Foghorn April 14 2016 Mtg - Magic Celebration at It's Italia

Posted by Editor: FDBobko

The FOGHORN

ROTARY CLUB OF HALF MOON BAY

Article by Elizabeth Schuck

Photos by EJ Dieterle

Program: CELBRATING MAGIC!

Liz Schuck, Magic Chair

You may or may not know this about me…my secretary used to call me, “she who celebrates everything”, because I think what we do each day is important and should be celebrated. Because of that please forgive me for having to have these notes to read today. What I have to share is that important.

It’s fitting that we should be celebrating our successful event today as this is National Volunteer Week, which started with President Nixon and has continued each year with a proclamation by the president, encouraging people to help in their communities and I think our event shows that we all did just that!

Almost 100% of our club members contributed to this event in some way…planning team, extended planning team, auction donation, sponsorship, week before, night before, day of, during or after the event.

Today is about celebrating that success and acknowledging everyone’s hard work and efforts.

If you think about it… we’ve contributed many hours over the past six months

Planning team 130 hours just in preparation
Extended planning team (band, food, computer, strategizing) another 30 hours whether one:one or in group, like the secret food meeting
Ordering food 5 hours
Purchasing supplies and awards…another 10 hours
Food prep 25 more hours
Night before event 15 hours
Night of event 75 hours
After event 25 hours
So…OVER 300 volunteers hours….and that’s just an educated guess!
I know everyone wants to know how much we made right?
Well, we grossed a little over $48K
We are not quite sure of net at this point, will report back when we have finished calculating!
What we do know is that our gross and net have gone up each year we’ve held this event.
That means we have substantial funds to decide how to allocate from the foundation, which we will do in the future.
For today let’s talk about the team work that we had for Magic, and boy what a team we had.
Here’s where I ask forgiveness in advance if I miss anyone in these groups. There’s nothing worse than volunteering your time because you love to help and then being skipped when others are being mentioned…yet we are human after all…so I’m sure it will happen…
It all started when President Dave asked a small group to review last year’s event and determine if we should tweak it or change it all together. Several members stepped up for that task including:
1. Dianne
2. Andrew
3. Wes
4. Linda
5. Myself
That group’s recommendation was to continue Magic, making improvements as we went along.
Let me start by recognizing the planning team. I have a Rotary pin for each of them, the Above and Beyond pin, that represents a young girl who was shocked to know that people in the community didn’t stop to help others, so she started the Salvation Army; and that’s what each of these people did, they worked hard to create something. (met starting in Nov. and then weekly starting in January)
1. Dianne…planning partner…mentor…visionary extraordinaire, SAS, marketing, ticket sales, tables, website, etc.
2. Mary Corcoran…is traveling in France today…she was our queen of marketing, ticketing, signage, posters, table tents, wrote articles, created radio Rotary minute advertisement, Sent us email reminders with suggestions, donated wine from Barterra for the event and worked at the bar during the event
3. Shana…timid Shana…we talked about raising the goal for sponsorships from 10K to maybe 12 and at first she wasn’t so sure…of course…because she topped out at $18,000 after blowing away her self imposed goal of $15….She proposed and then stepped up to be our first Premiere sponsor!
4. Andrew…he and I made a deal…I would give up auction to coordinate the whole event if he would take on auction
5. Beau…Andrew’s partner in crime…our organizational guru and tech expert…Beau got busy learning the Bidding for Good system and improving on our auction…worked up til the last minute…Friday morning I think was when she left to drive to So Cal to be with her son and daughter in law for the birth of their first baby..or more importantly her first grandchild
6. Linda…our chef…Linda …was able to pull off dinner for a mere 200 people, even though she was working on a new business and had other personal issues going on
7. Paul…was our set up coordinator and helped with take down…more importantly..he was everywhere the day before, day of and even after the event to make sure we got everything done and left the venue in tip top shape
8. Doug…from the outset Doug wanted to be sure that he could help with advertisement this year…he paid for the two large banners and holders that you saw on 92; he also was in charge of clean up of the hall
9. Wes…joined the team as I said even before there was a team and he came every week to contribute to the brainstorming…eventually took on harassing each of you for raffle tickets…
Extended planning team:
1. Warren is with his family at Disneyland today…he worked on the Youth SAS, and coordinated student volunteers
2. John Evans…background knowledge…band coordinator, attention to detail manager
3. Christine Quinn…I call her secret shopper although she doesn’t think there’s anything secret about it…bought supplies, food decoration…this year she also is Dr. Quinn, medicine woman, ….saved the day with emergency when sliced my finger while setting up…before she got conked on the head…along with the masks and necklaces I bought at direction of committee to thank our attendees…what did you think of the table decorations this year….awesome…
4. Joe Brennan…bar tender….started at the spaghetti dinner in Feb. by offering to buy the left over wine from Oddfellows so we had inventory to start with…held down the fort even short handed…; he was also a judge for SAS
5. Bill Johnston, assistant to the chef as he says…called the secret food meeting and fixed us a fabulous dinner…that’s when we finally nailed down the menu and all that was needed to do for the food; he worked Friday night and all day Sat in the kitchen
6. Catherine Yaque…as busy as she was…running her business and helping with Robin at home…she found time to share what she had done in the past years…and order the food for us…she even delivered; she also lent us plates
7. Mary Rogren…stepped in at the last minute to run the auction and boy did she…we raised over $12K this year…last year was only about $8; And that was after only an hour of time with Beau and Andrew…now that’s the way for a new Rotarian to show their commitment to the club!
Honorable mentions go to:
1. Brian Lee and Charise took over the job of selling raffle tickets at the event…made almost $4000…about $1300 more than last raffle
2. Mike Alifano…he’s not been active, yet he supported us once again by supplying the technology we needed to run our auction…computers, printers, large monitor
3. Ginger made all the travel arrangements again for us and helped encourage us to get more restaurant certificates for the auction; she was also a judge for SAS
4. Dave Cresson donated the rooms for the band members to spend the night Saturday night; he was also a judge for SAS
5. Rose was the limo service from the airport for the band members
6. Dave Dickson donated craft beer and was in charge of our squares/ticket sales
7. Bonnie was the official SAS nominee photographer
8. EJ was the official event photographer
9. Ericka took lots of photos as well…and made the awesome name cards for each of us
10. Set up and take down crews: President Dave, Stacy, Ed Daniels, and Irwin along with others I’ve already mentioned; I should also recognize Kevin because he offered to be our set up coordinator until he knew he had other plans
11. Kitchen crew along with Linda and Bill: Renee, Eric
12. And our fabulous and best dressed greeter Rosi
13. A number of Rotarians that were sponsors including Dwight, Nate, and Robin
We also had five IDES staff members, including Fred Whelen, who is here with us today. Thank you Fred, as we couldn’t have done it without you and Connie and Gina. Teri my spouse was the other non Rotarian in the kitchen. I dubbed them Pickle (her last name) and the Portuguese. Two other friends of mine, Tanya and Steve Goldberg also volunteered on both Friday and Saturday. Then we had Stacy’s husband Doug, and 12 student volunteers including children of Christine, Warren, Mitone. One other volunteer was Geoff Eldrige via John Evans, with sound
Did I forget anyone? (that’s when Dianne surprised me when the group said me!)
I need to share that this was a ton of work and we all know it…today I know that we have increased the funds available through our foundation to support important projects…but before that I have to share that all that hard work and anxiety due to that hard work melted away when I watched the SAS presentation..to see our neighbors recognized..to know how people have transformed this community…it was all worth it at that moment…not to mention when everyone was up and dancing with the Blue Street Jazz Band
Dianne has a letter to read from our SAS recipient Ruth Rafello (letter is attachment)
I saw Avis Boutell the next day out at the park with her plants talking to two people who didn’t know her. She was so touched when I told them about the recognition she had received from our club over the weekend.

