Irvine Spectrum Rotary News

February 1, 2012 Irvine Rotary Club meeting -Return Home Registry

2012-02-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Irvine Police Department came out in force to our meeting today for the IRC Community Service Award. Chief, Dave Maggard, also President of the California Police Chief Association, Commander Barry Aninag, Sergeant Amy Quiorz, Officer Tanya Ayalde and Dan Young, a special coordinator for the Irvine Police Department Community Partnership with Irvine Rotary, were on hand.

Young explained that Irvine Police Department has a program designed for public safety to help families register people that might be susceptible to danger wandering off with dementia. It is called the Return Home Registry. They get the endangered person’s name, personal information, description and emergency contact information of those caring for the vulnerable population. Also a juvenile run away program too. It is a new program that is successful.

Sergeant Amy Quiorz discussed an incident on 12/27/11, Tuesday night, in Irvine. Officer Tanya Ayalde and Sergeant Amy Quiorz were working the Tuesday night shift called “alpha”, also known as the grave yard shift that they work Mon.-Thur. from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. Normally they have a briefing of the days events, assignments and boards of events from other local police agencies in O.C.

Of significance was a report of an 81 year old man with dementia, who had been missing for 18 hours from Santa Ana that his family had reported missing. At 10:30 p.m. on 12/27/11 a call went out to Ayalde and Quiorz that there was a suspicious person outside the block wall fence at the Husken’ family’s residence. The father Todd Husken’s called the Irvine P.D. because his daughter, Joli had heard some strange noises in the brush behind their home near Irvine Center Drive. There was an elderly man hidden in the bushes but he won’t respond to them. He was very cold and shaking. The police came to the Husken’s home and found the missing elderly man that was lost and disoriented. They called the man’s son and took the elderly man to the hospital. The Irvine P.D. later called the Husken family and thanked them for being such great citizens helping this disabled man. The conditions were such that this man would might never have been found as he was hidden by view of any road way or walk way.
The Irvine Police Chief said that there was a new project in Irvine’s Great Park the ground breaking of a 5,000 new residence plan. It would move more resources into Irvine even though Irvine is in good financial condition it is still difficult times.
There was a question about the movement of prisoners out of prison and also being transferred into County jails. There is impact in O.C. but the impact drastically varies from county to county. This was mandated by federal judge because the prisons were failing to give adequate health care to the prisoners. Some non-dangerous are released, others that need rehab are placed in facilities that help their addiction issues. The goal is less parole and more probation supervision. Like ankle braclets but it depends on the conviction. Releasing non-violent and non-sex offenders. So far the State has 35,000 people released from prisons into the communities of California.

Holes For Heroes — Helping our Hurting Heroes, Military Children, Families and Vets

2012-01-21T18:57:00.001-08:00

Monday May, 21, 2012 at 9:30 am at the Marbella Country Club, San Juan Capistrano, the Irvine Rotary Club will kick off its first Holes for Heroes - Orange County, a very special signature fundraising event benefiting Wounded Warriors and their families. Plans are for this to be the clubs major annual fundraising event, and every club member is expected to pitch in.

Ray Sanford, a Vietnam Vet, has taken the lead on this event for the club, but it's a proven fundraising event that has garnered $105,000 this its 5th year run by the Rotary Club of Downtown San Diego Breakfast. Last year Chicago and Las Vegas Rotary Clubs also rolled out Holes for Heroes events.

OC is a natural to embrace this event, OC is the home to El Toro Marine Corp base, and we have thousands of military and their families close by. Our club has more than a dozen vets, and double that with club members who have family who are active or retired military members.

Dave Ferguson from the San Diego Club, and founder of Holes for Heroes, was on hand to explain how the event got started and how successful it is now. The San Diego club has provided the plans and background information for us to launch the event, and we have several committees forming now that need your help. This is a great way for each of us to say thank you to our troops. It will be an exciting day with a wounded military playing with each foursome golf group. Over the past 5 years the SD club has raised over $400,000; their first year 120 players helped provide a net of $32,000 to their club's fundraising efforts.

