Next Week: The Police Activities League (PAL) will bring us up to speed on their current programs.

Prez Jody Stickel opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Today’s Guest: Nicole Paravacini, who treated us to a beautifully performed song: America the Beautiful.

Thought for the Day: from Mark Twain, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

Happy Dollars:

  • Gary is happy to have won $14 at poker, but he squealed on Pete who won about $50…!
  • Pete’s happy his wedding anniversary is coming up, and he also gave happy dollars for his poker winnings.
  • Donna is happy to have gone to the High School improv program last night — buy tickets, she says, because tonight is the last performance!
  • Ray is happy with his new puppy…
  • Dean happy to also have a new puppy, and is happy not to be home with it right now.
  • John C is happy that he doesn’t have a new puppy!

Announcements:

Dean informed the club that our club has donated over $3600 to Polio Plus this year, and has met the Every Rotarian, Every Year goal! Dean will share a list of everyone’s standing in terms of Paul Harris Fellowships. Bill and Melinda Gates matched our Polio Plus contributions 2-to-1 — so roughly 12,000 children will be vaccinated this year due to our donations.

Gary announced that Charter Night will be Feb. 25, 2016, a Thursday night, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Hill House, with dinner served at 7:00 p.m. There will be no regular meeting that week.

Kathleen announced that there will be a Dine Out fundraising event on Feb. 24, 2016 at the MacCallum House, with proceeds going to our Interact Club.

John C. announced that we have had several visitors lately, and he encourages us to invite them back to become new members. He has pamphlets to share that explain how to bring a new member on board.

Ray would like to host our next Adopt-A-Highway cleanup on Feb. 20, with a 10:00 a.m. start time. We need 10-12 volunteers, and Eula has offered a free drink at Dick’s for all volunteers!

Jeffry is hosting an International Committee meeting today to discuss our project in Vanuatu.

Jody will have a Casino Night Committee meeting after today’s meeting. A request was made for a form that members can give out for table sponsors to complete to support the event.

Jody announced that today is the second reminder that bylaws voting will happen at our next meeting.

Today’s Program:

Nicole Paravacini joined us today to talk about the local community theater and singing opportunities that she has taken part in, which have helped her grow her confidence in following this as a career path.

Nicole grew up singing in the Gloriana Opera Company, and her latest production was The Last Five Years, which our Rotary Club went to on our theater night event.

She explained that veinging and community theater has given her a lot of confidence. She went to boarding school in LA last year and majored in musical theater. She is back at the Community School this year, and hopes to go to the San Francisco Conservatory after graduation.

She has been building a repertoire of classical music for her Conservatory audition. She sang one song in French for us, and another in English — Can’t Help But Lovin’ That Man of Mine.

She wants to study classical voice rather than musical theater, because she wants to be able to sing opera in addition to musical theater. She would love to sing, perform, and teach in the future. She does at least 3-4 shows per year, and usually has a couple months to prepare for each live show.

Nicole also performs with the high school improv group, led by Doug Nunn. The improv training helps with tough situations on stage, and helps her be very present in every moment with her team on stage.

Following Nicole’s presentation and performance, Jody played Finemaster with some trivia questions. We learned the following:

  • Women blink twice as much as men.
  • Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania.
  • CocaCola used to be the most popular brand name in the world, overtaken by McDonalds in the mid-1990s.
  • The letters WD in WD-40 stand for Water Displacement.
  • Calcium carbonate is more commonly known as chalk.
  • The #57 on a bottle of Heinz ketchup represents nothing…
  • The last president of the USSR was Gorbachev.
  • Mickie Mouse’s original name was Mortimer.
  • Sleeping burns more calories than watching TV.

Jody reminded us that our meeting schedule is regular meetings on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Thursdays of the month, with the 4th Thursday being the Board meeting. If there’s a 5th Thursday in a given month, we’ll skip that week.

Today’s raffle winners: Heather and John P.