COMMUNITY & CLUBS:

The first starter’s gun for the 26th running of the Woodbridge Invitational will fire at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 16. The high school cross-country event, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Newport Irvine and the school, will attract 10,000 star athletes from 190 schools in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington to Irvine’s Woodbridge High School for a series of three-mile races.

“This meet is the largest one-day high school cross-country meet in the nation,” noted George Varvas, Woodbridge’s cross-country coach. Many of the winners will advance to the CIF, then State Championships. Eight of the top 10 California teams will participate.

The Rotary Club of Newport Irvine has been the principal sponsor of this meet for 21 years, providing volunteer officials to run the races and paying for major meet expenses. Jerry Rekers, Rotary coordinator, announced that the club is administering a program for the 190 high schools to sell an estimated 10,000, $5 tickets in a raffle to win a free week in Hawaii.

The schools receive $4 from each ticket for their athletic programs, then the balance will be divided between the Rotary Club to provide community college scholarships for underprivileged students and Woodbridge High School for their expenses.

ROTARIANS COLLECT READING BOOKS AT ORANGE COUNTY FAIRRotarians volunteers collected 29,649 reading books on one day for kindergarten through third graders at the Orange County Fair, according to Debbie Ream, the Reading by 9 coordinator for the Los Angeles Times.

Fair attendees could donate a new reading book or three slightly used reading books and receive free admission to the Fair on July 26, according to Bill Hossfield, community service director for the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa.

“While this is just slightly above 2004, our first year, and down from our banner year of 2005, it is still an amazing success, especially considering the hot weather and lower attendance overall at the fair this year,” added Ream.

More than 10,000 people gained entrance to the fair with their book donations, and tens of thousands of schoolchildren will have additional reading opportunities as a result.

Dozens of members of local Rotary clubs worked three-hour shifts at the Fair entrance gates, collecting books, boxing them and loading them on trucks, Hossfield said.

A side benefit was the Rotary information booth that Kim DeBroux, a member of the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa and chair of the district membership committee, set up at the fair to introduce people to what Rotary does in the local community and around the world.

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

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”

— Naguib Mahfouz

SERVICE CLUB MEETINGS THIS WEEKMONDAY

6:00 p.m.: Harbor Mesa Lions Club meets at Coco’s in Fountain Valley.

TUESDAY

7:30 a.m.: The 45-member Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise meets at Five Crowns for Craft Talks; www.newportbeachsunriserotary.org.

Noon: The 20-member Rotary Club of Costa Mesa meets at a new location, Karl Strauss Brewery, 901 South Coast Dr., Costa Mesa.

6:30 p.m.: The Costa Mesa Newport Harbor Lions Club holds a board meeting at the home of Mike McIlroy; www.cmnhlions.com.

WEDNESDAY

7:30 a.m.: The 10-member Newport Harbor Kiwanis Club meets at Denny’s Restaurant at the corner of Redhill Avenue and Bristol Street.

Noon: The 27-member Exchange Club of the Orange Coast meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club.

6:00 p.m.: The 56-member Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program by Newport Beach City Council member Keith Curry; www.newportbalboa.org.

THURSDAY