9th Bulletin Column

Visit to the Rotary Club of Wilmington My unscheduled visit to the Rotary Club of Wilmington took place when I was in California to attend to the grand induction of the Pangasinan Association of Greater Long Beach, Inc. last August 20. My father was supposed to be the guest of honor and speaker and inducting officer in the affair. But as fate would have it, I was instantly requested to proxy for him that day because of equally pressing commitments in Manila. My visit to the Pangasinan community groups in Long Beach was a great success. I felt their warm welcome and they were all there to fully participate in the different activities set forth for my original 72-hour stay. And it was on my last day there when I had the opportunity to meet with the Rotary Club of Wilmington, a small historical city very near Long Beach. It is also the place where the District 5280 Governor, Ivan Werk, comes from. The Rotary Club of Wilmington has a total of 15 members and they meet every Monday at the Banning’s Community Center in Wilmington Harbor. Its incumbent president is Dennis McCarbery, who was unfortunately not available at that time. The meeting was instead presided over by Juanita Naranjo, a Paul Harris Fellow and the Club’s 2000-2001 President. The Rotary Club of Wilmington was sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Pedro and was chartered on March 27, 1928, into a community whose importance to the development of Southern California is significantly underrated. Wilmington was the California home of Phineas Banning, the Founder of Los Angeles Harbor and an expatriate of Wilmington, Delaware. The Rotary Club of Wilmington was in Rotary District 5320 (then 532) until July 1, 1989, when it successfully petitioned to become part of District 5280 (then 528). David C. Williams, later to become the club's first District Governor, served as Club President. The new District appealed to the members and the club won an Outstanding Club Banner for overall performance in meeting the Object of Rotary during Rotary Year 1989-90. The following year, Governor Larry Hornbaker chose to recognize overall club performance while disregarding size. The Rotary Club of Wilmington, under President Romy Mosqueda, was recognized as the highest rated club in the District. Wilmington Rotary brought a number of innovations to its new District. It was highly active in Governor Ollie Hunt's Urban Task Force, designed to help alleviate the conditions which led to the LA riots of 1992. It initiated the "Adopt a Class" project, which was copied by several other clubs. It held the District's first Youth Forum, to enable the community's young people to explain their problems and work with adults to deal with them. Under the leadership of Dr. Synteke Demonteverde, the club set up and administered free medical clinics for poor families for 9 years. Dr. Demonteverde won the prestigious Dominguez-Brand Award in 1999, for this Rotary-sponsored project. The club has sponsored Christmas Eve dinner for impoverished families since 1991, and began monthly distribution of food and bonus bags to disadvantaged families in 2004. The club became the District's first 100% Paul Harris Fellow Club (34th in the world) on June 25, 1998. It has participated in Matching Grant projects in Mexico and India. Its contributions to The Rotary Foundation have exceeded $168,000. The club was the "No. 1 Club in the District" in per capita giving to The Rotary Foundation during Rotary Year 2003-04. It helped establish LA Harbor College, the Wilmington Boys and Girls Club, and the Wilmington YMCA. It funded an endowed scholarship at LA Harbor College, and a Computer Learning Center at the Boys and Girls Club. In 1998, the club sponsored the Rotary Club of Compton. Between 2001 and 2005, the club donated more than 5,800 new books to the 5 public elementary schools in Wilmington. The club contributed two attractive benches at Bannings Landing for Rotary's Centennial Year. There, visitors may view the harbor where "it all began." The club will have the distinction in 2005-06 of having within its ranks both the Honorary Mayor of Wilmington, Margaret I. Hernandez, and the Governor of District 5280, Ingo Werk. Knowing this much about their Club, I wasted no time in telling them about Dagupan City and the Rotary Club of Dagupan, when I became the instant Resource Speaker for the day. Fortunately, before I left Dagupan City, I requested my staff, Larry Munoz, to prepare a CD about the Rotary Club of Dagupan membership, the projects we have accomplished and the induction we had so that I did not have a difficult time telling them about us. Acting Presiding Officer Juanita Naranjo, together with their President Elect Esther Espinoza, was only too happy to receive the CD. I had a great time during my visit to Long Beach. And my experience had an added significance with that rare opportunity to interact with the members of the Rotary Club of Wilmington, which was arranged by Bing dela Vega, president of the Dagupan Brotherhood.