ISSUE NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 8, 2000 OUR 79th YEAR
HOW RON GREEN
SAVES LIVES
Nobody
knows how many accidents have been prevented because the El Segundo Police
Department sent Captain Ron Green to the FBI Academy at Quantico in 1996.
He picked up an idea there, expanded it, and it has spread around
elsewhere. He’ll tell us – and
show us – about it at Rotary meeting this Friday.
Almost a thousand groups have used it to change teenagers’ habits of
driving.
The idea Green got at the Academy came, not from an instructor, but from
another municipal police officer during a bull session. The group was mulling a chronic problem:
how to induce high school youngsters not to drive while drunk.
“Some will drink no matter what,” everyone agreed.
“Can’t we make them aware of possible consequences?”
Someone said, “In our town, high school students produce a video about
it. Seems to get them thinking.”
This was the nubbin of the idea that Green nursed into a big project in
El Segundo. The community’s cable
TV company agreed to shoot a two-hour film dramatizing the complex aftermath of
any traffic death – if the school, the police, fire department, local
hospital, parents and most importantly the students would plan and stage the
script.
At the high school Green soon found 175 volunteers who worked six months
on preparation. They learned from
the National Safety Council that in an average day, almost 1,500 people are
killed by drunken driving. This
equaled one every 15 minutes, which became the title of their film, and which
gave them a premise for pulling “living dead” out of classes during the day
of shooting, May 8, 1997.
In an assembly May 9 the whole school heard reports by the response
teams. Not coincidentally this was
the day of the senior prom. El
Segundo students survived the prom unhurt; many intoxicated youngsters chose not
to drive.
Green filled hundreds of requests from schools, hospitals, parents’
organizations and police departments (including Santa Monica) for copies of the
film. Many organizations also asked
advice on how local youth could create something similar – so Green compiled a
comprehensive how-to manual.
In 1999, for a new crop of juniors and seniors in high school, El Segundo produced a new version of the video. Another is planned for 2001. At our meeting Green will show a five-minute capsule film as he tells the story. Maybe it will give someone else an idea.
For
Your Rotary Calendar
September
15 – Craft talks: reintroducing Ed
Moosbrugger and Bill Bullock
September
16 (Saturday) – Coastal Cleanup
Day, 9 a.m. to noon
September
22 and 29 – to be announced
October
6 – Character Building in Youth Education:
Josephson Institute
November 7 (Tuesday) – Rotary Golf Tournament, Sterling Hills
SEVEN FINE MEMBERS FINED
At our August 18 meeting, Nat
Trives was recognized for sharing his wisdom with the Westside Sunrise
Rotary Club. His fine was $75.
It has been suggested that we bill the Sunrise Club for Nat’s services
as guest speaker; a Nat Trives speech is worth far more than $75.
An ex-mayor of Santa Monica and a retired college administrator, Nat
contributes many hours of time to the community.
Young Graham Pope paid $100 in commemoration of his daughter’s
wedding. Although we congratulate
Graham and Joy on gaining a new son, we still find it hard to believe that
either is old enough for such a feat. This
Rotarian of Scottish birth has been with us ten years, and has served the club
and community well.
On August 25, John and Charlene Miller’s wedding bells
chimed three beautiful notes for the club.
The first note sounded $75 for John’s poem, “Sunsets are red, oceans
are blue, we just got married, and moved to Malibu.”
Peerless poetry, John! Then
a tinkle of $100 was heard because our praiseworthy president’s invitation was
ostensibly lost in the mail. And
$125 more chimed for the couple’s “Getting to Know You Better” trip.
Your Rotarian friends are happy for you, John and Charlene.
As recognition for buying new cars, Bruce Blickensderfer, Connolly
Oyler and Richard Robbins were permitted to uplift the club by $75
each. Bruce now has a
GMC-Oldsmobile, Con and Richard each a Ford-Jaguar S.
