MORAGA

ROTARY
NEWSLETTER
April 30, 2019
Next Celebration: May 7, 2019
Noon Meeting Moraga
Country Club
More About May Day than We Wanted to Know
Efi Lubliner – International Film
Showcase
~~GUESTS ~~
Greeter: Herb Wehmeyer The club welcomed our speaker,
Upcoming Programs: Kiwanian, Karl Davis. We also
welcomed Terry South, the father
*May 14 – Father Paul from St. Monica’s of future club president, Brian
Church. This evening meeting will be South, Janet Dobbs, a guest of
held at the Serbian Church on School Debbie Koo, and Bill Eames from
Street
May 21 – Moraga School District the Lafayette Rotary Club.
May 28 - Open

* Dinner Meeting at 6PM

~INVOCATION & PLEDGE~

The meeting was called to order

by President Ron. Frank May
lead off the meeting with an
explanation of May Day and lead
the group in the pledge of
allegiance. Terry South Was Our Guest Today

~~HAPPY BUCKS~~
Rich Render offered a High $5 for
the E-Waste and the Hornet Tour
held last weekend. Rich singled
out Bob Fritzky and John
Erickson as the high donors. He
mentioned that 8 adults and two
one year old’s walked 3.5 miles
and climbed 10 stories under the
guidance of tour director, “Admiral”
Tony. Rich is also Happy about
the latest champion on Jeopardy
Debbie Koo was happy about
attending two family weddings and
the birth of a grandnephew only
four hours after the wedding. She
also had a great discussion with
her brother-in-law about the
Congo library project and
managed to fit in an all-girls
weekend! Whew!!
Jim Campbell was happy about
a visit to Tempe, AZ to see his
brother as well as a drive through
Death Valley. Jim is happy to be
back at Rotary after some health
issues and happy to be on the
mend.
Gary Irwin offered a High $5 for a
recent family trip to Yosemite. He
highlighted a hike that his entire
family completed up the Mist Trail
to Vernal Falls. He stated that it is
very wet on the trail this year.
Frank May offered a High $5 for
the chance to participate in the
interviewing of 10 applicants for
our Rotary Scholarships
this year. A really great group of
students!
John Erickson offered $5 for
Admiral Tony Schoemehl’s
command of the Hornet Tour last
weekend.
Roger Gregory offered $5 for his
attendance at the San Francisco
Scottish Fiddlers in Berkeley.
Rotarian, Pate Thompson, is a
member of this group.
Evi Michon has a couple of
tickets to attend the Chico Rotary
Champagne Brunch on May 5th.
Call her if you are interested in
attending. She is happy about an
art class that she conducted at the
Crisis Center this week.
Tony Schoemehl was happy
about being able to obtain donated
tickets to the Hornet tour. He also
offered a buck for any one to
explain what happened in the
Game of Thrones TV show on
Sunday.
Linda May gave the group an
update on Al Simonsen’s
condition. He fell and injured
several ribs. He is back home
again and would welcome some
calls and maybe a visit if you call
first.

~~ANNOUNCEMENTS~~

Thank You Notes

President Ron read three notes:
from the Contra Costa Crisis
Center; ShelterInc thanking us
for the Movie and Lunch Event;
The Truck Was Really Full!!
and Tyler Young, the recipient of
the Brother Albert Rahill Rotary
Scholarship from St. Mary’s. See
a copy of Tyler’s note below.

E-Waste
From event chair Rich Render.
“On Saturday we held our 20th bi-
annual E-Waste Recycling and
Document Shredding event. We
were slammed from the start with
cars lined up, and the traffic Ron and John Relax After Filling the Truck

continued all day. Our vendor

Charlie from C&T Recycling
worried we would fill his truck, so
he had to call in his wife with their
Chevy Suburban, which we filled
to the brim with document boxes.
The truck was so loaded, he
couldn’t close the back
door”. Thank you to all who
helped.
ShelterInc Outing to the USS
Hornet
On Sunday a group of club
members and friends escorted a
group from ShelterInc on a tour of
the USS Hornet. Lead by docent,
Tony Schoemehl the group spent
several hours exploring this WW2
aircraft carrier. This event was
organized by the Business Group.
The next excursion is a trip to the
Oakland Zoo this Saturday.
Bocce Ball
Angelo Costanza announced that
the courts are in great shape and
planning is going well for the
Bocce Ball Tournament to be
played on May 11. Players should
send a check to Lad by April 30 for
$20 to participate. Former
member, Colin Barnard will join
us for this event.
Angelo has arranged for a practice
session to be held on May 3rd at
9AM at the Bocce Courts in
Martinez. Let Angelo know if you
are interested in sharpening your
skills before the competition.
Athletic Field Day
The Athletic Field Day will be held
on Wednesday May 8th. A signup
sheet was passed around at the
meeting today. Please put this
event on your calendar as we
need everyone’s help in making
the event a success. Contact
Tony Schoemehl to sign up to
help with this event.
Business Group Meeting 4/25
Our Club Business Group met at
the Serbian Church last Thursday.
Steve Danziger from the Board of
Directors of the Moraga Orinda
Fire Department discussed major
objectives and plans dealing with
community fire safety.
Upcoming Club events were
discussed including the Athletic
Field Day and ShelterInc activities.
Cliff Dochterman’s 60 Years In
Rotary Celebration – July 27
Reservations for this celebration
are coming in fast. Debbie
Roessler asks that everyone at
least let her know if they plan to
attend to make sure of your place
at the table.
A Lucky Winner!!
The raffle this week
was won by Jim
Campbell. He was “So
Close” to winning the
almost non-existent jackpot.
(President Ron won all the money
last week).
~~PROGRAM~~
Our speaker this week, Karl
Davis, was introduced by Evi
Michon. Evi introduced Karl as
the “book guy” because of his
work with excess books from the
Lafayette Library Book Sale. He
organizes and distributes about
170 boxes of books every 6
months to various local and
international charities.

