Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Support for Boy Scouts

Boys Scouts Support
Janet Wang and Mark Brubaker present a check for $500 to Scoutmaster Johansen to support the Boy Scouts.

New Member Jean Hobart

Jean Hobart
Cisca Stillhorn and Rick Topping welcome Jean to the club. She’s a close friend of Cisca’s, a lawyer, post polio victim who spends 50 hours a week doing volunteer work.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Meet Robyn Nelson

The Irvine Rotary Club welcomed our newest member, Robyn Nelson. She is a California original from Sacramento, and a registered nurse, currently the Dean of College of Nursing in the Health Sciences at West Coast University, where 2800 students are in the nursing programs.

Robyn's career trajectory began with a desire to be an elementary school teacher, but she changed her major and worked in critical care and later went onto teaching, before moving to Southern California she was a head of the nursing program at Toro College in Nevada, and Professor of Nursing at CSU Sacramento.

Outside of her professional career she's a songstress, pop and light opera are her favorites. Her husband Dean is a Jazz band musician.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

IRC Meeting on the International Rotary Move to Eliminate Polio

Former rotary district governor Herb Tromboldt shared the latest update on the Rotary International's Polio Immunication Days around the world. It's the rotary's effort to end Polio now. It's the largest humane project in the world and it was started by rotary international, which partnered with other non-governmental organizatins around the world including Unicef and the World Health Organizatioin.

Rotarians around the world have done the heavy lifting on this project to get it off the ground. Herb shared a trip by rotarians this past Feb. 2011. A team of 36 rotarians went to the Kashapur area of India to immunize children against polio. Just 90 miles from New Delhi, the people live in deplorable conditions, open sewage, sewers running over constantly, one of the ways polio is spread. Add no refrigeration, heaps of garbage everywhere, no surprise this area has been ground zero for several hundred cases of polio in the past year. 80 immunization stations were set up with three movile units, a parade kicked off the activities, and the local Indians worked with our rotarians going into all neighborhood to share the polio vaccine, just a few drops by mouth is all it takes to protect these kids.

Just one of the wonderful international projects rotary takes on. Very rewarding work!

New IRC Member Von Christensen

Welcome to the Club Von!

The Irvine Rotary Club is on a roll, we welcomed another new member this week. Von Chistensen, an Irvine resident and an attorney who works in Newport. Von was welcomed to the club by former district governor Herb Tromboldt.

Interested in learning more about the rotary club, you are welcome to join us for a delicious buffet breakfast and fellowship each Wed. morning at 7:30 am at the Rancho Community Center in Irvine. Please check us out!

Monday, November 14, 2011

IRC Bowlathon Raises $5,317 for rotary projects

Thoughts from Diane Braasch, event coordinator for rotary Bowlathon:

As night sets in, I am enjoying the thoughts of todays Bowlathon. It is wonderful to have Rotary friends and some of you sure stepped up to help our event fly. It was not the best weekend to have this event due to the long weekend and people taking advantage of a getaway, but 90 people attended. 10 businesses paid $250 to fly a banner on the lanes for the three hours'. We were able to take advantage of the bowling centers hospitality. . Forest Lanes was so professional in taking care of our every need. The professional bowlers who turned out to bowl with us were some of the best. The PBA stars who I usually can get to bowl with us, were in Vegas bowling the World Series of Bowling but our local pros scored well. Toni Thomas brought some of her homemade Christmas decorations for the silent auction. They were beautiful. Leslie Mogul and Stella Cardoza did a beautiful basket including tickets to Laguna Playhouse, Robyn Nelson brought a basket with Christmas goodies and Marla Noel a fabulous Tequila basket. I made a bunch of baskets and was happy to see that all our baskets sold in the silent auction The most unusual gift was an Adult Pogo Stick donated by Rich Milo. and a diamond pendant from Ken Carrell of the Jewelry Box in Lake Forest. Forest Lanes donated a 2 hour party for six.. I purchased some fun gifts for everyone to win. Most everyone took home something and on the lanes were treated to lollipops in the bowling theme. For those of you who did not join us just because you wanted to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon at home.......well, you lose because it was sooo fun. The scores were varied and I know some of you wil have a few aches tomorrow...but be assured, YOU are making a difference in our charitable causes. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED AND SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO GAVE ....Isn't that what Rotary is all about? This event net $5317 to our Rotary Foundation. Not bad for a fun three hours at the bowling center......

