Help decorate the float

Volunteers are needed to help decorate Newport Beach’s 2006 Rose Parade Float. This is a great opportunity for family, friends and organized groups to be a part of this historic event. The last time the city was represented in the parade was 1940, said Janis Dinwiddie, the Newport Beach Centennial events coordinator

There is a $10 registration fee, which includes round-trip bus transportation between Newport Beach and Duarte (where the float is being built), lunch or dinner, and a Rose Parade float T-shirt. You need not be a resident of Newport Beach to participate.

If you wish to volunteer for more than one shift, you will need to complete a separate sign-up transaction for each shift.

Please note that the shift times include travel time. The busses depart from Bonita Canyon Sports Park.

“We especially need volunteers for Sat., Dec. 17 (the dry flowers day), and Mon. and Tues., Dec. 26 and 27,” Dinwiddie said.

If you wish to register members of an organization that want to work together, please call Teri Craig at (949) 644-3158. She will register everyone in your group.

For a schedule of shift times, and to sign up, visit www.newportbeach100.com. Click on Events / Decorate Float.

For more information, please call (949) 718-1856.

NEWPORT HARBOR INTERACT CLUB HOLDING BLANKET DRIVE

The Newport Harbor High School Interact club is conducting a blanket drive on campus that will be going on until Monday. All blankets donated will be given to the Someone Cares soup kitchen, which is in desperate need of blankets for its patrons, said Nathan White, Interact Advisor from the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa. For every blanket a Newport Harbor High School student donates, he or she will be entered into a drawing to win an iPod Nano or an iPod Shuffle. The blankets can be new or used. If they have been used, the blanket must be clean.

Those outside of Newport Harbor interested in donating a blanket can call White at (949) 274-0975 and arrangements will be made to pick up the blankets. If you are the parent of a student at Newport Harbor, you son or daughter can deliver the blankets to Portable 7 (the Career Center) and sign up for the drawing. Only Newport Harbor High School students are eligible to win the prizes.

READING BY 9 TIME

For five years, Daily Pilot readers and the Rotary Clubs of Newport-Balboa, Newport Irvine and Newport Beach Sunrise -- in support of the Los Angeles Times Reading by 9 program -- have delivered 23,634 reading books to kindergarten through third-grade students at Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools, the schools with the highest percentage of limited-English-speaking students and the lowest test scores in the district.

Again this year, the three Rotary Clubs challenge Daily Pilot readers to match the $3,000 they are putting up to buy books for the three schools. Your $10 donation will be matched by the Rotary Clubs and by the publisher Scholastic to buy 11 reading books; a $25 donation will be matched to buy 30 books; a $50 donation will be matched to buy 58 books and so on. Your tax deductible donation to Reading by 9 can be made payable and mailed to Rotary District 5320 Foundation, c/o Daily Pilot, 299B 17th Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92627.

Book orders are due to Scholastic, the book publisher, in January, so pull out your check book and help provide additional resources to Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools. Make your investment, and watch the dividends grow.

WORTH REPEATING

From the Thought for the Day as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council:

You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.

-- ROBERT FROST

SERVICE CLUB MEETINGS THIS WEEK

How are you giving back to your community? Help your community and the world through a service club. For many, service club membership is an extension of our religious beliefs and congregation affiliation.

You are invited to attend a service club meeting this coming week to learn more about opportunities for service. Most clubs will buy your first meal for you as you get acquainted with them.

SUNDAY

5 p.m.: The Exchange Club of Newport Harbor will hold its annual Christmas party progressive dinner at the homes of Dick Waitneight, Tom Norton and John Fornes.

TUESDAY

7:15 a.m.: The 48-member Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club will meet at the Five Crowns restaurant for a program by Bruce Lambert (www.newportbeachsunriserotary.org).

Noon: The newly formed Rotary Club of Costa Mesa will be meeting at the Clubhouse at South Coast Plaza.

WEDNESDAY

7:30 a.m.: The 10-member Newport Harbor Kiwanis Club will meet at a new location, Denny’s Restaurant at Redhill and Bristol.

Noon: The 27-member Exchange Club of the Orange Coast will meet at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club to hear Nico Alberts on “Coming to America.”

6:15 p.m.: The 50-member Rotary Club of Newport Balboa will meet at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for the annual Christmas party and boat parade viewing (www.newportbalboa.org).

THURSDAY

7:00 a.m.: The 20-member Costa Mesa Orange Coast Lions Club will meet at Mimi’s Cafe.

Noon: The 50-member Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club will meet at the Holiday Inn (www.kiwanis.org/club/costamesa); the 50-member Newport Beach-Corona del Mar Kiwanis Club will meet at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for special guest day: “Christmas Sounds of the Season” with piano virtuoso Eileen Wright and her granddaughter, the talented award-winning vocalist Vanessa Cedeno. Spouses and guests are welcome; the 85-member Exchange Club of Newport Harbor will meet at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum to hear Tom Billings, founder of Protect Our Parks, discuss “Importance of Preserving Marinapark; the 90-member Rotary Club of Newport Irvine will meet at the Radisson Hotel to hear Robert P. Mosier discuss “Signs of a financially troubled company” (www.nirotary.org)

FRIDAY

6 p.m.: The Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise will hold its annual Christmas Party at the Hedlund residence.