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President Stan kicked us off and Cheryl Wilson reminded us to ‘influence someone’s life every day’, especially during Older Americans’ Month this May. The Ed Glazener/Joe Zakowski duo led us in song and Bert the Newsman didn’t disappoint.
Turns out a number of Rotarians were slaving on a work project in Tecate while Nancy Scott and Susan Snow were relaxing nearby at Rancho La Puerta. Bad timing, ladies, to the tune of $250 each. Jay Arnett brought us the Kearny Komet students and John Sands introduced new member Michael Conner, whose water engineering background should keep him busy for the next decade.
Past Prez Craig Evanco honored the following new Club 33 fellows: Greg Augustine, Bill Kolender, Roy Lange, Sandy Purdon and Cheryl Wilson. As Big Ben would say, “Kudos to all of you.” San Diego High student Sherron Garrett showed poise in accepting the Diana Venable Scholarship from Wayne Goodermote; Leane Marchese reminded us to prepare for the May 23 bay walk, and Bruce Hunt pitched the Rotary Padres night on May 20. David Oates will throw out the honorary first pitch and may be asked to stick around as the new #3 starter.
Reo Carr discharged his duties as Chair of the Day and appropriately gave out newspapers to our Rotary guest from Media, PA. Reo then introduced Sarah Reinertsen, calling her a journalist, advocate, athlete and role-model. Her motto is “Live without Limitations”. Think of spunky Sarah Reinertsen the next time you can’t quite muster the effort to get something done.
Born with a tissue disorder in her left leg which required amputation above the knee, she became the first woman with an artificial leg to complete the Kona Ironman Triathlon in 2005. Imagine swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, and then running 26.2 miles, all in 15 hours. Then imagine doing it wearing a prosthesis.
She accepted her limitations on Long Island early on, but then was inspired at 11 years of age by a woman wearing an artificial leg who was ‘faster than her dad’ in a race. She learned to run, participated in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, but stumbled and didn’t finish. Determined to be a triathlete, she ran her first marathon ‘leg’ in 1997, but didn’t learn to swim or bike until later.
On her first try at the Kona event in 2004, she missed the bike cutoff by 15 minutes and knew she had to improve. The next year she made history, and continues her training to this day. She credits improvements in technology for her ‘C shaped foot’, but is advocating for more insurance coverage for athletic prosthetics, as her competitive leg costs $36,000. Sarah believes that anything is possible, if you have goals. For her, life is an endurance event. We should all have her ideals.
Editor of the Day, Fred Baranowski
Photographer, Paul Nestor
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