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You have to know that the Chamber of Commerce is smiling with the weather on the Bay! It was another beautiful San Diego Winter day. We are indeed blessed to live here. Our Inspirational Moment was given by Cari McCormick who reminded us of the many things to be thankful for. Tom Blair and Greg Zinser lead us in “God Bless America” and George Alexander gave the news of the moment. His historical reflection was back to 1954 and Club 33 was doing good things then, too.
We had visitors from Point Loma High introduced by Joan Friedenberg and new member Jackie Meyer introduced herself. Jackie is with Qualcomm and has already identified a couple of committees to join.
Bink Cook presented multiple Paul Harris Fellowship awards to 9 of our members who have contributed to the Society: Mark Allan, Joe Flynn, Skip Hymes, Phil Blair, Ben Clay, Dean Crowder, Rich DeBolt, Pete Ellsworth and Bonnie Schwartz. Their generosity is appreciated. The Cliff Dochterman award was presented by Buddy Thomas to two of our distinguished members: Mike Rowan and BILL McColl. Scouting must be proud of them both!
Our Chair of the Day was Past President, Past District Governor, F.P. “Pat” Crowell. What can an editor say about Pat that hasn’t been said before – and probably should not be repeated anyway? He is always a favorite at the podium and was in typical rare form. Pat presented guests from the greatest distance (Encinitas!) with a bottle of fine wine. It was carefully concealed in a bag but I understand it was NOT “Two Buck Chuck”. He then introduced our guest speaker, PDG Steve Brown.
Steve’s work with the less fortunate goes back many years. He was wildly successful in
securing Matching Grant monies from Rotary as far back as the 80’s. Steve’s tireless efforts on behalf of students in Afghanistan began with a “but this MUST be a bad idea” to build a school in Jalalabad and has grown from that first school - designed to educate 1000 students and now teaching 5000 in 3 shifts to securing updated textbooks (from the 20 year old ones they had) at the local Nangahar University and dormitories for female students. With some help from John Moores, they now have computer labs and Internet connectivity. He helped create GSE Exchange programs and joint programs with SDSU. He got Steve Weber from San Diego State involved who helped secure two $2 million dollar grants for advanced learning. Along the way, additional infrastructure had to be secured and put in place and, of course, that benefits even more people. It is a great story of which we can all be proud.
Our meeting ended with a eulogy by Marten Barry for Jim W. Hughes whom we recently lost at only 46.
Editor of the Day: Steve Hubbard
Photography by Mike Conner
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