Tidings

The San Diego Kiwanis Club was ready for April when President Boland rang in the meeting on April 6, 2021. With a packed house, he lost no time in inviting everyone to settle themselves and led the Club in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a timely invocation.

Mr. Boland welcomed guests including Michelle Castillo with San Diego State University and recognized Club member Sally Hazzard who recently moved to Palm Springs and is still joining the group via ZOOM. Mike called on Club Board Director Gordon Boerner to introduce the day’s special speakers. Gordon was thrilled for the Club to meet Jennifer Telitz and Caitlin Radigan from Just in time for Foster Youth, whose mission is to engage a caring community to help transition age foster youth achieve self-sufficiency and well-being.

As the Investor Relations Manager, Ms. Telitz was able to highlight the programs and funding that JIT is involved with and its impact on the community. Ms. Radigan wrapped it up by sharing her experience both as a foster youth as well as the current Investor Outreach Specialist. The presentation was excellent and reminded members that the Kiwanis mission is to serve the children of the world.

President Boland thanked our guest speakers and invited them to stay for the remainder of the meeting if they had the time or inclination – which they did!

Karina Sousa, the Club’s Program Director posted the tally for March events and there was a three-way tie for perfect attendance! And let’s be clear – the tally includes member meetings, service events and socials. For the month of March, we can congratulate Gordon Boerner, Doug Frost, and jay Jeffcoat for their dedication to the Club and its events. Thank you Gentlemen!

While Mr. Boerner was feeling rather good about his efforts for the Club, Ms. Sousa moved the meeting along to the “FINES” portion of the day. Club members that receive community recognition and don’t mention the San Diego Kiwanis Club are always found and fined. This month one only had to flip through the pages of Giving Back Magazine to find a few familiar faces!

Club members Jim Floros and Gordon Boerner received some nice coverage but there was not a mention of Kiwanis to be found!

Ms. Sousa reminded everyone that the Club’s socials are fun and shouldn’t be missed. A fact proven by photos from the in-person Social at the Kaiserhof in Ocean Beach at the end of March.

After happy and sad dollars and a preview of upcoming meetings and activities the Club called their meeting to an end. Everyone is encouraged to follow the Club’s Facebook page and interact with posts!

Club members showed up early on Tuesday, March 16 and by the time President Mike Boland rang the bell it was just two minutes past noon and everyone was ready to go! After the Pledge and Invocation, Mr. Boland welcomed guests which included Lieutenant Jeremy Alexander from the Salvation Army as well as Holt Mebane from the Scripps Ranch Kiwanis Club. Congrats to Holt as well as our own Club member Gordon Boerner for recently forming the Scripps Ranch Club. We think this count as your first Interclub!

San Diego residents are hugely interested in the Port of San Diego and any waterfront plans so everyone was eager to hear from guest speaker Michael Brown. Some facts on him:

Michael Brown joined the Port of San Diego as the Vice President of Marketing & Communications in July 2019 and oversees the Marketing & Communications and Parks & Recreation Departments. Brown’s career is divided between the private and public sectors. His private sector experience includes FleishmanHillard with Starbucks, Nike, Savannah College of Art & Design, Georgia Natural Gas, and Oregon State University’s College of Engineering as clients. In the public sector, Brown served as a political appointee in the Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations. Most recently, he was the chief marketing officer for the City of Norfolk, Virginia.

The Port of San Diego manages San Diego Bay and 34 miles of its natural waterfront for the people of California. The Port was established in 1962 under the Port Act and is charged with implementing the Tidelands Trust Doctrine. For over fifty years, the Port's five member cities - Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego - have worked together to develop and promote commerce, navigation, recreation and fisheries on and around San Diego Bay. Self-funded, the Port contributes billions annually to San Diego’s economy, benefiting the community, local businesses and employees.

Michael’s 33 slide power point presentation highlighted the local assets as well as current plans to expand and preserve key areas of the waterfront. Many listening to the presentation were surprised to find that the roughly one out of every 10 imported vehicles in the US comes in through our National City terminal. And, that the largest portion of the port’s commerce is bananas!

We appreciated the information as well as Michael sticking around to take questions from the members on an updated waterfront master plan, the new pier leases, when big ship cruising would resume and what is happening to our dear Maritime Museum.

Check the website for our upcoming events but don’t miss our IN PERSON SOCIAL on Wednesday, March 31st at Kaiserhof in Ocean Beach.

Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday April 6, 2021 with our special guest Just in Time for Foster Youth.

President Mike Boland started March with a bang by starting the meeting RIGHT at noon on March 2nd 2021! After the Pledge of Allegiance, Mr. Boland shared and Irish Blessing in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

After a few housekeeping items Mike kicked it over to Chairperson of the day – Steve Morris to introduce the Kiwanis Scholarship awardees who were on hand to receive recognition. It has become a tradition to talk with the scholars about their journey through higher education and the experiences they’ve had and despite being virtual, the students all shared their personal stories. While many acknowledged that school hasn’t been easy during the COVID pandemic, they all found bright areas of learning and educational experiences to highlight and share with the Club.

