Service Clubs

The first starter's gun for the 27th running of the Woodbridge Cross Country Track Meet will fire at 7:15 a.m. Sept. 15. The event, co-sponsored by the Newport Irvine Rotary Club and the school, will attract more than10,000 star athletes from 210 high schools in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington to Irvine's Woodbridge High School for a series of 3-mile races George Varvas, Woodbridge coach, emphasized that for the second...

This is a busy time of the year for service clubs in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Some club members are ringing the Salvation Army bells and staffing the donation kettles at local shopping centers. Others, such as Exchange Clubs of Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor, are delivering food and Christmas gifts to families in need. Still others, partnering with their Interact, Key Club groups and are decorating their Rose Parade floats in time for the 123rd parade being held on Jan. 2 in Pasadena.

Local members of the Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary International service clubs donated their time over the past weeks to help decorate elaborate floats for the 121st Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on Friday. Rotary International’s float titled “Service Above the Rest,” took home the Tournament Volunteers’ Award for Best Floral Design of Theme, 35 feet or less. The float, 16 1/2 tall and 25 feet long, featured a giant teddy bear wearing a doctor’s coat and holding a bouquet of roses.

People can complain about what is happening in our schools, but here is a chance to do something about it. The Fountain for Youth Program of the Rotary Clubs of Costa Mesa, Newport-Balboa, Newport Beach Sunrise and Newport Irvine will match up to $5,200 in contributions made by Daily Pilot readers. The donations will buy recreational reading books for kindergarten through third-grade students of College Park, Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools in Costa Mesa. A $10 contribution will be matched by the Rotary Fountain for Youth and buy five reading books.

Soroptimist and Zontas' LUNAFEST - Women's Film Festival 2010 SUNDAY - April 18, 2010 at Bower Museum from 5 to 8 pm. Be Prepared to Laugh... have fun, and enjoy ten women's films - by women, for women (and men) and about women. Soroptimist International of Newport Harbor Area and Zonta Club of Newport Harbor, both local women's service clubs with over 150,000 members jointly world wide, have partnered to bring LUNAFEST to Orange County. The event will share wonderful and compelling women's films while raising money for breast cancer (15% goes to Luna, the nutrition bar company who puts it straight to breast cancer causes)

PLACES TO GO, PEOPLE TO MEET: Service clubs provide many benefits for their members. Besides long-term friendships, maybe a business contact or two, there is a chance to meet people and visit places one ordinarily wouldn't. Take for example, the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa. The speaker at its dinner meeting on March 27 was Assemblyman John Campbell of Irvine. Campbell, on spring legislative recess from Sacramento, was also the speaker at lunch that day for the 375-member Rotary Club of Long Beach and at noon the next day at Rotary Club of Newport-Irvine.

Today's the day to deliver letters of support and appreciation that will be sent to Marines in Iraq, items for care packages for Marines and sailors deployed overseas, and coupons and gift certificates for the families of Marines at Twenty-nine Palms. Care package items needed are contact lens cleaning solution, eye drops, lip balm, sunscreen (small size), prepaid phone cards, blank postcards, toothpaste, mouthwash (small size), magazines, reading material, chewing gum, granola bars, crossword puzzles, beef jerky, trail mix, peanuts, antibacterial hand sanitizer, AA and AAA batteries, deodorant, shampoo and toiletries.