Rotary club playa venice sunrise

Special Advertising Section OctOber 1, 2015 tHe ArGONAUt PAGe 19

Rotary Club of Playa Venice Sunrise

Dear fellow community members, We of the Rotary Club of Playa

Venice Sunrise are part of 1,250,ooo Rotarians worldwide. We represent the 2010 merger of Playa Sunrise and the Venice Rotary Club. Since that time we have grown our ranks to over sixty members and climbing.

Rotary directs its efforts in Avenues of Service, specifically Community Service, Youth Service, International Service and Vocational Service. Programs are developed and promoted to help those who are less fortunate.

Adopt a Family during the holiday season (community service,) the Santa Tour (youth service,) donat-ing an ambulance to Ajajic Mexico (international service,) and teacher mini grants (vocational service,) these are just a few samples of our efforts We also fund donations to eradicate polio (only present in Afghanistan and Pakistan,) treat youngsters with cancer at St. Jude and give back to veterans through the Wounded Warrior project.

It takes thousands of dollars to support the good works of Playa Venice. We have created a 501c3

non-profit which supports our programs. Donations to fund raisers are tax deductable because of our charitable non-profit status. In the fall we have our cultural dinner, this year on October 15th it is Return to Italy. It will be a fun filled evening of good food and entertainment and great fellowship. We will honor community stalwart Tony Palermo of Tony P’s Dockside grill. In the spring we put on Luck O the Irish BingoFest. 2016 may see our expansion into the world of bocce ball.

Playa Venice Rotarian are living examples of the Rotary motto of Service above Self. Let us know if you would like to learn more about what we do. u

Sincerely, Tony Ciancimino, President

On Thursday, October 15, 2015, the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club Foundation will hold its annual Cultural Dinner. This year’s theme is “Return to Italy” celebrating Rotary Italian style. The club’s first dinner was nine years ago and was Italian themed and the club decided this year to return to that beauti-ful warm country. The food will be catered by one of the top Italian Restaurants in the com-munity, Cantalini’s, and there will be some very special entertainment.

The dinner event is the largest fund-raiser of the year which helps fund the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Foundation projects such as Teacher Mini-Grants, Teacher Eddy Awards, Holiday Adopt-A-Family program, the Santa Tour, Airport Marina Counseling Service, feeding the homeless, 4th of July Parade, Christmas party and toy give-away for the McBride School for handicapped chil-dren, high school scholarships, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, support of local area firefighters, and clean water projects in third world countries, to name a few.

Each year at the Cultural Dinner the club pres-ents the Sunrise Community Service Award, to a person who has made a difference in the lives of

others, gives back to the community and lives their life by the Rotary 4-Way test. The recipient of this year’s Sunrise Community Service Award is Tony Palermo, owner of Tony P’s Dockside Grill and a Westchester resident. Tony has been a sup-porter of many, many organizations through-

out the community and has generously given to our local schools with time, talents and donations. He has been very active with the LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce and played a major role in the 4th of July Parade for many years.

The club will also recognize longtime Venice resident Ty Pennington, who transformed the lives of hundreds of deserving families on the hit ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Ty inspired tens of thousands of volunteers across the country,

as well as millions of television viewers world-wide, to give back to their communities… a cor-nerstone of the Rotary mission.

The charismatic home-design guru first won national attention as the creative carpenter on the home improvement series Trading Spaces. But it has been his work as leader of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition phenomenon and his expanded community efforts with programs like the Sears American Dream campaign that have caused Ty to be recognized as a leader in the field of volunteerism.

This very special event will be held at the Playa Vista CenterPointe Club beginning at 6:00 p.m. on October 15, 2015. The cost of an individual ticket is $85 which includes appetizers, din-ner, hosted bar and entertainment. For information, please call (310) 306-8525. u

Special 8-page pull-out Section

Tony Palermo, Ty Pennington, to be honored at annual Rotary Cultural Dinner This year’s theme is “Return to Italy”

Welcome!

William Hannon Foundation

Cantalini’s RestaurantGail Goldstein &

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UniversityPlaya Vista

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Thank you to the following sponsors of our 2015 Cultural Dinner:

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Subject: Who knows what a Rotarian does?Rotarians have two legs and big hearts so they run a lot. They run fundraisers to help local and interna-tional charities. They run charitable projects in Third World counties and run a major a push to eradicate polio from the face of the Earth. Rotarians give their time, knowledge, energy and financial support to improve our

world. Just about every country in the world has Rotary Clubs and Rotarians are recognized and honored when traveling for living up to the motto of “Service Above Self”. And they have fun while doing all this good stuff because they enjoy being with people who share the same sense of giving.

