The Monrovia Rotary Club was pleased to induct Deb Pringle to membership.
Deb is a Realtor® with Vastree Real Estate, specializing in families and historic homes in the Monrovia area. Originally born in Queens NY, Deb grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where she pursued her love of animals, working with the local VCA Animal Hospital and volunteering her time to train animals for the Susquehanna Service Dogs organization, which provides service dogs and hearing dogs for disabled children and adults. Moving to California, Deb studied high end dining service, eventually working with the award-winning Tavern restaurant in Brentwood and receiving her certification as a Level One Sommelier. Today, Deb is a proud member of the Monrovia community, engaging in social groups, book clubs, and spending a portion of her free time serving as a tutor for adults working to learn English as a second language. At home, Deb takes care of her own animals – two cats and an adorable Boston Terrier. Deb is also an avid baker… a skill that is encouraged by her husband, stand up comedian Ken Pringle (much to the chagrin of his expanding waistline!).
The Monrovia Rotary Club has inducted Fire Chief Brad Dover to membership. Brad is being sponsored by Immediate Past President, Bill Shieff.
Brad Dover began volunteering for Monrovia Fire and Rescue in 1994 as a fire cadet. In 1998, he was hire full time as a firefighter. The following year, he was assigned as a firefighter/paramedic. In 2003, Brad was promoted to fire engineer, a position he still cherishes as one of his favorites. In 2006 he promoted to captain where he spent two years on an engine company. In 2008, he was reassigned as a captain on the ladder truck. He said that assignment is where he grew the most professionally and all of the pieces of incident management came together. In 2015, he promoted to division chief, where he managed day-to-day shift operations. He was also responsible for citywide emergency preparedness programs and department support services. Brad has a Bachelorette of Science degree from California State University, Long Beach. He has completed the California career track programs for Fire Officer and Chief Officer. He was fortunate enough to spend a number of years as part of a California USAR Task Force. Currently, Brad is attending the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy in Maryland. The graduate level program is designed for fire service leaders from around the country. Brad has been married to his wife Anne for the past 18 years, and has 13 year old twins, Blake and Ella. Away from work he loves camping, golfing and being involved in his children’s sports programs. As a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan, he insisted on naming his dog Lambeau, after one of the Packer legends.
The Club is proud that a person such as Brad, who has spent a lifetime in service to others, has chosen the Rotary Club as an avenue of service.
Thanks to the efforts of Club International Chair Malcolm Graham, and Club Foundation Director Julie Roybal, the Monrovia Rotary Club was able to fund the purchase of school supplies and warm cardigans for many destitute children in South Africa. Many members of the Rotary Club directly contributed to this effort via their pledges.
Dear Julie and Malcolm,
It was such a joy to deliver and hand over the cardigans to Umsilinga Primary School at the Ezinketheni Informal Settlement today. These are such good quality, warm cardigans which each child will be able to use until they probably outgrow them! We are thankful to Sadecks Discount World for giving them to us at cost and not even charging us VAT.
Thank you so much for allowing Mama Ntombi’s Community Projects (MNCP) to facilitate this project on behalf of Monrovia Rotary Club. We confirm that 100% of the funds sent to us was used to purchase the cardigans.
Thank you for blessing the destitute children from this community. Many of them are orphaned and living with aged grandmothers, other caregivers and some are in child-headed households.
More photos to follow.
“Making a difference one smiling child at a time”.
Every three years, Rotary International holds its Council on Legislation. This is our legislative body which enacts changes to the way Rotary functions. Each district in the Rotary world selects one representative to serve on the council. This past April PDG Roger Schulte was selected to serve as our district representative.
Roger has been a member of the Rotary Club of Upland since 1978 and was president in 1984-85. He has chaired numerous district committees including RYLA, Teen Leadership Camp, Interact Symposium, and the Rotary Foundation Dinner. He served as our district governor in 2010-11. He is currently the chair of the District Rotary Foundation Scholarship Committee and the Rotaplast Committee.
He is a retired middle school principal. He and his wife, Paulette, have traveled internationally on Rotary projects related to the delivery of wheel chairs, the eradication of polio, and the repair of cleft lips and palates through Rotaplast. They are both multiple Paul Harris Fellows and Bequest Society members.