The event provides the community with an opportunity to interact and get up and personal with some of our military. And they love the opportunity too. At the evening dinner after a day of golf, each military member introduces themselves. This will sure to be moving and gain a standing ovation from everyone in the room. Golfers, non-golfers, military family members and friends are invited to join the evening festivities that include a silent auction.

Sponsors are key to the success of this event and there are dozens of sponsorship opportunities including: Sponsorships: from $25,000 title sponsor to $250 to sponsor a wounded Hero to play. Player Opportunities include Foursomes for $1,000 including 4 player spots with lunch, dinner and auction and participation in all contest for prizes; Army of one-1 player spot with dinner and auction; Dinner and auction only-$75.

We'll be turning Marbella into a military course for the day. Volunteers are needed, sign up your friends and family to either play or work one of the many areas including auction, registration, spotters for auction, set up the day of the event. We have six team chairs:

Advertising: Ray Sanford

Auction: Cisca

Day of Event: Dale Ford

Administration and Banking: Tom Mahony

Sales, Marketing, Sponsorships: Lucy

Military Coordination: Rick

So, what are you waiting for. Sign up for a committee and volunteer for this worthy event. More information to come at future meetings.

Holes for Heroes OC flyer & Signup

Holes for Heroes OC sponsorship package

Shari Friedrich, OC Treasurer

2012-01-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

OC County Treasurer Shari Friedrich is responsible for a $6.5 billion investment pool for Orange County. The good news, she keeps our money safe guarded and is responsible for investment of public funds and collecting taxes. She sits on OC Pension board and is a member of the public finance committee. Her responsibilities also include banker for school district funds (writing checks for payroll) and some OC districts also use her funds as a safe investment vehicle for their district's money. Her goal is safekeeping by providing safety, liquidity and yield (no risk). She has an unblemished record of safety, never having lost one dollar of tax payer monies.

Shari oversees a staff of 97 and a budget of $18 million. She's made changes to continue safety including reviewing exposure to risk, hiring a dedicated analyst for reviews investment instruments daily; she's redesigned reporting structures; streamlined investment operations; reduced administrative costs over 10%. Unfortunately our yields are at rock bottom. She conducts an annual treasurer's conference, is reaching out to each OC city to assist them with their investments through a monthly conference call. She has brought best business practices to the treasury. Her staff is responsible for collecting on behalf of 200 agencies; $4.7 billion in collections (a 97% rate); and 54% OC taxes have been collected before the end of the calendar year. 40% goes back to schools; 19% to each city and 34% to the state.

For us taxpayers, although she does not set tax values, she is working to make it easier to pay our taxes through online services. She's brought cost-effective practices to government,including restructuring her office. Including a better customer service office.

Irvine is the sixth largest economy in the US with 3.1 million people, we are doing better than state in revenues. Taxes collecitng rates are up for Irvine, 1.45% in 2011; .87% for California.

John Moorlach: OC - A Model During A Period of Municipal Meltdown

2012-01-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

John W. Moorlach, Vice Chairman, Orange County Board of Supervisors, Second District predicted the biggest municipal disaster when OC defaulted on its debt. He talked about what elected officials in California and around the country are facing. The global reality is they are all mired in debt for municipal debt, deferred maintenance, pension funds and more. Although employees are paying more into their pensions, there's no raises and new tiers for retirement (including the ability for a municipal employee to opt out of the retirement plans), we are still mired in debt for the default 20 years ago.

OC reforms helped the county reduce unfunded liabilities, but all of CA is looking at OC to see how they handle the future. The majority of our general purpose revenue, $653 million, 87% of the county revenue comes from property taxes. 2011 was a balanced budget, every year we are laying off more and more municipal employees. But we inherited a retroactive salary benefit, worth $1.5 billion. In a bull cycle we enjoyed amazing growth, but there's a train wreck in slow motion about to hit OC.

