In the Beginning...

As we enter the home stretch of President Deirdre Daly’s reign, the weather couldn’t have been more salubrious (and other antiquated terms meaning nice) to mark the occasion. Attendance was light but enthusiastic, especially when we realized it was time to sign up for the June 21st demotion party at Mike Malone’s home in Mira Monte. 

Greeting us with amiable competency on the badge scanners were Betsy Watson and Catherine Lee. Don Reed manned the sign-in desk with quiet savoir faire, while Mike Malone manned the room with the roving mic (does he get the job because he’s named Mike? - discuss among yourselves). 

Jack Jacobs led us through the Pledge, while Al West gave us a touching reminder of the preciousness of life, and of each other, in his invocation. 

Guests included Matilija Junior High (soon to be Middle School) teacher Cindy Israel, with three of her students to talk about the Matilija Portfolio project — Mary Heldwein, Dieter Umholtz and Ela Ruf, who talked about the importance of the interviews of their materials by the Rotarians. “It’s one of the best programs we have at the school,” said Ms. Israel. “And we have a lot of great programs.” The students expressed their gratitude as well. Dieter said, “We learn how mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells, but we wouldn’t get this type of experience anywhere else, anytime soon.” 

Deirdre read a few letters from the rest of the students, thanking their interviewers, including one interviewed by Al West, who wrote, “You may not remember me, but I was the one with the purple and brown hair.” And another thanked yours truly for recommending she take “organ science” in high school, instead of organic chemistry - that’s probably more fun anyway. 

 

MOMENT OF REFLECTION: Jack Jacobs gave a poignant remembrance of dearly departed Nic Frank, who passed away quietly this week. Jack said that he found Nic to be a “gruff ex-submariner who was running around spying on the Communists during the Cold War,” and he reached out for help with the Membership Committee. “This began a long, close friendship with Nic, whom I discovered had a huge heart of gold. The gruffness turned out to be just a cover.” He concluded, “O yes, and I would like to remind you that this is one time where I got the last word! Rest in peace my friend.” Amen to that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IRISH MOMENT: Tony Thacher read an elegiac, lyrical poem by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, about the harvesting time of his farming family, and his father “hucking grass by the handful.”  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine Lee presented us with a flag from her walking tour of Slovenia, which she undertook with Dietrich and Valerie Schmidt, and she also took time to express her gratitude to her Rotary family, and what the club has personally meant to her - trips to Niger and England among them.

 

 

• Cheree Edwards, freshly back from the Rotary International Conference in Hamburg, Germany, said she “had great, exciting new inspiration” that we’ll be hearing about as her Rotary years begins in July.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINING: To the deafening absence of resounding applause, Dave Watson came up the podium to extract lucre. 

Betsy Watson confessed that she was the newest member of the Area Housing Authority, while Bob Davis said that he and Betsy had recently visited Nic and Suzanne Frank down south and that Nic was deeply appreciative. 

The questioning centered on the 75th anniversary of D-Day this week. Bryant Huber was stumped on what the D in D-Day stood for (nothing), while Catherine Lee got most of the countries involved in the massive effort to retake Europe from the Nazis, which she did correctly name as “Operation Overlord.” Mike Malone didn’t know the five beaches in northern France on which troops were landed (not Huntington, Redondo or Laguna) while Fred Coleman rattled them off without a moment’s hesitation (Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold & Sword). 

 

 

PROGRAM:

Bill Prather introduced Mark Toohey, the civic and community group liaison for the California Earthquake Authority. Mark worked for 25 years at Farmers Insurance, where he was the senior VP for Media Relations, Government Affairs and Community Engagement, as well as chief of staff for the Farmers CEO. Before moving to California, Toohey worked as a journalist for the Houston Chronicle, where he interviewed both presidents Bush (once on Air Force One) and “covered his share of headline-grabbing hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters, including the space shuttle Challenger explosion.) 

Toohey first gave us an anecdote about a recent Southwest Air flight he and his wife took to Dallas. The steward was unusually chipper as is SW’s wont. “The older I get, the less that surprises me,” Toohey said. So when the steward got on the mike to say that there was a passenger on the flight who was turning 100 that day, his attention was captured. Then, he learned that the man had never before flown on an airplane. The steward then said, “So join me in singing Happy Birthday to our captain!” 

After he got his laugh (another example: California is a great place to live “but we do have our faults,” Toohey got down to business, stating that fewer than 10 percent of Californians are insured against earthquakes. Given the likelihood - in excess of 99 percent of a 6.7 magnitude quake during the next 30 years - that is a parlous state of affairs. The Northridge quake in 1994 did $20 billion in damage and displaced 22,000 people. Another quake of 6.7 magnitude would cost 35 billion today. 

The California Earthquake Authority does not sell insurance itself, but it does provide re-insurance to homeowners insurance and has a market capitalization of $16 billion. 

He said that the CEA participates in another program — the Earthquake Brace + Bolt — which provides homeowners with older homes up to $3,000 each to retrofit their homes, which not coincidentally, he said, is the standard cost for a retrofit. Homes with a crawl space or chimneys, for example, are those most likely to take damage during a shaker. 

Toohey ended with another anecdote about his parish priest, an Irishman with an enthusiastic manner, who pounded the lectern asking “Who’s ready for heaven?” Hands shot up. He asked again, louder. More hands went up. Except one man. The priest asked him “Are you not ready for heaven?” The man said, “Yes, but it sounds like you’re trying to fill up a busload for tonight!” 

After a few questions, Deirdre closed out the session with this quote:

“Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden spectacular program. It was not raining when Noah built his ark.”