October 21, 2021
Co President Alex opened the meeting today and Co-President Athenea rang the opening bell. Katie Hunter led us in the pledge and Terry Heck had a very entertaining Inspirational Message! Arilla was our greeter and Joel led us in the Welcome Song. Karen Stelman filled in as scribe as John O'Neill fell ill at the last minute . Sgt. at Arms was Bill Brehm and James Kaspar was our Photographer! Joel Doss manned the Front Desk along with 2 other members.
Jim Reid has our tickets for the Poway Symphony outing and will hand them out next week. Shirley Napierala put signup sheets on all our tables for members to sign up to donate to the less fortunate families at Christmas time. She'll have them on the table again next week. Please be generous and support the cause. Arilla gave the Family of Rotary report and was very sad to report that Cheryl Roops' husband, Bill, fell down their stairs and was seriously injured. He was taken to Hospice where he passed away later that evening. Arilla will be sending her a condolence card but please send your own if you want to reach out to her. So very sad. Larry Valente had back surgery recently and John O'Neill is still having trouble getting around. I'm sure he would appreciate a card of phone call as well. A Rotary walk is being held on Oct 24th in Balboa Park to End Polio Now. We have 8 walkers from our club going. It's 3 1/2 miles and we may not all make that, but we're going to try!
Our speaker was Dr. Susan Lewallen. She lived and worked in more than a dozen countries in eastern and southern Africa for over twenty years where she and her husband, Paul Courtright, raised two sons. Susan and Paul were the founders of the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, based in Moshi Tanzania with projects throughout Africa. She is an ophthalmologist and has published over 150 scientific articles and received awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and other organizations. She is a professor at the University of Cape Town. Since returning to the US in 2016, she's written two novels based on her experiences. She talked about some of those experiences and she promised to leave time for some questions! Terry Heck followed with a book presentation as her speaker gift.
At our next meeting on October 28th we will be hosting Author Kathy Weyer, Heritage Art Park Books. She was a member of our club many years ago and we lost a great lady when she moved to the Palm Desert area. Please give her a big welcome!
Your Scribe,
Karen Stelman
