DISTRICT BREAKFAST MEETING 9-24-02

Rotary District 5280 Breakfast meeting, which was held on 9-24-02 at the LAX Marriott, emphasized Youth Service.  Our District and some of the Clubs are doing a great job supporting, training and working with the Children in their community just as our Club does in the Venice Marina area.

ITALIAN TRIP-Group Study Program

A report on the upcoming District 5280 Group Study Exchange Program stated that the District needs candidates to travel to Italy for the cultural professional exchange next year.  ALL EXPENSES ARE PAID.  Selection will be in December.  If you know of anyone 25-40 who would like to participate (or if you’d like to go) in this 4 week Italian trip, contact President Willie.

HOSTING RUSSIANS

The Library of Congress and Rotary International have worked together to bring young Russians to America to expose them to democratic values and western business and legal practices and business ethics.  Clubs are being asked to host a team for one (1) week.  The Library of Congress funds $4,000 per week for the hosting - $1500 for an interpreter and $2500 for food, lodging and local travel.

ROTARY CRUISING

District Governor Rick Mendoza is sponsoring a cruise offered via Crystal Cruises, which will create money for the Rotary Foundation.  Rotarians who go on the cruise to either Mexico or Panama or who recruit others to go will received credits who will earn them dollars toward their contributions to the Paul Harris Foundation.  See President Willie.

LITERACY BOOKS

The District has a matching grant for books to be provided by Clubs to local schools.  LARGEST BOOK DRIVE IN THE WORLD is sponsored by Rotary.  Over 1200 titles are available.  Our Club Application is due by 12-31-02.

DISTRICT CLUB AWARDS

The District presented each Club President with a 24-page form to be submitted by each club to the District for consideration of various District Awards for each.  GO PREZ WILLIE.  I’m sure she would like everyone’s HELP.

CALIFORNIA ROTARY LICENCE PLATE PROGRAM

The State of California has agreed to provide all money over and above direct costs from the Rotarian license program to the Districts in California to be spent on District activities.  This would mean a minimum of $300,000.  This is conditioned on at least 7500 Rotarians participating.  Now there are 4500 signed up to participate.  Must have another 3,000 Rotarians sign up to participate by 12-31-02 else no deal!

2003 DISTRICT CONFERENCE

May 1-May-4 District Conference will be held at Pechanga Hotel, And Casino, Temecula, San Diego County.  Theme is May 1 for Fun.

OVERSEAS SCHOLARS

Each year the District sponsors scholars to study abroad.  Do we have any applicants that we can submit?

100 YEAR ROTARIAN CELEBRATION

Each Club was encouraged to select by the end of this year a project in the community to commend and memorialize 100 years of Rotary Service.

GUEST SPEAKER LOS ANGELES FIREFIGHTER

The highlight was speaker Captain Chris Kawai from the LA Firefighting organization, who is head of the Search and Rescue Team.  Within 24 hours of the collapse of the twin towers in NYC on 9-11-01, a team of 64 personnel, including firefighters, doctors and civilian equipment operators plus dogs were setting up operations in NYC to search for survivors.  He showed slides and explained the magnitude of the destruction.  This team is trained to deal with structural collapse such as could occur in the aftermath of earthquakes.  The Team uses dogs that can tell if a person is alive or dead.  They have boring equipment and fiber optic cameras to look and communicate with survivors.  They are true SEARCH and then RESCUE trained lifesavers.  It was a surreal area – he described it as a movie set.  There was nothing but dust, paper, steel and I-beams.  He said that there were no chairs, computers, desks, etc.  Each World Trade Center was the size of a football field.  So you had 100 football fields times 2 lying in a rubble pile.  22 building collapsed.  Fires burned for 30 days. 460 buildings were damaged and had to be inspected.  One plane engine was found 3 blocks from the Twin Towers.  71 of the top commanders in the NYC Fire Department perished.  He said that it was simply amazing the NYC Fire Department kept functioning while fighting fires, looking for bodies and handling new fires and emergencies with all this leadership and management people gone.  They searched through a 10 story high pile of debris and rubble.  Debris and body parts were everywhere over a large part of lower Manhattan.  WHAT A GREAT JOB THESE PEOPLE DID.  Naturally, the Captain received a standing ovation.  (Would make a great event for a Club to sponsor in their community or at a local school).

At the end, the LA Fire Captain Chris Kawai commended Rotary International for its work to eradicate polio worldwide and its work for World Peace.

A great informative meeting that was inspirational!!

Club member Jim Bovee, President Willie Hjorth and President Elect David Maxwell represented our Club.

Yours in Rotary,

DAVID B. MAXWELL

Editor's Note:

As you can see this week's Mesh was written by Vice President Dave.  I am going to be in and out of town for the next two weeks but anything that you want in the Mesh can be e-mailed to me and I will continue to send it out.  So even though you won't be seeing me for the next couple of week's (except for Adiba's golf tournament and Project Amigos) you can still get letters and articles published. 

Thanks,

Tom