Just want to say again what an honor it is to be a member of this club

So thank you President Dave for asking us to review the event…and for taking our recommendation to continue…we will keep improving and growing our income next year!

That’s it…

PHOTO GALLERY

April 14, 2016 Meeting Recap

Article by Ginger Minoletti

Photos by EJ Dieterle

President Dave called the meeting to order at the beautiful It’s Italia patio including a delicious luncheon buffet including salad, 2 pasta dishes foccacia, pizza and mouth-watering tiramisu.

Charise McHugh led us in the Flag Salute

Joe Brennan greeted everyone and quoted Mark Twain for Inspirational Moment:

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

Guests

Steve Wilson's wife, Kathy and Chen Ling, our exchange student and Ludo, another Rotary exchange student who is from Torino Italy and is living in Sausalito. Brian Lee brought a guest from his office who is interested in joining our Club!

Happy/Crappy News

Kevin O'Brien – returned from Albuquerque and Denver – celebrating a 50^th (not his) with friends.

Kathy Wilson in and out of the hospital in 1 day and now recovering from hip surgery and Steve sadly reported the passing of his mother at 89, not unexpected but very sad.

Christine Quinn – CalTrans found her purse, and she is recovering from the concussion when it was stolen during our preparation work for Magic Event

Beau Donnegan reported she is a grandma for the 1^st time – beautiful Anna Bella Crevella.

Brian Lee – good news about the Warriors win

EP – had tickets Catherine bought at our Magic Acution for the Swanton Railroad and can’t use them – sold them back to Joe Brennan who had given the original donation; then later Dianne Bobko bought two of those four.