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President Stan opened the meeting and introduced Karen Hewitt for the inspirational moment. Steve Hubbard led an a cappella version of “My Country ‘tis of Thee” accompanied by Suzy Spafford on the air piano. Obama stalker Janie Davis brought us up to speed on the news of the day with the President in Mexico working on guns, drugs and the border (what no pirates?!). The Dow was up on the day.
Lisa Miller introduced the visiting students from Twain High while Michael Brunker introduced the visiting active elders who looked like they could have walked all the way from the Jackie Robinson Y. Bill Gore introduced new member Frank Baldwin who has future multiple committee member written all over him – welcome Frank!
Then we had an unforgettable reminder from Nancy Scott...remember Staff Appreciation Day next week, and just try to get the picture of those talking dummies out of your head. Where does she get this stuff! Register your guests at www.rotary33.org or call the office. For those of you sweating Rotarians at Work day, there is still time to sign up for a few projects. President Stan was the surprise recipient of a mighty Thank You and reward for all his work and support of the Microcredit program.
Chair of the Day Berit Durler welcomed the visiting Rotarians and presented a zoo gift upon Ben Mesa from the far away land of Chula Vista. I don’t want to know what each of you thought might be in that brown bag from the Zoo, but I hope it passes the 4–way test. Berit noted that there is always something new and cool to see at the Zoo and welcomed us all to stay after the program and go see the new baby giraffe born just this morning. Matt Engle suggested they name it “Cub 33”. Berit then introduced the speaker, Rick Schwartz, the Zoo Senior Keeper and Elephant Odyssey Ambassador.
Rick led us through a presentation of the Elephant Odyssey opening May 23rd. At 7 ½ acres and $45 million, it will be the zoo’s largest exhibit in terms of both dollars and space. The exhibit takes visitors through the past & future of endangered species, going back 12,000 years. It boasts a 130,000 gallon pool for the elephants to submerge, swim & surf. (Oops, no surfing–Prez Stan says we are not covered for that). Rick left us with a great factoid to impress our kids and grandkids. While the human body has less than 1,000 muscles, the trunk of an elephant has over ...40,000! Dexterous enough to pick a single blade of grass yet strong enough to launch a full grown lion (or zookeeper) skyward. Join the Zoo, they got it all goin’ on!
Next week, go to the right Sheraton – we will be in Mission Valley for the annual Staff Appreciation Day meeting.
Editor: Craig Nelson
Photographer: Paul Nestor
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