By: Gary Sloan
Call to Order
Gary (Medicine Man) Sloan, past president, called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. substituting for Kathy (African Queen) Gailey who is gallivanting around the world for the next four weeks. When suggesting that he was actually Kathy Gailey with a new body, Norbert asked incredulously why anyone would have chosen that body if one had a choice in the matter. Everyone was welcomed to the club and Gary shared that the RI President was still John F. Germ with a theme of “Rotary Serving Humanity”.
Introductions
Ron Kalich from Edina, Minnesota was introduced as a visiting Rotarian. Guy Greco shared that his 50th Anniversary was next week and his granddaughter would be graduating from the University of Oregon. Guy works part-time at Heritage Bank and is a long time celebrated Rotarian. Since Don Jones, Herman Welm, Mike Thelan or any of our regular song leaders were absent, Edgardo led us in an in-tune God Bless America following the flag salute and the following thoughts for the day. “Wisdom is to live in the present, plan for the future and profit from the past” and “Serving in the Armed forces, fighting for our country is not about being a republican or a democrat, but it is about being a patriot. This weekend we honor those who gave their lives serving our country.”
Announcements
Following some time for fellowship, Gary shared the answers to last year’s school examination of 17 year old teens:
Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar
Q. How is dew formed?
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire
Q. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie
Q. What is a terminal illness?
A. When you are sick at the airport
Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.
You get the idea of how this meeting went.
Gary read some letters of appreciation from scholarship recipients and a thank you letter from the Wheelchair Foundation for the $1,000 grant they received from the San Ramon Rotary Foundation. Gary also shared that eight brave Rotarians were participating in their first golf tournament this year immediately following the meeting. Money will be wagered and alcoholic beverages will be involved.
Colette Lay proudly bestowed upon Natlie Lee, Interact President, the Student of the Month award. Natlie will be going to Cal (go Bears) next year. She has been an amazing leader and contributor to the success of the Interact Club.
Program
Rotarians who were absent for this program missed the best presentation of the year. A Rotary Club member from Westchester, L.A. is quoted as saying “Gem’s speech and program is possibly the most fabulous and important I have ever heard in my 59 years in Rotary”. Gen Munro spoke to our club two years ago. He has devoted his life and career to improving educational opportunities for disadvantage people across the world focusing in Bangladesh where he moved his family to improve educational opportunities to children living in the slums. He is presently the Director of the Amarok Society, a register Canadian charity that provides educational programs in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Upon his arrival to Bangladesh, Gem and his wife recognized that none of the children in the slums were going to school and that no one was doing anything about it. After approaching governmental agency representatives, the Munro’s were told that the slum lords, police and Muslim husbands were barriers to providing education to young women. Gem determined that building a school and hiring teachers was not leading to success around the world so he offered a different model… teach young women who in turn will teach their children and neighborhood children. Gem showed video of a young woman married at age 11 who received a general education then taught five children in an organized, purposeful way.
His hypothesis is that the natural state of the mind is not ignorance. The natural state of mind is in our desire for learning. He suggests that ISIS terrorists recruit children from the slums to become future terrorists. The only effective way over generations is to educate these children and give them a sense of purpose. One such example of this phenomenon has played out across Bangladesh and Nigeria where young women collect tiny amounts of funds from poor slum families to buy a newspaper after which the “newspaper woman” reads the daily newspaper aloud to hundreds gathered daily to hear about current events.
Gem admonishes our world leaders for the sin of omission in not educating the world to fight terrorism. His story and actions have proven to be an effective tool in achieving our Rotary values of peace throughout the world.
Closing Raffles
A bottle of wine was won by Patti Hennigan and $10 won by Mark Hornsby with $220 pot next week.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 pm.