This one time a write up just isn’t enough to do their words justice so we encourage to watch their video from the meeting which is on our YouTube channel.

March 2, 2021 Scholars Luncheon

While the scholars took a break we had a moment to recognize the ONLY Club Birthday in March which is non other than JOE SIGURDSON! 

Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday March 16, 2021 with Michael Brown from the Port of San Diego!

The first San Diego Kiwanis club meeting of February was called to order at 12:04 on Tuesday the 2nd by President Mike Boland. Once the Invocation was completed he welcomed Chairperson of the day Club member Brian Krause who has a long-standing relationship with KPBS. But first, David Jay introduced Darian Bennett and Shelli Brown from Rady Children’s Hospital to tell us what they’ve being doing after being awarded grant funds from the San Diego Kiwanis Club & Foundation. Darian and Shelli took a few moments to talk about what they were able to accomplish with the resources given through the recent grant and thank the Club again for their generosity.

Chairman Krause introduced Nancy Worlie who is the interim general manager for KPBS. She has been with KPBS for 17 years. She served as the associate general manager for content & communications for five years prior to being named general manager. In this role she managed news, programming, public and media relations, events, government relations, human resources, and strategic planning.

As Nancy is a SDSU alumni like many Club members she was welcomed with open arms and thanked for the service KPBS provides to the region. Ms. Worlie thanked the Club for its interest and support and reminded everyone that KPBS news serves the people of the San Diego region with trustworthy, in-depth information that allows the community to hold its leaders accountable. They show how global and local current affairs change lives, and how San Diego changes the world. She reiterated that KPBS tells its stakeholders more than just what is happening – they tell you why its happening.

Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday March 2, 2021 with our Annual Scholars Luncheon!

President Mike Boland welcomed Club members to the meeting and after the Pledge of Allegiance shared the following thought as an invocation:

The Club was excited to again welcome guests including several Interclub attendees in addition to Lt. Governor Gary Trieshman. After networking and sharing,  Club and Foundation member Steve Morris stepped in as Chairperson of the day with the first order of business to introduce our guest speaker Sidd Vivek from Junior Achievement of San Diego County.

Mr. Vivek is the President and CEO of of Junior Achievement Vivek after joining the agency in 2019. He held various positions over the past eleven years at the YMCA of San Diego County and last served them as director of strategic partnerships. Prior to joining the YMCA, Vivek held multiple leadership positions in Washington, D.C., focusing on education policy and the intersection of government, industry and community-based organizations.

Sid shared that Junior Achievement’s mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed. He further explained that much of their success comes from community volunteers who not only deliver our lessons, but share their experience. Young people leave about the importance of education, as well as critical life skills. Preparation involves JA’s proven lessons that promote financial capability, work and career readiness, and business ownership.

The San Diego Kiwanis Club established Laurels for Leaders to recognize and honor the high leadership accomplishment of the student body presidents of San Diego County high schools. The program culminates in an annual luncheon at which the student leaders are presented certificates of recognition, a distinguished speaker brings them a message on leadership, For the first time in its 63-year history it will be held virtually rather than in person.

Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday February 2, 2021 with Nancy Worlie from KPBS!  

President Mike Boland welcomed the Club to a new year on Tuesday, January 5, 2021 and led the Pledge of Allegiance with members following along on Zoom. Mr. Boland gave the invocation and welcomed five guests from the Granville-Allied Gardens Club who were attending as an Interclub. We always love having Clubs visit and the Butterstein’s are favorites!

After reminding attendees that the meeting was being streamed live on Facebook he welcomed Club Vice President Susan Day as the Chairperson of the day. Ms. Day spoke briefly about a local non-profit that had been invited to speak and how impressed she was with their mission and then welcomed Emily Moberly, the founder of Traveling Stories.

Emily started off by asking all attendees to share their favorite book and it was interesting to hear what publication Club members and guests held near and dear to their hearts. The replies were broad ranging and it was equally as fascinating to hear the story behind the book choice as it was the title itself. Ms. Moberly shared her story as a teacher in Honduras where she asked a group of students to tell her their favorite books. And in a group the size of the Kiwanis club only one student raised their hand. Which began Emily’s lifetime passion to bring stories and reading to children around the globe.

President Boland moved into the next portion of the meeting which included welcoming two SD Kiwanis Community Funding Grant Recipients with Kaye Kelley from the Home of Guiding Hands and Lauren Welch from Urban Corps of San Diego. Both organizations were recent recipients of funding from the San Diego Kiwanis Club & Foundation and took a few moments to update members on how the resources were being used to help children.

