY ABOUT HEART ATTACK WARNINGS
Joe "Peppy" Sciarra of Alhambra Rotary was the perfect example of a guy who'd
perfected denial. You know denial: among other things, it's disregarding the signs and
signals of a heart attack. Along with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high weight,
low exercise, smoking, denial can be incredibly harmful to health - even fatal. For nearly
a year Joe was one of denial's best practitioners. But we can't be too hard on Joe; he in
ample company (let Rotarians without denial cast the first stone). Fortunately, Joe
Sciarra heard the American Heart Association's Ken Chan speak at Rotary. Sciarra says
Chan, also a Rotarian, saved his life.
Joe has been called Peppy most of his life, and he's a guy who understands hard work.
Sciarra and his wife Lucille were in the retail meat business for nearly half a century,
while giving exten-sive service to Rotary and other community projects. Lucille and Joe
met in their early teens, but were separated for six years. As a platoon sergeant, Joe was
among the first of U.S. forces to re-take the Philippines. He proposed from there, and she
said yes. They've been active together through 52 years of marriage. So when Peppy, on his
morning walks around his Arcadia neigh-borhood, began to run out of breath sooner than he
thought he should, he simply tried harder. Shortness of breath, he now knows, is one sign
of a heart attack. So is excessive sweating. When the sweating and shortness of breath
were joined by pressure in his chest, another sign, he still thought he could "walk
it out." That seemed to work.
Then, at an Alhambra Rotary meeting, Peppy heard Ken Chan talk about signs and
symptoms, and began to wonder if there was any connection between Ken's lesson and the
problems on his walks. "I didn't want to believe it," he says, "so I waited
a month. I moved very slowly - slower than I should have. I didn't tell Lucille. I didn't
want to worry her. I knew it couldn't be my heart; I was too healthy." But one
morning, a few blocks from home, he felt so much pressure and shortness of breath he
almost, almost, asked his letter carrier to give him a ride home in the mail truck.
Instead, he got home on his own. Then he called his doctor, bringing old devil Denial to
his knees. After three minutes on the diagnostic treadmill, the doctor said, "You've
got a real problem."
The problem was one completely blocked coronary artery. After an angiogram, an
angioplasty, and installation of a stent to bypass a damaged artery, Peppy is, well, peppy
again. He got to watch the procedure on television, and expresses wonder at it all.
"That little spring goes in there and opens the artery right up. The doctor was so
thrilled." So was Peppy, at the lack of pain and the quick recovery. That was two
years ago.
How's he doing? "I feel great," he says. Great enough to raise $3400 among
fellow Rotarians for the AHA's Downtown Heart Walk. Alhambra Rotarians sponsored him, and
he wants to tell the whole world - or at least the whole Rotary world - what he learned
about signs and symptoms and denial. "I'm sort of the Rotary Poster Boy for the
AHA," he says. Peppy Sciarra won't be blind-sided by denial again, and he wants to
help others avoid the same. He also wants more Rotarians to join him in this year's Heart
Walk, four miles through some of LA's best history: Chinatown, the Music Center, Bunker
Hill, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street. For more information on the AHA Walk as a club project
- or on presenting Peppy to your club - call Ken Chan at 213-727-2940, or toll-free at
800-439-2911. (Ken has special information for our district's Nevada and eastern
California clubs, too.)
HIGHLIGHTER AT PRESIDENTIAL CONFERENCE
Your Highlighter editor heard International Rotary representatives from Central America
and the United States discuss the need for development of the troubled region, then saw
Rotarians roll up their sleeves, strip off sweaty shirts, and get busy doing something
about that need.
Rotary International officials and district officers met in the refurbished National
Palace of Guate-mala to hear Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu invite Rotarians to help.
The Presidential Peace Conference talked for the next four days. Meanwhile, Rotarians from
Ft. Lauderdale's three clubs got together in the rainforests surrounding the Rio Dulce
river, where illiteracy among the Q'eqchi Maya is over 80% - and built a school during the
same four days.
The average family income is less than $500 per year in the Rio Dulce region. The
average family size is eight, and no family planning is available. Boys go to the fields
with their fathers as soon as the kids can hold a hoe; girls help with the younger infants
at home as soon as they can lift a baby. The government has never provided schools or
teachers beyond second grade; even in these primary classes, Spanish is a new language and
confusing to the students.
Rotary has changed this for several villages. The only way the children will have a
better life than their parents, and escape this grinding poverty, is through education. So
the Florida Rotarian sister clubs gathered simple building materials, and filled 100 boxes
of school supplies. They arranged with the Holland American Line for transportation, as
each year the M. S. Rotterdam sailed from Miami to Puerto Barrios, near Guatemala's Rio
Dulce. The ship dropped the materials off last December, and this summer several Rotarians
flew and sailed down with their families, joining Maya youth in building the classrooms in
less than a week. The new Basico will offer classes beyond second grade, leading to
teaching, nursing, even medical studies that were simply impossible before those
classrooms were created.
HIGHLIGHTER heard the speeches in the national palace, then saw the sweaty Florida
Rotarians hammering words into classrooms. We really admire the grassroots efforts of the
Florida clubs, doing something to help our neighbors. Their "Guatemalan Tomorrow
Fund" can send more information: e-mail guatfund@ix.netcom.com
SEND IN YOUR NEWS, YOUR VIEWS ...
remember, if you are reading this, YOU'RE an official HIGHLIGHTER reporter - let's hear
from you as you
FOLLOW YOUR ROTARY DREAM!
Attendance
Report, July 1998
