Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation
Doug Winnett led us very ably in the Pledge and spoke loud and clear!
Rev. Paul Watermulder inspired us all with a wonderful invocation, as usual.
Guests and Visiting Rotarians
Rosemary Azem visiting from the San Mateo Club was in attendance. Dr. Paul Nieberding’s lovely wife Lynn accompanied her husband. Welcome, Lynn. We were also excited to see our Burlingame Rotary Japanese Exchange students, Eoghan, Parker, Jason and Kieli, who are here to make today's presentation.Annoucements
President Mike reminded the club that beginning in March we will be changing to a big change in our meeting calendar. The first meeting of each month will be a breakfast meeting, second and third meetings will be our regular lunch meeting, and the last meeting of the month will be a community event with an evening social. This new meeting schedule is designed to meet the various needs of our Rotary members. Rotarians are asked to check the website calendar for meeting times and dates during this change over.Program
We were delighted to welcome the selected Burlingame High School students who were our representatives for the Japanese student exchange visit to our sister Rotary Club in Edogawa, Japan in 2017. Eoghan, Parker, Jason and Keili went through a rigarous vetting process by the Japanese Exchange Committee (Maki Kobyashi, Peter Comaroto, Rosemary Rayburn, John Delaney, Mary Murphy and Cary Koh) to have to opportunity to visit our sister club in Edogawa Japan. These amazing young people gave a truly impressive presentation today. They could not speak highly enough about how gracious their Rotary host families had been, how well they were treated and how polite the people of Japan are. They all enjoyed the food (especially the breakfast that included rice, beef and other Japanese delicacies), although when Eoghan was asked by his host family what he ate for breakfast and replied sausage, toast and eggs…..that is what he received every morning. Each Japanese family was so accommodating and gracious.
Beginning with a welcome dinner reception the students attended the Rotary Club of Edogawa meeting the following day. The club is all male whose members are highly regarded citizens and business owners of the district of Edogawa. Accompanied by Maki Kobayaki and Past President, Mary Murphy of Burlingame Rotary the students toured temples, museums, shopping districts and attended high school with other kids in their host families. Their told us that their usual 10 minute commute to BHS is a breeze compared to 1 hour and 15 minutes to school in Japan which included taking two different trains! All four of the student represented our club well and were commended for their maturity, 'seriousness' and willingness to totally immerse themselves in the Japanese experience.
Their last evening in Japan was marked by a farewell dinner where the japanese families and students gave an emotional goodbye to their American visitors. Tears were noticeable from both sides as the Japanese students gave each visitor a t-shirt and fan decorated with their likeness and words describing what they loved about each American visitor. For the Burlingame High School students who were our delegates in Japan the trop was a 'life-changing' event and they thanked our club profusely for the opportunity to visit Japan calling their visit a “once in a lifetime experience”. They could not be more positive about the entire trip and let us know that the experience have given them memories for a lifetime and a better understanding of Japanese culture and people.Postscript: After the meeting concluded a small group of folks had a roundtable discussion with Rabbi Jay Miller and Rev Paul Watermulder to discuss the move of the US Embassy in Israel and related issues and implications.