“Old Glory” was our early theme of the day at Rotary this past week.  It was Flag Day across America, a chance to ponder “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”  The American flag which Burlingame city now puts in our meeting room each week was the center of our attention, after the members got checked in with Chris Ramirez and Marilyn Orr.  President Fritz Brauner opened our weekly meeting by giving the microphone over to Paul Watermulder.  The club stood and Paul asked Fritz to then lead the club in the Pledge.

 

 

Paul led us all in a brief “History of the American Flag” highlighting the 1776 Congress’ intent to emphasize unity and equality of the states in the flag of the brand-new nation.  We learned the meaning of red (valor), white (purity) and blue (justice, perseverance), and saw pictures of the Flag bringing meaning and hope to different world events (Arlington Cemetery, Iwo Jima, Moon landing, March on Washington, Ground Zero).

We then prayed over our gathering and dug into the food (featuring the signature dish of Sapore Italiano: Pasta alla Rustica).  Our meeting was replete with visitors from far as well as near:  First visit - Shrihari Barhini, owner of Masala Desi Cafe -   Guest of Bobba Venkatadri.  Third visit - Charlene and Alan Drummer – guest of Doug Person.  Eric Berkovsky -  guest of Jay Miller. Eric had been a member of the Rotaract Club at Cal.  Our speaker, Mark Aldrich. 

 

 

Sunshine Report provided the second theme of this meeting:  care for each other.  Fritz brought the sad news of the death of Melinda Horwitz, long time wife of past president Michael Horwitz.  Melinda has been the subject of our prayer and care for several weeks and hospitalized quite a bit.  She was a familiar and happy face in our crowd, always pleasant to be with, willing to be a good listener, and an encourager of the worthy mission of the Rotary Club and of the local work of so many of us in the community.  A Funeral Mass will be held for her at St. Catherine’s Church on Friday, June 23 at 10:00 am followed by a reception and luncheon at the Peninsula Golf and Country Club; Rotarians are invited to both.  A Go Fund Me account has been set up by our Club to place a commemorative plaque in Melinda’s honor in the Burlingame Community Center.  (See the June 14 email from Marilyn Orr)

Then came our third theme:  mission and outreach.  The Club awarded Pam Baker, recent speaker and head of the local non-profit, Women's Coaching Alliance, a grant of $2500 to help fund the highly effective mission she has of training women and girls who are strong in various sports to become coaches and leaders who instill confidence and courage in the young women who go into sports.

 

 

Jennifer Pence continued the outreach/mission theme by reporting on the granting of scholarships to six graduating 8th graders at BHS.  Each of these students receives not only a cash award of $500, but they become part of our Incentive Scholarship program for students going on into BHS next year.  Each year upcoming, they are automatically asked to apply for the following year as they advance through high school, and they receive $125 each year (thus each student who participates annually benefits by $1000 over the four years).  This is usually a hugely popular program of Rotary. This year the usual faculty liaison has moved on so this may account for the lower numbers of applicants.   The committee is Jennifer Pence, Mike Heffernan, Raul Pulido and Karina Perez-Vargas.

 

 

A quick return to our second theme of the day (care for each other) brought Mark Lucchesi to the podium to report on birthdays and club anniversaries for this month.  First, Mark explained that today’s crops of birthdays are all Gemini (except the last falls over the line into being Cancer).  Gemini are (he claims!) playful, intellectually curious, juggling passions, hobbies, careers, friendships, etc.  They seem to be the butterflies of the zodiac, thus being candidates for such places as bars, happy hours, water-cooler chats, etc.  This month includes:  Michael Kimball, Peter Wanger (a sort of, kind of member of our club, but we happily claim him, like a long-lost cousin.  Or maybe stray dog?), Jennifer Pence, Joe Galligan (now also a member of the Rotary Club in his new hometown in North Carolina).  Moving right along, this month is also birthday month for one under the sign of Cancer, which indicates (in theory!) a person who is nurturing, sensitive, compassionate, self-reflective, and sometimes goofy.  This would be Mike Heffernan.  In addition, the month of June includes Joe La Mariana’s 20th anniversary, and the “Rotary anniversaries” of Joe La Mariana [twice blessed in June!], and Mike Heffernan [you can see that June also is a big celebration month for Mike and Jo!].  And then the “long-haulers” with noting this month 38 years of Burlingame Rotary membership for:  Charlie Rosebrook, Lage Andersen, and Paul Watermulder.

Can you remember our three themes thus far?  Old Glory, Caring for each other, Reaching out in service to the world.  Now for the 4th and final theme of the day, broadening our worldview through a worthy program.  Marilyn Orr introduced our speaker because not only is he a really engaging presenter with an interesting story to tell, but also because there is a godparent to grandchildren connection between her family and the speaker’s.  Ah, the closeness of it all!

Mark Aldrich was quite the engaging speaker on a subject he self-admitted might not sound enthralling to non-engineers in the crowd.  Mark discussed a concept that has now fully moved from being a dream into technologies that are fully deployed to build houses from 3-D printers.  Whoa!  These are not mere Tuff Sheds; they are 2, 3, 4-bedroom homes complete with garages for 1 or 2 cars, with upstairs and down, fully insulated, stronger than many traditional structures in the face of earthquake, wind and fire.  And these structures already are being built in several locations at typical costs about 50% - 60% of the usual costs, in part due to a construction time being cut nearly in half.  (For example, the building goes from being a slab on the ground to being a sealed “cold shell” in 7 days rather than 18-24 months.

The Mighty Buildings company is supported by assorted and well reputed venture capital sources, delivers these homes that are Net Zero energy by design.  The company was formed by material scientists, robotic experts, and engineers dedicated to finding ways to radically shorten the time needed for construction.  This is a change in the world of home construction design.  The process is to be carbon neutral by 2025.  The construction materials are 60% recycled already.  Waste on the construction site is also drastically reduced, from dumpsters full of waste, to less than a Mason jar.  Prefab panels are pre-printed and are flat (and thus highly transportable) and filled with flexible glass which insulates them.  The main factory is in Mexico, with other factories coming online in the USA (including in Oakland) also.  Their technology produces a stream of continuous glass fiber as insulation which is both temperature effective and surprisingly flexible.  The 3-D process also uses no water in the process, and thus dries very quickly until four hours after being done it is fully cured.

Although it will be obvious to any engineer reviewing this account of the Mighty Buildings story, this reporter is clearly not an engineer.  Thus, one can go to the website (https://www.mightybuildings.com/) ; its processes and products.  Likely you (as with me) will be amazed—it is like watching a miracle materialize before our eyes.  Check it out!

 

 

Our speaker, Mark Aldrich, was presented with our traditional gift of five polio vaccinations in gratitude for his excellent presentation.  He noted that his father had polio most of his life, so this particular gift was especially appreciated.

Next week our guest speaker will speak to the work of the Mosquito Abatement District which keeps disease as well as nuisance at bay here in our county. 

Final exam:  Four themes of the Day?  I) Old Glory, II) Caring for each other, III) Mission & Outreach, IV) Broadening our worldview.

Thank You, Fritz, for your penultimate weekly meeting leadership.  Amen!