Meeting Recap 12/10/2009
by lou on 16/12/09 at 4:35 am
It definitely was not your usual Thursday luncheon meeting of the North Fresno Rotary Club. It was not at Tornino’s. There was no “11:30 Club”. No “bell ringing” to open the meeting and no “Welcome to North Fresno Rotary, I’m LOU SMALDINO, your President”. No introduction of Visiting Rotarians (there were none), and no gifts to PREZ. LOU presented by “traveling” NF Rotarians.
There were at least 31 North Fresno Rotarians there amongst a little over 500 school students. The place was Lowell Elementary School library (The CLARENCE SHAW Library) and the event was the Lowell School/Rotary annual Christmas luncheon. CARLOS GONZALES welcomed all of those in attendance to the event. The invocation was offered by DOYLE DANIEL and a salute to the flag led by DICK ELLSWORTH.
A good luncheon of spaghetti and lasagna accompanied by a salad, French bread, soft drink and cookies for desert was served by some of the parents of the Lowell students.
Upon arrival at the school Mr. Naranjo, the School Principal met all, or most, of the Rotarians and assigned a student to escort the Rotarian to the library. The Club had requested that the Rotarians bring two wrapped Christmas presents for needy neighborhood children (boy and a girl). The large quantity of Christmas gifts were all set under and around a decorated Christmas tree near the Library entry. The approximately 20 tables were decorated in Christmas colors and contained four chairs each. At most of the tables the two student-escorts sat and had lunch with the two Rotarians that they escorted to the library. I was escorted by Getsamani (pronounced “gets-a-monty”). She was in the third grade and said that she liked “math” the best, but wasn’t very good at it yet. She was a very smart young girl and a delight to enjoy lunch with. The others at my table were TOM GRAVES and JIM CLARK. Somehow TOM and JIM missed the “escort service”.
Photographs taken during the recent Lowell Halloween costume judging and parade were continuously projected on an overhead screen during the luncheon. North Fresno Rotarians helped to judge the costumes, provided awards for the winners and presented the awards.
Near the completion of the lunch Mrs. Connie Provincio, Assistant Principal welcomed the Rotarians to the luncheon and announced the entertainment portion of the program. Groups of students from each of the various Lowell grades sang a variety of songs, some in English and some in Spanish, all done very well. The Rotarians enjoyed listening to the singing and watching the students. The performers also seemed to enjoy the opportunity to perform for the Rotarians.
At the conclusion of the entertainment Mr. Naranjo thanked all of the Rotarians for attending and for all of the gifts for the needy children. He also thanked the Club for all of their previous involvement with Lowell School including the personal dictionaries recently given to the Lowell students.
Very enjoyable luncheon. IF YOU WERN’T THERE, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!!
-Cliff Speight-
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