Community & Clubs -- Jim de Boom

PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO MEET: Service clubs provide many benefits for

their members. Besides long-term friendships, maybe a business contact or

two, there is a chance to meet people and visit places one ordinarily

wouldn’t.

Take for example, the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa. The speaker at

its dinner meeting on March 27 was Assemblyman John Campbell of Irvine.

Campbell, on spring legislative recess from Sacramento, was also the

speaker at lunch that day for the 375-member Rotary Club of Long Beach

and at noon the next day at Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine. He probably

saw more of Rotarians than he did of his wife and sons, who were not on

spring break from school. The Rotarians appreciated his insight and

candor on the state Legislature.

On Wednesday, 40 members of the Newport-Balboa Club, some accompanied

by their spouses, had a tour of the Newport Beach Police Department and

then drove to Irvine for dinner at the new Gina’s Pizza & Pastaria near

UC Irvine.

Sgt. Steve Schulman and non-sworn personnel Katie Hattrup and Spring

Sendele greeted the Rotarians and provided the tour of the police

facility. Schulman had arranged for the department’s helicopter to land

on the roof of the building where Pilot John Susman and Flight Officer Ed

Walsh explained the joint use of the helicopter by Newport Beach, Costa

Mesa and Santa Ana police departments. Walsh was familiar to the club

members for he had spoken to the club several years ago when he was the

department’s DARE officer.

The tour included a visit through the halls, past the offices for the

chief, the detectives, the report writing area, police dispatch room and

down to the basement for a tour of the jail. Jailer Mark Satin noted they

provide “three hots [meals] and a cot” for the typical person arrested in

Newport Beach before they send them off to arraignment at Harbor Justice

Center or the county jail. Rotarians heard that the Fourth of July was

the busiest day of the year in the jail, with standing room only for

those arrested on a variety of charges.

The Rotarians saw the department’s armored vehicle and watched the

swing shift officers check out their vehicles before they left the

station.

Ten-year Rotarian Steve Speer, his wife, Heather, and his Rotarian

brother-in-law, Peter Smith, were the hosts of the post Police Department

tour dinner, held at the new Gina’s near UCI. Speer, who joined the

Gina’s management team last year, noted that this was the seventh Gina’s

opened in Southern California. The guests enjoyed their beverages,

salads, two kinds of pasta and a variety of fabulous pizza on the patio.

Several Rotarians who didn’t make the Police Department tour joined the

group at Gina’s, including longtime member Giff Myers. Myers, whose

health problems have restricted his driving, is appreciative of Chad

Brown, a 30-year-old who has been a member of Rotary for a year. Weekly,

Brown drives to Myers’ home in Irvine, brings him to the Rotary meeting,

usually held at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. Why does Brown, a

Newport Beach resident go the extra miles? Friendship, he says.

In service clubs -- Exchange, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary and Soroptimist

-- you find a number of similarities, friendships among the members,

great weekly programs that inform and educate, a fun environment and the

opportunity to be of service to your community, country and the world.

WORTH REPEATING: From Thought for the Day by Greg Kelley of the

Newport-Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council: “When we seek to discover the

best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” -- William

Arthur Ward

SERVICE CLUB MEETINGS THIS WEEK: Looking for friendships, fun,

great weekly programs that inform and educate, consider joining a service

club. You are invited to attend a club meeting this week to learn more

about service clubs. Most clubs will buy your first meal for you as you

get acquainted with them. Here is this week’s meeting schedule:

TUESDAY

7:30 a.m.: The 40-member Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club will meet

at Five Crowns Restaurant.

6:30 p.m.: The Costa Mesa Newport Harbor Lions Club will meet at the

Costa Mesa Country Club.

WEDNESDAY

7:15 a.m.: The 20-member South Coast Metro Rotary Club will meet at

the Center Club (www.southcoastmetrorotary.org), and the Newport Harbor

Kiwanis Club will meet at the University Athletic Club.

Noon: The 35-member Exchange Club of the Orange Coast will meet at the

Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club.

5:30 p.m.: The 60-member Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa will meet at

the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program on the Waldorf School.

(www.newportbalboa.org).

THURSDAY

7 a.m.: The 20-plus member Costa Mesa-Orange Coast Breakfast Lions

Club meets at Mimi’s Cafe.

Noon: The 50-member Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club will meet at the Holiday

Inn (www.kiwanis.org/club/costamesa), the Newport Beach-Corona del Mar

Kiwanis Club will meet at the Bahia Coronthian Yacht Club, the 80-member

Exchange Club of Newport Harbor will meet at the Newport Harbor Nautical

Museum, and the 100-member Newport-Irvine Rotary Club will meet at the

Irvine Marriott to hear Orange County Treasurer John Moorlach

(www.nirotary.org).

* COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published Saturdays in the Daily Pilot. Send

your service club’s meeting information by fax to (949) 660-8667; e-mail

to jdeboom@aol.com or by mail to 2082 S.E. Bristol St., Suite 201,

Newport Beach, CA 92660-1740.