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President Dick Troncone opened our meeting on the Eastside and introduced Lisa Bruner for the inspirational moment. Lisa reflected on inspiring words from former Arkansas coach Frank Broyles and even brought some of his books for those who attended the meeting.
Shelly Brockett led us in “America” accompanied by Larry Showley followed by
George Alexander delivering a stand up job with the Rotary history moment and news of the day. News highlights included 8 of the 10 missionaries held in Haiti back on US soil and Carlsbad’s flying tomato back in gold at the Olympic Games.
President Dick acknowledged the hard work of the Sweetheart’s Day program volunteers led by Marlee J Ehrenfeld. Dick also complimented Tom Karlo and John Morrell for the great Grotarian event this week at SDSU. Joining Club 33 were two visiting seniors introduced by Sheila Korn. Jerry Doran then presented four tables of Hoover High sophomores who had been recently accepted in to the Cardinals Interact Class of 2012. Congrats to all!
New member Sandi Cottrell sponsored by Patti Roscoe is the first known Club 33 member to have the classification “Art Festivals.” New member Tracy Sundlun sponsored by Paul Nestor is classified as “Sports Event Management.” Welcome Sandi and Tracy. An upcoming Grotarian Sundowner will be held March 25th at Elan Organic Coffee in the Gaslamp near PETCO Park. Sign up on www.rotary33.org and learn more about Profits4Purpose.
Chair of the Day was Club 33 Past President Fred Frye who now serves as President of the Zoological Society. Tom, the Rotarian visiting from the farthest distance, is going to have to come all the way from Poway to use his new zoo tickets! Fred introduced our speaker, Eric Dinerstein of the World Wildlife Fund, to inform us about the effort to save the wild tiger. With 2010 being the Chinese year of the tiger, we have truly arrived at a tipping point for the future of wild tigers.
We were startled to learn that in 1900 there were approximately 100,000 wild tigers roaming the world and today there are only around 3,200. Eric described the tiger as the most charismatic species in the world but they could well all disappear by the time the next “year of the tiger” rolls around in 2022.
The good news is that hope is not lost. The global tiger initiative seeks to stop the bleeding, replenishing and connecting the tigers geographical habitat and growing the population. It’s possible because tigers can produce a litter of up to 4 cubs each year given sufficient prey and habitat. The difficulty is obtaining those essential ingredients from countries with multiple political and economic agendas, not to mention getting communities to accept tigers as their neighbors. Eric described the battle to save the tigers as 10% science and 90% negotiation.
There are lots of high profile tiger advocates but the stakes are large and once the tigers are gone, they are likely gone forever. For more information, check www.worldwildlife.org.
Editor: Craig Nelson
Photography by Mike Conner
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