ROTARY CLUB OF LA JOLLA
“Service Above Self”
Focusing
on Truth, Fairness, Better Friendships
and Shades of Beneficence for All
July 26, 2005
Writer:
Ron J. Jones
Presiding (7/19): President Lee Vida
Invocation: Bishop Robert
Wolterstorff,
“We thank you, Heavenly Father, for our homes, community and the leadership of this club.
We give thanks for the La Valencia who provide an attractive environment…as we
reach out to young people and senior citizens as we practice service above
self.”
The Pledge of Allegiance: Dave Inmon
Song Leader: John Davie
Song: “God Bless
America”
Visiting
Rotarians (7/19):
We
welcomed Kathy Stevens, Lake Arrowhead, CA, Property Management; Jim Brunner, Del
Mar, CA, Printing (Jim and his wife, Bonnie, again ably handled the printing
chores for this year’s club directory); Carlos Vidali, San Antonio, TX,
Consulting, “I’m a member of the largest club in the world. We have 750
members!”
Guests
of Rotarians (7/19):
Amanda McLaren
presented Fred Stalder.
Ray Vellinga introduced
Cathy Stevens, “We’ve been friends for thirty years. She was a teacher with my
wife, Pat, in Chula Vista, then moved up to principal in San Bernardino.”
David Inmon hosted
his wife, Rachel, along with her “little sister” Myriam Aguilar visiting from
Phoenix, AZ. Rachel
enlisted in the Big Sisters program while living in Phoenix over seven years
ago. Myriam’s appearance gave a “living
testimonial” sheen to last week’s program featuring guest speakers Paul Palmer
and Peter Waldo of Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Zeke Knight spotlighted
Riford Scholar and CalPoly San Luis Obispo junior Chris Heylman. In keeping
with Florence Riford’s wishes to grant scholarships to only those who, after
high school graduation, attend a California institution of higher learning, all
the while focusing on some sort of science: in Chris’ case it’s Biomedical
Engineering. “It’s an exciting field where you can design implants that go into
the human body. I wanted to come back and say thank you very much for
supporting the scholarship, it means a great deal.”
Vida
mins:
Don’t forget to pick up your
new club directory at the sign-in desk. Former club secretary and current directory co-creator
John Vaughan encourages you to read
everything between the covers where “you’ll find a gold mine of information.”…
President Lee Vida reports that Rotary insignia
emblazoned T-shirts are being made available for an April 29 “Rotarians At
Work” Day. Shirts are $10 each, $15 with our club logo…Happy 20th
wedding anniversary to Susan and Davis Cracroft…FYI: A new Rotary club
is being formed at Camp Pendleton. It’s anyone’s guess where in the world
members will do their make-ups. Another start-up that District Governor Bob
Watson wants you to know about: “Under the sponsorship of the Carlsbad HI-Noon
Club, the Rotaract Club of North San Diego County has recently been chartered.
The club is seeking young professionals, ages 21 to 30, who are community service
oriented and live and/or work anywhere north of the 5/805 merge. Regular
meetings are held at 6:30 pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at
"Tom Giblin's Irish Pub and Restaurant" in Carlsbad. For more
information or to pass along the names of pro-spective members, please contact
the Club Advisor, Tom Base at 760-603-2392.”…Congratulations to former red badgers Kevin
Choquette and Amanda McLaren as they ascend to the ranks of the
blue…Decisions, Decisions Dept: If you haven’t already voted, remember the
polls are open ‘til 8 tonight. Two important matters are on the ballot: the
selection of a new mayor and the disposition of the Mt. Soledad cross. Last
April, Mount Soledad Memorial Association member Dick Woltman gave us an
update regarding the Mt. Soledad cross. Now four months later the cross is
again in the news and its fate is in the hands of voters. Maybe. “When I first
came to San Diego, it was a place to celebrate Easter sunrise service, now it’s
a controversy that may cost a few politicians their offices. The cross has been
there since the early 1900’s in one form or other. In 1953 Walter Dewhurst
and others built the cross to honor the vets of the Korean War. Later, a group
got together to build a wall meant to honor any member of the armed services
during any wartime. It’s a wonderful and beautiful place. Sixteen years ago an
atheist felt that looking at the cross was disturbing to him and brought a
suit. The city, hoping to resolve the issue of church and state—believing that
having a cross on public property was somehow an endorsement of church—sold it
to the memorial group. That brought another suit saying it was a contrived
sale. The city sold it again by way of a sealed auction. The atheist brought
suit a second time and won. It was appealed in the (memorial) group’s favor. It
was looked at again and the deed was vacated. The veteran’s association tried
the Supreme Court, but the court was not willing to hear the case. Proposition
K asked the voters if they wanted to see a third sale, it was turned down.