OC Pension plans are doing fairly well, investments are bouncing back, but pension costs continue to rise, revenues are flat, and employees on pensions are living alot longer than predicted. The pension burden is $.31.5 per $1 in pension contributions. Irvine's unfunded liabilities alone are $1,823 per capita. We are running on fumes. If we don't see an uptick in the economy we'll run out of cash

What should CA do? Downsize, ratchet back regulations, roll back pension formulas, create hybrid pension formulas, freeze pension plans, privatize, merge and consolidate management, address the underground economy, report all debts, create a moratorium on bond debt and do something with public pensions.

There's a net migration out of CA. Watch what will be happening in other municipalities!

IRC Member Craft Talk: Randy Woods

2011-12-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

IRC member Randy Woods shared his personal and work story with the members this week, he's come to his current profession via a circuitous route.

Randy is a Security Industry Solutions expert, his company Night Hawk Security Solutions inserts covert cameras, CCTV, and handles Loss Prevention Training and Interviewing for companies. He's been in the security field for over 25 years. And Randy says "his goal is to get a confession from someone." He demonstrated his techniques with his Polygraph invention, a hilarious looking contraption that seemed to work, from his demonstration! Randy's secret self --everyone has one -- is as a Gadgeteer--he's always played with gadgets and made some machines.

He's firmly planted in OC now, but moved back and forth from the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest and back a few times. Randy grew up in Salem, OR. His first job growing up was working at the corner grocery store selling candy to kids. Later he went to work for several different restaurants...at Bob's $.19 Hamburgers, and before long he was managing their 13 stores. In Hemet, CA where he managed the Railroader Restaurant. He went to a broadcasting workshop and for a brief stint worked on-air at KIIS-FM 102.7, and later as a disc jockey at the Newport Beach Marriott.

Say hi to Randy when you visit the club, he's a great guy!

Christopher Cabral

2011-12-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

This morning a young man by the name of Christopher Cabral attended our meeting. He came to tell us he needs help preparing for employment. Christopher’s disabilities do not in any way hinder his motivation to work and become a taxpaying member of society. Rotary is helping Christopher fulfill his dream.

Christopher recently entered the Irvine Unified School District’s Career Link program and is learning career preparation skills in his classroom. He comes from a close-knit family of nine children, five boys and four girls, and he lives in Irvine. He has a congenital disorder, which has affected four out of the five boys in the family, one who died over a year ago. Christopher is confined to a wheelchair and has very little communication skills. He currently uses a device called the DynaVox, which he is able to manipulate with a type of joy stick he uses with his finger. This is what he used today at our meeting to tell us, "I want to work.”

Linda O’Neil, director of Career links, and Paul Harvey, a volunteer in the program, gave a compelling presentation for a devise to help Christopher better communicate with others. They would like to purchase an iPad 2, and also a software program called Proloquo2Go. This device has been successful for those with Autism, or any person with a disability that involves communication disorders. This program will help Christopher with a more rapid method of enabling him to engage in basic greeting conversation.

When Career Links is able to provide Christopher with a new communication device, they will help him find employment in the community. An ideal job would be for Christopher to work at an Apple Store as a demonstrator for his Apple iPad 2 with Proloquo2Go. Christopher and his assistant would be a sales team to demonstrate the value of these two technologies and what it can do to help others with disabilities.

The estimated cost for the devise is $2,361. This morning our club presented Career Links with a check in the amount of $1,500, they still have a ways to go to purchase the device and pay for the required training for Christopher.

The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre Director Donna Inglima

2011-12-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Donna Inglima, The Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre Director, discussed the important work the Playhouse's youth education and theatre program provides, a program supported by IRC. The club recently supported the production of a world premiere, the first for the theatre, of Looking For Home, Stories From The Orphan Trains.

Beginning in 1853-1930's, Charles Lauren Brace, the founder of the Children's Aid Society of New York, executed a program to move more than 250,000 kids off the streets of New York City and into homes. Homeless and abandoned children were taken off the streets, clothes and fed, and then moved by train to homes in the midwest. The show is a tale of adults and youth, the memory is a play set in 1922. The music, lyrics and books were created by Mary Murffitt, playwright. She also was adopted, and interviewed an orphan train survivor, where she developed the play's concept. The train made different stops along a route, the kids were presented like slaves on stage. Some went to a wonderful family, others not so lucky.

