Greeter of the WeekGreeter of the Week

OFF THE ROTARY WHEEL

Rotary Club of Altadena

AN AWARD-WINNING NEWSLETTER

March 15, 2018

This WeekThis Week

March 08Doug Collifl ower

March 15Craig Cox

March 22Steve Cunningham

This Month is All Wet

Please turn to Dialing p. 4

Please turn to This Week p. 3

Camille Levee:An Overview of Wellness Works & How They support Veteran’s FamiliesProgram Host: Tom McCurry

M

Dialing InDialing InDialing InBy Steve Kerekes,

President

March is Water and Sanitation

Month on the Rotary Calendar.

There are 2.5 billion people in the

world who lack access to minimum sanita-

tion standards and 748 million people that

have no access to clean drinking water. Many

children die each day from diseases caused

by lack of sanitation and unsafe water.

In 2015, the United Nations introduced

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

to end poverty and promote prosperity while

protecting the environment and addressing

climate change. These goals encourage us

to address obtaining universal access to

drinking water and sanitation along with

stopping the spread of infectious diseases

caused by poor sanitation and improving

water management in order to protect

ecosystems.

Rotary International had partnerered

with UNICEF to institute a pilot program

to help develop sustainable water, sani-

tation, & hygiene (collectively referred to

as WASH), as well as education projects

using the expertise and resources available

through two of Rotary’s areas of focus: ba-

sic education and literacy and water

and sanitation. The program focuses on

measuring the impact that WASH and basic

education and literacy initiatives have on

school attendance. Rotary and UNICEF will

recognize Rotary clubs and schools whose

WASH in Schools projects achieve various

benchmarks. During the pilot phase, the

program will run through July 2020 in fi ve

countries — all chosen for their strong, active

involvement in school sanitation efforts:

Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, India, and

Kenya. Read more about it at <https://

my.rotary.org/en/wash-schools-tar-

get-challenge>.

Since 2009, Rotary International has

worked in partnership with US Agency

for International Development (USAID) to

develop programs that support improve-

ments to water, sanitation, and hygiene

in developing countries. The partnership

Camille Levee is the immediate past

president of South Pasadena Rotary and

currently serves on the District Peace

Conference Committee.

Levee has served as the District 5300

Dan Stover Music Contest Chair, the Dis-

trict 5260 Interact Alliance Coordinator

and the District 5140 RI Foundation

Stewardship Chair, and just completed

Chairmanship of the District 5300 Rotary

Wheels in Heels Program which raised

over $13,000 for the RI Foundation.

She currently serves as Vice- President

of the Board of Wellness Works and is

the Executive Director of the Dental

Foundation of California.

<> <> <>

Wellness Works was founded in 1986

as a community resource to promote

wellness in the community. In 2007,

they redefi ned their mission as Engaging

the community in inspiring hope and

Sparks - Altadena Rotary Club Newsletter2

A

CongratulationsBirthdaysBirthdays

03/08 - Jeri Cunningham03/14 - Steve Cunningham

03/15 - Trish Robinson03/15 - David P. Smith

Anniversaries03/01 - Tim & Etta McCurry

03/13 - Steve Kerekes & Sunny Wu03/30Dennis Mehringer & Noriko Suzuki

Congratulations

Sparks is published 48 weeks a year and is the offi cial publication of the Rotary Club of Altadena. The deadline for submission of articles is Friday at 6p to current editor email, fax, or delivery.

Rotary Club of Altadena - #7183Chartered: February 14, 1949

P.O. Box 414, Altadena, CA 91003www.altadenarotary.comMeets: Thursday, 12:10p

Altadena Town & Country Club2290 Country Club Drive • Altadena, CA

626-794-7163Rotary Int. Pres................................. Ian H.S. RiseleyDist 5300 Gov. ............................... Raghada Khoury

Offi cersSteve Kerekes, Pres. ...................Bus. 626-796-5000Sarah O’Brien, Pres. Elec. ..........Bus. 310-902-6547Charlie Wilson, V. Pres. ..............Bus. 626-351-8815Mark Mariscal, Sec. ...................... Bus. 323-816-6713Mike Noll, Trea. ............................Bus. 626-683-0515