Thank you and thanks for all your help, Diane Braasch

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Craft Talk: Meet Ed Link

IRC member Ed Link is a fun guy and knows how to entertain a crowd! He's responsible for Business Development for the Irvine Chamber of Commerce, and in about four years time since he moved to the area, he's helped expand the chamber and rotary membership rosters.

When he's not drumming up business for the chamber, you'll find Ed on the beach playing volleyball, his new athletic love. "My office on the weekends is the beach and the volleyball fields." He's also learned the fine art of wine tasting--California has abundant opportunities for this--- and sailing--which evidently seems to be a lot tamer in the open ocean than his AK roots.

Before he moved to California, he lived on a riverboat in Little Rock, and was the membership chair of the Little Rock Chamber. He also filled his free time with sailing and sailboat racing on the river in Arkansas, evidently the winds there providing challenging sailing.

Ed, a jock at heart, tells us his Conway, Arkansas (30 miles north of Little Rock) upbringing was a wholesome and great place to grow up. The school system there especially catered to his athletic love of baseball, and he eventually joined a minor league baseball league in Hayes, KS.

Thanks Ed for the entertaining craft talk!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

4th Annual IRC Public Safety Award

The IRC recently awarded Mr. Patel with the Irvine Public Safety Award. It takes courage for local citizens to step up to the plate and call the local police when they see something suspicious in their neighborhood. That is what helped the Irvine Police Dept. recently when local Irvine resident Mr. Patel did when he called when three men in a Mercedes knocked on the door of his home. According to Detective Joe Kathia crime analysis and good old community involvement helped close a string of burglaries.

In the Yale corridor more than 90 burglaries had taken place within a few months. The crimes were put on Crime Stoppers TV, and one of the victims had written down a license plate that helped the Crime Division zero in on the suspects. It was Mr. Patel's phone call that confirmed all of the details to arrest three of the four suspects. The fourth suspect was eventually picked up in Seattle and returned to Irvine to serve serious time in jail.

Mr Patel says he did not think much about the call he made, he felt it was his civic duty. He has a strong sense of community spirit, and he wants to keep his community safe.

According to Detective Susan Davis, the largest issue is thefts from unlocked vehicles. Car hopping thieves check door handles and are more often than not able to open the car door and remove anything visible in your car.

Citizens, beware, stay safe and if you see any unusal activity in your neighborhood call 911!

Welcome New IRC member Mike Javanmar

Mike_Javanmar

Mike Javanmar, a resident of Lake Forest, is the newest member of the Irvine Rotary Club. Mike is a teacher of economics at Rio Honda College in Whittier. Mike's a graduate of UC Riverside. Please welcome Mike to our club!

Meet IRC Member Toni

Toni is a charter member of Irvine Rotary Club. In 1990 she and a small group of other rotary lovers started the club. She was the first female club president in 1995.

One of her fondest club community projects was on Dec. 15, 1990 during the first Desert Storm, when the club accomplished a major holiday tribute for service member's families. It was a Yellow Ribbon Holiday for the El Toro and Tustin Base. Donations came in from all over southern CA for kids, there was a wrapping party so each kid got a gift, bands played. A video was created which you can view on the IRC website. "It was a gift for me, I realized if we all work toger4ther so much more can be done," says Toni of the commardie and team work from the rotary family and friends of this project.

Toni says she loves her life. She's been a tax preparer for the same company for 20 years. She's been married for 15 years, and has a blended family of five kids.. Her joy is with her family, friends and just appreciating life. She spends alot of time with her husband, who is retired. Toni's motto " Live, Laugh and Love".

Toni grew up in Nebraska City until age 11. The town bosted 7,000 residents, it was a great place to grow up, but she's delighted to today be living in OC. Thirty years ago she did modeling and acted in musicals and drama. And she was a model and appeared in a variety of print advertisements.

It's members like Toni that make our IRC so interesting. She's passionate about her continuing membership in our club.