District Breakfast Features Tuskegee Airman

It’s September 1st and the second month of the Ro-tary year is history! Au-gust was truly a great month with 18 club visits. September marks the start of the school year and Rotary’s theme for the month is New Genera-tions.

Jeremy Brown from the Carson, Gardena, Dominguez Rotary Club is the Senior Assistant Gov-ernor leading this new Avenue of Service. He has put together a great team. It was only two years ago Rotary Interna-tional declared New Gen-erations as a full Avenue of Service.

Our District has a built an outstanding youth pro-gram. We have 13 Rota-ract Clubs with over 300 Rotaracters and 56 Inter-act Clubs with well over 1000 Interactors. In my

August club visits I learned of several Rotary Club with plans for new Interact Clubs and one new Rotaract club.

It is not enough for Rotary Clubs to just sponsor an Interact Club or Rotaract Club and provide a Rotary Club Chair. Each Rotary Club's members should participate in the events lead by their Interactors and Rotaracters. Each Club should invite the leadership of the Interact and Rotaract clubs they sponsor to participate in a Rotary meeting. Do you provide Rotary Club men-tors for Interact and Rota-ract Club members?

When your Rotary club has an event, remember to invite the Interact and Rotaract club members to join you. Be sure to in-clude them in the District Picnic and Cardboard

Governor Lew’s Message

J ULY 2012 The New Rotary District 5280 September 2012

Jamaica Update 2

PH Celebration 2

RI Webinars 3

New Generations 4

NG Happenings 5

District Toolbox 8

Save the Date 8

INSIDE THIS ISSUE :

Plan on joining us on October 2nd for a special District Break-fast. Our speaker is Theodore Lumpkin, a Tuskegee Airman. The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps to become America's first black military airmen. They accepted the challenge during a time when many people thought that blacks lacked the intelli-gence, skill, courage and patriotism to fight for our country. They were brave men who broke barriers, created a timeless legacy and to this day continue to serve as role models. This will be a unique opportunity to not only learn about key turning points in American history, but to also shake the hand of a man who helped create that history. Truly a once in a life time event!

As always, we encourage that registration be done as a club through the Dis-trict Office. $35 per per-son; $40. after September 24th. Parking is in-cluded. Westin LAX Ho-tel, 5400 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Boat race at our District Picnic on September 9th.

Be involved with our New

Generation Avenue of Ser-

vice and you will enjoy the

energy, spirit, drive and ac-

complishments of your In-

teract and Rotaract Clubs.

You will simply be amazed

and proud to be a part of

New Generations.

Lew

Jamaica Humanitarian Trip Cancelled — Governor Lew

The 28th Foundation Celebration will be held on October 27th.We will have a full evening, featuring dinner and dancing, a sensational dance band with a black-tie optional Masquerade Ball theme. Cocktails will be served at 6:00 PM, at which time you will have the opportunity to view and bid on silent auction items. Dinner will be served at 7:30 PM, which will mark the close of the silent auction. A live auction will follow the dinner, along with the awarding of the drawing ticket cash prizes.

The On-Line, Silent & Live Auctions and Drawing Tickets raise funds to support The Rotary Foundation, which pro-vides funding for such projects as PolioPlus, the Group Student Exchange Program and Matching Grants for joint projects throughout the world.

There are several ways Rotarians can support this event, The Rotary Foundation and their own Rotary Clubs!

One way is to attend! Rotarians, family and friends are welcome to join us for this great event. Tickets are $125 per per-son. There will be a delicious surf and turf dinner and live music. Don't miss out on the fun and fellowship. Individual tick-ets for the dinner can also be purchased on-line at the District website using the on-line registration form. Tables of ten may also be purchased for $1,250. If you wish to purchase tables contact Dinner Reservations Chair Christa Ramey at christa@haggailaw.com , (213) 447-4743.

A second way to participate is to donate items for the Auctions! As we mentioned there are three auctions – an on-line auction leading up to the event, plus silent and live auctions conducted that evening. One half of the foundation points from the auction sale price comes back to the donating Club or Rotarian. The other half goes to the purchasing Rotary Club or Rotarian as credits towards becoming a Paul Harris Fellow. For questions or to donate auction items contact Auction Co-Chairs Carmela Raack at carmraack@aol.com, (310) 641-0142 or Helene Pizzini at pizzini3@cox.net, (310) 519-0296. (Continued on page 3)

PAGE 2

Foundation Celebration to be held at the Westin Bonaventure

I am disappointed to report to everyone that the Jamaica Humanitarian Trip is cancelled.

