Buckle in and welcome back to your weekly dose of the danger zone.
Chris Top Gun Gallagher graciously kept his intro short today to save time for our amazing speaker, former Cal and NFL quarterback Mike Pawlawski. This year’s Rotary International President is Holger Knaack from the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany, and our theme is Rotary Opens Opportunities.
Our greeter was Guy Greco, who led us through the pledge of allegiance. For his thought, Guy presented a motto, given the challenges in today’s world: “Treat others the way you want to be treated, and some of this stuff will go away.” He and Mary recently relocated to Crow Canyon Country Club, for which he became well acquainted with 1-800-GOT-JUNK. If you need boxes, holler at Guy! Our guests included Alan Love and Jake Brown (who started the meeting as guests, but ended the meeting as Rotarians), first lady, Renee Gallagher, and our speaker, Mike Pawlawski.
Chris Gallagher kicked us off with some more very strange news, with headlines including the following: “Naked Man Chases Wild Boar Through Public Park After Swine Steals His Laptop”, “Firefighters Battling Wildfire Chased by Bull”, “SHOCK AND ALE”, and “2020 Is Like Looking Both Ways, Crossing the Street, and Being Hit by an Airplane”. Thanks, Chris, for your very odd but nonetheless entertaining sense of humor. With the help of Chris Gayler, we welcomed two new members to our club today: Alan Love and Jacob Brown, sponsored by Colette Lay and Mike Conklin. Chris officially admitted them not only to our club, but to the worldwide organization of Rotary, under which Rotarians are welcome to any club in the world. They were presented with the Object of Rotary and the 4-Way Test. Congrats to our newest Rotarians, Alan and Jacob!!! Mike Conklin introduced Jake, who joined the Army with Mike’s son, Kirk Conklin. Stepping into this role with a procurement and operations background, Jake’s new endeavor is focusing more on the marketing side. Colette gave a shout-out to Alan Love. She’s excited that he’s been coming to our meetings for a while and is officially joining. Like Jake, Alan is a former Army guy. He has 2 children, a 9-year-old and 6-year-old. He’s taking this opportunity to engage with the community on another level of service, and is already joining forces with Karen McNamara to put something together for the online auction.
Announcements & Recognitions
Karen McNamara mentioned a new community service opportunity - more people are using the food banks these days because of the pandemic. Next Tuesday, San Ramon PD will be collecting food and/or donations at the San Ramon Safeway on Wed Aug 26 from 10am to 4pm.
Don Jones presented another community service opportunity - one of the biggest needs in the homeless community is warm, clean socks. Don would like to start an annual project to collect 120 to 150 pairs of socks for the homeless, which comes out to only 2 pairs per member. He is getting started on the initiative, and planning on collecting socks in the month of September, then distributing to the shelters in late November, who will then distribute to those in need. Don also mentioned a thank you to the firefighters who are working to keep everyone safe. Terry Koehne gave a brief reminder of the Online Auction; he will be sending a spreadsheet soon to remind everyone of what they donated last year. As far as recognitions are concerned, it was Jerry Marrs’s birthday on August 7 and Mike Thelen’s anniversary on August 3! Jerry’s been drinking and camping, and having a good time. He was recognized with a contribution of $40. Mike has been married for 45 years!!! Wow. (Mike mentioned he was 8 years old when they got married… Yeah, we believe you, Mike). His secret: let her have whatever she wants. Chris Gallagher wanted to make sure Gary Sloan heard this secret. Mike was recognized for $30 or $35. Program - Mike Pawlawski, former NFL Quarterback Chris Gallgher introduced our awaited speaker of the day and Suzanne Eikel’s husband, Mike Pawlawski. Mike played college football at the University of California, leading the Golden Bears to a 10–2 record and a #8 national ranking in 1991. He was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the eighth round of the 1992 NFL Draft. After the NFL, Mike signed with the Arena Football League, playing his inaugural season with the Miami Hooters, then the next five seasons with the Albany Firebirds, where he established several league records. He finished his professional football career with the San Francisco Demons of the XFL, where he led his team to an appearance in the league championship. After football, Mike hosted and produced programs for the Outdoor Network Channel and has served as commentator for Cal football on Comcast SportsNet. He also spends time coaching college football and most recently accepted a position as the quarterback coach for Cal High!
Mike took us through a journey of the many ups and downs of his magnificent career. For example, a reporter came out and said his recruiting class was the worst in history and that he was the worst quarterback recruit, but his recruiting class and he became among the best in the Pac-10 that year (he ended up becoming offensive player of the year). He also told us about his time with the Miami Hooters, which was the worst team in the history of football, focused not on the game, but on the sale of wings (in true Hooters fashion). In 1995, he decided he was going to attend law school, but he ended up in Albany with a head coach who was an amazing quarterback coach and who convinced him to stay and play starting quarterback. Mike then ended up winning the world championship with one of the greatest teams in history.
Today, Mike has been a broadcaster for 25 years and an outdoor producer for 21 years. He’s now at a point in his career where he wants to give back. He’s recently been working on instructional videos on how to improve at your sport, especially aimed at young athletes out there who don’t typically have access to people with that level of expertise.
Mike’s invaluable lesson for us today was that it’s all about doing the work. Getting better, improving, becoming the athlete (and person) you want to be is all about focus, focus in the moment. Early on, his experience playing football distilled all of life’s lessons down into a single drop of knowledge: the ability to focus on what’s going on in this second, because you can’t control what’s behind you or in front of you, but you can control what’s in the moment. He mentioned that many people out there want the success, but are not willing to do the work. And it’s become a sort of “microwave society”. Instead, start with the faith “I think I can”, put in the work, and you can excel at what you’re doing.
Thank you for the inspiring words, Mike Pawlawski!
Next week’s greeter is Dr. Bill the Shakespeare Wiz and our speaker is Karen Stepper, Danville Mayor. Have a safe and happy weekend!
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