There are two club members with January birthdays and President Boland is one of them while joining him is longtime member Drue Jordan! While Mike determined just how much money he owned in fines Club members donated cash in honor of Bill Gibbs. Bill lived to be 106 years old and attended luncheons until the end where he would donate a dollar and say, “I’m Still here!” Members gave in honor of a retirement, a new job, a former mentor, the Laurels for Leaders Society, and a variety of other worthy items.

After announcements and updates the Club dispersed and the planning continued for more upcoming meetings and events.

Be sure to subscribe to our Kiwanis YouTube Channel as well as following us on Facebook. See you next on Tuesday, January 19th with Sidd Vivek from Junior Achievement.

My Fellow San Diego Kiwanians,

As we conclude this tumultuous year, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all your efforts in continuing the good work of our club. The Holiday Season is a great time to take stock of life’s many struggles, successes, and inevitable changes. Let us also take a moment to be reflective of our good fortune and have pride in our club for a year of courage, adaptability, and bold community impact. We have all had to lean forward into a headwind that has brought the many changes due to the pandemic, and with that each of you has stood for the Kiwanis object of the Golden Rule and primacy to the human and spiritual, rather than the material values of life.

It has been my great honor to follow in the footsteps of our many great leaders, chief among them Judy Leitner, who swiftly guided our club to a safe harbor in March/April, and to our temporary virtual meeting framework. Let me also acknowledge and thank Karina Sousa, who through her love of this club, and high professional acumen, adapted our on-going club messaging to make for a fun interactive and inspiring platform. Thank you to everyone for responding to the club survey with ideas and suggestions for how best to organize our Teams and efforts for 2021. I speak for myself, the Club, Susan Day, and the Board of Officers, when I say we all look forward to a post COVID-19 reality and getting back to our in-person fun filled meetings! And of course, continuing the good work for our community, as we enter our club’s next century of giving.

Well, they say we are almost through it. We certainly are through most of the uniqueness that was this year, and now we get to enjoy the simplicity of slowing down prior to entry into another journey filled twelve months. I hope everyone can appreciate how much we were able to accomplish in this year. I am reminded of the Community Impact Grants that were just approved by our great Kiwanis Foundation. With $95,000 committed to ten worthy organizations in just this last month alone, we can rest easy knowing kids throughout our Region will have on-going access to much needed resources. And while this year was tragic and difficult for so many, each and every one of you can take solace having played a vital role in our latest cycle of giving. I want to thank each of you and your families for supporting your efforts to serve our members and the greater community. I also would like to share how grateful I am to work with such an incredible group. You make life’s journey all the better.

Before I sign off allow me to draw your attention to our dear Bill Gibb’s and his enduring legacy of giving through the Salvation Army. The Bill Gibb’s Annual Memorial Red Kettle campaign would not be complete without the support of our members. As an Aviation Pioneer, Bill introduced so many to the magic of flight, and many more to the magic of community giving. He was one of our greatest Kiwanians and let us not forget his legacy.

Let's join here with Warm Hearts in Ringing the Red Kettle Bell in Bill’s Memory!

Please enjoy the coming week to refocus and concentrate on your families and loved ones. That is our purpose and why we are successful in the good work we do. Appreciate the simplicity of the time.

Happy Holidays and much gratitude to each of you.

Look forward to bringing in the New Year and helping support Literacy and Mentorship with our friends at “Travelling Stories” during our virtual club luncheon on January 5th, 2021.

With Warm Regards,

Mike Boland

2020-2021 Club President

Club members were in fine spirits at their last meeting of the year as President Mike Boland called the meeting to order at 12:00p.m. Monica Ball led the invocation which reminded everyone of the season we are in and the benefits of a grateful spirit. To keep everyone in good humor Club member Lauren Cook sang a new version of a traditional classic with the 12 Days of COVID with members robustly joining in….at least on the choruses!

President Mike Boland was thrilled to welcome guest speaker and Club fan favorite Andy Carey from the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP).

Andy Carey was named Executive Director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP) in September 2008. The BPP is a binational membership organization that strengthens individuals and institutions that serve border communities so that they can achieve their individual missions in the region. BPP works to grow community philanthropy, leadership, and cross-border collaboration to increase the human and financial capital needed to address the complex issues facing the region. Since 2008, the BPP has grown to nearly 300 institutional members from across the U.S. and Mexico, training hundreds of civic leaders and dispersing over $150,000 in technical assistance. Additionally, BPP has engaged numerous national and international agencies to educate them about the actual realities and assets of the border region. He also serves as Adjunct Faculty member in the University of San Diego’s School on Leadership and Education Sciences, where he teaches a graduate level course in binational nonprofit management. Prior to joining the BPP, Andy served for 15 years at Kiwanis International. Andy served as a member of the Executive Management Team and was responsible for leading growth initiatives throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific and led Kiwanis’ Worldwide Service Project initiative in Latin America to virtually eliminate Iodine Deficiency Disorders. He completed his baccalaureate degree in Political Science and Foreign Language, and his master’s degree in Latin American Studies at Purdue University. Andy is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.