We began planning the Jamaica Humanitarian Trip in May 2011 in New Orleans at the Rotary International Convention when we met with the District Governor Elect 2012-13 for District 7020. That District is comprised of 83 clubs in 10 countries including the 29 clubs in Jamaica. We discussed the time of the trip, the Jamaica destination, the size and scope of the humanitarian projects and the financial commitment to be carried by each District and their clubs, the two Dis-tricts and clubs splitting the cost of the projects. As the year progressed a team of 5280 Rotarians made two exploratory trips to Jamaica to meet with the local Rotarian leadership, discuss projects and explore hotel sights. Projects were identi-fied and contract was negotiated with the Sunset Beach Resort.

Before executing any contracts, the District 7080 Governor 2012-13 was asked to commit the specific dollars the district and the clubs would contribute to the selected projects. His reply was unacceptable, as it was so small. He asked for time to get additional funding from the District and the clubs. His final response did provide a little additional funding, but was still unacceptable.

The Jamaican Rotarians were great to our team on our two exploratory visits. It is disappointing their District was not able to commit viable funding

In a normal year I would push very hard for a new location, but this is anything but a normal year. We have expanded the size of the District by 50% and are in the final preparation year before Future Vision takes effect. We have a lot of assets involved in getting the District and all the Clubs ready to be "certified" for Future Vision by the end of this Rotary year. The transitions of all the Valley Side Clubs into 5280 and the Future Vision transition are too important to the overall success of 5280 and must be our focus. It would be too challenging and disruptive to start all over on planning a District Humanitarian trip at this late date. (Continued on page 7)

T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280 PAGE 3

(Continued from page 2)

A third way is the easiest of all! The Drawing Ticket Books contain 12 tickets. Buy or sell the tickets for $10 each or a book of 12 for $100. You could be the winner of $3,000, $1,500 or $500! District 5280 Clubs were given their tickets at the July District Breakfast. The Club President and/or Foundation Chair of each club who sells their total allotment of books will be invited to attend a special appreciation luncheon with Governor Lew. The tickets must be returned to the District Office no later than October 24, 2012. Drawing tickets will not be sold or accepted at the event. If you have questions or need tickets, please contact Drawing Ticket Chair, Tom Johnstone at tomjohnstone@wiseburn.k12.ca.us , (310) 350-0896.

There will be an Early Bird Drawing at the second District Breakfast, October, 2, 2012. The winner, to be drawn from those tickets turned in by that date, winners will receive two dinner tickets for this year’s celebration, a $250 value, and will still be eligible for the Drawing Ticket Prizes. If the winner of the early bird drawing has already purchased din-ner tickets, the winner will be reimbursed for the cost of the tickets.

A fourth way is to sponsor the event! There are a variety of advertising and sponsorship opportunities. To become a

Gold, Silver or Bronze sponsor, or to purchase an ad in the program book, go to the on-line auction website. For more

information about advertising and sponsorship opportunities, contact Cindy Williams, Sponsorship Chair at

c.williams.president@gmail.com , (310) 600-6196.

Paul Harris Celebration Chair,

John Ramey

Webinars offer a convenient way to learn in-depth about Rotary right on your computer. RI offers live webinars on key Rotary topics several times a month through GoToMeeting.com . Be sure to check the system requirements before registering. All times listed are Central Time (Chicago time). Convert to your time zone . PR Grants – Making a Comprehensive PR Plan Date/Time: 04-Sep-2012, 19:00 Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/659931560 Date/Time: 10-Sep-2012, 08:00 Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/595413929 Duration (minutes): 60 Level: Basic Language: English Guest presenter: RPIC, PDG (2010-11) Howard Tong from New Zealand will speak about how the districts in New Zealand develop their PR plans, and the role PR Grants play in making them a success. Re-energize Your Rotary Club & Connect With the Family of Rotary Date/Time: 18-Sep-2012, 07:30 Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/753447817 Date/Time: 19-Sep-2012, 13:00 Registration link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/759276193 Duration (minutes): 60 Level: Basic Language: English Join Rotarian and Rotaractor experts to learn how New Generations programs can engage your current members and develop young people into future Rotarians. Discussions will include: benefits of New Generations programs; how to connect these pro-grams with young people; conduct joint service and professional development activities with young people; best practices for supporting New Generations clubs… and much more! During this 60-minute webinar, panelists will also explore ways of transi-tioning the next generation between Rotary’s New Generations programs and Rotary.

