COMMUNITY & CLUBS:Movie benefit for charities

The Exchange Club of Newport Harbor presents a benefit showing of a new movie from Columbia Pictures, “Stranger Than Fiction,” starring Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifa and Dustin Hoffman on Wednesday at The Lido Regency Cinema.

Festivities begin at 5:30 p.m., with a festival featuring food from a dozen local restaurants. The movie begins at 7 p.m. General admission, which includes the food festival, is $50 per person and VIP seating is available for $75 per person.

This special evening is a benefit for the Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center of Orange County, other local charities and selected community and youth programs.

For information or to buy tickets, call (949) 887-6768.

LAST CALL FOR FREE TRIP TO THE PHILIPPINESIf you are between the ages of 25 and 40 and are not related to a Rotarian, you could be selected for a four-week trip to the Philippines — all expenses paid.

The group study exchange team will be lead by Newport-Balboa Rotarian Kim DeBroux. The team members will stay in homes of Rotarians while on tour, make visits to similar businesses and professions they are involved in, as well as visit tourist sites and learn about life in the Philippines.

Rotary pays for each participant’s airfare, housing and meals during the tour, while the team member pays for souvenirs and personal items.

Applications for team members are due by Nov. 10 for the Feb. 25 trip. An interview process will be held Nov. 18 by Tito L. Parola, the group study exchange committee chair.

Group study exchange team member applications can be found online at: www.rotary.org/foundation/ educational/gse. For more information on the program, call Parola at (714) 771-6900 or send e-mail to tparola@associatedlabs.com.

INTERFAITH IN CHINAAs you read today’s column, a 75-person tour group from the Newport- Mesa-Irvine Interfaith Council is visiting the Great Wall of China.

For me, it is my sixth trip to China and the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. On this trip, a number of us will visit Xi’an and the Terra Cotta Warriors, while the rest of the tour group visits Suzhou and Hangzhou with the leadership of Linda Short of Harbor Christian Church, the tour co-leader.

On the tour are members of local congregations of all faiths, a number of Rotarians, their families and friends from Arizona, New Mexico, Okalahoma, Mississippi, Oregon and Utah.

As an Interfaith group, we will visit the Kaunjie Christian Church in Beijing and the Cathedral of St. Ignatius, a beautiful Catholic cathedral in Shanghai. We will also visit several Buddhist Temples, have dinner in the home of a Chinese family in Beijing, take a boat cruise on the Grand Canal in Suzhou and on West Lake in Hangzhou, and have a number of shopping opportunities. Most people on the tour will be surprised at the growth of the cities and the quality of Chinese life.

DON’T FORGET TO VOTEI mailed in my absentee ballot a couple of weeks ago knowing that I would be in China on Election Day. From newspaper reports, it looks like a majority of voters are using absentee ballots. For those who haven’t used the absentee ballot, make sure you get out and vote on Tuesday at your local polling place. Your vote, which is your opinion, counts when you check a candidate’s box on the ballot.

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

“When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.”

— Chinese Proverb

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