It has been a few months since we last published a newsletter. Times changed seemingly overnight with the arrival of COVID-19 and after several months of lock down and immense stress, we are now ushering in a New Year with our new President, Valerie Smith. Congratulations Val, we love you and we all know that you are going to do an amazing job leading our Rotary Club. We also welcomed a new District Governor, Bette Hall, from the Calabasas Rotary Club. We welcome you! Thank you to our past President Eloise Menendez who led our club during a very difficult transition to our new "abnormal" COVID life. We appreciate your service and your hard work! And we can't forget our past district Governor Melody St. John. Thank you both for your dedication to Rotary!
The quarantine and social distancing protocols have changed many things for our club. We are now meeting every Thursday online via Zoom Meetings. If you would like to join our meetings, please contact our president Val Smith or PR Director Rebecca Bergin, and we will send you a link with details to join. We also cancelled our summer events including our annual Movie in the Park and Malt Madness events due to the mandates that restrict gathering of large groups. But while we saw these unfortunate cancellations, we welcomed new members to our club: Josette Murphy, Geoff Gerny, and Margaret McCanless. On behalf of all of our members, we welcome you and hope that your time with our club is worthwhile and meaningful. Life is what you make of it - and the more you get involved with our club, the more rewarding you will find it. We look forward to working with you in helping our community and the causes we actively support! Welcome!
July is looking to be a very informative month. First up we have speaker Derek Johnson of New Metabolism speaking on July 9th. Next up is Randy Collins, the El Segundo Emergency Management Coordinator on July 16th. Then we hear from Carl Hahn, a Wellness and Fitness nurse and yoga instructor on July 16th. Then on July 30th we hear from a rep from Vision to Learn. If you would like to learn more about any of our speakers, please visit our speaker page or click here: https://www.elsegundorotary.org/page/speakers.
Congratulations to Samantha and Amanda, winners of the El Segundo Rotary Scholarship contest! Thank you for volunteering your time to help our community.
On May 6th Maura and Eloise delivered beautiful baseball banners to the graduating seniors on the the El Segundo High School Varsity Baseball Team. This wonderful gift from our Rotary club thrilled the graduates and their families.
A member of Calabasas Rotary Club since 2007, Bette Hall has held various positions, both within her Club and District 5280. Positions held include Club Avenues of Service and Events Chair, Board member, Club President, Assistant Governor, District Trainer for several years, and three years as the Senior Assistant Governor, Youth Services for District 5280. She has also chaired both the 2019 District Club Assembly and District Conference. Her current District position is the Senior Assistant Governor, Education and Training, as well as District Governor Elect.
Bette has been very involved in developing and providing training for the Youth Protection Program and if asked to select an area she is most passionate about in Rotary, the answer has to be our Youth Programs. In 2017 Bette was one of two members who received the Rotarian of the Year award for District 5280, the other being none other than our District Governor Melody St. John. She is very honored to be selected as District 5280 Governor, 2020-21.
Originally from London, England, Bette is a long-time resident of the West San Fernando Valley, and retired a few years ago from a long and varied career in Human Resources after holding positions such as Director and Vice President of Human Resources for large, multi-state/International companies, prior to running her own HR consulting company.
What Bette enjoys most about retirement is having more time to volunteer with Rotary and an extra bonus – spending more time with her family, and especially the grandchildren. She feels very fortunate to have them all living within easy driving distance, and being able to go to their activities, including baseball games, to cheer them on.
Knaack is the CEO of Knaack KG, a real estate company. He was previously a partner and general manager of Knaack Enterprises, a 125-year-old family business.
He is a founding member of the Civic Foundation of the City of Ratzeburg and served as president of the Golf-Club Gut Grambek. Knaack is also the founder and chair of the Karl Adam Foundation.
A Rotary member since 1992, Knaack has served Rotary as treasurer, director, moderator, member and chair of several committees, representative for the Council on Legislation, zone coordinator, training leader, and district governor.
He is an endowment/major gifts adviser and was co-chair of the Host Organization Committee for the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg.
Knaack and his wife, Susanne, are Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation and members of the Bequest Society.
Tell us what you think! We want to hear from you. Let us know if you have any suggestions or ideas; please email us at info@elsegundorotary.org. Thank you for your support.