Weinberg Workday, January 26, 2008

It was a cold rainy day at the Cooper Center in Volcano Village, making it perfect for indoor work. The first thing we did was remove all the books from the shelves in the used bookstore, cover everything with plastic, and prep the walls. All the shelves were removed, taken out to the lanai and painted with primer. Talmadge Magno and Debbie Lebourdais handled that task like professionals. Inside the bookstore, Linda-Jane Irwin, John Tyler, Jack Lockwood, Paul Ducasse, Don Hughes, Dean and Erin Gallagher, Frank Box, Jerry Shimoda, Rosemary Stancampiano, Kevin Lebourdais, Alana McKinney, Helene Buntman and several other community members cut and rolled the walls and ceilings.

Charlene and Amos Meyers kept us in hot coffee and banana bread throughout the morning. In the back closets, Marti Lockwood, Hank Banquer, Casey Cummings, Nona and Herb Wilson lost a lot of brain cells priming the bare walls with no air circulation.

The day got really exciting when the runners from a 30 mile race originating in Hilo began arriving. One of them was suffering from severe hypothermia, but we had Linda-Jane Irwin and Nona Wilson on hand to offer advice. We microwaved towels and wrapped the poor guy up. He was finally up and eating later.

Then we got to enjoy a delicious lunch of grilled salmon, sausage, pasta salad and huge chocolate chip cookies prepared by Charlene Meyers.

There were many other community members present who contributed a lot of painting and cleaning talent. Who knew you could have so much fun painting!

January 24, 2008 Meeting

submitted by Erin Gallagher

In attendance, 21, including Bob Thompson, guest of Mililani Hughes.

Ka’u Hospital painting went well. Nona Wilson was very happy with all the work we were able to do. Thanks to TrueValue Hardware for donating some needed paint.

RYLA Camp
There are currently 8 nominees! If you are planning on attending the camp, please let Mililani Hughes know so she can everything paid for.

New Rotarian
Rosemary Stancampiano was inducted this morning. Charlene Meyers is raking in the Rotary Bucks for all her new members! Welcome Rosemary, we look forward to getting to know you more and putting you to work.

Frank Box is now a Paul Harris Fellow
Congratulations Frank!

Upcoming Speakers/Projects
March 20, Felicia Olivera, Fire Chief
April 26, Hilo Firestation Cleanup
Sometime in May, housing for GSE team

Vocational Speaker
Mililani Hughes did a quick fill in for a sick guest speaker. She was spellbinding! Her mother received only a 5th grade education because they moved back to Japan, hoping things would be better. Finding out they were worse in Japan, her mother’s family returned to Hawaii, working and living at the Lahainaluna Sugar Plantation, where Mililani grew up. Her father was born on Molokai and moved to Lahaina to work at Lahainaluna, and achieved an 8th grade education. He had a stroke when Mililani was 2 and the family stuggled to survive through her mother’s sewing and teaching sewing. Because of the stuggles of the family, the mother stressed the importance of her children improving there lot through education, though Mililani says she never considered that they were poor. So she learned to get out of her chores by saying she was reading!
Her father died when she was in 9th grade. Good thing she had learned to drive a year earlier. She attended Lahainaluna HS, Maui Community College, and then received her teaching degree from UH Manoa in 1971. She started teaching English at the age of 21.
In 1978, she and Don married. They met at the school both were both teaching at. Don wanted to move to the Big Island, and in 1981 two positions opened at Mt. View school, an English teacher, and a science teacher. They got the jobs and moved. Over the years Mililani was the Administrator at Pahoa school, and principal at Hilo HS. That turned out to be a very stressful job, so she left and went back to teaching at Waiakea in 1995. Five years later, she was asked to become the Administrator at a Hawaiian Immersion School (ask Mililani for the name of the school).
She has continued working there part-time and enjoys it a great deal.

Happy Dollars
David Uhlman for the speaker, workers at Ka’u Hospital and the donated paint. Jack Lockwood for the speaker, as well as Linda Jane Irwin, John Tyler, Rosemary Stancampiano, and Jerry Shimoda. Alana McKinney gave $10 for Doc who spent 47 years in Rotary! Paul Ducasse was happy for our newest Rotarian and his heated car seats (spoiled!). David Rizor announced that his daughter got a job! Frank Box gave in memory of Doc. Charlene Meyers gave for our newest Rotarian as well. Helene Buntman gave $5 for all of our smiling faces, and finally Lindsay Barclay gave a dollar and reminded us to tip the waiter!

