Rotary Bulletin #7 for the Week of August 13, 2009
Pledge, Prayer and Song
Frank Miranda led the pledge, Ed Snively gave the prayer and Bill Plourd led us in singing God Bless America.
Visiting Rotarians and Rotarians with guests
Club members welcomed Richard Acosta from the Holtville Club and David Cason from the Imperial Breakfast Club. Chris Yeager introduced Reverend Ron Griffin and Jose Guillen introduced his wife Estela.
Announcements
A reminder that August is Membership Recruitment Month. The Rotary Board approved $1000 to the VOA and is seeking to put together a team to represent us in the Golf tournament on September 26th. $100 was also approved for the Choral Society.
Randy Miles and Veronica Henderson reported on the success of the Miles for Smiles trip to Ensenada.
Jose Guillen was asked to give a report on the newspaper article about his “Stepping Down” as the Court Administrator. Jose shared that after being “courted” by the judges in Sonoma and after considering the fact that they have several grown and married children in that area, felt this was the right time for a move. Jose will be missed not only by the court system, but also by his fellow Rotarians. Jose will be departing at the end of September. We all wish him continued success.
Jose Guillen was selected as the Rotarian of the Month for August. Jose has been serving as a Rotary Board Member and was instrumental in the success of the Strategic Planning Session.
Get well cards were passed around for Ellie Kussman and David Takata. We wish them both a speedy recovery.
Whining and Fining
Bill Thomas gave a travel short of his recent trip/cruise to England, the Vatican, France, Barcelona, Majorca, Greece, Paloma and other areas of interest. He found the food in England bland, described the sunbathers in Majorca as nice and the wine in all of the countries delightful to the pallet. He brought a bribe of EVOO back to President Emma. Bill paid $50 for this trip and the members complained that he was let off toooo easy.
Ed Snively was fined $50 for reverting back to the 60’s when he was know as “Lively Ed Snively” and was a DJ for KXO. He has recently been heard doing some promo’s for his Realty Business.
Dr. Tom Budde was fined $25 for his not hiring a painter and jumping from a planter ledge and spraining his ankle. We are glad you ankle was not broken, and we appreciate that you enjoy painting.
The following people each paid $25 for living a boring life in El Centro during the hot and humid month of August. Lily Arambula, Randy Miles, Curt Swain, Lanny Foote and Rudy Rodriguez all said they had not done anything exciting.
Program
Norm Self, who showed a video of and talked about the 1940 Earthquake, presented the program. Many of the pictures in the video were presented by David Cason and taken by his mother. Wes Blakely narrated the video. The strongest recorded quake to strike the Imperial Valley, the May 18, 1940 Imperial Valley earthquake caused at least $6 million in direct damage (not taking into consideration the crops lost due to damage of irrigation sytems) and was directly responsible for the deaths of eight people, and, indirectly, for several others. At least 20 people were seriously injured. Damage to irrigation systems was so widespread that it is impossible to list it in detail. Rails were bent out of line in three locations where they crossed the Imperial fault, and several railroad bridges were damaged, both in California and Mexico. In California, the towns of Imperial, Brawley, El Centro, Calexico, and Mexicali were hit hardest, though the quake was felt as far away as Los Angeles (where it swayed tall buildings) and even in Tuscon, Arizona. The video showed the damage to Brawley, Westmorland, El Centro and the valley roads, The earthquake was a magnitude 6.9 and did over six million dollars in damage. After the video presentation club members were asked if they remember the ’40 quake. Dan Nuffer was a small child and remembered the shaking of the bunk beds.
Norm then reflected on the quake of 1979 that was a magnitude 6.5 and also did a large amount of damage. Several members had vivid recollection of this quake, which destroyed the County Services building. While the building did not collapse it lost several reinforced cement columns and leaned downward until a wrecking ball eventually brought it down. Lanny’s office was in close proximity to the east end of the building and wasn’t sure it was going to hold up.
President Emma shared how the water in the CUHS pool had waves coming over the edge. Norm talked about the plate glass windows in the print shop shattering. Ed Snively also reflected on plage glass windows shattering and said, “we are overdue.”
Drawing
Estela Guillen, Jose’s wife, won the drawing and then pulled the blue chip out of the bag. Congratulations!
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