Judge Thompson said to the city and atheist to work it out. Solution? Mt.
Soledad Presbyterian would take it. Then a Christian group moved to stop that.
Radio talk show people—Roger Hedgecock, Rick Roberts and Mark Larsen—generated
a huge amount of signatures from San Diegans in support of its staying, about
90,000 registered voters. Duncan Hunter and Duke Cunningham concocted a rider
to take the whole proposition to the government. Now the council has to do one
of two things: allow a ballot vote that costs a lot of money, or let it stay
and sell it to the government. The veteran’s association is a well- meaning
group who have put in a lot of time and money. I don’t know where the 90,000
people have been for the past 15 years—whatever the people want is fine. We
want the monument to stay. If it goes to the Feds, it probably won’t continue
in its current state.” Although what might have appeared to be a slam dunk for
Proposition A, given the large number of petition signers, it isn’t a guaranteed
win. A wrinkle in the ratification process came in the eleventh hour from a
judge that ruled that the ballot measure requires a two-thirds approval to
pass. Our favorite quote of the week comes from cynical councilman Jim
Madaffer, “I think it’s tough to get 67 percent of people to agree what color
the sky is.” We’ll see…Membership chair Patty Coleman announces that the
next Club 24 Fireside Chat is slated for Thursday, September 15th, at 6:00
p.m. at President Lee's house…Like the Energizer Bunny: Ron Jones
has been re-elected to the presidency of the San Diego Disc Jockey Association
for an unprecedented tenth term. Only four other presidents have served in its
15-year history… Camille McKinnie brought three student guests from
Nativity Prep Academy to last week’s luncheon: Guadalupe Sanchez, Merelin
Castro and Pamela Ortega. The socially savvy 7th graders are volunteers in the
school’s Development Office. Camille reports that they decided they needed a
"name", hence, "The Fun Bunch". Camille says that “they put
the ‘fun’ in fundraising.” The personable trio made certain that they shook
hands and spoke their names clearly to every club member that ventured near
them. Looks like we have some future Rotarians in the making!…Last Sunday’s
League House-sited second annual picnic, cooked up and served by Penny
Shurtleff’s Senior Citizen’s committee, was a home run with the residents.
Look for a complete report next week…
“Who Am I?
Kevin Choquette!”
(“That’s Show-kett!”)
“I was born to Joe and Nancy
in Northhampton, Mass., on Oct. 11, 1972. I’m the youngest of two sons. My
brother, Sean, lives in Tucson with his wife and three kids. He’s a captain in
the Air Force flying helicopters for search and rescue. Thankfully, he has
recently enjoyed a safe return from Bilad, Iraq.
“Shortly after my birth my family moved
to Durango, Colorado, for dad to build a golf course. My parents still live
there. My youth was filled with skiing, mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and
school sports. I graduated from high school in 1991.
“I decided to go to college unsure of a
career. I figured that if I’m going to study I might as well study something
that I like—music. I attended Greeley with a major in music (classical guitar)
and a minor in philosophy. I graduated with honors, a marked departure from all
previous school performance. Coming out of that didn’t leave me with a whole
lot of options: teaching music to kids? No. I went to business school and
received an MBA and bought a home in Denver in ’94. I sold the house, paid off
the school and then began traveling. I saw Europe by car: driving from Budapest
to Paris, Rome to Copenhagen. I saw a lot of the car. When I traveled through
South America (Peru, Chile and Bolivia) I rode the bus.
“I moved to San Francisco in ’99 and got
involved with an Internet radio station. The economy was flush. Then the
capital markets dried up. We were bought by a record company who fired
everybody. I left and traveled for three months in Australia and surfed. The
travel plans were extended to a year and I traveled around the world. After the
money ran out I moved to San Diego, actually Del Mar, with no job or
connections. I developed a business plan of buying single homes, upgrading and
selling. It was an entrepreneurial approach to real estate. I joined La Jolla
Capital Partners: a real estate investment bank providing debt and equity
financing, developing joint ventures for a variety of commercial projects. It
was a new industry where my similar skills made for easy transition. Protracted
conversations over my position in the firm led me back to an entrepreneurial
approach causing me to start my own company one month ago, along with Doug
Paul: Fident Capital. We’re involved in securing debt and equity financing for
mid-tier developers within a broader investment banking context.
“Thanks for welcoming me to the club. I
look forward to meeting all the old-timers. I know all the new guys, but I
don’t know the guys who’ve been here for 30 years.”
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