February 23, 2001 Issue

ISSUE NO. 30 FEBRUARY 23, 2001 OUR 80^th YEAR

http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org

CAMP JOSEPHO AND ROTARY

We’ll meet this Friday at a Boy Scout camp that might have closed and been sold off long ago, were it not for our club. For 91 years Rotary has been an energetic backer of Scouting nationwide and in local communities, as our clubs helped organize and support Scout councils across America. In Santa Monica, every Scout Executive since the council was born in 1922 has been a member of this club.

Anatol Josepho was an immigrant from Siberia who invented self-photographic booths that sprouted in amusement parks. In 1941 he bought Rustic Canyon, built a home for his family there, and gave another 100 acres for a Scout camp. He was a personal friend of the Scout Executive at the time, F. R. “Bob” Hill (who was to become our club president in 1946). For many weekends in 1941 Rotarians and other Santa Monicans worked in the canyon to build a big lodge-auditorium, workshop, ranger’s house, and swimming pool. There was a large contingent from Douglas Aircraft, which also gave corporate help.

In 1944 our club helped again. Both the Scouts and YMCA were hard-pressed to offer camping opportunities during wartime. Rotary pledged financing to Camp Josepho and to the Y camp at Big Bear.

In 1978 a fire ran through the canyon. It razed all the camp structures except the lodge. Our club president Dick Redman (who owned a transfer company) asked Bill Hunt (insurance man who was active in Scouting and Rotary) to see whether our club might help the camp get into operation again.

Hunt suggested that the club pay for a new poolside changing house. The club raised $17,000 for this purpose. But municipal authorities vetoed the plan. “No wooden structures,” they ruled. “Everything must be fireproof.” A fireproof poolhouse would cost a quarter million dollars or more. No such sum was in sight. For years nothing happened. The swimming pool, unused, fell in on itself. Fewer troops used the camp.

“That seventeen thousand burned a hole in my brain,” Hunt recalled. I knew Charles C. Shoemaker’s widow wanted to give away a bunch of money she didn’t need. She gave four hundred thousand dollars for a fine new pool and poolhouse. But even this wasn’t enough. Nothing got built.”

In the next few years Hunt found 35 members of our club who wrote checks for $1,000 apiece. Meanwhile, Mrs. Shoemaker’s gift was earning interest. With other donations Hunt elicited outside the club, a sufficient sum was finally available. During 1985 (when Hunt was our president) construction started. The pool and changing room (costing a total $650,000) were dedicated in 1993. More troops began camping at Josepho.

So when we meet for lunch there Friday, we can feel somewhat fatherly toward what we see.

Congratulation, Joe Gonzales, on your impressive fishing trip. It’s wondrous how the Elks Magazine can enhance a photo to insert an imaginary fish. Thanks for the $150 ($100 for the picture and $50 for the paper fish).

Paul Gaulke was fined $50 for naming a wrong Dan in the Rota-Monica announcement. The right speaker was Dan Parke. Paul tried, but failed to shift the blame elsewhere. Consider the fine as a thank-you note from the club, Paul, as Dan Parke recommended one should always do when concluding business.

Sue Dawson spoke at USC regarding the joys of starting a new business. She must have done well since our in-house professor, Bill Crookston, acknowledged approval. A bargain at $50.

Our illustrious alumni of USC were fined $25 each for their basketball team losing as usual to UCLA. They can think of it as making friends on this side of town.

Steve Lehne, second son of our president, was fined in advance for a new baby, due in June. Word came through that a mother’s love prevailed as Kay Lehne (a Rotarian in the Westside Sunrise club) agreed to pay the $50 fine. Congratulations to all the Lehnes.

March 23^rd: Skits by members regarding Rotary, mental health, and the Internet.

“I was dismayed to see the photograph of the 2000-2001 RI Board of Directors. Not one woman amongst all those men! It’s past the time for female Rotarians to take on leadership roles at the international level …”

“It was with great disappointment to read in the August and November issues that my beloved Rotary has entered into the nefarious business of eliminating poor people through family planning programs …

“So-called family planning fails the 4-Way Test. I implore Rotary International to return to helping and healing the poor.”

“South Miami, Florida, became the first city to pass an ordinance requiring gunlocks on firearms stored where minors might gain access to them. The Rotary Club voted to donate $1,000 to promote a gunlock giveaway. Most of the money was used to purchase banners …

“There was disagreement from Rotarians within the district who support the National Rifle Association, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the ordinance. These Rotarians labeled the club’s position as ‘inappropriate’, ‘misguided’ and ‘political’.”

“A mutant species of _____________, responsible for killing marine life throughout the Mediterranean, has invaded the seas off the coast of California.

“Near San Antonio, Texas, you can witness the spectacle of millions of Mexican _____________ emerging at dusk from the Old Tunnel, an abandoned train tunnel.”

“A California woman reports that a chapter on how to safely retreat from a _____________ prevented tragedy while she was hiking.”

“_____________ recruit children as young as 11, supply them with a gun and set them on a life of looting, plundering and killing.”

Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"COLOR YOUR LIFE WITH ROTARY"

Rota-Monica