The show explores abuse, love and the many issues in adoption with a cost of 38, 22 children ages 9-17. It's a deep story of laughter, sorrow and hope. The show appeared for two weeks, and had three weeks in production. It premiered in November during National Adoption Month. The club's contribution of $1500 helped to support Boys & Girls Club kids to come to the show.

Doing Amazing Work in our Communities-State of the Irvine Rotary Club

2011-12-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

12.7.11 Irvine Rotary Club Meeting notes

Photo: Richard Milo was awarded his Paul Harris +7 Pin.

Mody Gorsky presented President elect nominee Don Kennedy, who will take his presidency after Lucy Walther’s term. There were no additional nominees, Mark Brubaker moved to close nominations, and Don Kennedy was ratified by the members..

Community Service Report/Avenues of Service:

The Irvine Rotary Club is giving a lot back to our communities and working a lot.

Lucy Walther led the summary of our community service accomplishments:
1. Richard Milo reported on the success of our partnership with causes for diabetes and cancer.

The Juvenile Diabetes walk in Newport Beach recently held in November had a large contingent of Rotarians, 21 walkers from the club who added $2,000, one third of the event net revenue, for Juvenile Diabetes.
In addition, the club provided $1,000 to support the spring Komen Walk for the Cure.
Children’s Book Drive-Richard encouraged members to stop at garage sales and purchase books for children that we can donate during the Orange County Fair Book Drive. It’s a district wide project. Last year we donated more than 30,000 books for kids. Simply spend no more than $10 to buy books and the club will reimburse you.

2. Ed Hardenburg indicates we will have a walk this year at the Dana Point Harbor in April which includes a donation to Cystic Fibrosis.

3. Cisca Stillhorn reported:

Our support of South County Outreach is complete for the year, we provided a total of $1,000 to SCO. Our contact has changed so we will be engaging them to come to a future meeting to re-establish with them.
We provided a work day for the Irvine Animal Shelter with 13 Rotarians helping with the facility build out.
In addition, we will be doing a project to support Irvine Adult Day Health. We made a donation of $1,000 and will work on conducting a work day on their behalf.

4. Rick Topping reported on:

Injured Marines Simper If Fund which supports injured marines
Wounded Warrior Fund
Holes for Heroes
ALS Society

5. Leslie Mogul reported the $1500 support of The Laguna Playhouse’s Youth Theatre world premier of Looking for Home, a Story from the Orphan Trains, was made possible with the support of IRC. Children from Orangewood and Orange County foster care were able to attend performances free of charge.

6. Ray Benedictus reported that Community Service from our club members does a lot to make things happen in the community. He added we provided support this past year for the American Heart Association.

7. Mody Gorsky reported we continue our successful partnership with the City of Irvine with our Irvine Public Safety Partnership Awards. Lucy and Mody have had four meetings with the city and they are thrilled to continue the program.

8. Austin reported on our international projects:

Mexico (Ensenada area) Clinics-April 2012 we will conduct our 100th Mexico Clinic. We conducted four dental and two medical clinics during the year. These are fabulous opportunities for our club to team with our local Mexico Rotary partners, who identify the location, to provide needed medical and dental care. He would like more club members to participate. We stay in nice hotels, meet great people. He’ll be scouting some more locations in Mexico, including orphanages in Corazon, to continue this avenue of service. The Ensenada clinic cost $4000 for two clinics, and we provided $30,000 worth of service.
Haiti Adult Clinics-we’re determined to continue the project when the country provides us the opportunity.
India Clinic-were committed to doing a clinic in India, Austin will talk with Harry on this.
Bolivia Prosthetic project is being executed with 8 other rotary clubs. It is under review at the International Rotary Foundation. Our goal is to produce 135 prosthetic legs, the program trains people to manufacture the prosthetics, and give to local disabled.
Stove project is still being executed in Guatemala. The goal is to produce 1500 stoves, we are mid-way through production.
Romania Orphanage-we are in the process of determining is this is feasible.