Free September Webinars from Rotary International

September is New Generations Month Happy New Rotary Year from New Generations!!

The two years, since New Generations has been officially recognized as an Avenue of Service, have been great for Dis-trict 5280. It’s hard to imagine but this year New Generations will comprise of 13 Rotaract clubs with over 300 Rotarac-tors and 56 Interact clubs with over 1000 Interactors (and growing fast!). These Rotaractors and Interactors are truly the future of Rotary. By sponsoring a Rotaract or Interact club, it’s the ultimate gift that keeps giving back year after year; maybe not to your specific club but to Rotary clubs all over the world.

This year’s leadership team is made up of Rotarians that have worked with youth for a combined total of 66 years and is as follows:

Sr. AG Jeremy Brown Carson-Gardena-Dominguez New Gen Advisor Diane Davis Downey Interact Co-Chair Elyse Beardsley El Segundo Interact Co-Chair Melody St. John Hollywood Rotaract Advisor Joe Harding El Segundo

(The rest of our Rotarian teammates can be found in the District Directory)

Our New Generations leadership team has two dynamic young ladies leading the way. In order to facilitate a structure similar to that of Rotary we have also reinstituted the title “Governor” as approved by RI. Ava Haghighi is the Rotaract Governor (USC Rotaract) and Grace Hwang is the Interact Governor (West High Interact). Both of them have exten-sive NewGen experience and went through a pretty in depth application /interview process. Please see the district web-site under the New Generations button to view comments about their vision for this year.

We are planning for some great events this year beginning with our annual District Youth Conference to be held on Oc-tober 14th from 9am until 2pm at the Hacienda Hotel in El Segundo. This is the New Generations version of our Dis-trict Conference (without the hospitality night J). Topics that will be discussed for all the participants include club fund-raising, club service projects, and public speaking just to name a few. If your club sponsors a Rotaract or Interact please make sure you help sponsor them for this can’t miss event!!

Other events will include: Chinese New Year Parade participation-January 2013; the Interact Art-Speech-Music-& Dance contest-March 9, 2013; the Rotaract Ethics debate-March 23, 2013; RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly)-April ‘13, Advanced RYLA-TBD, Rotaract RYLA-TBD, and many more.

RYLA has had phenomenal participation and was sold out last year. We anticipate it will sell out again so make sure you pay attention to application and reservation details as they are released. I hear a lot of Rotarians say what is RYLA, and what is the hype all about? RYLA is a 3 day camping event held in near Lake Arrowhead that teaches Interactors the 4 C’s of leadership through experiential learning. Here is a quote from an Interactor of this past RYLA. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come to RYLA. I really feel like I learned so many valuable lessons that I will be able to bring back to my Interact Club and my friends and family. Before I came to RYLA, I was just the nerd at school who people ignored. They thought I didn’t want to talk to them because I was in my ‘own little world’. But coming here, I felt equal for once in my life and it’s an amazing feeling. THANK YOU RYLA! (with all my heart.)”

Youth Exchange will have 3 outbound students going to Italy, France, & Argentina and have 4 inbound students from Spain, France, Germany, & New Zealand. As you see them at events, please introduce yourself and make them feel wel-come.

I challenge your Rotary club to sponsor a New Generations club, or consider being a co-sponsor of one. If that is not something you can do, consider sponsoring a Rotaractor or Interactor to attend the Youth Conference, RYLA, a scholar-ship in someone’s name. Attend a Rotaract or Interact club meeting to hear about all the great things our young people are doing.

If you have any questions regarding how you and your club can support New Generations feel free to contact any of the leadership team above. We are here to work with you and serve youth. Let us all contribute to the betterment of this organization by working with New Generations.

Jeremy Brown, Sr. Assistant Governor, New Generations

PAGE 4

Governor Lew with the District Rotaract Board

District Interact Board

Crescenta Cañada Rotary Club

Distributes Scholarships to Graduating Seniors

PAGE 5

Del Amo Rotary sponsored Hugo Gonzalez, one of last year’s Ambassadorial Scholars. Hugo is a 22 year old composer and arranger from Toulon, France. He is obviously very talented. He enrolled in a masters program at USC where he studied integrating music into movies, television and board games. His pro-gram was highly selective. It was restricted to only 20 candidates. He ended up ranked first among the 20. All of them are older than he is; some were much older. Hugo received both of the financial stipends available to the group of candidates at the end of the course.