In addition to the commonality of buying new cars, this trio are almost
alike in their lengthy terms of self-employment and top management, to wit:
Bruce 50 years with Everest & Jennings, mobilizing the immobile; Con
41 years of family law, serving families; Dick 51 years Robbins Auto Tops,
ragtops to riches.
Dr. Eric Schmitter and Marilyn no doubt were happy to
contribute $75 in honor of the marriage of their eldest son.
Newer members may not know of this orthopedic surgeon’s reputation in
his profession. Several years ago
in Westwood a car drove into a crowd at the bus stop, seriously injuring many.
Eric devoted hours and skill attending to their needs at no charge.
It wasn’t the first nor the last time he has been noted as a
humanitarian.
Lionel Ruhman
LOOKING
BACK
In 1981 an enthusiastic young man joined our club. He was born in Athens, Greece.
His sponsor was Don Cash, then manager of the Gas Co.
Of course you know this is a story about Spyros Dellaportas.
Spyros was eager to do something for the club.
When a committee was formed to plan for our sixtieth anniversary
celebration in February, 1982, Spyros volunteered to be a member.
At that time we had a masthead for the Rota-Monica that gave a stylized
view of Santa Monica Bay. Spyros
proposed that we try to create a new logo, distinctively our own. He taught us that the design had to be understandable and
attractive no matter the size.
In the end he presented the Board of Directors with a number of drawings
and one was selected. You see it
everywhere. It indelibly identifies
us as the Rotary Club of Santa Monica.
Bill Fritzsche, club historian
THE
UNLISTED CHAIRMAN
(One
of a series on club directors)
The Rotary job that E. Belmont Herring enjoys most is practically
invisible. He serves as chairman of
a committee that isn’t even listed on the club’s official directory of
“Officers, Directors and Committees.” Monte
likes the position so much that he’s filled it for the past four years.
In other capacities he is more visible.
He is in his second year on our board of directors. Last year his assigned responsibility as a director was to
appoint and oversee eight committees listed as the “membership” committees
(classification, first-year activities, recruitment and such).
This year he keeps tab on seven committees charged with “meetings”
which make sure that people are in place to handle numerous details that smoothe
our lunch meetings: guest introductions, invocations, music, attendance records
and so on.
Watching over the noon machine may give Monte the lightest ongoing load
of any director. After recruiting
the chairs of his committees, he need do little but watch them perform their
specified duties as the Fridays roll along.
But he did find a way to oil
some machinery this year. In
inviting various members to fill committee chairmanships, he asked that each
choose a vice-chairman who agreed to take charge of the committee next year, or
even on short notice this year if needed. It
turned out that Dave Rogers, chair of guest introductions, suddenly had
to resign that post because of added work in his profession.
There was no flurry of seeking a replacement. Vice-chairman Jim Reidy took over immediately.
In another special touch, Monte persuaded Esther Johnson to arise
from “emeritus” status and take charge of the music committee.
She’ll not only be our pianist as usual, but recruit our song leaders.
She already has signed up the first two feminine song leaders in club
history, Karen Baker and Patricia Farris.
But about that “invisible” chairmanship?
Monte heads the “Ambassador Scholarship Committee.”
Few of our members know that it exists.
It nominates local young people for $25,000 scholarships, from a special
Paul Harris fund at Rotary International, to pay for a year’s study abroad.
Our district awards two, three, or more such scholarships yearly.
So does every other district, presumably, although the number varies from
year to year and isn’t announced.
To qualify, applicants must read and write the language of a host country
specified by RI. And the interview
process isn’t easy. Monte and his
committee have a long talk with each of our nominees. Those who survive this scrutiny go on to more questioning by
district people.
This year Monte’s committee encountered an unusual problem: an applicant who wasn’t a citizen of any country. She is an Iranian girl who was imprisoned when shah was overthrown. She escaped from prison and made her way through four or five countries to America. She was an alien here as well as in Iran, which nullified her citizenship. Monte and his committee took the matter up with Rotary International, and finally got the citizenship requirement waived in her case. Such remarkable candidates keep Monte fascinated.