Local and International Irvine Rotary Club projects are funded by our three major fundraising efforts including:

Bowlathon-this year raised $5,000
Cash Bash
Holes for Heroes-2012 will be our first year for this annual fundraiser. The San Diego Downtown Rotary Club created the successful model, in this their 10th year they raised $109,000 from the golf tournament. 75% of the proceeds are donated to International and the rest goes into their club foundation. Sign up now to be a donor or sponsor of this spring event. Wounded warriors are invited to play in each foursome.

New Member Projects: Jay Spencer suggested each new member adopt a fundraising project to participate in. Each week new members and red badgers man the Check in Desk so they can quickly get to know our members. It starts with a sincere smile and handshake, this effort is winning us a new member each week.

Finance Report: Tom Mahony reported our charitable goal for 2012 is $35,000. We currently have $70,000 in the bank. Our club does not charge dues. We are changing the name of our foundation to Irvine Rotary Foundation to match the new club name. Here’s how our club operates and where revenues are derived:

Rotary International Foundation-provides matching grants back to the district and club.
Club Operations –Dale Ford and his weekly fining pays for club expenses.
Irvine Rotary Foundation-is our charitable arm from where we donate money back to local and international projects.

Ed Hardenburg reported we have an accumulated cash balance in excess of $5700 which will be used to supplement sending the club president to International Rotary Conference: Lucy to Thailand in 2012, Don Kennedy to Lisbon in 2013.

Mark Brubaker added any extra money we raise is donated to new charitable opportunities to help individuals or organizations during the year.

Officers for the Irvine Rotary Foundation are:
President: Woody Jones
President Elect: Ray Sanford
Vice President: Kris Khurana
Secretary: Mary Mar
Treasurer: Tom Mahony
Club President: Mark Brubaker
Club International Rotary Foundation Chair: Ray Benedictus

Support for Boy Scouts

2011-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

Janet Wang and Mark Brubaker present a check for $500 to Scoutmaster Johansen to support the Boy Scouts.

New Member Jean Hobart

2011-11-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Cisca Stillhorn and Rick Topping welcome Jean to the club. She’s a close friend of Cisca’s, a lawyer, post polio victim who spends 50 hours a week doing volunteer work.

Meet Robyn Nelson

2011-11-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

The Irvine Rotary Club welcomed our newest member, Robyn Nelson. She is a California original from Sacramento, and a registered nurse, currently the Dean of College of Nursing in the Health Sciences at West Coast University, where 2800 students are in the nursing programs.

Robyn's career trajectory began with a desire to be an elementary school teacher, but she changed her major and worked in critical care and later went onto teaching, before moving to Southern California she was a head of the nursing program at Toro College in Nevada, and Professor of Nursing at CSU Sacramento.

Outside of her professional career she's a songstress, pop and light opera are her favorites. Her husband Dean is a Jazz band musician.

IRC Meeting on the International Rotary Move to Eliminate Polio

2011-11-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

Former rotary district governor Herb Tromboldt shared the latest update on the Rotary International's Polio Immunication Days around the world. It's the rotary's effort to end Polio now. It's the largest humane project in the world and it was started by rotary international, which partnered with other non-governmental organizatins around the world including Unicef and the World Health Organizatioin.

Rotarians around the world have done the heavy lifting on this project to get it off the ground. Herb shared a trip by rotarians this past Feb. 2011. A team of 36 rotarians went to the Kashapur area of India to immunize children against polio. Just 90 miles from New Delhi, the people live in deplorable conditions, open sewage, sewers running over constantly, one of the ways polio is spread. Add no refrigeration, heaps of garbage everywhere, no surprise this area has been ground zero for several hundred cases of polio in the past year. 80 immunization stations were set up with three movile units, a parade kicked off the activities, and the local Indians worked with our rotarians going into all neighborhood to share the polio vaccine, just a few drops by mouth is all it takes to protect these kids.