After Andy’s update the Club was challenged by member Monica Ball to keep the spirit of Bill Gibb’s alive with the annual Kiwanis Bill Gibbs Virtual Red Kettle Challenge which honors his 80 years of fundraising for the Salvation Army! You can link to the challenge and donate here:

RED KETTLE CHALLENGE

Club Member Karina Sousa put together some memories from previous seasons when the Club was able to meet in person. We are all looking forward to seeing each other sometime soon in the New Year.

Happy Holidays to everyone and a great New Year!

On the FIRST day of December the San Diego Kiwanis Club met for their bi-monthly noon meeting and enjoyed true fellowship and friends! President Mike Boland rang in the meeting with the official Kiwanis bell and invited everyone to join in the opening pledge and song. And what a song it was! In a nod to young and old the Club enjoyed the classic seasonal song “Little Drummer” presented as a duet from a 1977 video recording of Bing Crosby and David Bowie. It is too good to miss so we included it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9kfdEyV3RQ

Mr. Boland thanked members who had taken the Club Membership Survey which will help determine the activities and meetings we will have in 2021. At the time of this writing 23 members had participated and we are planning for full everyone to weigh in. Thanks to the following members for their input!

Alexandra Kritchevsky

Brian Krause

Carl Nettleton

David Gugerty

David Jay

Doug Frost

Gary Knight

Glen Honig

Gordon Boerner

Jim Floros

Jim Melvin

Judy Leitner

Justin Frisco

Karina Sousa

Lauren Cook

Michael Boland

Monica Ball

Sally Hazzard

Shaun McArdle

Steve Morris

Susan Day

Vic Bianchini

Chairman of the Day, Steve Morris introduced the program for the day which included his colleagues from the San Diego Food Alliance, Geertje Grootenhuis and Tida Infahsaeng. They shared the organization’s mission which is to cultivate a healthy, sustainable, and just food system in San Diego County. While the topic is vast areas of specific change include:

• Healthy food access
• Urban agriculture
• Wasted Food Prevention & Recovery
• Reducing barriers to farming
• Sustainable local seafood
• And a many more.

It was an eye opener for Club members to realize one of the biggest ways to create a workable food system for all is to focus on waste prevention and recovery. The US is the global leader in food waste as we discard nearly 40 million tons of food each year and we can all contribute to curbing that issue.

A refrigerator magnet was made available to members (below) and you can get yours by contacting the San Diego Food System Alliance.

The Club has three December birthdays and celebrated the following members with cheers and good wishes!

• Sally Hazzard
• Ricardo Sandoval
• Judy Leitner

In case you have not heard we have a competition going on to see which member has the best noon meeting attendance for the year so far. So far, we have FOUR members with perfect attendance. Congrats to Doug Frost, Judy Leitner, Shaun McArdle, and Steve Morris – may the best member reign victorious.

You can see what happens by joining us on Tuesday, December 15 for our LAST noon meeting of 2020!

The San Diego Kiwanis Club was back in form on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 to meet virtually and continue the Thanksgiving celebration. After the Pledge of Allegiance and invocation the group was excited to watch a video from San Diego’s Voices of our City Choir and their rendition of Stand by Me. The Voices of Our City Choir was created in response to the current San Diego housing crisis. Together, through music therapy, choir care, and advocacy, they are transforming the perception and experience of homelessness. Club Members have the opportunity to join their virtual holiday special virtually.

Elaine Allyn and Natasha Contreras from SDG&E were on hand to talk about rebates and money saving options involved with energy. Elaine is the Energy Efficiency Core program manager and was able to debunk some incorrect facts and about solar and upgraded appliances. Natasha is the Electric Vehicle Customer Engagement Program Manager which sees her and her team out in the community to engage and inform individuals about the savings to be had with an efficient car. Natasha also does her share or myth busting and directly spoke to the concept that potential consumers are scared by the thought of running out of electricity for their vehicle and having nowhere to recharge. She also highlighted a September announcement that will see SDG&E build charging infrastructure for electric buses, trucks, and other vehicles.

The Club fines portion of the day made some attendees nervous when it was suggested we could raise money by fining members who have yet to complete the Club 2020 Member Survey which has been distributed several times. It was agreed to give everyone ONE more chance and the Club Administrator announced responses were already coming in before the meeting was ended! Member Gordon Boerner announced the newly formed Scripps Ranch Kiwanis Club was promoting a virtual Magic Show and asked everyone to support their efforts. So here you go everyone:

The meeting ended right on time and we look forward to seeing everyone again on Tuesday, December 1st!

Watch the full video of the luncheon below!