Hugo says that completing the program was the most wonderful and unique career opportunity he has ever had. He was taught by many of the top composers, arrangers, musicians and directors in Southern

California. He plans to return here in August or September for a year and ultimately apply for a talent visa so that he can settle here permanently. In order to return, he needs employment in the area he studied: composing and arranging for the movies, TV and/or Board games. If anyone is in a position to provide an opportunity for him, Pete Pettler would appreciate being con-tacted at pdpettler@pettlermillerlaw.com.

Ambassadorial Scholar Update

Receiving scholarships from La Cañada High School are Shannon Burt, who will attend the University of Michigan majoring in art and fashion design; John Lee, who will attend Rhode Island College majoring in art; Sienna Ko, who will at-tend Rhode Island College majoring in art; and David Alvarez, who will attend Santa Barbara City College majoring in film. Those from Crescenta Valley High School are Jacqueline Kershner, who will attend Johnson & Wales University majoring in food service management; Bran-don Baum, who will attend either Harvard or Yale majoring in international rela-tions and law; Patrick Kallas, who will attend Cal Poly or UC San Diego major-ing in environmental science; and Austin Hunt of Glendale, who will attend Point Loma University majoring in communications and youth ministry.

T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280

PAGE 6

Santa Monica Wine & Jazz Festival

The Rotary Club of Santa Monica will host its 5th Annual International Wine and Jazz Festival on Sunday, Oct. 7 from 2 pm to 6 pm at the beautiful Annenberg Community Beach House on PCH in Santa Monica. The International Wine and Jazz Festival is the only fundraiser of the year for the Santa Monica Rotary Foundation, which supports worthy charitable causes both in the US and overseas. Last year, we raised over $31,000 for charity. The event features fabulous wines for tasting from all over the world, won-derful food, a jazz band, and a live and silent auction of terrific vacations, wines and other items. Admission is $100 in advance. Sponsorships and auction program ads are also available. For more info: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Events/EVPEventDetails.aspx?accountid=7943&eid=78d2d28c-f663-4c9f-a46e-b1889a215847&tid=1.

PV Sunset Rotary Year features Flag Collec-tion, Festival de Corazon, Holiday Celebration and Chinese New Year Gala & Parade

Because Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day are celebrated close together, many residents proudly show their colors. Afterwards, old, faded, torn or damaged American flags are stored somewhere because homeowners are at a loss as to what to do

with them when they are no longer suitable for display. It is against the law to discard our nation’s flag in the trash and most people do not know how to dispose of them respectfully, properly and legally. This year, Palos Verdes Sunset Rotarians staffed a booth at both the Independence Day celebration in Rancho Palos Verdes and at the Old Fashion July 4th Celebration in Palos Verdes Estates, collecting over 70 American flags, bringing the three-year total to 265. More are pledged to the club from the city and local homeowners’ associations.

Past President and event chair Angi Ma Wong (amawong@att.net or 310-541-8818) explains, “Utilizing local media, such as the Daily Breeze and PVP News in our club’s area, have been critical to success as they are tremendously supportive and promoted the collection in advance by spreading the word to the community. We were featured on the front page of the PVPeninsula News during the week before and calls started to come in on the same day. PV Sunset Rotary, its Rotarians and youth are highly visible at these local events and almost every flag comes to us with a history. We hear humorous, sad and poignant stories that accompany the donations, but most of all, we get thanks and appreciation for providing the service. This year we also sold new flags

in addition to collecting old flags. It’s a great way to meet new people, neighbors and friends in the community, tell them about Rotary and our club, distribute flyers on upcoming club events such as our upcoming Festival de Corazon fundraiser in October, Holiday Concert and reception on December 15 at the Warner Grand Theater and the Chinese New Year Gala and parade in Feb-ruary, as well as a fun and easy way for any club president to launch the new Rotary year.”

Community Service Chair Jennifer Kain, event chair Angi Ma Wong and Rotaract President Victoria Perez staff the flag collection booth

(Jamaica, Continued from page 2)

District Humanitarian trip at this late date.

What does make logical sense is encouraging our District Ro-tarians to attend Rotary International President Sakuji Ta-naka's Peace Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii January 25 to 27, 2013. It is almost the same travel time of year, one weekend earlier than the Jamaica would have been and it is a Rotary event.

Please go to www.peaceforumhawaii.com/ for details.

Lew

Youth Exchange Host Families

PAGE 7

The inbound students, will be hosted by Calabasas, Holly-

wood, Los Angeles 5, Latinos Unidos, Manhattan Beach, Playa

Venice Sunrise, Redondo Beach, Westchester, and Woodland

Hills.