Just one of the wonderful international projects rotary takes on. Very rewarding work!

New IRC Member Von Christensen

2011-11-20T20:58:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Club Von!

The Irvine Rotary Club is on a roll, we welcomed another new member this week. Von Chistensen, an Irvine resident and an attorney who works in Newport. Von was welcomed to the club by former district governor Herb Tromboldt.

Interested in learning more about the rotary club, you are welcome to join us for a delicious buffet breakfast and fellowship each Wed. morning at 7:30 am at the Rancho Community Center in Irvine. Please check us out!

IRC Bowlathon Raises $5,317 for rotary projects

2011-11-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

Thoughts from Diane Braasch, event coordinator for rotary Bowlathon:

As night sets in, I am enjoying the thoughts of todays Bowlathon. It is wonderful to have Rotary friends and some of you sure stepped up to help our event fly. It was not the best weekend to have this event due to the long weekend and people taking advantage of a getaway, but 90 people attended. 10 businesses paid $250 to fly a banner on the lanes for the three hours'. We were able to take advantage of the bowling centers hospitality. . Forest Lanes was so professional in taking care of our every need. The professional bowlers who turned out to bowl with us were some of the best. The PBA stars who I usually can get to bowl with us, were in Vegas bowling the World Series of Bowling but our local pros scored well. Toni Thomas brought some of her homemade Christmas decorations for the silent auction. They were beautiful. Leslie Mogul and Stella Cardoza did a beautiful basket including tickets to Laguna Playhouse, Robyn Nelson brought a basket with Christmas goodies and Marla Noel a fabulous Tequila basket. I made a bunch of baskets and was happy to see that all our baskets sold in the silent auction The most unusual gift was an Adult Pogo Stick donated by Rich Milo. and a diamond pendant from Ken Carrell of the Jewelry Box in Lake Forest. Forest Lanes donated a 2 hour party for six.. I purchased some fun gifts for everyone to win. Most everyone took home something and on the lanes were treated to lollipops in the bowling theme. For those of you who did not join us just because you wanted to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon at home.......well, you lose because it was sooo fun. The scores were varied and I know some of you wil have a few aches tomorrow...but be assured, YOU are making a difference in our charitable causes. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED AND SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO GAVE ....Isn't that what Rotary is all about? This event net $5317 to our Rotary Foundation. Not bad for a fun three hours at the bowling center......

Thank you and thanks for all your help, Diane Braasch

Craft Talk: Meet Ed Link

2011-11-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

IRC member Ed Link is a fun guy and knows how to entertain a crowd! He's responsible for Business Development for the Irvine Chamber of Commerce, and in about four years time since he moved to the area, he's helped expand the chamber and rotary membership rosters.

When he's not drumming up business for the chamber, you'll find Ed on the beach playing volleyball, his new athletic love. "My office on the weekends is the beach and the volleyball fields." He's also learned the fine art of wine tasting--California has abundant opportunities for this--- and sailing--which evidently seems to be a lot tamer in the open ocean than his AK roots.

Before he moved to California, he lived on a riverboat in Little Rock, and was the membership chair of the Little Rock Chamber. He also filled his free time with sailing and sailboat racing on the river in Arkansas, evidently the winds there providing challenging sailing.

Ed, a jock at heart, tells us his Conway, Arkansas (30 miles north of Little Rock) upbringing was a wholesome and great place to grow up. The school system there especially catered to his athletic love of baseball, and he eventually joined a minor league baseball league in Hayes, KS.

Thanks Ed for the entertaining craft talk!

4th Annual IRC Public Safety Award

2011-11-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

The IRC recently awarded Mr. Patel with the Irvine Public Safety Award. It takes courage for local citizens to step up to the plate and call the local police when they see something suspicious in their neighborhood. That is what helped the Irvine Police Dept. recently when local Irvine resident Mr. Patel did when he called when three men in a Mercedes knocked on the door of his home. According to Detective Joe Kathia crime analysis and good old community involvement helped close a string of burglaries.