DirectorsMindy Kittay • Anthony Hill

Charlie Wilson • Dennis MehringerJames Gorton • Sarah O’Brien • Mark Mariscal

ChairmenSarah O’Brien ..................................... AdministrationDavid Smith .............................................. Foundation Steve Cunningham .....................Asst. FoundationCraig Cox ..................................................MembershipJacque Foreman ........................... Public Awareness Jacque Foreman ...........................Acting Publicity Jacque Foreman ...........................Sparks/WebsiteMike Zoeller ...........................................Club Projects Craig Cox ..............................................Community Doug Collifl ower ...................Asst. Community John Frykenberg ............................... International Tony Hill .......................... Youth Contests/Awards Mike Zoeller .....................................Youth Projects Ray Carlson ............................................VocationalEditor, Design & Typesetting ........... Foreman GraphicsPhotography ...........................................Jacque Foreman

Tom McCurry

MarchWater & Sanitation

Program Chair, Tom McCurryMarch 15 - Camille Levee - An overview

of Wellness Works & how they support Veteran’s Families

March 22 - Frank Cunningham - Craft TalkMarch 29 - Dan Stover Music Contst - Club-

-Level Competition

Program ReviewProgram Review

The 4-Way Speech ContestClub Level Competition

Altadena was

honored to

host the sec-

ond round of the

4-Way Speech Con-

test for this area. Mark Mariscal did an excel-

lent job of hosting the contest and providing

some excellent judges and timekeeper. The

judges were: Charles Thomas, Mary Novak,

and Mindy Kittay, with Gary Novak bring

our time keeper.

The contestants were Bailey Garcia,

Michael Wilkins, and Joel Turk – all from

Maranatha, Jesus Hernandez from John

Muir High School, and Sofi e Wolfe from

LaSalle High School. Their topics ranged

from human traffi cking to animal cruelty to

support of teachers to a personal journey

from the dark side to being a student leader.

It was a tough decision for the judges

to select a fi rst and second place winner

because of the high quality of each of the

presentations. But the eventual winners

were Joel Turk (1st place) and Michael

Wilkins (2nd place). Joel will go to the next

round of the contest and Michael will be the

back-up contestant, if necessary.

We were very encouraged by the quality

and energy of these young people and the

parents and teachers that accompanied

them to the contest.

(l to r) Mark Mariscal, Contest Organier; Contestants Jeusus Hernandez, Joel Turk, Michael Wilkins, Bailey Garcia, and Sophie Wolfe with Immediate Past President, Charlie Wilson behind

Sparks - Altadena Rotary Club Newsletter 3

W

by Craig Cox, Community Service Chair

hairmen’s ornerCornerChairmen’s

Projects Committee to Meet to decide on a Community

Project for Spring

This WeekContinued from p. 1

Wi t h o u r

Summer

Concer t

efforts established

(and my March concert commitment done),

it is time to reconvene a meeting of the

Projects Committee to organize our

Spring project!

Right now we are kicking around a

project to add a surface to the fence that

surrounds the tennis courts at Loma Alta

Park. This would be for tennis players who

want to hit balls to warm up or practice.

We are open to any other ideas as well,

but are looking for a project on the north-

west side of town.

Please mark your calendar for Thursday,

March 22 at 7:00p for a meeting at Craig

Cox’ home (3944 Altura Ave., La Crescenta).

Concerts in the Park Update

The fundraising and production com-

mittees are wrapping up their efforts. We

are $1500 away from our goal of $20,000

for the concerts and have booked acts all

8 weeks. Our Promotion and Permits/

Facilities committees will now start their

work in earnest.

If you would like to get involved please

reach out to Mike Zoeller or me, either of

us can get you plugged in.

providing wholeness of body and soul

for veterans and their families.

To accomplish this, Wellness Works pro-

vides a continuum of treatments for PTSD,

TBI and MST for veterans. Case management

provides them with the opportunity to be

successful in re-integration into society.

Wellness Works can be found at <www.

wellnessworksglendale.org>.

In their own words, Welcome Works

is “a non-profi t community resource that

provides training, education and treatments

for self-healing in an atmosphere of com-

passion and joy.”

It was a Short Trip from the word Slav to SlaveHere is How it Happened

Here I am again taking information

from one of my favorite books: The Unex-

pected Evolution of Language by Justin

Cord Hayes. This time we we are looking

at the transformation of Slave being only

an alternative spelling of Slav to meaning

a person owned by another and forced to

work for free.

Several thousand years ago, in portions

of present-day Poland and Russia, lived a

group of people who called themselves

Slavos. For them, slovo meant word, so

they were the people who speak words.

