10/09/2007

The Berkeley Kiwanis Club

October 13, 2007

_____________________

October 2007: To Start With 

At long last, there was an idyllic Club Installation event Saturday in the park (Live Oak, that is), and President Elect Phuoc is finally Prez PK. Former Prez Retread is finally a Past President (again), and boy, is he happy! The incoming Prez treated everyone to gourmet catered BBQ and made his remarks short and sweet but nevertheless indicated some lofty and worthwhile goals for new ideas this coming year.  

Meanwhile, the outgoing retread congratulated all for some great successes AFTERALL this last year:

• the "best-ever" Holiday Auction (V. Carpenter & L. Hannawalt presiding),
• the "best-ever" Camp Gualala outing (J. Rosano presiding, and thanks to, or in spite of, the efforts of team leaders such as G. Maxe, E. Levitch, J. Piercy, S. Hearn),
• the biggest (for a long time) & best Scholarship Award Program, which

 
 
 
 

(spearheaded by the always invigorating T. Paradis and a cast of thousands), 

• the emergence of a greatly strengthened K Family through the leadership and effort of several, starting with G. Maxe, D. Wong, P. Khong, D. Haughin, and last but not least

L. Hannawalt for bringing us a new youth program (The Key Club from Oakland Tech), among other good things.

• The last great event is our next fund-raising/social event of the year, the 1^st ever Berkeley Kiwanis Oktoberfest, coming right up this Saturday, October 13.

 

As a fitting expression of gratitude, the ex-prez presented each of these leaders with their very own personalized German beer steins to be put to good use at this gala event.   

For the non-beer-drinkers and tie-shunners, he presented G. Maxe, P. Khong, E. Levitch with an eclectic collection of license plate frames and strange neckties.

And Now for a Clean Start 

Anyway, getting on (finally!) to today's meeting at the historic City Club (with new parking rules in place), Mr. Khong, at his very 1^st meeting as the installed president of the Berkeley Kiwanis Club, walked in with the very same Kiwanis "children-of-the-world" tie on that he recently acquired. (Rumor was, however, he had to go out and buy a new shirt to wear a tie with). 

Wow, did we have guests today? To start with, it seems like we always have the sitting Lt Governor with us, and this time it's none other than our very own E. Levitch. While he had the spotlight, he introduced his very own guest, known to some as the young Ms. Levitch, Susie,  
 
 
 

wife of son Jeff. Since he still had the spotlight, he then announced the 1^st DCM of the year this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at the office of Levitch Associates. A fantastic dinner is evidently included, and it wasn't clear whether donations are appreciated (but they probably are).  

After all those intros, once again D. Wong quietly introduced her usual guest, Evan. Nice to see him again (hmmm…)  

Marching On 

There was no Secret Greeter today, and this may be a sign of the times. The rumors were something about a conflict of interest in selling insurance (legal regulations and licensing provisions or something like that).  

The obviously biggest announcement of the week by D. Leonard about how all is a very big GO for the much-anticipated 1^st annual Oktoberfest – Lederhosen , Dirndl boobettes (needn't I remind you), Oom-Pah Bands, German raffles, and all. SEE YOU THERE! 

Other exciting events this week are the regular meeting of the not-so-regular UC Circle K Tues night at 100 Wheeler,  

AND a fantastic Interclub opportunity this Wed at the Alameda Club's Policeman of the Year ceremony. 

Oh, and don't forget LtGovEd's DCM dinner Thur and you have an action-packed week!! 

Lastly, next week there's another fantastic opportunity at the Spaghetti Feed at  Hayward-Castro Valley on Oct 25. 

Then Circle K took over with their never-ending agenda including:

• Cal Avenue  (10/13) on campus: fundraising, etc
• K Family Dinner (10/19) – still looking for location
• Rebuilding Oakland (10/20)
• Childrens Festival (10/27)
• Key to College (10/28) – looking for Kiwanis speakers on your college experience
• Halloween event (10/30)

 
 

Late in the Game 

There were so many Happy/Sad dollars that it's impossible to record them all. Especially with his large contribution for the rubber fine box last year, J. Egeberg tried, with some cockamamie logic to apply the proceeds to last year's books (his year), but it didn't work at all. 

Overtime 

Prez Phuoc warned us of changes this year, and we started off his 1^st meeting with the program coming along BEFORE the meeting. What's that all about? Well, it turns out that our speaker had conflicting obligations, and it's unlikely we'll keep it up all year (so don't worry). 

Then G. Maxe introduced a superb program for the day, Pamm Shaw of YMCA"s Head Start program, which has been rapidly growing, particularly in the Bay Area, and actually has more "Early Head Start" classes (age 3 years and younger). They are very appreciative of Kiwanis programs, such as coaching and mentoring by Circle K and our very popular RIF programs and are always interested in partnering with us. Her fundamental question for us is "If you have an hour… (especially if you have special skills such as music, computers)" She had a couple of anecdotes about

how they were referred to recently by medical authorities as to the only place they could find Spanish speaking baby delivery. And then she told the happy/sad success story about one of their "graduates" who got a $90,000 job offer but that cut her off from welfare because the federal low income level is $20,000 (for a family of four). In summary, just remember "If you have an hour…" – that's the way Pamm wants us to close. Thanks, Pamm!