Santa Rosa West

Coming up

March 1, 1999
Y2K and Santa Rosa

March 15
Support
Our Schools
Program Update

February 22, 1999

Flying the Friendly Skies

King Richard called the meeting to order and asked Lori Burmeyer to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, which she did like a true patriot would. New member Ron Allen, aka "The Raffle Man", offered a Rotary moment, leaving all firmly planted in mid-air at its conclusion.

New member Noel Buehler introduced Visiting Rotarians, and did a very admirable job for a first crack at it. Of course he had no Pierre's from Sebastopol to screw him up.

Rotarians with Guests

Guests were then introduced, beginning with Pete Lamonica's introduction of his guests, both of whom he failed to give them name of. After sitting down Pete was asked who they were and he quickly recited them, Lynn Westoby (his secretary for 20 painful years) and her daughter. Bob Zeni introduced Kathy Drew from Piner High School, who told a quick story of how many years ago she offered $10 to a local banker/Rotarian at Exchange Bank for helping her get her first bank account, upon which he turned the money down. The banker was with us as a guest this past Monday, and Kathy said she recognized him as being the one who turned her down those many years ago. He could offer no logical reason to turn down $10 from an attractive blond, who at the time must have been in her 20's. Once again a banker shows poor judgement!

Other guests included Tammy Welz, Director of Operations at the YMCA (Ken Prouty's guest). Bill Fisher's guest Dale Schmidt, and Ken Davenport's guest Jim Groom.

Announcements:

Not much sunshine to report regarding Bob Lucas. Janet Codding reported that Bob is gravely ill and at North Coast Rehab. He is unable to afford to come home and receive the care and comfort of home he so richly deserves at this time. Janet gave an impassioned plea on behalf of individuals working to raise money for Bob's care. Janet and Bill Fisher have begun a fundraising effort to enable Bob come home and be cared for. Janet shared some of the many contributions Bob has made to our County and beyond. Bob has lived in Sonoma County for about 30 years and given tremendously of his time and talent to help others raise money for worthy causes, needy people and community organizations too numerous to include here. This is our opportunity to give back to someone who has enriched so many lives during these 30 years of true "Service Above Self". Our Club has made a formal donation and is attempting to raise additional funds through informal solicitation over the past few weeks. (The scuttlebutt is that plans are now underway for a special fundraising event to honor Bob and financial contributions are also being requested). Please take a moment now to think about what you can do to assist, and give Janet or Bill Fisher a call! Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob.

Paul Schwartz noted that the International Service Committee will meet next Tuesday, March 2 at Mistral for lunch to continue the many efforts currently underway in the area of International Service. Committee members and anyone else interested in coming please give Paul a call at 543-8314 to confirm your plans to attend.

It was announced that Bob Marigo has purchased a computer. It is assumed that Bob's purpose in doing so is to have access to chat rooms, where at least someone will listen to him.

Challenged Skiers, remember, this year's Ski Challenge will be on the weekend of March 5, 1999. The particulars will be announced as soon as they are known. But, as this trip generally fills up very quickly, advanced registration is advisable.

The Santa Rosa-Kagoshima Student Exchange Program is accepting applications for students to travel to Japan for 4 weeks over the Summer of 1999.   The trip is subsidized by the Santa Rosa Sunrise Group as well as Rotary Groups from Hiroshima and Kagoshima Group, Friends of Kagoshima and Santa Rosa Businesses. The cost for each student is only $1,900.00. Applications must be in by April 16, 1999.   Contact Mary Haller at 538-0950 or Fern Harger at 539-8030 for more details.

New Member Update

The following people are presented as new member nominees to our club. Anyone having questions or concerns should contact the nominees' sponsors or Teri Evans.

