Rotarians were greeted by a lovely, colorfully decorated room to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Thanks to Christine Krolik who supplied homemade heart-shaped cookies, provided balloons and other decorations. The decoration committee, consisting of Karina, Raul, Jennifer and Marilyn, worked to transform the space.
President Cary Koh then called the meeting to order. He asked Scott Campbell to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag.
Charlene Drummer then came forward to deliver the invocation. Charlene gave us a bit of history on St. Valentine’s Day. One legend has it that, in the 3d century, the Roman Emperor believed soldiers should not be married, but a priest named Valentine disagreed and married the soldiers in secret. Valentine was caught and imprisoned, but ever the romantic, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. The night before he was to be executed, he wrote a letter to her, and signed it “From your Valentine.” Hence the first Valentine’s card.
n 1600, Valentine’s Day was mentioned by Shakespeare in Hamlet, and in 1700, the first handmade Valentine’s cards appeared. Exchanging cards evolved into exchanging other gifts to celebrate love, such as chocolate, flowers and jewelry. Fittingly today, a jeweler will be our speaker.
Like the origin of St. Valentine, love can be a bit of a mystery. But love doesn’t have to be a mystery if you think about it as caring deeply for other people. Here in Rotary, part of our mission is to serve others. Our motto is “Service Above Self.” That is, in my mind, a form of love.
President Cary then asked for visitors. Fritz Brauner introduced Georgie Gleim, our speaker, who is a past president of the Palo Alto University Club. He then introduced his lovely wife, Sue Brauner.
President Cary then began a short auction for a bottle of maple syrup, from New Jersey of all places, donated by Jim Shypertt. The winning bid was $30 offered by Raul Pulido.
In yet another failed attempt to get Dennis Zell to join his President’s Club, Cary did succeed in getting a commitment from him to contribute to the Rotary Foundation in the amount of $150.
Jerry Winges provided an update on our efforts to secure funding for our international project. We are very close to making the goal.
We moved on to the entertainment portion of the meeting. Jeff Krolik came forward to lead a Valentine themed trivia quiz. There were two bottles of wine at stake for the first and second place winners of the multiple-choice test. The questions were as follows:
- How many cards are exchanged for Valentine’s Day?
- The romantic movie The Notebook stars Ryan Gosling and
- The song Cupid Draw Back Your Bow was written and sung by
- Romeo’s last name was?
- In Roman mythology, Cupid is the son of
- In the Valentines Day Massacre, gunmen from the Al Capone gang shot their rivals from which gang:
- How many times was Elizabeth Taylor married?
And the answers were: 1) 1B, 2) Rachel McAdams, 3) Sam Cook. 4) Montegue, 5) Venus, 6) Bugs Moran, 7) 8
The bonus question was to name all of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands. Look it up!
Our speaker, Georgie Gleim, was introduced by Fritz Brauner. He asked the audience whether we thought 1931, in the midst of the Depression, would be a good time to open a business, in particular, a jewelry store. That is what Georgie’s grandfather, Frederick Gleim, did. The store still exists today. It is currently located in the Stanford Shopping Center.
Georgie then began by first, acknowledging Greg Mendell of Kern’s Fine Jewelry, who joined us via Zoom. She dazzled us with facts and photos of gems, both current and historic. Gleim buys and markets estate jewelry providing unique pieces with history and stories.
Our very own Burlingame Rotarian, Mark Lucchesi has started a podcast for the Burlingame Historical Society called "Burlingame is a Small Town." He has interviewed a number of Burlingame Rotarians as well as other prominent folks in our community. You can check out his YouTube podcasts 