ARCADIA's fall fundraiser is a spectacular Las Vegas Night, with raffle and auction, which nets some $30,000 for their service projects … LAS VEGAS FREMONT is working on the donation of a cultural center, which would include a 3000 seat theater, to be named "Rotary Center." The club also supports an orphanage in Ensenada, and gives vouchers for clothing to needy families through the Junior League's boutique … SIERRA MADRE, a new breakfast club with just a few very active members, cooked up chili for one community function, and cooled things down another time with a lucrative "dunk tank" at their town's 4^th of July, earning fistfuls of bills when town biggies consented to be dunked.

ALTADENA sent ten busloads of underprivileged children to enjoy with great, loud enthusiasm a UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl. Altadena also teachers 'entrepreneurism,' along the lines of Junior Achievement, in a school district in Armenia … CLAREMONT has an interesting program teaching introductory CPR to every eighth grader in their school district. They calculate this three-day program has already saved at least 30 lives! They also teach juniors and seniors interview techniques, better preparing the students at their two local high schools skills to survive college and job interviews in an effective program easy for other clubs to duplicate.

DUARTE tutors latchkey children at the local teen center, using several members as volunteer tutors. They are also working on a well project in Nigeria, and to make sure it works they're sending a member to Africa to monitor the project … SAN MARINO continues support of undernourished infants, some under a pound, born to young mothers in Guatemalan highland Maya villages, growing strong with Rotary's contributions of cash and vitamins … the club supported Guatemala's first and only kindergarten some twenty years ago, and it's still serving little kids through San Marino's help … GREEN VALLEY has a "Learn to Earn" program to help at-risk students in the local school system. Students report to work in Rotarian business after school each day, earning minimum wage. One hour each afternoon must be devoted to doing homework. School counselors refer students to the program, and Rotarians provide encouragement, counseling, and some tutoring help.

GLENDORA takes its 'craft talks' a step beyond the usual 15-minute speech - several steps further, for that matter. Rotarians meet a half-hour early at the craft talker's place of business for a tour. Then they all adjourn to the regular meeting … the club also sponsors, in conjunction with Citrus College in town, a chorus with 600 local high school students all singing on the same stage - quite a spectacle! … SOUTH PASADENA sponsors cleft-palate surgery four times a year in Mexico. Surgeons perform several hundred operations a year. The club also founded the South Pasadena Adult Reading Center, and continues to support this literacy effort.

ARCADIA SUNRISE installed smoke detectors in Arcadia's Senior Citizens Center … SOUTH EL MONTE's silent auction raised $4,000 for their city's annual Children's Christmas Party … VICTOR VALLEY SUNRISE, barely ten months old, has twelve Paul Harris sustaining members already, and is teaching silk-screening for T-shirts to youth at their High Desert Youth Center … APPLE VALLEY has outfitted over 200 children in Mexico with hearing aids from the "Miracle Ear" company, batteries provided by the Rotarians.

AZUSA-GLENDORA-FOOTHILLS-SUNRISE is a busy mouthful of a club, receiving one surplus ambulance each year as a local ambulance company retires them, re-outfitting them, and getting them down to service in Mexico … PASADENA has "happy feet," more than ever. Their project started small, and is really building. They're distributing shoes to the needy, 300 pairs last year, boosted with corporate sponsorship to more than a thousand pairs this year. Pasadena also had a hands-on work day to beautify John Muir High School, remodeling the entrance.

MANY MORE PROGRAMS ABOUND around our district. Makes you feel good to read some, doesn't it? - and maybe you'll see something that might work in your own community? Get in touch with any of these clubs if one of their programs appeals to you, and they'll happily share details. That's how all Rotary's great programs get spread around this needful world.

STONE SOUP FOR THE WORLD shows real heroes who had the courage to overcome obstacles in their lives. One hundred stories are collected in this book, stories showing how determination to work hard helps build a better world. Rotary is the only civic association mentioned in the book, in a story how a Gilroy Rotarian "made Lemonade from Lemons" in starting the successful Garlic Festival as a Rotary fundraiser. Now the Stone Soup Foundation is sponsoring a Back-to-School Campaign, aiming to bring 1,000,000 of these books to 15,000,000 disadvantaged youth by the end of this century. The Campaign is looking for partners who will sponsor these books for young people in their favorite school programs. In addition, the Campaign will be visiting District 5300 to speak with young people and honor Stone Soup "community heroes." They invite Rotary Clubs in our district to help. View their web page for details: http://www.soup4world.com

H.A.R.T. is an organization formed by the Rotary Foundation, Rotary District 6110, and its Medical Supplies Network to gather, warehouse, and distribute surplus medical supplies and equipment to developing countries. Often such equipment and supplies are obsolete here, but still of tremendous benefit to people with nothing at all. H.A.R.T. plans to make it easy for other Rotary Districts and Clubs to do similar programs without reinventing the wheel. H.A.R.T. is researching and cataloging sources of transportation who would help with shipments of Rotary humanitarian projects - for free or nearly so. These H.A.R.T. Rotarians seek word of transportation companies, a Rotarian in the business, or a Rotarian who has handled similar international projects and may know of area sources. If you can provide suggestions or directions for H.A.R.T., e-mail: bluedot@sprynet.com

AND … A WARNING OF A CLEVER INTERNATIONAL SCAM: a Rotary club heard from someone purporting to be a lawyer representing the estate of a deceased Rotarian who left "a very large sum to your club's service projects" - but a few fees needed to be paid first. The club sent almost $50,000 to an address in another country so the will could be probated. The club never saw that money again. You've heard such stories, but Rotarians still fall victim to such scams. Be careful on any solicitation you receive that requires any money to be advanced, or bank account numbers to be provided! Not all people claiming to be Rotarians are actually Rotarians - as two District 5300 club may remember painfully, after cashing bogus checks for bogus Rotarian visitors. Remember that no Rotary Club can make a financial solicitation of other clubs without approval of the R.I. Board, and your service representative at R.I. headquarters can verify Board approval.

Guy Fawkes Night brings a 400 year old English tradition to Claremont, where the Rotary Club will remember gunpowder, treason, and plot. Ambassadorial Scholar Rachel Bonfante, from the Torquay, England, Rotary Club in District 1170, has planted seeds of rebellion in her host community.

On Friday, November 6 - or as Rachel puts it, 6^th November - "Bonfire night with English fayre" will blaze from Rachel's midsummer suggestion into a major event. On arrival with her hosts, Rachel was made an official member at Claremont, then put busy as vice-chair of their social committee that's organizing - (sorry, Rachel, you spell it organising, don't you?) - the annual English commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Rachel and the other Ambassadorial Scholars in our District will be at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs April 30 - May 2 for our '99 ROTARY CELEBRATION - a weekend of fun celebrating the year of Rotary service. Will you be there? We hope the date is already on your 1999 calendar! Therese and Lee Mothershead's imaginative committee have super plans for '99 - including a super $99 price you'll be enjoying.

Remember too Rotary's gala international gathering will be in Singapore, June 13-19, 1999.

Reservations are needed now for accommodations, transportation, and registration at the International Convention. Your club has been sent details, including special package fares and information about a special tour continuing into the People's Republic of China to reintroduce Rotary in Shanghai.