In the Yale corridor more than 90 burglaries had taken place within a few months. The crimes were put on Crime Stoppers TV, and one of the victims had written down a license plate that helped the Crime Division zero in on the suspects. It was Mr. Patel's phone call that confirmed all of the details to arrest three of the four suspects. The fourth suspect was eventually picked up in Seattle and returned to Irvine to serve serious time in jail.

Mr Patel says he did not think much about the call he made, he felt it was his civic duty. He has a strong sense of community spirit, and he wants to keep his community safe.

According to Detective Susan Davis, the largest issue is thefts from unlocked vehicles. Car hopping thieves check door handles and are more often than not able to open the car door and remove anything visible in your car.

Citizens, beware, stay safe and if you see any unusal activity in your neighborhood call 911!

Welcome New IRC member Mike Javanmar

2011-11-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

Mike Javanmar, a resident of Lake Forest, is the newest member of the Irvine Rotary Club. Mike is a teacher of economics at Rio Honda College in Whittier. Mike's a graduate of UC Riverside. Please welcome Mike to our club!

Meet IRC Member Toni

2011-11-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Toni is a charter member of Irvine Rotary Club. In 1990 she and a small group of other rotary lovers started the club. She was the first female club president in 1995.

One of her fondest club community projects was on Dec. 15, 1990 during the first Desert Storm, when the club accomplished a major holiday tribute for service member's families. It was a Yellow Ribbon Holiday for the El Toro and Tustin Base. Donations came in from all over southern CA for kids, there was a wrapping party so each kid got a gift, bands played. A video was created which you can view on the IRC website. "It was a gift for me, I realized if we all work toger4ther so much more can be done," says Toni of the commardie and team work from the rotary family and friends of this project.

Toni says she loves her life. She's been a tax preparer for the same company for 20 years. She's been married for 15 years, and has a blended family of five kids.. Her joy is with her family, friends and just appreciating life. She spends alot of time with her husband, who is retired. Toni's motto " Live, Laugh and Love".

Toni grew up in Nebraska City until age 11. The town bosted 7,000 residents, it was a great place to grow up, but she's delighted to today be living in OC. Thirty years ago she did modeling and acted in musicals and drama. And she was a model and appeared in a variety of print advertisements.

It's members like Toni that make our IRC so interesting. She's passionate about her continuing membership in our club.

City of Irvine proclaims October 24th as World Polio Day

2011-10-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Assemblyman Jeff Miller presents to Irvine Rotary Club

2011-10-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Assemblyman Jeff Miller (R) talked about the policies and issues affecting local communities that are determined in Sacramento.

Jeff says revenues for the state fell short in September. How are we going to deal with this shortfall. There's no political courage in Sacramento, he says. We need to reduce regulatory burden in the state. Cuts will be made to the people who need the services the most.

He has served as both Mayor and a Councilman in the City of Corona, before being elected to the State Assembly in 2008 and re-elected in 2010 to represent California's 71st State Assembly district. The district spans the edge of Eastern Orange County and takes in the majority of Western Riverside County and encompasses cities of Anaheim, Corona, Eastvale, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Norco, Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita, Santa Ana and Tustin. His goals: keep the economy growing, the budget balanced, the community safe, and get the roads moving.

Jeff serves on the Assembly Higher Education Committee as well as the Insurance, Housing and Community Development and Transportation Committees. He passed AB2098 legislation to expand the 91 freeway and create 18,000 jobs in an area hit hardest by the recession.

He says he's fighting for major reform: Prison reform, Education (K-12 and community colleges). The ultimate goal for CA is to become a leader and attract business. Vote, and do your part to get the state and our community growing again.

Irvine Rotary Club Welcomes New Member Tammy Chu

2011-10-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Irvine Rotary Club this week welcomed our newest member, Tammy Chu, CPA. Born in Taiwan and raised in Hawaii, she attended school in Virginia. Tammy works as a CPA and auditor at Grant Thornton in Irvine. Welcome to the club, Tammy!