Students of the Month

Bob Zeni then presented the Students of the Month from Piner High School, who were as impressive as ever. This is always so inspiring to see students achieving things I only dreamed of when I was in school. There was much bantering about where each of the students intended to go to college, and Rick Rybicki was particularly enthusiastic about his alma mater UCLA. Seems that UCLA is having a tough time attracting the best students, and look weak in the basketball department as well. They would be well advised to recruit some Piner High School basketball team members who are undefeated this year. One of those players was with us as a Student of the Month, Christopher Canley. Other students in attendance were Kevin Cotta, Eden Haile (what a dynamo!) originally from Eritrea, and Jamie Westoby, a diving champ and three sport athlete headed on a diving scholarship to Cal (her selection pleased many in the crowd).

Past President Serves Up Memories Of Good Times Past

Pete Lamonica, President of the Club in the 1974/75 year of Santa Rosa West, shared his recollections (many of which were questioned by long time members) of his year in office. Pete claimed he was responsible for virtually everything that year including the Bulletin, financial management, fundraising and International Service. When reflecting on the year he recalled that he spent many hours as Bulletin Editor. Rich Pratt noted that he was Bulletin Editor and did not recall Pete contributing anything, at which point all of Pete's "Presidential Cabinet" who were in the audience began to question whether Pete did anything that year. Pete did attend the International conference that year in Montreal, or so he told them the following week at the meeting. During his year the Club made a significant contribution in support of an area of Guatemala which had been ravaged by an earthquake. They also introduced a great concept for soliciting auction items for a special event by sending $10 to Rotary clubs in other countries, asking for a gift back that would be representative of their area. Those gifts, many of which were very nice, were then used as auction items for a special event to raise money to support worthy causes locally and around the world. It seems the spirit of Rotary was in full swing in Pete's year.

Recognition (AKA Fines)

Ron Allen was fined $40 for being travelling and being wined and dined by a corporate client who he has made millions for.

Terry Evans was aglow with a tan from Mazatlan, for which she paid an attractive fine of $40. She passed $10 of it to Phil Talamantes, as Terry went over her limit. It is always good to show support for fellow Club members.

Raffle

Ron Allen, the perpetual marble selector, got yet another shot at the big prize of $900. Once again he failed to select the right marble. I don't recommend going to Vegas with Ron.

Ken Prouty won the $20 and donated it to the fund for Bob Lucas.

Program

Ken Davenport, longtime member of our Club who would himself make a great program someday, introduced our speaker Roger Sherron. Roger, now in his 80's, is a former pilot for Pan Am who recounted his personal story while sharing a wonderful perspective on airplane history and technology. Roger obtained his pilots license in 1937 and still flies two small planes today.

Roger was in part inspired by the Lindbergh transatlantic flight of 1927, and in fact Roger, on one occasion, had the chance to fly a plane with Lindbergh on board.

Roger's first job in aviation at the age of 11 was cleaning bird droppings off the wings of airplanes. He then sold rides on the plane his boss flew around the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area. They would land on a farmers dirt runway and offer 10-12 minutes rides for $1.00 per person, two people at a time in a 90 horse power plane with a water cooled engine.

Years later he got into the communications department of Pan Am, as a result of his experience with ham radios and general radio operations. He worked on the Boeing 314's as a radio operator. He indicated that this plane was the finest he ever flew. He was a radio operator on flights from New York to Bermuda. After getting his commercial license Pan Am hired him, where he flew a four continent route to make one crossing from Lisbon back to the U.S.

Roger flew DC-3's from Miami to Buenos Aires, and flew other planes during his career including the DC-4, Conair 240, DC-6, 707 and 747. In 1967 he bought a Tiger Moth (built in 1942) and had the parts flown to Sonoma County Airport where he assembled the plane. He still flies this plane today. Roger was automatically retired at age 60 in 1976. In 1987 he flew his Tiger Moth between the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge and landed at Crissey Field.

In 1962 Roger was present for the inauguration of the control tower at the Sonoma County Airport. What a fascinating man!

This Bulletin is brought to you from the Mind of Paul Schwartz.

New E-mail address or Fax number?

Let me know at DRBjork@thegrid.net or
phone (707) 576-7632 or fax (707) 576-7672.

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