The Monrovia Rotary Club is pleased to present Rev. Dr. Felix C. Villanueva as our speaker on Tuesday, August 2nd at our regular club meeting. He is the Conference Minister for United Church of Christ in Southern California and Nevada. Prior to his present position, Felix served in the U.S. Navy as Chaplain and retired as a senior officer after 21 years. He has also served as a local church pastor and as hospice chaplain.
Dr. Villanueva possesses expertise in navigating the intricacies and challenges of working in an executive position while providing pastoral care to the organization. He is also an expert in conflict management and organizational development. As Conference Minister of the most culturally diverse conference in the United Church of Christ, Felix can easily manage the nuances different cultures bring while providing an objective perspective. Finally, Dr. Villanueva has over 2,000 hours of supervised group coaching.
Felix holds a Bachelor’s in Biology Degree from the University of Puerto Rico; a Masters in Divinity from the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico; a Masters in Pastoral Counseling from Princeton Theological Seminary; and, a Doctor of Education from the School of Business at Argosy University in Los Angeles.
The Monrovia Rotary Club will welcome Steve Garrett, a Rotarian’s Rotarian, on July 5th.Our speaker was President of the San Marino Rotary Club in 1983 & District Governor of D5300 in 1994-1995.
His extensive Rotary Resume includes RYLA chairman, District Newsletter Editor, District Conference Chairman, District Budget Committee Chairman, District Foundation Chair, PETS Instructor for 11 years, Governor Elect training instructor, Rotary Rose Float Chairman and so much more.
He has represented past RI presidents Devlyn, Rattakul, Estess, and Boyd at district conferences around the country.
He was instrumental in the founding of the Sierra Madre Rotary Club in 1997 and most recently installed that clubs 2016-2017 leadership team.
A stylish send-off for our stylish outgoing President Bill Shieff and First Lady Sue Shieff. Planned and executed perfectly by 2014-2015 President Bryan Earll and the lovely Sarah Earll, with help from Sia Soris, member of the club and proprietress of the Monrovian Restaurant. The banquet room was quiet elegance with white table cloths, silver chargers, and stunning hydrangea and rose centerpieces.
There were moving tributes to Bill from Bryan Earll, Stan Pitts, Sylvia Domotor, and Bill’s wife Sue. Bill then thanked the members of the Demotion Committee and his Board of Directors for the past year.
As is customary, the demotion marks the selection of the honorees of the club’s top awards, Rotarian of the Year was deserved by Tom Hould for his work with RYLA amongst other contributions, the Tiger of the Year, given to a newer Rotarian, went to Lynda Linforth for her many contributions including her help at the Race to the Falls and First Fridays, and the club’s top awardee was Dr. Sylvia Domotor, winning the George J. Carlson Award which is given in recognition of multiple years of outstanding service. Notably, “Dr. D” started and runs the annual Santa Clothes program.
Finally, the presidential pin, a vintage pin dating to the club’s inception,as well as the official gavel, was passed to incoming President Susanne Hayek.
The Monrovia Rotary Club presented $14,000 in scholarships to deserving students from the Monrovia School District. These scholarships were made possible by the generosity of our community partners, our members, in particular Mr. Richard Tipping, and by the generosity of Choon Baick, M.D. and Delos Comstock, M.D. , the original donors to the club’s Comstock Fund. Special thanks to Erica Hahn(Chairperson), Richard Tipping, Jenny Pappano,Tom Hould for your hard work on the 2016 Scholarship Committee!
The 2016 Scholarship Recipients are:
Monrovia High School
Academic
Kaela Polnitz
Jacqueline Hernandez
Dalila McKelvey
Ian Flores
Brian Alvarado
Honorary
Jacob Szymkowskiin recognition of his outstanding academics
The Monrovia Rotary Club gave a $500. gift that teacher Annie Van Dyke used to purchase Demi Dec, an online study guide. Kids used computers at school and at home to study. The Academic Decathlon Team ended up being 2nd in their division – very exciting!
Next year the topic is World War II – the kids are already looking forward to being a part of the team!
“Thank you to you and Rotary for all you do for Interact and Academic Decathlon team!” Annie Van Dyke
Nolan Shaheedis a modern Renaissance Man; he is a successful jazz musician, who has performed with so many greats, a world class athlete who holds several world records in long distance running a motivational speaker and the long distance track coach at Monrovia High School.
It was the Club’s pleasure to hear him speak at a recent meeting. He gave an inspiring talk about the difference between great and good and what it takes to get there.