Social Marketing-Jump on the Bandwagon -Oct. 5, 2011 Rotary meeting presentation

2011-10-11T19:39:00.000-07:00

Niklas Myhr, Social and Global Marketing and Media Instructor at Chapman University, shared the latest thinking around social media with the Irvine Rotary members. LISTEN - RELATE - ENGAGE- CREATE.

Jump on the Bandwagon now, if you have not already. The cold call is dead, says Niklas. rEACH OUT TO YOUR GREATER SOCIAL NETWORK TO GET A SALE, THE JOB, AND MORE. Just Google yourself, and see what everyone is saying about you and your company, or not! Use your network to get a job, stay in touch, and improve your visibility and notoriety. Niklas suggested you share aggressively with your network, build one if you have not already. Start with other members of the rotary club. Dont let the thought of spending too much time networking socially scare you, you may become addicted to this newest route to fame and maybe fortune.

Niklas' dad was a rotarian and brought Niklas to many meetings, and on his travels and rotary visits around the worldwide.

Irvine Rotary Club Welcomes New Member Walter Kowalczyk

2011-10-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

On Wed., Oct. 5 the Irvine Rotary Club welcomed Walter Kowalczyk as our newest member. Walter says he's a man of God, husband to Theresa for 15 years and father to Anthony (10) and Sarah (3). He is the Western Pacific Region’s Director and sales professional for The College Network with the responsibility of managing an 8 state region with over 20 independent contractors and sub-contractors on the West Coast. He also serves as the Chief Financial Officer for a Saint Michael the Archangel Academy which is a nationwide K-12 private satalite program. Walter enjoys family time exploring California with Theresa and the kids.

Welcome to the Club Walter!

SAVE THE DATE - Irvine Rotary Club Holiday Party takes place December 10

2011-09-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Rotary District Governor Greg Owen Speaks to Irvine Rotary Members Sept. 21, 2011

2011-09-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

District Governor Greg Owen and his wife Valerie.

District Governor Greg Owen reminded us of the power of Rotarians locally, nationally and internationally as he reminded us it's Rotary's 100th anniversary.

Projects cover sanitation, book drives and wider visions. If you are a rotary member, you know that your passion for the underserved, needed or a good cause can get great support through the power of rotary. No other organization offers wide avenues of service.

Rotary's finest moment has been to help eradicate polio. Rotarians have given $1Billion to eradicate polio and teamed with Bill Gates and The Gates Foundation, who provided $355 million to complete our goal. We are expecting to meet our goal of eradicating polio off the face of the earth by the end of 2012. Rotary clubs around the world have the power to put the infrastructure in place to roll this out, and rotarians have participated in providing more than 30 million vaccinations, each kid needs 3-6 doses of vaccine to be protected.

You'll soon be seeing big tractor trailers with Eradicate Polio signs. Greg's company has allowed rotary to wrap his tractors which travel around the country. We have the opportunity to have a tractor at an event.

The Rotary Foundation goal is $200 per capital per year. Irvine Rotary Club meets and exceeds this goal. The IRC foundation is one of the top fundraising foundations in OC.

Do you contribute $1,000 during the year to rotary? If so, become a recognized donor, and half of all contriubted income comes back to our district. Currently $50,000 annually comes back to the OC district to contribute back in our community to nonprofit projects.

Dean Irwin is the speaker this year at the Foundation Dinner, plan to attend, information is being distributed to members.

Ways to Get Involved:
Makeup meetings can be done online thru the EClub, it's available 7/24. You can makeup meetings at home or during business. This online club is very appealing to those who have restructions and are unable to make meetings.

RYLA-kids leave the safety of their family and go for a long weekend to learn about leadership in the mountains in Idllywild, once a year. When they get back they don't want to get off the bus, they've made lifelong friends in a short time.

The International Rotary Convention next year takes place in Bangkok, Thailand. If you have the resources to attend, it is an amazing trip.