Posted by Elsie Casida on Jul 21, 2018
MORRO BAY ROTARY CLUB
July 17, 2018
 
Meeting called to order by President Jude
Invocation by Ken Stilts
Pledge to the Flag by Steve Carnes
Joke by Jude.....camping/bear jokes....very good and funny.
 
Visiting Rotarians:  Jill Drexhage from SLO who used to be “one of us”
 
Guests of Rotarians:  Paige Wilhite, guest of Elsie; Jack Keely, guest of Doug R (this was his 3rd meeting and will be brought into the Club soon); Jeff Jones brought his wife, June; Mike Pond introduced Jordan Ridge, our outbound exchange student; Allison from Big Brothers/Big Sisters; Ju Ju, Kasey’s dog who helps out at the Garden House; and Stella, our Junior Rotarian.
 
Jude announced new members, Chief Greg Allen and Scott Collins, and thanked them for joining our club.  Jude said we had a good board retreat at the home of the Casida’s; our board meetings will be the third Wednesday of every month at the View at 7:30.
 
Jude’s focus for this year will be Human Trafficking and Peace Building (in need of a chairperson for this committee).  She said Katherine volunteered to help us with our publicity.  As part of Jude’s effort to bring public awareness of all that Rotarians do, she hopes we will wear Rotary apparel whenever we are serving the public. 
 
We are still looking for our box of banners which has disappeared.
 
Membership letters announcing our annual fees have been mailed; they are very similar to last year except RI fees went up $5.00; our lunch fees remain the same.
 
Pete gave an update about Max who is now on a train and will be meeting his parents in San Francisco.   We hope to have a “meet Max and his parents” social at Pete’s house on the 5th of August.
 
Avocado/Marg Festival is Saturday, September 8th; we are in need of volunteers, if we provide 50 volunteers, we will be paid $5,000.  Please sign up!!!   A signup sheet was passed and will be passed around for the next few weeks.
 
Mike made an announcement about Deepa...she is having a wine tasting event on August 25 at TRATTORIA GRAPOLLO in Santa Ynez; maybe it can be an August Social? 
 
Mike introduced Jordan Ridge, our outbound student who spent the last school year in Germany.  She said the experience was amazing and she will be giving a program at another time.  Jordan received one of our $2,000 scholarships awarded to MBHS students.   We have another girl arriving in August and we still need a host family.   In the meantime, she will be staying in SLO.
 
Heidi made a presentation to Allison from Big Brothers/Big Sisters in the amount of $250.   Allison gave a brief presentation on what they do, including matching older students with elementary school students to meet for an hour a week.
 
Pete was fined $20 for taking his badge home....but he did bring it back.   Judy offered to pay his fine by “Paying it forward”, since she was not fined by Pete for the same offense.
 
Geo Pecci, who joined twelve other Americans on an unsanctioned tour to North Korea was our speaker today.  Their government is similar to that in Russia, China and Japan.  We signed a truce with North Korea; not a peace agreement, so it is the only nation we are still “at war” with.  Kim is the world’s youngest leader.  If you visit Korea you will get a blue card, but your passport will not be stamped.  Geo did not know until the night before whether he would be allowed to get in.  They have all Americans stay in a hotel that is on an island.  He talked about the Christian Persecution in North Korea, which is the worst in the entire world.  He showed a forbidden picture of himself with two soldiers; they don’t allow pictures of poverty or anything that might be bad publicity.  The Korean people are not allowed to get close to Christians who are in the country for fear they may be given a bible.  He feels that Clinton and Carter are responsible for North Korea having their nukes.  China is the “big brother” for them and they want reunification between North and South Korea.  There were talks about the “remains” of our servicemen who are still in North Korea being brought home to be buried in America. 
 
50/50 won by Bill Peirce
 
Next week’s speaker will be Joe Erwin, Project Mgr. Cal Trans - Hwy 1 update.  Come and find out what’s going on with Cal Trans.