A record crowd of 36 gathered in the Elm Room. With the number of seldom seen members there was an extended social time. President Cary Koh was finally able to corral the group and call the meeting to order. He then asked Bill Tiedeman to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

 

Chris Ramirez then came forward to deliver the Invocation. He reminded us that today, November 1, was the beginning of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration. This is a Mexican tradition where those who have died are remembered. Chris asked anyone who could to talk about a memory of a Rotarian who has passed away to do so. Joe La Mariana remembered Walt Ramseur, who took him on a surprise flight to Half Moon Bay for lunch.  Jim Shypertt threw out the name of David Carr then deferred to Paul Watermulder for comments. Paul then went on to mention Bob Davidson, a mentor to many of us and the former City Manager of Hillsborough. Both Bob Doerr and Mark Johnson had fond memories of Duffy Offield.

 

 

 

Cary then called for visiting Rotarians to make themselves known. Denis Fama, husband of Cheryl Fama, is a member of the Rotary Club of Millbrae. We had a Guest of the Club. Jonnie Dukes’ neighbor, Mehmet Kayadelen joined us for his first visit. Hope to see him again.

 

 

Charlene Drummer gave us an update on our International Project to fund a rural girls school in India. The committee is busy gathering funds, in the form of DDF, from Rotary Clubs in the district. The effort is going well.

 

Cary made a plea for all members to contribute to the Rotary Foundation. Those contributions come back to us in the form of District Designated Funds that can be applied to an international project. You can make a contribution with a credit card through the Rotary website. Instructions are below.

 

 

 

Cary recognized Marilyn Orr, who just returned from a river cruise along the Rhône River in France. This was all a ruse in order to get another member of his President’s Club. Marilyn did offer to join, however.

It was then time for recognizing birthdays and anniversaries for the month of November. Mark Lucchesi, AKA Mark at the Mic, came forward to unveil these individuals. Those born under the Zodiac signs of Scorpio and Sagittarius are Grace Redman, Bill Tiedeman, David Mendell, Lage Andersen and Doug Person. And, according to Mark, the birthday boy of the month, embodying all the positive traits of a Scorpio is ………. Mark Lucchesi

 

 

Mark Johnson took the microphone to give us a brief history of our Rotarian of the Year in honor of Wade Macomber. He then noted the qualifications for this highest honor that is conferred on a Burlingame Rotarian. Mark then asked Sheryl Young to come to the podium to reveal this year’s winner. Sheryl began by listing some accomplishments of this individual and asking Rotarians to guess who it might be. Eventually someone correctly guessed that the honoree was Cheryl Fama. The former CEO of the Peninsula Health Care District has been a member of Burlingame Rotary for over 14 years. There was a short video that recapped a bit of her personal and professional life.

Cheryl accepted her award with grace and gratitude, noting that she had not attended a meeting since her retirement as she just wanted to relax after 55 years of working. Cary and Mark presented her with a plaque for the 2022-2023 award.

 

Cary recognized Jonnie Dukes and asked him to introduce our speaker, another one of his neighbors. Joseph Messina is a Lt. Commander in the US Coast Guard. As a helicopter pilot he is involved in search and rescue in a large swath of California. He gave us an overview of the mandates of services provided by the United States Coast Guard. Their territory covers 95,000 miles of shoreline. This is critical to the US since one-third of our GDP originates in coastal areas. District 11 covers all of California. He reviewed the equipment that is utilized by District 11 and where it is stationed throughout the State.

 

Lt. Commander Messina is assigned to the MH65E helicopter, five of which are based at Air Station San Francisco on the grounds of SFO. This air station opened in 1941. Who knew? He then informed us about how the Coast Guard goes about the Search and Rescue process. He shared the types of calls to which they respond and some statistics. 30-45 lives are saved annually with an additional 35-40 lives assisted.

 

 

 

 

We were then treated to some videos and stories of some hair-raising rescues. You can view these nail-biters on the Zoom recording.

 

 

 

 

 

Lt. Commander Messina then reviewed their very intensive training programs for applicants and other agencies. The swimming requirement would make Michael Phelps’ routine a walk in the park.

 

President Cary thanked Joseph Messina for his excellent presentation. As a thank you of his appearance, he was given a Rotary Polio-Plus certificate stating that we were donating five inoculations in his honor.