Happy Tuesday . . .
Last Week’s Meeting
Reminders and Announcements from last week included:
- Strawberry Festival sign-ups — see Cris for more information. Shifts are especially needed for Sunday
- Interact Project — balls needed!! Our Interacters are working toward getting donations of sports balls for their little buddies at Marshall school. $$ and balls welcome!
- Teacher Awards — We have two coming up this week! Both are on April 26, one at 2 p.m., the other at 3 p.m. See your captain for donations!
- Rotarians At Work Day — April 27, we will team up with the Oxnard Sunrise Club to put together picnic benches and planter to help the Boys & Girls Club
Last Week’s Speaker
Last week Peter Nystrom addressed the club. Peter is the Assistant Scout Executive, Boys Scouts of America, Ventura County Council. A huge number of our members have been involved in scouting, and we have at least two Eagle Scouts among our ranks. In fact, the Rotary Club of Oxnard is the Scouts partner in Oxnard, where the scouts regularly go into the schools to teach scout values and character to youth, a program that began in 1980.
Scouting began in in England in 1906, and came to the United States in 1910. Today there are Boy Scout troops all over the world, and more than 2.5 million boys are involved in scouting. Peter discussed the development of different scouting opportunities over the years, including the Cub Scouts, which began in 1930. Originally open to boys age 11, Cub Scouts now start in the first grade.
Did you know that there are two co-ed groups in the Scouts? The Explorers, a coed program that trains young people in law enforcement began in the 1960s, and Venturing is a youth development program for young adults ages 14 - 20 .
Over the years, scouting has grown annually, but has declined in the last few years. It continues to be difficult to find a suitable number of volunteers to work with the scouts, upon which the organization is heavily reliant. Locally, the Boy Scout Council of Ventura County employs just six full-time staff members.
Upcoming Meetings
April 23: Julia Chambers, Executive Director, Gull Wings Children’s Museum
April 30: Sgt. Lorenzo Perez, California State Military Reserve, Channel Islands Air Guard Station
May 7: Sandy Galin, Director of Development & Marketing, New West Symphony
May 14: John Clay, Jr. & Dick Regnier, NID Trip to India
Local Meetings
Need to make up for a missed meeting? You have lots of options, here are a few:
- Wednesdays: Ventura, Noon at the Derby Club; Camarillo, Noon at Ottavio’s Banquet Hall
- Thursdays: Newbury Park, 7 a.m. at the Plug Nickel; Ventura East, 12:30 at Poinsettia Pavilion
- Friday: Ojai, Noon at Soule Park
More to follow next week . . . watch for a complete list updated on our website soon!
This Day in History
- In 1564, William Shakespeare was born
- In 1954, Hank Aaron hit the first home run of his career . . .713 more would follow