Rotary Recap: Strawberry Shortcake, Giant Yarn Balls, and the Future of Farming

If you wandered into the Rotary Club of Ojai meeting this Friday the 13th of June thinking it was going to be a typical Rotaryapalooza, you’d be as mistaken as someone trying to grow iceberg lettuce in Upper Ojai. From poetry and shortcake to organic farming and roadside Americana, we covered a lot of fertile ground.

You were ably and warmly greeted by past-prep Betsy Watson, after Treasurer Dave Brubaker extracted lucre for the demotion party and IOUs for fining.

We began, as is now our cherished custom, with Tony Thacher wearing dual hats — except instead of leading with flag salute, he treated us to a soul-stirring reading of Ada Limón’s “New National Anthem.” Sample line: Perhaps, the truth is / every song of this country / had an unsung third stanza / something brutal / snaking underneath us as we blindly sing / the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands / hoping our team wins. 

As Tony reminded us, Limón is not only the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States but also a Kentuckian of proud heritage.

VISITORS

Visitors this week included the always-welcome Jack McLenahan, a past District Governor and proud defector to Ojai-West. Also in attendance were Terry Campbell (Janet’s “other half”), and Steve Sprinkel and Olivia Chase of Farmer and The Cook fame. 

President Wendy Barker urged us to keep sending in our vacation snapshots of big things —giant spools of yarn, offbeat roadside dinosaurs, even modestly sized Paul Bunyans will do. Her slide show next week promises to be a glorious tribute to America’s weirdest corners — and a convenient way to avoid looking at 100 photos of Wendy posing with roadside beavers unless you send in your own.

Wendy also called out Greg Webster for some love, who has been scarce lately, and noted that DeWayne Boccali had made two meetings in a row.

DEMOTION PARTY JUNE 26

The demotion party for President Wendy is fast approaching, scheduled for Thursday, June 26 at Boccali’s. Tickets are $40, or $50 if you want to indulge in their famous strawberry shortcake. Just as dollar bills were being peeled off for dessert, DeWayne Boccali himself interrupted — like a strawberry-scented deus ex machina — and announced that he’d be donating the shortcake. Treasurer Dave Brubaker, ever the opportunist, graciously accepted everyone's payments anyway, calling them “donations to Rotary.” A sugar-coated shakedown, if ever there was one.

GET ACQUAINTED TALK

 

Lisa Elliot-Rosas gave her “Get Acquainted” talk, although we’re already pretty well acquainted with her style — warm, authentic, and impossible not to like. She talked about growing up in LA, dreaming of being a ballerina since age 5, but puberty bestowed her with hips and ended her career, so she moved to modern dance and African dances, such as Afro-Cuban and kept moving those unballerina-esque hips. Her story of going east to Emerson College in Boston, then USC, then heading off for a New York City experience with five roommates in a six-story walkup, ended with an injury. She came back to LA to recuperate, before finding a career in marketing and fashion and marketing fashion, including a stint with the Fortune 500 juggernaut Oglivy & Mather.

She fell in love with Africa and its art and dance. So she jumped at a chance to join her neighbor Shawna Mistrestra on a trip to Africa as part of a global NGO. And she was just about to leave for a return trip with a big Rotary impact, delivering medical supplies to a young doctor as part of our club’s International Service Project, and to implement a Rotary grant in building a school. 

 

The theme of her talk, and life, was planting seeds and reaping rewards of purpose and serendipitous encounters.

 

FINING

 

 

Catherine Lee took the fining duties with gusto, reminding us that no good deed — or bad parking job—goes unpunished.

She ran through a brisk list of Confessions: Tony Thacher and Don Reed, who were both married on the same, not to each other, to Anne and Susan, 60 years ago! 

- Bill Prather ponied up $77 for his 77th birthday, and also for donating enough to earn his 7th Paul Harris Award, for the vaunted Triple Seven!

- Bob Davis reminded us that it was Friday, the 13th, and also his daughter Nan’s birthday, also born on a Friday, the 13th. Nan was the first Living Treasure in the family (Bob being among the most recent cohort so honored).

- Jeff Loebl ponied up to thank RCOEF scholarship work dogs Dave Watson and Christine Golden, for making sure this very important Rotary event came off without a hitch.

- DeWayne let slip that he was turning 80 next week, in fact the day after our Demotion party, which may explain his strawberry shortcake-related generosity.

- Kelly Rasmussen chipped in to celebrate the fact that our club’s Rotary Centennial Project in 2005, the outdoor amphitheater at Monica Ros School was back in operation, thanks to teacher Natasha Efross at Rock, Tree Sky.

 

PROGRAM

Deirdre Daly introduced Steve Sprinkel as our keynote speaker, with some background about his illustrious service on state and national boards, as an organic certifier in the US and Mexico, and as co-owner of Farmer & The Cook with his wife Olivia Chase.

Steve started out with some Father’s Day related reminiscinces about his father, a decorated World War II B-24 pilot, and past president of the Rotary Club of Fontana, where he helped an exchange student find work, as well as introduced an up-and-coming politician and former actor named Ronald Reagan. His dad, Reed Sprinkel, was “an early adopter” of Reagan’s folksy charm. While Steve may have veered off a bit leftward politically, he was nonetheless complimentary about Reagan’s immigration reform andthe contrast to nowadays.

 

 

Steve then gave a thoughtful and passionate talk about organic farming, the ongoing battle between soil health and agribusiness, the market forces that determine his business, the need for flexibility “and thinking on your feet” when it comes to meeting market demand, why organic produce doesn’t take up more of the supermarket shelves, and the gratitude he had for Tony Thacher, who recommended him more than 20 years ago as a perfect person to farm the old Honor Farm, and now site of Help of Ojai, off Baldwin Road. Steve said he cultivates 12 acres there, with an every-changing rotation of crops, including some that are home to companion plants and beneficial insects. His own philosophy when it comes to F&TC is to keep prices low and volume high so that he recruits loyal customers and Community Supported Agriculture clients. He’s been an organic farmer since 1975 in Hawaii, Texas and California, and has been in Ojai since 1979.

 

Wendy’s Recommendations: Randy Roth recommended The Cellist of Sarajevo as a parting gift—a poetic reflection on maintaining humanity in troubled times, a fitting echo to Tony’s opening poem.

We adjourned full of food, thought, and the vague hope that our giant-ball-of-twine selfies will make the final cut in Wendy’s farewell extravaganza.