The Playa Venice Rotary Club welcomes visitors who want to check us out. We meet every Wednesday morning, 7:15 a.m. at Whiskey Red’s Restaurant, 13813 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey. Feel free to visit our website: playasunrise.org. u

Holiday ActivitiesThe Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club will be gearing up very soon for its traditional holiday activities with their Family Adoption program, Christmas Party at the McBride School for handi-capped children, Santa Tour and a special visit from the world famous Mark Twain Bell Ringers. The Bell Ringers will visit the club at its regular meeting at Whiskey Red’s Restaurant on December 16, 2015.

The club will once again adopt 5 or 6 very needy local area families to bring a special holiday celebration to their home, set up a special visit from Santa to the McBride School and join forces with LAPD and LAFD for the annual Santa Tour around the Westchester, Playa del Rey and Playa Vista neighborhoods. The Rotarian elves are busily planning to make the 2015 holiday season a special time for those in need. u

Jet to JettyPlaya Venice Sunrise Rotary is a spon-sor and supporter of Airport Counseling Services’ annual Jet to Jetty 5K/10K event. The club joined forces this year with Cantalini’s Restaurant and had the larg-est team in the race, 40-persons strong. Those Rotarians that didn’t walk or run covered the Rotary booth and passed out “Rotary” trail mix to all the participants. The club even had some representation in the young people’s Fun Run with Addison and Gabe O’Donoghue running in the kids’ event. u

Rotarians Brady Connell and Rob DeCou at the recent Jet to Jetty race event.

RotaRy club of playa venice SunRiSe

The club meets every Wednesday morning at 7:15 a.m. at Whiskey Red’s Restaurant, 13813 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey.

We look forward to serving the community with you. For more information about Rotary or how you can help

support a local project, please visit our website, www.playasunrise.org, contact our Director of Membership

John Marcato (310) 740-6469 or visit us at a weekly breakfast meeting.

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Front Row left to right: Jim Vuchsas, Gail Goldstein, Gwen Vuchsas, Tom Carson, Katie Litsey, Tony Ciancimino, Peter Smyth, Kathrine Russell, Howard Pollack. Second Row left to right: Sam Innes, Monica Trepany, Rob Bird, Liz Hall, Sharma Henderson, Sandy Launius, Judith Ciancimino, Constance Couvillon, Charles Rosenberg, Monica Trepany, Margaret Kubiak, Michael Warren, Lisa Schwab.

Capt. Joe Stephens. Third Row left to right: Tom Ryan, Jeff Kim, Rachel Sunday, Andy O’Reilly, Jerry Jen, David Voss, Tore Knos, David Shapiro, Armando Diaz, Kristen Hemanes, Glenn Hemanes



Feeding the Homeless on Skid Row The Rotary Club of Playa Venice Sunrise is committed to feeding the home-less at the Midnight Mission on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. The club makes three or four trips a year to the Mission to feed the homeless and bring food and much needed supplies including water, toiletries, clothing and shoes. The Mission was founded in 1914 and celebrating 100 years! They have many programs including emergency services, alcohol and addiction recovery and transition and training for jobs including a simple thing such as providing mail service for the homeless who send out resumes and need a place to receive responses.

One of the club members noticed there was never any dessert provided at the meal servings and when the Mission was asked, they said they must con-

centrate on basic food and they would be happy to serve dessert if someone donated it. The next trip the vol-unteers from Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club showed up with 3,000 cook-ies in hand.

Family members of Playa Venice club members have joined in this worthwhile proj-ect to feed, serve and clean up for the homeless and handicapped who depend on the Mission to survive their life on the streets. u

Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club has always been com-mitted to providing scholarship oppor-tunities in the com-munity. However in May of this year, the Club was thrilled to triple the number of scholar-ships offered and fill nine scholarships to deserving high school graduates. Following the review of over 75 scholar-ship applications, Rotarians presented nine $1,000 Rotary scholarships to amazing students from local area high schools: Venice, Animo Venice Charter, Westchester, Culver City and St. Bernard. The scholarships included an Interact Scholarship, Leadership Scholarship, Exceptional Achievement Scholarship, “Service Above Self” Scholarship, Tony Steinhart Scholarship for a deserv-ing LAPD cadet, Carol Goldstein Memorial Scholarship, Trudy Bird Memorial Scholarship, Don Culton

Memorial Scholarship and Sibyl Buchanan Honorary Scholarship. The scholarships were presented at a special Rotary Breakfast Meeting for the recipients and their parents. The winning students shared their future plans with the club members whether a university, community col-lege or trade school. The Rotary Club believes all students are des-tined for continued success and that the Rotary Club has played a role in supporting their efforts. It has been a very rewarding scholarship program!


