The Stars Shine at the RB Sunrise Rotary Club

Today's press release - anything to find an angle, eh?

The Stars Shine at the RB Sunrise Rotary Club

First it was Michael Rennie, a 16-year-veteran of the not-for-profit arts world and Associate Director of the Poway Center for Performing Arts Foundation, who joined the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club.

Then it was James Stewart, 28 years at Hewlett Packard and networking in search of his next success, who started attending the Tuesday morning breakfasts.

Suddenly, there were famous names in the room. Who’s next? Gary Cooper of the Cyclery of Rancho Bernardo?

“That’s the nice thing about the RB Sunrise Rotary Club – it doesn’t matter how much fame (or lack of it) you have – we happily accept you into our midst and treat you like family from the very beginning.” says membership chair Debbie Abel.

Rennie, who is frequently mistaken for his namesake from the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still joined the RB Sunrise Rotary for the networking, the camaraderie, and the opportunity to give back to the community. “This” he says “is the nicest bunch of people you’d EVER want to meet in your life!”

Stewart echoes the sentiment. “Okay” he admits “I didn’t star in Philadelphia Story. I was nowhere near the set of It’s A Wonderful Life.” But he confesses “I have been making some wonderful friends in that room, and believe becoming a Rotarian was one of the smartest moves I’ve made in the past few years. These people make it a wonderful life!”

Ironically, Mr. Rennie’s connections could probably open an acting career for Mr. Stewart. His response: “I’m kind of like the way they described Fred Astaire when he first tried out for a part – ‘Can’t sing, can’t act, can dance a little’.”

“Only in my case it’s true” he laughs. “I won’t even sing in the shower.” Stewart then turns serious to announce for the record, “I would take an acting job as Sean Connery if one came along, provided I didn’t have to do his stunts or otherwise get beaten up.”

None of this seems to matter much, though, to the members of the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary. Says club president Steve Sayler, “Whatever your name is, and whatever your skills, we’ll find a place for you at our table.”

Rotarians James Stewart (left) and Michael Rennie

Farewell to Marc Aaron

I just hung up the phone with past president Carl Kruse, who called to tell me that Marc Aaron died at 3pm PST today.

We are looking into doing a memorial for him, since he will be buried in Philadelphia.

He was expected to last three days after his brain surgery - instead he last 11 weeks. He was my breakfast buddy, sitting next to me almost every week for two years. He was my friend. I shall miss him something awful.

A Visit To Suffern, NY

I'm in New York this week, attending to a little business and a little pleasure.

Decided to tear myself away from everything else to do a makeup meeting at the Suffern, NY Rotary. It's an 80-year-old club with 35 members and a nice bunch of folks - just what you'd expect from RI.

There were some interesting coincidences to this make-up meeting. For instance:

* Several years ago when my brother-in-law passed away, my wife's sister was asked to take care of the children. Money understandably became tight in short order, and this club adopted my sister-in-law's family for the holidays.

* I sat next to a fellow at lunch whose good friend goes to my temple in San Diego.

There were the usual connections to be made, of course. One guy had a business lead for me, I had a real estate connection for someone whose daughter just moved to SD. Like that.

There were some other points of interest, too. This club gives out about 2,500 saplings to elementary school kids (each year) - an idea I'm getting more details on in hopes we can do something similar. However, they don't do much on publicity (we talked about ways they might improve that). They pray at the beginning of the meeting, which didn't appeal to me, and haven't gotten into the Rotarians At Work program yet (though they were all over the idea).

The similarities were more than the differences, though. They do the dictionary project, had the local firefighters in to speak to us and give a presentation, collect happy dollars (they actually pass the bucket to each person to contribute. However they don't spin the wheel).

Incoming president Larry told me he's never gone to a club where they spin the wheel (I invited him to do a makeup at our club). Interestingly, when I brought a flag with me from our club, the president told me she'd never had anyone give her a flag, and they didn't have one to give me to bring back. Larry will get one to me before I leave town to close the loop.

The food was good, the company enjoyable, and the $15 well invested. I'm very glad I went.