Southgate Rotary Donates and Distributes

Backpacks in Watts Jerry Brown, South Gate Rotary, Mr. C's Towing, Claudia Gonzalez, assisted in presenting book back packs to elementary school children at the Parents of Watts Center at 10824 Lou Dillon in Watts, CA on Saturday Aug. 11, 2012 at 11:00. A.M. Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca was also on hand to celebrate the event with the others in attendance.

Sweet Alice Harris has been the driving force behind the Parents of Watts center for over 45 years. The Center works with children and adults in edu-cating and training to mentor the recipients of the free training. The training is intended to make them better citizens and neighbors.

Mr. C's Towing made an additional $600 donation to the Parents of Watts Center to purchase the book back packs and contents, to help the children that receive them, start off the school year with the necessary tools to help

them throughout the year. Each student was also started with a $5 savings account with Kinecta Credit Union. Kinecta Credit Unions are located around the Los Angeles area and also owns Nix check cashing centers.

Mr. C's Towing is also donating a printer/copier/fax/scanner to the Center to replace an older one that is broken.

Rotary International’s coveted Silver Bell award was presented to Burbank Sunrise Rotary for being the best small club in its 33-club district for the past year. The presentation was made at the Rotary District 5260 Conference in North Hollywood in June. District Governor Tom Hardy presented the award to club President Rod Gregson in recognition of outstanding achievement for the club's hard work in numerous areas of Rotary endeavors. In addition, Gregson was presented with the Changemaker Award for the club. He was one of only seven people in the former District 5260 to be so awarded. The club met demanding criteria in all five of Rotary's Avenues of Service. It also was given a “100% Paul Harris Fellow Club” banner for everybody in the club being a Paul Harris Fellow, an award given for donating money for Rotary International's Polio Plus program.

Burbank Sunrise Rings the Bell

T HE NEW ROTARY D ISTRICT 5280

Service Above Self

In the first two issues of Governor Lew’s District Newsletter we thanked the team who

has come together to gather information and produce a readable and informative Newslet-

ter. We are asking for your input on success stories, areas of achievement and human

interest stories . If you have announcements on upcoming events, sending them to Emily in

the District office who will have them placed in the weekly Monday email. You’ll get bet-

ter and more timely coverage. We are honoring any announcements that have been submit-

ted, but ask that in the future you use the formula as outlined above . Here’s how to

reach us:

Jewel Price Jprice@Glendale.edu

Bette Hall BetterHRSolutions@gmail.com

Diane Davis ddavis@ourladyschool.com

Cindy Williams c.williams.president@gmail.com

If you have comments about the Newsletter, please

share them with us. Thanks!

Tony Ciancimino,

Newsletter Chair

Save the Date

Sept. 9 District Picnic

Sept. 15 Polio Plus Dodger Game

Oct. 2 District Breakfast

Oct. 14 District Youth

Conference

Oct. 27 Paul Harris Celebration

Nov. 14 Presidents Dinner

District Toolbox

Rotary District 5280

Office 8939 So. Sepulveda Blvd. Ste.

210

Los Angeles Ca 90045

Phone: (310) 670 9792

Fax: (310) 670 9795

Rotary5280.0rg

Office@Rotary5280.org

Emily Blair-Charnelle,

District Office Administrator

Last month we offered Animoto.com as a cost effective and easy to use commu-nications tool. We highly recommend it!

Two great resources for clip art and im-ages are http://www.stockfreeimages.com/?gclid=CN7drImvjLACFTSytgodmHGipw

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/

images/

The first link will take you to Stock Free

Images. The second will direct you to

our friends at Microsoft. Both are PC

based.

Whether you are putting together weekly or

monthly Bulletins in ClubRunner or are

creating more traditional newsletters, pho-

tographs and images spice up any publica-

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result is an easier to read and more enter-

taining offering. Those of you on Face-

book know first hand the power of such

elements and once again, the price is right!

The Hometown News, a local monthly newspaper serving Westchester, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista and Marina del Rey, just completed a reader survey asking for input from their readers on who was the “best of” in a wide variety of categories. This first ever effort garnered over 1,200 votes. Rotary was very well represented in the non-profit classification with Playa Ven-ice being voted “best of” and Westchester gaining “favorite” status. Click on http://issuu.com/westchesterpdrhometownnews/docs/htn_august, to view full results.

THN “Best …”