SDRotary - Getting Involved

March 28, 2001

This week's Bulletin was written by Jim Lauth.

THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Prez Colette called the meeting to order without the bell. Apparently, it was locked in the restaurant's manager's office. Gary Green led the pledge of allegiance, and Peter Doody offered as the thought for the day "Things We Can Learn From Dogs" (such as, when someone comes home, run to the door to greet them). There was no song, and announcements were moved to the end of the meeting in order to offer ample time for our special program.

PROGRAM

Our club was fortunate again this year to host the Regional Finals in the Four-Way Speech Contest. The four fine finalists - all high school students - gave their speeches anonymously and were introduced as the awards were announced.

The Third Runner-Up was Michael Hirshman, who spoke on the "power of perseverance." He articulately offered examples from the lives of famous Americans -- Lincoln's business and political failures before becoming president, Edison's 1,200 attempts to find a filament for the electric lightbulb before trying tungsten -- and from his own life, as his mother overcame disabilities resulting from a traffic accident.

The Second Runner-Up was Sean West, who proclaimed his decision to become a politician, a decision he said was inspired by his experience speaking to an American Legion convention as a youth leader. He argued that all politicians should be held to the standard of the Four-Way Test.

The First Runner-Up was Meg Sheehan, who opened her speech with the provocative declaration that Nazis, pedophiles, pornographers and experts on making bombs were in her school library -- on the Internet. She then applied the Four-Way Test to her decision to lobby the principal of her school to install Internet filtering software on the library computers.

The Winner was Khalian Walker, who compellingly decried the current tendency for a "million mediocre march," which she described as "a million mediocre soldiers, aiming for the average" by underestimating ourselves. She then applied the Four-Way Test to her assertion that a person can rise above mediocrity by marching to a different "beat of your heart."

Congratulations to all four finalists. Just like the Academy Awards, it is an honor even to be nominated.

And good luck to Khalian as she moves on to the district finals.

Lastly, many kudos to our own Nancy Vaughan and the District's Bill Smelko for fine work in coordinating this year's speech contest.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nancy Vaughan introduced visiting Rotarians and the visiting judges for the speech contest.

Prez Colette announced upcoming District meetings and encouraged all to attend.

Rotarian of the Month

Colette also announced Lynn Hamilton as our Rotarian of the month for February in recognition of her two years of outstanding service as program chair. (Where does she find all those speakers? Does she know everybody?)

vocational services day

Reminder: Vocational services day is April 11. Click Here For Details. Spots are still open. Contact John Bruhn (by phone at 619-224-4082 or e-mail at jcbruhn@aol.com) or see the sign up sheets at the next meeting.

FINES! FINES? FINES!?!

Sgt. Getz levied a few fashion fines and accepted numerous bragging bucks. (Let's all be on the look-out for Rotarians in the news. I'm sure Pauline would appreciate getting tips from informants, anonymously or otherwise.)

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