Jan 17, 2008 Meeting

submitted by Erin Gallagher

Marie Alvarenga brought her daughter Brandy Lonokapu today. Marie's been signing up golfers, she has 12 already for the April 19 Golf Tournament. Woohoo! Way to go Marie.

Make sure you come and bring some friends this Saturday, 1/26, 8am-Noon to the Cooper Center for the Weinberg Workday. Afterwards we'll be celebrating our club's birthday. Charlene Meyers will be serving up grilled salmon and many other tasty items.

Rosemary Stancampiano, Linda Jane Irwin, Jack Lockwood and myself met David Rizor at Volcano School of Arts and Sciences for vision screening on 1/23/08. It's really pretty easy (as long as you can read the letters from 20 feet away), and it's fun meeting the kids. Hope you will sign up for Mt. View Elementary when it gets scheduled, there will be a lot more kids!

Rotary Moment-from Don Hughes
Major gains have been made in the global fight against polio:
In the 1980s, 1,000 children were infected by the disease every day in 125 countries. Today, polio cases have declined by 99 percent, with fewer than two thousand cases reported in 2006.
Two billion children have been immunized, five million have been spared disability, and over 250,000 deaths from polio have been prevented. There were 820 cases in 2007, it remains only in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Vocational Speaker
Our guest speaker today was yours truly. I regret that I was unable to take notes of my speech. You'll just have to ask me for details in person if you missed it.

Happy Dollars
Many gave in honor of our friend, Doc McKinney, including Paul Ducasse, Marie Alvarenga and Helene Buntman. John Tyler appreciated the speaker (and graphic designers in general), Marie was also happy to have her daughter visiting with her. Rosemary Stancampiano was happy for friends and Erin's work for the Volcano Quilters. Lindsay Barclay gave a dollar out of sheer joy for Paul coming early to help set up.

Chilly Morning Meeting

submitted by Erin Gallagher

We opened with a large crowd of 25 this morning, including David Uhlmann's guest, Leslie Ortiz from Hilo.


Thought for the Day
Be kind to people even if they have little value to you.
You really have good character if you do the right thing even when no one is watching.
(or something like that-sorry Don H. that I couldn't write fast enough!)


Dick Behenna introduced our guest speaker, Melody Raymond, of Naalehu. Several months ago, our club promised to pay for half of the incorporation fee for Once Upon A Story, if the group could raise the other half. Melody is the spearhead of this literacy organization and she came to tell us about it. Once Upon a Story will be opening a small used book store in Naalehu which plans to be open regular business hours to sell books, but more importantly to provide help with literacy. It will be located at the Waiohinu Community "Shack", on the grounds of the community center. The shack is need of serious renovation, the next strong wind and .... splat. Melody has negotiated a 5-year lease in exchange for building repair.

Melody has been a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer for the last four years, sponsored by Bay Clinic. In this Americorps program called Reach Out and Read, she is working with the Health Clinic to promote literacy through well-baby visits. Whenever parents bring in their babies, she is there to give them books and help parents as well. Unfortunately, her sponsorship through Americorps is already running a year past the original 3, and she doesn't want her efforts to end there. She has touches the lives of at least 400 children regularly.

The bookstore at Once Upon a Story should be open in March and the reading program hopes to begin in June. We can help by donating books (just drop them off at the Bay Clinic in Naalehu). If you'd like to help in other ways, please contact Dick Behenna and he can tell you more.


Happy Dollars
Paul Ducasse is glad his house in finally freshly painted, school has resumed, and thanks to the Meyers for the New Year's breakfast. Jerry Shimoda is happy for the Happy New Year! Many were happy for the Meyers' breakfast and the speaker, inluding Conard Eyre, Frank Box, and Linda Jane Irwin. Marie had a great time winning Brent (for a friend of hers she says) at the Habitat Bachelor Auction, and Brent was happy that the event helped raise $8,700! Dick Behenna is happy that there are grassroots organizations at work in Naalehu, and Jack Lockwood is happy for the existence of literacy programs in general. Many were happy for the speaker, including Mililani Hughes and Helene Buntman.

I'll give a happy dollar or two for these nene I saw on my way home this morning!

