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Welcome to the Altadena Rotary Website

A VISION FOR THE YEAR
Truly Making Dreams Real

by John Frykenberg, Club President

Ruth Wells, heiress of the American Optical Corporation and matriarch of Old Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts once advised me to "Make no small plans…. If you would capture men’s [and women’s] minds." And quoting a Biblical imperative: "Where there is no Vision … the People Perish."

Do we have a vision for Altadena Rotary? You bet!

At the end of this article, I'm going to ask you to think about making a commitment to join Altadena Rotary make dreams real.

We are committed to:

  • Being a major sponsor of Altadena's Concerts in the Park
    a series of 10 Community Concerts, featuring a high level of artistry and broad based community support. This is in lieu of the traditional Old Fashioned Days which has ceased to exist.
  • Continuing the tradition of our Annual Pancake Breakfast (August) in conjunction with the Naked Crow Mountain Bike Challenge, which supports the:
    • Ronald McDonald House,
    • Altadena Senior Center,
    • Lance Armstrong Foundation, etc.
  • Doing Community Service by supporting
    • our schools,
    • our children,
    • our teachers,
    • our veterans,
    • our colleges,
    • our military and
    • our American ideals of freedom and justice for all.
    as a high Club priority along with
  • supporting literacy through reading and
  • supporting text book purchases for our schools.

    At the same time, we will continue our International Service, where our Club has assumed the highest possible profile in the teaching of youth IT and Entrepreneurial skills with the lofty objective of eradicating poverty one person at a time and one community at a time.

    It is my hope that the Rotary Club of Altadena will rise to the challenge of the World Bank who has delivered to our Club and the Rotary Club of Washington DC a Letter of Intent soliciting our club leadership in developing a model for export and enrollment of Rotary Clubs throughout the world as mentoring agents for young entrepreneurs and administrators of start-up businesses.

    To ensure the success of the world wide program aimed at providing employment to vast numbers of current and projected unemployed youth, the World Bank has already established a $1 Billion fund in include start-up business loans ranging from $12- $50,000, with criteria and oversight to be provided by local Rotary Clubs throughout the world. Is this a big enough Vision for our Club members?

    To Make Dreams Real is not pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by for our Club members. If Hal Yorke (one of our members who works at JPL) can put rovers on Mars, and Mike Noll can get a Zambian teenager from Lusaka a degree in high fashion in Los Angeles and Ed Jasnow can get a community band on a plane to London for a Christmas parade ... We can do anything! And we can have fun doing it!

    I look forward to a year of working hard and playing hard to make the Experience something to remember. We have made fast friends and learned new things, been exposed to new ideas and collected memories along the way.

    I have grown to appreciate, admire and respect all of you for your initiative, your abilities, your creativity, your unselfishness and your willingness to make a difference in a world where there are a lot of complaints, a lot of criticism and not a lot of folk who are willing to roll up their sleeves to change that world.

    This year we want to share our vision with at least ten like-minded people who want to Make Dreams Real for members of our community and around the world. We invite you to complete an Application for an Invitation to a meeting.

    Click here for Up Coming Speakers, Programs & Events

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    Linda Wilkes
    Vice President


    James Gorton
    Secretary


    Will Heining
    Treasurer