In Latin, slovos ultimately transformed

to Slav (and was capitalized). The Slavs were

agrarian for the most part, rather than war-

riors. Thus, they often were conquered by

others. At one time or another, seemingly

every nation of the midieval world con-

quered the Slavs, including the Celts, the

Huns and the Goths.

Some of the Slavs fi nally got wise and

began to organize themselves into martial

groups that tried their own hands at invasion

and conquering. They invated the Balkans,

and they tried to take land away from the

Germans

The Germans, in modern parlance,

kicked Slavic as. The Germans repelled the

Slavs from their turf and turned many of

them into servants. For the Germans, slave

was just an alternate spelling of Slave. Thus,

slave became someone forced to work by

another and, by extension, someone owned

by another.

by Jacque Foreman, Editor

Sparks - Altadena Rotary Club Newsletter4

DialingContinued from p. 1

combines Rotary’s network of volunteers

with the expertise of USAID to help solve

seemingly unsolvable problems in water and

sanitation in those countries. In 2015, the

collaboration committed $4 million each to

Ghana, Uganda, and Madagascar, with each

partner providing half of the funds needed.

Rotary is seeking to raise $200,000 for each

country by the end of this year as part of

its $2 million per country commitment.

The investment will support WASH project

design, implementation and monitoring,

as well as help develop appropriate and

sustainable processes and tools using the

WASH Sustainability Index Tool, which

helps to determine the long-term technical

and fi nancial sustainability of WASH proj-

ects. You can read more about the Rotary

– USAID partnership at <https://www.

rotary.org/en/usaid>.

<> <> <>

Some recent examples of clubs involved

in water and sanitation projects are as

follows;

• Dave Smith’s (Altadena Rotary) recent

trip to India with the Dream Team to

work on an irrigation dam and admin-

ister polio vaccinations… . An irrigation

dam is an earthen dam that stores the

water so that there is a constant supply

of water for the crops. Since 2008, the

Rotary Dream Team has gone to India

every year to work hands-on with hu-

manitarian projects in the heart of India.

Before or after the project, they also usu-

ally take a short holiday to enjoy a slice

of India’s cultural fl avors and landscapes.

This year, the project was located near

Udaipur, a city in the western Indian state

of Rajasthan.

• South Pasadena Rotary has been

involved in several deep well water proj-

ects in Africa over the years. The most

recent one, which was sponsored with

the Rotary Club of Indianola, Iowa and

was completed in December 2015, was at

the Kigogo sub-village in the Kilimanjaro

region of Tanzania. You may recall that,

in February of last year, Dick Ross from

the South Pasadena Club came and gave

a presentation at one of our luncheons

about that project. Currently, they are

working on a Global Grant for a project

in Mhezi — in the Kilimanjaro District —

to encase a natural spring in the hillside

and use it for a distribution system on

the lower hillside and the plains below.

They are actively seeking fi nancial and

program partners to accomplish this.

• Bangalore Metro Rotary in India in-

stalled a water purifi cation plant in the

village of Ramanahalli. Due to extensive

mining, the ground water in this rural

community is completely contaminated

with fl uorides and other contaminants.

The new water purifi cation plant pro-

vides reliable access to potable water.

• In the rural community of Bharat Pokha-

ri in Nepal, villagers walk 25 km to fetch

buckets of water every day. Oftentimes

girls spend two hours a day bringing

home water before and after school. In

partnership with Williamson Rotary

(USA), the Pokhara Rotary installed a

water tank in the village, giving more

than 500 families access to safe drinking

water closer to home.

• Suna Migori Rotary in Kenya has

provided a source of clean rainwater to

students at four schools and a clinic. At

each location, Rotarians provided new

latrines and hand washing stations. The

project has impacted more than 1,500

students and their families, hundreds

of patients at the clinic, and increased

school attendance, especially among

girls.

REAL ESTATE

by Doug Collifl owerwith the Altadena Realty GroupM

atters

Renovation without Permits:Risk vs Reward

When considering a home renovation

project and beginning to calculate the cost,

it is only natural to look at ways to save

some cash. One popular line item is the

permit fees. Not only is cost a concern

but we all want to avoid delays waiting

for inspections, required corrections and

re-inspections that are often required. The

bigger concern, most often when a permit

is issued is that it triggers a reassessment by

the assessor, often leading to an increase in

your property taxes.

There are a number of risks to consider

before by-passing the permit step in your

renovation plan:

• Should you have an electrical fi re or

water damage due to a leak or broken

pipe in the area of the renovation or

addition, your insurance company may

deny your claim, leaving you to deal with

a large repair bill.