Lt, Colonel (Ret.) Karl Davis
The subject of Karl’s talk today
describe his experiences as a Lt.
Colonel in the US Army on his
2010 deployment in Afghanistan.
Karl began his talk by reviewing
the geography of the country and
its major ancient and modern links
to both China and Iran (who are
busily upgrading roads even
today). He described the six major
sets of people (or tribes) that
makeup modern day Afghanistan,
and showed pictures of their
homes. The country still maintains
ancient ways and traditions while,
at the same time, absorbing
modern technology.
He described a world where
discrimination against women is a
way of life and where children do
much more work than they do in
the US. Karl talked about the
dangers of mines left over largely
from the Russian military presence
in the country,
Karl spoke in some detail about
the infrastructure built by the
Americans over the past several
years. The buildings will not be
usable to the Afghan people when
the Americans leave the country.
This is due to things like roof and
bathroom construction that do not
meet the requirements of the
Afghan people.
Karl gave us an excellent
presentation and a real
visualization of what life is like in
Afghanistan. Thank you for
sharing your story with Moraga
Rotary.
~ Cliff’s Corner ~~
Rotary Works for Peace
The day after I had been selected
worldwide President of Rotary
International, I had a call from a reporter
of the New York Times. We talked a while
about the activities and mission of Rotary
International. Then he said, “Is it true that
Rotary International is an organization
which works for peace, goodwill and
opposition to war?” I replied that, “Yes,
peace and goodwill among people of
the world is one of our missions.”
Then the reporter continued, “If you are
working for peace, what do you plan to do
about the situation in the Middle East?” I
replied, “Rotary does not have the
weapons of war – tanks, rockets, planes
and battleships. Rotary uses the Greeter/Invocator Schedule
instruments of peace – food, medicine, 5/07 = Herb Wehmeyer
water, education, shelters, and other basic 5/14 = Jennifer Brophy
resources to improve the quality of life.” 5/21 = Roger Gregory
5/28 = Bob Fritzky
6/04 = Debbie Roessler
There is much more to seeking peace than 6/11 = Tony Schoemehl
the efforts to cease hostilities. Real 6/18 = John Erickson
“Peace” can also be measured by the 6/25 = Demotion Party
quality of life in which people live. That is Coming Events
one way Rotarians “work for peace” in
their community and in the world. • May 8 – Athletic Field Day
• May 11 – Rotary Bocce tournament
• May 17-19: District Assembly for four
districts at Peppermill Casino in Reno.
• June 1-5: Rotary International
Convention in Hamburg, Germany
• June 25 – Moraga Rotary Demotion
Party
• July 27 Afternoon - Cliff Dochterman
Luncheon Celebrating 60 Years of
Service in Rotary

MORAGA ROTARY DIRECTORS 2018-2019

President Ron Mucovich

Co-Presidents-elect Debbie Koo & Evie Michon
Past President Dianne Wilson
Co-Secretary Vickie Devlin & Evie Michon
Treasurer Lad Lynch
Foundation Chair John Erickson
Youth Service Chair Rich Render
Public Relations Gary Irwin
Newsletter Editor Frank May
Community Service Chair Tony Schoemehl
Co-Chair, International Services Barbara Bruner
Co-Chair, International Services Linda May
Membership Chair Debbie Koo
Director at Large Mary Sue Erickson
Director at Large Roger Gregory
Director at Large Debbie Roessler
Advisor to the Board Jim Campbell
Advisor to the Board Cliff Dochterman

District Governor 5160 Jon Dwyer

President Rotary International Barry Rassin
Newsletter Editor for April Frank May
St. Mary’s Scholarship Thank You Note from

Tyler Young