ROTARY RAMBLINGS 4-1-08

[Ellie Lowery]

Ramblings by Ellie 
  _____  


ROTARY RAMBLINGS

ROTARY CLUB OF DELRAY BEACH

April 1, 2008

 

President Kurt Godfrey presided over yet another awesome Rotary meeting.
Candace Etzler offered a well thought invocation.  Sam Altdoerffer led the
singing, since Jimmy Weatherspoon was at the hospital having knee surgery as
we sang!  Jimmy, we wish you well.  Sam, thanks for another great job as
song leader.  Did anyone notice that Bruce Williams was playing Christmas
songs??  He was grinning, and checking out who was listening.  

 

Harvey Brown welcomed our visiting Rotarians, numbering 5+.  Harold Naposki
announced he is heading north for the summer.  Fred Bonardi gave the banner
to a visitor from Lake Placid, NY.  Make ups were done by Deb Ferrell 2x's.
We had many guests, among them were Juan Manzano, Compliance Manager for
City of Delray Beach Water; Lorie Garland, in banking, who is looking us
over.  Leon Weekes was a guest of Leo Phillips.  Matt Cooley was a guest of
Bob Teninga.  Matt is the "on the scene" helper at the Delray Affair.  We
certainly owe him a debt of gratitude for all his work.  

 

Bob Teninga thanks all those who came out and helped, throughout the three
days of the Delray Affair.  He announced that we made over $7,000.00 selling
"hot dogs and drinks, for scholarships."  Bob did such a tremendous job,
never slowing down, all three days.  What a great Rotarian!  It was great to
see all the enthusiasm and spirit of Rotary at work!  If you did not help,
you sure missed out!

 

Fred Bonardi had good, good news about the stock market; it was up, up when
he reported.  He had a spring in his step, as he approached the podium.  I
knew he was the bearer of good news.

 

Fred also served as Sergeant at Arms, collecting a total of $115.00.  Anne
Bright donated $20.00 since she could not help at the Delray Affair; she
also had her picture in the newspaper...again.  

 

Leo Phillips read an e-mail addressed to our club, from our Ambassadorial
Scholar, Christina Dumbrowsky.  You may keep up with Christina through her
website: www.christinadumbrowsky.com <http://www.christinadumbrowsky.com/> .


 

Sue Miller reminded us of the upcoming Bingo fundraiser, in two weeks, April
17, 6:00 p.m, Ellie's Flamingo Room. There will be buffet dinner, drinks,
raffles, Bingo prizes; donation is $50.00.  She is soliciting raffle prizes,
and your attendance.  We will have the comedy team of Brown and Denkler
emceeing and calling the Bingo.  It should be yet another "hoot."

 

I am posting (first time) prospective new member's names: Corbin Hankey,
Business Development, R.E., Stephen Butera, Alliance Home Mortgage, and
Lorie Garland, Banking.  She is a former Rotarian in Highpoint, NC.  

 

Ernie Simon had the pleasure of introducing our guest speaker, Alton Taylor,
Director/CEO of Drug Abuse Foundation, Palm Beach County.  Over a period of
26 years, he has worked his way up to this position, which he has held since
1986.  Mr. Taylor is a "gentle giant," with much compassion.  He is a native
of Palm Beach County.  He has dedicated a substantial portion of his
professional life to promoting, developing, implementing, and managing
behavioral health systems that facilitate recovery pathways for individuals
and families struggling with substance abuse and mental health problems.  

 

Mr. Taylor's Bachelors Degree is from Palm Beach Atlantic University; his
Masters Degree is from Florida Atlantic University.  His major area of
study: Psychology and Education.  

 

He pointed out that the following members of our club are on their Board of
Directors: Ernie Simon, Leo Phillips, and Tony Allerton.  In addition, our
visitor, Leon Weekes serves on this board.  

 

Mr. Taylor gave astonishing statistics on the problem of drugs and alcohol
in our community.  He noted that drugs have been around since 5,000 BC, and
that they will be with us for a long time to come.  Our biggest challenge is
how to prevent, and cope with these problems, through intervention.  This is
a very costly problem that will not "just go away."  

 

Our green hat is now up to $427.00, and growing!

 

Next Tuesday, 7:30 a. m. is our monthly Board of Directors Meeting.  It is
held in the Marilyn Room at Ellie's; all members are welcome to attend.  

 

At noon: Our speaker will be our favorite cheerleader, Dr. Stefani Martin.
She will be speaking on "Eye Disease."  I think she will have some "eye
opening" information on this.  

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