President-Elect Don Morgado's Board for 2008-2009
Don is still working on filling positions for his board for the next year. Let him know if you'd like to be involved. Some discussion ensued about whether we are "cogs" or "spokes" in the great Rotary wheel. Well, cog, spoke, sprocket, ball bearing, WD-40, whatever--everyone has a job to do!

Regular meeting - Jan. 3

On a rare morning without rain, we welcomed Tom Brown from the Hilo Club and Ruth Larkin from Hilo Bay. Tom has agreed to become our newest Assistant District Governor, although he confesses to being a retread! We also were happy to have Pam Scheffler, daughter of Jack Lockwood, at our meeting. Pam came to update us on the playground at Cooper Center.

President Don Hughes got us started with the following quote: "You can tell how big a man is by what it takes to discourage him."

Former Volcano Rotarian David Moore sent a note to the club thanking Charlene Meyers for hosting his boss and enclosing a $100 check for "Happy Dollars." We sure miss that young man!

Next we had some words on the Golf Tournament. (There is a meeting set up at Pete Walburn's house on Saturday, January 12th at 2 p.m. for anyone who wants to help get this tourney organized and running well. BYOB!)

Brent Macabio turned out to be a very expensive bachelor at a fundraiser this past weekend. (Maybe that's why he missed today's meeting!) Congratulations, Marie!

We have birthdays this month! John Linneman will celebrate tomorrow, January 4, and Gwendolyn O'Connor will blow out candles on January 8th.

Deadline for submitting names for RYLA camp is January 30! Please let Mili Hughes know if you know of a student who could benefit from leadership training.

President Don did a "Rotary Moment" on our community service project, Keiki Vision. Even if only a few children are found to need the services of an optometrist, the project is invaluable to that child and his or her family. Please keep some time put aside for this event.

Tom Brown came to visit us regarding the expansion of the bus routes from Volcano to Hilo. He passed out the new schedules to everyone and urged us to use this free method of trasport. The Hele On bus will go to the airport next year. The service is going to remain free until at least the end of 2009.

Our speaker today was David Uhlmann who is on a crusade to teach children about money and finance. It's training that they may not receive at home. He has a presentation that can be given to 6 to 12 year olds that teaches the importance of setting financial goals for the short and long term with words and concepts that children can understand. The concept is to instill self-discipline through delayed gratification. (Some adults could use that training, too!) One of the best ideas was to teach children to SAVE - SPEND - DONATE - INVEST. He had a really great tool, a piggy bank that Pete Walburn was happy to hold up. Let David know if you have a group of children and parents who could benefit from something like this.
* * * * * * * * *
ATTENTION: There will be a board meeting after the regular meeting next week!

Happy Dollars!

Hey, does this kids look happy, or what? Tom Brown gave dollars because even though his hearing is going, next to Walburn, he's OK! Ruth Larkin was happy that her choral group is going to perform at Carnegie Hall on Martin Luther King Day! John Tyler said "Happy New Year!" Kevin LeBourdais was happy to spend the New Year with step-kids and grandkids and that they are leaving on Friday! Linda Jane Irwin was happy to be back from Africa and asked us to say a prayer for Kenya. Alana McKinney was happy that her granddaughter was born and weighed in at 9 lb. 6 oz.! Paul Ducasse was happy for Tom Brown's mass transit, for David Uhlmann's presentation and as the Christmas carol says: "And Mom & Dad can hardly wait for school to start again!" Tal Magno was happy that he had an "event free" holiday season! Jack Lockwood was happy for the rainbow over our crater. Dick Behenna was happy for anything that gets parents to educate kids and for the new bus routes. Kathy English was happy to be back from the mainland. Helene Buntman was happy for free transportation. Frank Box and Dianne Morgado were just plain happy.

January 3, 2008

Welcome to Rotary Club of Volcano, Hawaii, on the Web! This is the first issue of your new newsletter. It will allow you to comment and to see posts from others in our club and from around the country, maybe even the world! As your editor gets more familiar with how to use the tools on this blog, you will see the newsletter grow to have not only pictures but videos as well. Having the newsletter available on the internet will allow you to access the postings no matter what software you are running (a blessing to owners of older PCs and Macs who have not updated their software). If you can get on the internet, you can read the news! And you don't even have to be on your home computer. Just go to the website from any computer and you'll see all the very latest happenings! We hope you will like the changes!