Ojai Rotary Club Meeting
Sept 25, 2026
Overview
The Rotary Club held its weekly meeting to provide community updates, convened by copresident Kelly Rasmussen. Dr Fred Fauvre led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Christine Golden gave us our inspirational moment. She read a poem entitled, ‘Instructions for Having a Soul’ by Joseph Fasano. It begins, “Take it out in the rain sometimes. It has vast, invisible wings that gather dirt and need rinsing. When it tries to kill you that is because you’ve forgotten to let it look into someone’s eyes longer than a minute. It needs that the way a bee needs nectar in the early morning dew. Every so often, take it on a journey. Let it read long, hard books and let it stare into the depths of the sea.” Thanks Christine!
Thanks to today's crew for setting everything up for this meeting;
Tech crew - Barry Verga, Dave Watson, Jerry Maryniuk, and Colin Hurren
Greeter - Jerry Maryniuk
Flag salute - Dr. Fred Fauvre
Fining and net - Betsy Watson and Bob Eisler
Roving mic - Barry Verga
Reporter and editor – Bruce Hanson and Randy Roth
Treasurer - Dave Brubaker was out of town and Fern Barishman filled in
Chef Ray, thank you for another sumptuous feast of risotto, roasted chicken, potatoes and vegetables, salad, desserts ++ for lunch.
Club Announcements
Kelley shared several upcoming local events and organizational milestones:
• Holiday Party: Scheduled for December 12 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Dave Brubaker's house.
• Shred Day: Hosted by Bank of Sierra on Saturday, October 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Taste of Ojai: The club has collected approximately $25,000 in sponsorships so far, with a goal to increase this toward the $40,000 mark through continued member outreach.
• District Governor Visit: Margarita Idson is scheduled to visit the club next week.
• Rotary Winter Fellowship: An email was circulated regarding a travel opportunity in the country of Georgia.
Confessions and Fining
Betsy Watson asked for confessions. Marilyn Mosely-Gordanier announced, “Yesterday, Laurel Springs premiered their video about the beginnings of the school and how I started the program… I hadn't realized how hard I worked to start the school. The video will be live online on October 1st.”
Betsy’s topic of fining were questions asking to identify one of our members who; Despite learning to drive at eight years old, they fell off a bicycle into the Mekong River Delta, and they've also written speeches for a state senator. A: Cindy Fring. Q2: What is her profession? A: Cindy is a working artist, and she's sold 1000s of works of art all over the world, representing her own work and scores of other artists. This has taken her all over the world. In Ojai, she has mixed with the famous and the infamous in her roles on the board of the Art Center during her years of staging art in the park, and her very successful first Libby Park taste of Ojai. Q3: Who told Cindy that he would do anything for her? A: Anthony Hopkins. Q4: We're thinking back to Frank Fink. He was a member of this club for a long time, and he was there at the first Taste of Ohio. So, what did Frank do at Cindy's suggestion? A: Frank painted the back of the art center for Cindy. He showed up in full painter whites. He was a former professional painter during his college years. Q5: Cindy has traveled to over a lot of countries, maybe over 90. Where is she most excited to return? A: the Highlands of Scotland.
Guest Presentation
Kelley introduced our speaker of the day, Reed Christy who lives in Camarillo. Reed delivered a keynote presentation regarding his journey of adaptation following a life-altering motorcycle accident on June 27, 2023. A former professional soccer referee and fitness consultant, he lost his right leg above the knee due to injuries sustained when he was struck by a vehicle driven by an 86-year-old man. The driver had apparently blacked out and ran through a stoplight broadsiding Reed and the next thing Reed remembers was waking up in a hospital a week later. He had many injuries including a crushed pelvis; he bled out, died, and was revived on his way to the hospital. The real loss for him was the life that he just assumed would continue-the life that he had built, the body that he built as a lifelong athlete.
The Reid's message challenges standard narratives about trauma and resilience by replacing passive inspiration with active agency. It is a profound reflection on rebuilding a life after the "invisible map" we all follow is completely destroyed.
The core philosophies shared in this speech can be broken down into four major shifts in perspective:
- The Illusion of the Map: We all navigate life using an unwritten map of assumptions about our health, careers, and timelines. When catastrophic trauma strikes, the true loss isn't just the physical or material change—it is the loss of the future we took for granted.
- Control vs. Agency: Control is the impossible demand to dictate outcomes or reverse what happened. Agency is the empowering realization that while you cannot control the road you are put on, you can choose your very next step.
- Becoming vs. Overcoming: The speaker rejects the toxic positivity of "everything happens for a reason" or being grateful for trauma. Trauma strips things away; it doesn't give gifts. The goal is not to force your way back to an old baseline, but to discover what is available from here and become someone entirely new.
- Inspiration Needs a Verb: Feeling good about someone else's survival is passive. True inspiration requires the listener to take an action in their own life, turning attention into a specific choice.
He now serves as a certified peer visitor with the Amputee Coalition. Reed finished his talk with: “Now my story stops being just about me, because I imagine that all of us in here have an old map. Maybe a relationship, a career, your health, your independence, a version of yourself you thought would be there forever. Sometimes the life we thought we were getting doesn't happen, and we naturally ask, "How do I get that back? Well, sometimes we can, and I invite you all to ask, what is possible from here? Not the life you wanted, not the life you planned, the one you had.”
