The Rotary Club of
Ojai
 

Ojai Rotary Reminder Newsletter
July 26th, 2019

Matt Clements, Editor

 
Are you an established professional who wants to make positive changes in your community and the world? Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for community service and friendship. 
Our 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man—Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
 
In the Beginning...
 
President Cheree Edwards called the meeting to order and thanked Bill Prather and his team for set up. Dave Watson led everyone in the flag salute. Susanne Scar gave a beautiful and thoughtful invocation. Matt Clements held down the desk duty wrangling cash from the masses.  Fred Farkhani and Bill Weirick were our friendly greeters. As always, a big thank you to Ginger Case for feeding us.
 
 
 
 
Special Guests:
 
Joyce West (Al’s wife)
Jim Shelton
Nathalie Selleslags
Brett Bradigan introduced Scott Daigre (Dayg) from Tomatomania, our program today.
 
Visiting Rotarians:
 
Barry Verga Woodland Hills
 
Rotary Minute, Cheree Edwards:
 
 
The tradition of exchanging small banners between Clubs as a token of friendship began way back in 1959 and is a significant tradition of Rotary and Serves as a tangible symbol of our international fellowship.  A volunteer was chosen to answer a question for a free lunch.  The question was which Apollo mission carried the first Rotary flag, Apollo 8
 
Fining:
 
Judy Gabriels did her usual fantastic job with fining. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Get Acquainted Talk: Al West
 
As West was born in London in 1933, (as you can almost tell by his accent) shortly thereafter the family moved North to Yorkshire. His father owned a country store that sold everything, food, clothing, and hardware, and which was run by his mother and Al during WWII. When England was under threat of invasion all the Aunts and children moved to the North of England.  There was only one bathroom, 6 to a mattress and “bodies everywhere, sleeping feet to feet” After the War his father bought a hotel in the walled city of York.  He was a liaison officer for the RAF during the war and became acquainted with many US officers.  To make a long story short, in 1949 his father sold the hotel and moved the family to Canada.
 
Al was always active in the Boy Scouts, which is where he met his wife Joyce (a Girl Guide).  Al became a King Scout (Eagle) and many scout leaders were foresters, during his scouting years he learned what they did and told his father that when they moved to California, he wanted to go to college to be a Forester. Just at that time his mother and Joyce saw the movie Red Sky over Montana and said, “no way!” Eventually Al did get both a BS and Master’s degree in forestry from Cal Berkley.
 
When Al was club president (2000- 2001) he would share forestry facts, (at which point many in the meeting Friday moaned…!) And each speaker throughout the year was given a certificate stating that 10 trees would be planted in their names. That is also the year our club started celebrating National Arbor Day, a project that Al manages to this day.
 
Al started his career as a research forester studying the influence of forests on snow accumulation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and has written several articles in scientific journals. He lived on Donner Summit and would travel by snow cat, at least 8 months of the year.  In the winter of 1958-59 there was 960 inches of snow, (80’!) at the laboratory. In 1964 he moved to Lee Vining as Assistant District Ranger. Al also played host at Mammoth Lakes to the paleontologist and anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey, (famous for discovering some of the first ancient hominid bones in the Olduvai George in Africa) along with 60 other world-renowned paleontologist and anthropologists studying the Mono Basin in the Eastern Sierra.
 
In 1971 he was assigned to the Sierra National Forest, with 200 employees and the responsibility of fire control between Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  In 1975 he was assigned as Forest Supervisor of the 2,000,000 acre Los Padres National Forest.  Where he was responsible for managing the second largest forest fire to that date.  He was the first fire manager to use infrared Imaging photography from aircraft to spot and plan the defense.
 
1979 found him in Washington DC where he stayed until retiring in July 1993, returning to Ojai.  Al held many positions and duties during his career, far too many to fit these pages.  Each one could be a program of its own.  Just a few are: National Director of Fire Management, National Fire Chief, and Associate Deputy Chief for Programs and Legislation. The last 8 years were spent as Forest Service Deputy Chief, with nationwide responsibility for fire and disasters, insect and disease management, and relationships with State Foresters, Native Americans and many international activities.
 
When Al retired to Ojai Bob Chesley, an old friend, sponsored him in the Ojai Rotary and 26 years later he’s still here.
 
Al you are a treasure and an irreplaceable asset to the club, and I speak for everyone in saying we are deeply honored and proud to have you among us.
 
 
 
Today’s Program: Tomatomania!!!
 
There is nothing quite like the taste of a fresh homegrown tomato.
 
They make for the perfect summer sandwich: a colorful, juicy slice hanging off the sides of the bread, a smear of mayonnaise, and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper.
 
Quite simply, heirloom tomatoes trump hybrid varieties, period! Full-Stop. Their flavor justifies the French term for tomato, pomme d’amour – literally translated to “love apple.”
 
Brett Bradigan had the pleasure of introducing Scott Daigre (Dayg).  Author, educator, garden designer and owner of Powerplant Garden Design and TOMATOMANIA; the world’s largest tomato seedling outlet.   Scott is one of our own and has been a local Ojai Resident for 20 years.  Indeed, an example of local boy makes good.
 
Tomatomania offers over 100 varieties and has been held in five (5) States and twenty-five (25) cities and is expanding every year. 
 
One of Scott’s new and most important projects is enlisting school children to use Tomatomania as a money-raising enterprise to support the local schools.  This year over 1500 local children will be selling tomatoes, so if one of them asks you; buy, buy, BUY!
 
There was too much useful information to do the program justice, leave it to say NO ONE left early! 
 
Scott did give five essential recommendations if you want a thriving tomato crop.
 
1)    Rotate your tomato patch every year.  This keeps tomato loving pathogens from getting a  foothold.
2)    Be strategic.  Plan your garden for different varieties, planted at intervals during the summer.  That way you will have tomatoes throughout the summer.
3)    Buy 6-week-old seedlings and plant them deep.
4)    Water and feed intelligently.  Tomatoes are a weed; they like infrequent deep watering and minimal fertilizer.  In the summer that means every 5 to 6 days.  Feed them sparingly, especially if they are planted in the ground.
5)    Grow something exciting and different.  You will enjoy not only the flavor differences but, many of the heirloom tomatoes have beautiful colors and crazy shapes.
6)  If growing in pots make sure they have at lest 15’X15” of room and either buy cool pots or wrap your ceramic pots in something to keep them cool. Cheree suggested using coffee bean bags from the farmers market.  They will do the trick and look classy at the same time.
 
Cheree closed the meeting after many questions.

You are invited to visit us at an upcoming meeting.

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