A strange glowing orb appeared in the sky outside the St. Thomas Aquinas fellowship hall. Rotarians shambling into their Friday noon meeting stared directly at it, eyes reddened with its intensity and unfamiliarity. Was it a UFO? Didn’t appear to be moving. A celestial sign of a great apocalypse pending? Perhaps. What about a hole in the sky through which some curious galactic being was shining a flashlight? As likely as any other explanation.
Until one of those Rotarians, the perspicacious Bob Davis, declared to an astonished and bewildered audience, “It’s the sun you fools! The sun!” Indeed it was. The mystery orb had been missing for so long, and our attention spans so short, that we had forgotten it existed, hidden as it was beneath the deluges that preceded it the past several weeks. A collective amnesia. As its golden rays warmed us, we remembered. We remembered its benevolent and benign presence.
With that enigma solved, the inimitable Dave Brubaker took our money, while Christine Golden also warmed us with her greetings. The room was resplendently arranged by Bill Hatch and Taundra Roddick. Ivory tickler Fern Barishman again delighted us with her free-form stylings.
Pledge: Rod Owen; Inspirational Moment: Mike Weaver, as chair of the Peace Committee, and in commemoration of February as Peace & Conflict Prevention/Resolution Month, quoted Rotarian Shawn Bird, “We believe conflict is inevitable, but so is peace / We believe Rotarians are able to provide relief / We believe there can be resolution as each of us makes our own contribution / we can help conflict cease.
Co-Jefe Dr. Carl Gross gaveled the chattering mass to order, thanking Jayne for her Special K chicken with fettuccine and salad lunch, as well as the aforementioned helpers.
Guests? Alexia Parks from snowy Boulder attended. We had a few. Sue Reed joined husband Don, who also brought Mary Taylor along. Carla Sheyman came with Taundra, and our proud papa Carl had a mini-family reunion going on with four of his daughters in attendance, with daughter Adryon about to wow us with her powerful voice
Announcements:
Tony Thacher shared the sad news that club stalwart Boyd Ford has passed at age 99. Boyd has a legendary figure around town, never shy to share his political opinions, which listed every-so-slightly to the right, and a former club president. Boyd was, in Tony’s words, “A warm and welcoming fellow" who contributed mightily to Ojai’s civic structure, serving on the Planning Commission, Parks & Rec committee, city Treasurer for 18 years, and a World War II Navy veteran who served on the famed USS Corregidor. He was active and athletic, part of the legendary Ojai Masters Swim Team, in which he won a shelf-full of trophies, well into his 90s. He will be, and is, missed.
Shred & E-Waste Day:
ComServ chair Betsy Watson gave us the heads up that the event will be happening April 6th at Nordhoff from 9 am to 12 noon.
Blood Drive:
Christine Fenn said that Gables will host a Blood Drive on Thursday, Feb. 15th from 12 noon to 4 pm.
Fred Clapp Award:
Larry Beckett asked us to submit nominations for this prestigious award, named after a particularly prominent club member, who set high the standards of unimpeachable ethics in business.
Search Dog Open House:
Larry also announced that the Search Dog Foundation Community Service Open House Event will be held at their Ventura Foothills training facility on May 4th. If interested, let Larry know you’d like to learn more about this Ojai-founded organization created by the estimable Wilma Melville.
Mesa Farms
Deirdre Daly introduced Dan Parziale, founder of Mesa Farms, which provides services for kids aging out of the foster care system. He and about 40 volunteers will be planted orchard trees for a Food Forest this past Saturday, Feb. 10th at the facility on Gorham Road on the East End. Dan has presented a program in the recent past on this innovative approach to keeping people from homelessness.
Coming Programs:
Jack Jacobs wisenheimed his way through the next month or so.
Feb. 16th - Beth Pratt, state director of the National Wildlife Foundation, will talk about the wildlife corridor built around a freeway that allows wildlife to move between the Santa Monica mountains and other areas. She will also talk about the famous P-22, the urban mountain lion who survived 12 years and multiple freeway crossings near Griffith Park and recently passed away amid a lot of fanfare and world-wide press.
Feb. 23 - Kay Bliss gave us information about the “Lunch Mob” meeting to be held at Matilija Middle School cafeteria, where we will learn more about a student service project to go to Laos.
March 1st - J.B. White, writer and musician, will talk about his incredible career. He adapted “The Beast” from the Peter Benchley book, as well as multiple Hallmark Channel movies, many with a Christmas theme. He also founded The Household Gods, for many years known as Ojai’s house band. He still writes and makes music.
Taste of Ojai sponsorships:
Bob Davis beseeched us to extend ourselves to bringing Taste of Ojai sponsors to a meeting, noting that his guest a few weeks ago committed himself to another few grand, realizing the great works done by the club.
Fining:
Christine Golden took a confession from president-elect Wendy Barker, who recently attended the Rotary PETS conference, along with 2,000 other Rotarians, and came back fired up with ideas for her year as president. Mike Weaver ‘fessed up to a birthday, which is also very close to Dr. Bob Skankey, who joined us via Zoom. Bill Prather shared a reminiscence about the much-missed Boyd Ford. Marc Whitman told us about the park he is building in Meiners Oaks at the site of the old car wash.
She then extracted lucre from Bryant Huber, Kelly Rasmussen and Tony Thacher about Feb. 9th. For example we learned that it is known as “Cut the Cord Day” to urge us to cut the cable tv cord and move to streaming platforms, as well as Chocolate Day, Stop Bullying Day and Alternative Vices Day. Not to mention it’s the Chinese New Year and the birthday of a water god.
Program:
Dr. Gross introduced us to one among many of his beautiful and talented daughters, Adyron, “who did not fall far from the matriarchal tree” as her powerful voice was reminiscent of her mother Donna’s in the St. Paul’s Baptist Church choir. She also participated in Nordhoff musicals, choir and the traveling troupe Young Americans. She performs occasionally at Disneyland’s California Adventure park, and performs with Orgone, the funk-and-soul band out of Los Angeles.
She performed a few numbers to give us an idea of her career. Sounding much like Elle Fitzgerald with her resonant voice, she sang “Sunny Side of the Street,” and from Orgone, a song called “People Beyond the Sun” and, inspired by the George Floyd protests, a song she wrote called “Ally.” She also had a song credit on “Mank” which was nominated for an Oscar. She credited her father with giving her a Diana Krall cassette for inspiring her musically. Her favorite singer is Billie Holiday, and her favorite song is Etta James’ “Sunday Kind of Love.”
After that rousing and awe-inspiring program from one of our Ojai own, the mesmerized crowd filtered out into the afternoon sun, blinking and dazzled.
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