(left) Sevia Lemus with daughter and scholarship recipient Arline Lemus of Westchester High School, Rotarians Gwen Vuchsas and Gail

Goldstein

Rotarians at Midnight Mission (front left) Peter Smyth, Kristen Hemanes, second row left: Gail Goldstein, Jean Davis, Joe Chehade, Michael

Warren, Gwen Vuchsas.

Rotarians Triple Scholarship Awards in 2015

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Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club under the leadership of Rotarian Jim Vuchsas initiated a project this past year to renovate and refurbish the Fire Department of Ajijic/Chapala in the Mexican State of Jalisco. They have sixteen (16) firefighters who get paid minimal wages, have limited training and no budget for equipment. The Rotary Club of Ajijic is the sister club of Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club.

The club successfully recruited “Los Bomberos”, a Latin Club of Los Angeles firefighters, to assist in this mission. Los Angeles firefighter and President of Los Bomberos, Roger Rubio traveled to Mexico with Playa Venice Sunrise Rotarian and presented

turnouts, helmets and boots valued at approximately $50,000.

The assistance did not stop there and again with the help of the Los Angeles Fire Department Station No. 5 and the Rotary Club of Historic Filipinotown, Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club secured a much needed ambulance for the Ajijic/Lake Chapala region. The club repaired and cer-tified the ambulance,

furnished it with medical supplies through the efforts of member Marina del Rey Hospital. In a joint effort with LAFD, a press conference was held this past spring at which time the stocked ambulance was turned over to to Fire Chief Lorenzo Salazar who proudly drove it back to Mexico.

This was a great International proj-ect as it demonstrated the power of people working together and accom-plishing a project that will provide emergency services to a community of approximately 44,000 people who do not have the resources to provide such services. u

With sister club in Ajijic, Mexico, Rotary Club of Playa Venice Sunrise secures an ambulance

SISTER CITY CLUB – AJIJIC, MEXICO

The Teacher Mini-Grant Program is one of the largest and most suc-cessful programs of the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club Foundation. The program is in its 20th year and has grown from a first year distribution of $1800 in funding to $18,000 last year. The purpose of the program is to fund creative and innovative projects for the classroom teacher. The grants range from $75 to $400 and are awarded annually for teachers in all grades for both public and private schools in the local community. Over the years the projects have ranged from planting and growing vegetable gardens, mak-ing book bags, computer software, special literacy programs to outdoor education and basic simple needs

such as a classroom whiteboard. The teachers very often pay for these types of projects or basic needs out of their own pockets and can now apply for funding through the Rotary Teacher Mini-Grants program.

Each year over 150 grant applica-tions are received and approximately 50% of them are funded through the program with the partnership and donations from other organiza-tions such as the Playa Vista, the Jim Bunch Charity Fund, Los Angeles Commercial Realtors Association (LACRA), LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce, Rainbow Acres on Washington Boulevard and private donations from individuals and busi-nesses in the local community. u

School Supply Prgram Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club Foundation created a new program sev-

eral years ago through the generous donation of LACRA members. The local area schools are asked to submit “Wish Lists” and the items are purchased through the funding from LACRA and distributed to the schools at the Teacher Mini-Grant Awards Breakfast, to be held on January 13, 2016.

Education is a priority of the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club. In addi-tion to the thousands of dollars given to teachers for these worthwhile projects through these grants, the Playa Venice Sunrise Rotary Club proudly supports education through a book donation program, as well as a sponsor of the Chamber’s very successful Teacher Eddy Awards and awarding of numerous high school scholarships. u

$18,000 awarded in Teacher Mini-Grants

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Rotary Career DayThe club held a very suc-cessful Career Day under the direction of Rotarian Dr. Sharma Henderson, President/CEO of CO-OP, a Community Outreach & Opportunity Program. Approximately 40 students from local area high schools spent a Saturday morning and afternoon with Playa Venice Sunrise Rotarians to learn and discuss possible career choices and options.

It was a very rewarding day for the Rotarians who partici-pated to meet so many bright, interesting and motivated stu-dents who want to make a dif-ference with their lives. u

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25 Bears for Children at USC County Hospital One of the unique projects of the Playa Venice Rotary Club is the Charity Build-A-Bear event. Once a year the club members meet at a local Build-A-Bear facility and build bears for the children of USC County Hospital. There are usually 25 bears built cover-ing a wide range of children’s favorites, princesses, police officers, Lakers, Dodgers, football players, bunnies, mon-keys, etc. The members write personal notes to go with each bear and the bears are delivered to the hospital for distribution to the sick children as needed. Charity Build-A-Bear is a club favorite and an activity that Rotarian families can join in on.

Playa Venice Rotary Club members build bears for the children of USC County Hospital


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Hospital circa 1972

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Rotary club playa venice sunrise

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