• When you go to sell, by law you must

disclose repairs and renovations com-

pleted without permits. Should you not

disclose, in most cases the buyer will

Please turn to Real Estate, p. 5

Sparks - Altadena Rotary Club Newsletter 5

Real EstateContinued from p. 4

discover the unpermitted work while

completing their physical inspections and

due-diligence. In both cases, this often

leads prospective buyers to negotiate the

price down due to anticipated costs for

bringing the property into compliance.

• If you were to complete the sale without

proper disclosure, you run the risk of a

lawsuit — should or when your buyer

makes the discovery.

Examples of

Non-Permitted Renovations

• One East San Francisco Bay homeowner

hired a contractor to convert a shed into

a studio apartment for his daughter to

live in. The contractor did the job with-

out a city building permit. Before going

through with the sale, the buyers talked

to a city building inspector to fi nd out

what it would take to make the converted

shed into a legal structure. The building

was so far from complying with the

building code that the only economically

feasible alternative was to tear it down.

Consequently, the seller had to lower his

price to refl ect the loss of the apartment

and the cost of demolition.

• Appraisers often want to know if signif-

icant renovations were done without

building permits. One couple found this

to be the case when they sold their home

in the Oakland hills.

They had added a bedroom, a bath

and a family room without permits. The

addition doubled the square footage of

the house. Without permits, the apprais-

er wasn’t willing to give full value for the

improvements, so the property appraised

for signifi cantly less than the purchase

price.

To keep the sale from falling apart, the

sellers took out permits, which involved

paying penalties. For the city inspector

to confirm that the work was done

properly, some walls had to be opened

to expose plumbing and electrical work.

The sellers’ efforts to save money by

bypassing the permit process ended up

costing them much more in the long run.

Best to Come Clean

Coming clean with the building depart-

ment is not as costly and onerous as you

might expect. Typically, the permit fee may

be doubled, possibly a little extra to con-

stitute a penalty. You may also incur some

cost should the building department require

that walls be opened up to complete their

inspection.

Most likely, these costs are apt to be far

less than a reduced sales price to placate

your buyer or litigation and settlement costs

should you be served with a post-escrow

lawsuit.

Sparks - Altadena Rotary Club Newsletter6

CERTIFICATE FOR EXAMINATION

AND X-RAYS

CERTIFICATE FOR EXAMINATION

AND X-RAYS

DOCTORS WITH A HEART

FEB. 14 – MARCH 14, 2018

140 North Hill AvenuePasadena, CA 91106(626) 792-3390www.drbud.com

Michael N. Budincich, D.C.Tom Surnock, D.C.Polin Togi, LAc

140 North Hill AvenuePasadena, CA 91106(626) 792-3390www.drbud.com

Michael N. Budincich, D.C.Tom Surnock, D.C.Polin Togi, LAc

This gift certificate is good for a Complete Chiropractic or Acupuncture Examination, including examination of the spine, posture, muscles, joints, nerves, and even spinal x-rays

if they are needed.

This offer is for new patients only and expires on March 14, 2018.

This gift certificate is good for a Complete Chiropractic or Acupuncture Examination, including examination of the spine, posture, muscles, joints, nerves, and even spinal x-rays

if they are needed.

This offer is for new patients only and expires on March 14, 2018.

Name Name

Referred by Referred by

This certificate is void unless referred by a current patient. This certificate is void unless referred by a current patient.

Dear Patients and Friends,

Flowers and chocolates can express how much you

care for someone, but showing someone how much you

deeply care about their good health can speak volumes.

We have a program that can help with improving the

health of your family and friends.

Attached you will find two gift certificates for

family members or friends, good for a Free Complete

Chiropractic or Chinese Acupuncture Assessment

Examination and any needed X-rays, from February 14

through March 14, 2018. This includes examination of

the spine, posture, muscles, joints, nerves, or this may be

used for a complete new patient acupuncture/Chinese

medicine examination. This is a total of up to $250.00 of

services we will provide for each person you send us.

I am sure that you know of someone who would

appreciate the opportunity to take this step toward

better health. In fact, it could be the most important gift

anyone has ever given them.

So, why not give a gift certificate to someone

suffering to have the opportunity to find out that they

don’t have to live with pain anymore. I ask you one

favor, please don’t let this go to waste. These certificates

expire on March 14, 2018. The best gift you could

give for Valentine’s Day is the gift of good health. This

certificate is void without your name on them as the

referring patient.

Sincerely,

Michael N. Budincich, D.C.