Flag Salute: Carlos Menjivar        Invocation: Marina Martinez       God Bless America: Catherine Ibrahim

 

Carlos introduced Mary Barrientos and her friend, Dawn Lopez, from R.U.T.H. Youth Build, a small Charter High School in Canoga Park (Owensmouth and Sherman Way) that is helping young people who have dropped out of regular school to get their high school diplomas.  They need volunteers to be willing to come to work with their pupils, maybe giving lectures on specialized fields, or counseling on job readiness or construction, as they provide life skills for these pupils.

Wynne told us that Sara is again back at Children’s Hospital with pneumonia and complications from that.  He has Terry Green who is Vice President of Development for Children’s Hospital here as a guest.  Terry told us the hospital is happy to give guests tours.

Catherine introduced Melissa Maltamorano who told us she will soon finish her time at the airport so won’t be here more than another couple of weeks.

Our guest speaker is Andy Mc Cue who has written a book about the life of Walter O’Malley, who once owned the Dodgers baseball team and brought the team to L.A.  Jim Tanner told us he was once a patient at Children’s Hospital as he needed help with asthma treatment as a child.

 

Jim told us to find a best friend or sweetheart to bring to the Feb 12^th Rotary meeting as he has a very special day planned.    He also brought a Daily News article – and donated $10.00 to Happy Bucks – because Bill Park’s Birmingham High School was featured as the best of the Charter High Schools in the Valley!  CONGRATULATIONS, BILL!!

 

Les donated $10.00 of Happy Bucks as he went to Las Vegas and won at Black Jack.  He will not be here next week, but will go with Marie and Jeff Valencia and Zoriada to Guatemala where they will be working on at least 3 of the many projects that the District has this year in Guatemala.

Marie had the Super Bowl chart and asked more members to sign up for squares at $20.00 each.  There are still a number of empty squares.

Mary Barrientos announced the R.U.T/H Youth Build Schools dance to raise funds for the Canoga Park School.  The students have worked on community projects like “Get out the Vote.”  The dance will help support the 78 student member campus where they had a veteran come to teach the kids how to tie a tie (It is not a skill they know.) Many were raised in foster home and few have ever been fishing.  Mostly they need men to be involved to serve as mentors.  Thank you to Carlos for inviting her to come to tell us about their school.

Les, Zoriada, Marie and Jess Valencia will all be going to Guatemala to work on the projects that the Guatemalan Rotarians have prepared for the members of our district to help with.  May they have a fun and productive trip!

 

 Jim introduced Andy Mc  Cue.  Andy became interested in the life of Walter O’Malley who brought the Dodgers to Los Angeles as he couldn’t get a new stadium in New York.  Andy felt the sports talk about how greedy O’Malley was did not fit with the baseball ticket price staying the same for many years.  When the Dodgers came in 1957-58, only the Rams were here, later the Lakers and Kings came and we have a big sports following. 

Walter O’Malley ran the baseball team like a business.  As an owner he was for 28 years on the Baseball League Council.  Much of the time he was elected President of that council as he knew all the issues related to baseball – negotiating national TV contracts in the 1960s and 70s.  His generosity to charities and the fact that he married “the girl next door” who had lost her voice to cancer belies the accusation of being greedy.  He was a manager, and delegated to Buzzy the management of the team. 

 

The Chavez Ravine Mexican Community was destroyed 5 years before the Dodger moved: the L.A. Housing Authority had bought about 90% of the properties for a “Public Purpose” and their bureaucracy collapsed leaving L.A. City with mostly empty land there.  So the Dodgers were offered Chavez Ravine in 1957 and, due to more L.A. bureaucracy it took them 4 years to build the stadium that was to have been finished in two years.

In Brooklyn there were three owners of the Dodgers, but by 1995, O’Malley had bought out both Ricky and John Smith.  In Los Angeles Dodger attendance has set records for years.   Mr. Mc Cue signed our book for donation – and he had his books there for sale to baseball fans.

 

Raffle: Judy had only a $45.00 pot this week, and Jim Tanner won the $22.00 to pay for his lunch.  Wynne got the gift from the airport that Melissa had brought.