Hellos and Goodbyes
Our Rotary exchange student Marcella joined us at our meeting a couple of weeks ago to bid us farewell before her journey home. She called her year with host family Paul Russell and family both the best year of her life, and the hardest. The highlights of her year were making the varsity soccer team, and a cross-country train trip with other students from across the U.S., where they criss-crossed the country, seeing Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC and New Orleans, among others. The worst part? The food — even Thanksgiving dinner didn’t excite! We wish Marcella a safe trip home, and she will be missed by her host family and the many friends she made over the year.
We also said good bye to Paul Russell, who is leaving the area to take advantage of a new position in the San Jose area. Devoting his life and medical career to helping others, Paul was a great asset to our Rotary family, and he will be missed. Paul was honored with a Paul Harris fellow before his departure, and we hope he finds a new Rotary home once he gets settled.
Recent Meetings
We heard two weeks ago from Oxnard Fire Chief Williams. Chief Williams came to Oxnard after 26 years in Oakland, a which prepared him well for the variety of emergencies and services that Oxnard presents. The chief oversees the totality of fire delivery service for Oxnard. The Chief emphasizes prevention, and dealing with a continuing under-staffing situation. Highlight: 8th new fire station is under construction and set to be completed by 2015.
Last year was a Club Assembly lite, aka “Rotary lunch-time learning.” Fast news, notes and highlights:
- This year’s Rotary theme: “Engage Rotary - Change Lives”
- Rotary challenge from the Gates Foundation - if Rotarians donate $35 million worldwide, they will donate $70 million to end polio
- This year marks the 25th anniversary of approving the membership of women into Rotary.
- Worldwide Rotary membership: 1.2 million. RI President wants to increase our net membership worldwide by 100,000 this year
- Our club’s membership? 45, down over they years from our one-time high of 76
- How do we increase our own membership? “Ignite” . . . more to come on that later
- Coming this year for new members: the Red Badge program, mentoring, and lots of opportunities for involvement
- Upcoming events: October 6, Texas Hold ‘Em tournament . . . October 18 - 20, District Conference . . . October 22, District Governor visit
- Plus this year’s events: career fair, basketball tournament, strawberry festival, teacher recognition program, scholarship awards, golf tournament, demotion dinner and lots, lots more!
This Day in History
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the world’s first atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city’s 200 doctors before the explosion, only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before-only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. The bill made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to blacks. Using his mandate from the 1964 election, President Johnson pushed the legislation that he believed would improve the American way of life, which included stronger voting-rights laws. In 1970, President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the Voting Rights Act and lowered the eligible voting age for all voters to 18.