Summer is coming to an end with baseball season in its closing months and football season one week away.  John “Copy Cat” Milich called the meeting to order at 12:20p with a good group of Rotarians enjoying a delicious lunch (no chicken this week!).  John introduced both Don Jones and Cathie Opila as our Greeter and Assistant Greeter.  This innovation was designed to introduce San Ramon Rotarians to our newer members and vice versa.  Cathie did an outstanding job supporting Don who wowed our members with his thoughts for the day after Cathie announced that there were no visiting Rotarians this week.

            “Beer is proof positive that God loves us”.     Ben Franklin

 

            “Man is born broken.  He lives by mending.  The Grace of God is the glue.”

            Eugene O’Neill

 

Cathie led us in the flag salute and Mike Thelen led us in a patriotic song.  This was followed by a few minutes of fellowship which gave us an opportunity to welcome Randy Wong, a Mike Thelen neighbor and Rachna Bijlani, a Santa Clara Rotarian transplant who moved with her 11 year old daughter to Danville and found us through our web page.  Two very nice people who we hope will join the club.

At 12:28 John resumed the meeting calling on this scribe to invite members to the Interact Club’s first fund raiser at MOD pizza today at 146 Sunset Drive, Bishop Ranch.  20% of the proceeds go to the club but you must bring a flyer with you that had been sent by email and printed out today.  It was also announced that next week Camp Royal and Camp Venture attendees would be sharing their experiences with our club and the first communication summary of the Interact Club would be given.

 

 

 

 

Auction:  Chris Gayler shared that he had sent an email out to all members indicating what items had been collected last year and by whom.  He URGED members to spend some time to help the club obtain items for the auction for our biggest fund raiser of the year.  Chris also is looking for team captains to seek donated items from various shopping centers.  In the spirit of Rotary, members volunteered:

 

            Downtown Danville:                         Kathy Gailey/Dennis Harvey

            Nob Hill:                                 Patti Hennigan

            Blackhawk Plaza                    Chris Gallagher

            Rose Garden                          Jerry Marrs

            Livery                                     Chris Gayler

            Town & Country                   Dennis Harvey

            Danville Square                     Kathy Gailey/Dennis Harvey

            Alcosta Gateway                    Colette

            Crown Canyon Commons    TBD

            Diablo Plaza                           TBD

 

We need to obtain over 400-500 items and have collected under 100 items so far so we need for all Rotarians to take some time to assist the club in this effort.

 

6 Club Dinner:  John announced that the 6 Club Dinner would be held at the Crow Canyon Country Club on October 16^th.  Speaker to be determined.

More on the Auction:  Jerry shared that there would be an “input” party at Marie Galbo’s house at 5:30p. Eight Interact students have volunteered to input the items that we have collected so we have a few weeks to make sure that this is a worthwhile effort.

 

Recognitions:  Colette Lay was recognized for having a birthday but unlike others who seek to disguise their age, Coletter proudly declared that she was 52 years old a loving it.   Kathy Gailey had her 29^th Anniversary.  Both Rotarians were recognized for $50.  Lucky took advantage of the fine free portion of the program to announce that he visited the local Rotary Club in India whose President had become RI President in 1991-92. 

 

Business Expo:  Dennis invited members to participate in our booth on September 13^th at Bridges to promote the club. 

 

Run for Education:  We also plan to have a booth at the run to promote both the auction and our club.

 

Mike Thelen introduced Dan McGovern who was discovered while both these gentlemen were hiking together and getting to know one another.  As it turns out, Mr. McGovern is an attorney by trade having formerly been involved in Washington D.C. under Bush and Reagan. He was the second ranking attorney in the US State Department.  He was Reagan’s general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  He was the head of the US Environmental Protestion Agency in the Western States under President Bush and he served as General Counsel for the California Department of Transportation.   Dan shared that the most interesting experiences he had were in the EPA but the best stories were when he served as an attorney for the State Department. 

 

As an interesting aside, Dan shared that he was involved with the determination as to whether or not the USA should declare war with Russia when the Korean Airliner was shoot down.  He was escorted to an undisclosed location by two CIA operatives who flew the CIA private jet, escorted him to his accommodations and served the booze at the meeting.  He was told that if he wished to jog to please be careful since live rounds were being used in the CIA training area where jogging was permitted.

 

After these exciting times, Dan retired and pursued his passion in the arts with particular emphasis on Eugene O’Neill whom he read as a child.   Dan is the President of the Board of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, in Danville and co-chairperson of the Eugene O’Neill International Festival of Theater in New Ross, Ireland. An annual Festival is held in September in Danville and in Ireland in October.  This has been described as one festival in two countries.  Eugene O’Neill won the Noble Prize in Literature, four Pulizer prizes and his famous play “Iceman Cometh” won 8 Tony awards.  O’Neill came to Danville between 1937-1944 where he wrote some of his greatest plays.  He was in poor health and wanting seclusion during a depressive stage in his life his wife was probably instrumental in steering the family back to her roots in Oakland by first moving the family to Berkeley, then Lafayette and finally Danville.   He settled on 150 acres now managed by the National Parks Service and is known as the Tao House.   Only Sandberg and Poe are honored similarly with historic sites.

 

Since the O’Neill family emigrated from New Ross Ireland, Danville developed a sister city relationship that has assisted in promoting the festival.  There are many scheduled events for the community:

 

August 31, Sept 1, Sept 7-8:  “All My Sons” by Arthur Miller at the Village Theater at 8 pm and Sept 2, 9, 16 at 2 pm.

 

September 9, at 9 am:  Hills of Solace guided hike from Front Street Park to the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site. (free)

 

Sept 20:  Concert “Turlough O’Carolan” at the Village Theater at 8pm with Melanie O’Reilly singer/composer and classical guitar/composer.

 

September 21^st an Irish representative will be speaking at Faz.

 

September 22 Beverly Lane walking tour “Secrets of O’Neill’s Danville at 2pm starting at Front Street Park.

 

September 21-22, 27-29 8pm and Sept 23 and 30 at 2pm, Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” at the Old Barn at the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site.

 

There will be an Ireland leg of the One Festival, Two Country event.

 

Dan ended his presentation sharing an experience in Ireland where he did not realize that he was ignoring the guest of honor, Jessica Lang who was being honored with an award for her work in the Long Days Journey into Night.

Great presentation.  There was some talk of a member’s night out.

 

Jeff Disch won the Greeter’s gift.  He has been winning more than his fair share.  We will be exploring a special counsel to investigate any collusion with the selection process.  Mike Thelen won the opportunity for the $270 pot but came up short with a blue marble drawn.  Better luck next week.

 

John ended the meeting with a joke.  Despite members pleas not to continue the practice of telling jokes, John asked what did the claustrophobic Astronaut say?  “He needed more space”. 

 

The meeting was mercifully adjourned at 1:15 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted

 

 

Gary Sloan, Scribe