St. Patrick's Day is both a cultural and religious celebration that is recognized on March 17th every year. This is the date that is believed to be the day that Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, passed away. Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival! I wish all of our Irish Rotarians a fabulous celebration and hope all Rotarians are able to celebrate Irish culture around your communities!

I would also like to recognize the celebration of the Holi Festival of Colors on March 18, 2022! Holi is celebrated on the eve of the full moon and the full moon day of the Hindu calendar month of March. This day marks the beginning of Spring and the end of winter blues! In India, it is a national holiday and people take to the streets spraying bright colored powder on each other to celebrate the triumph over good and evil.

This is followed by singing and dancing and of course, eating and drinking! As our dear friend Devi explained, "It's pretty wild!" I love that Holi is the festival of love and togetherness and that they use these beautiful colors to express their joy! I would like to wish our fellow Hindu Rotarians, including Devi and Rischi, a fabulous Holi Celebration filled with every happiness you desire in 2022 and always!

This is a gentle reminder that the "Celebration of Life" services for our dear friend Robert Ming will be held on Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. at Saddleback Church. There is information on the flyer that is included in this President's News Flash below that also asks that in lieu of flowers, individuals consider honoring Robert with a gift to South County Outreach or the Laguna Niguel Military Support Foundation.

It was great to see so many Rotarians enjoying fellowship and great food at Fratello's on Friday! I would like to give a huge shout out to Bruce Birkeland for taking on Greeter duties for our March meetings! He always makes it a point to be the first person at the door to make sure that all members and guests receive a warm Rotary welcome! Bruce has also been instrumental in coordinating Well #596 through Wells of Life for Laguna Niguel! Stay tuned for photos and information in our next President's News Flash featuring Bruce Birkeland and Wells of Life!

We enjoyed having our amazing David Weiss lead us in the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance to our country's flag and followed together as we all proudly stood with our hands over our hearts! Our awesome Rocky Cifone inspired Rotarians with the "Principles of Success" from Napoleon Hill's book titled, "Think and Grow Rich." He distributed a sheet of paper to each of us that outlined his top choices which are: 1. Desire; 2. Imagination; 3. Persistence; 4. Intuition; and 5. Decision. He also included love, giving and forgiveness which we all agreed were the best ones! We were also inspired by a beautiful prayer given virtually by Kristin Epperson for Ukraine, Russia and Europe, which she recited beautifully and with so much emotion. We all joined Kristin in prayer for those that are struggling during this time.

Our funny friend and in-house comedian John Veytia provided humor for the day with one of his many silly jokes! Our cool Mike Gerard handled the Sergeant-At-Arms duties for the day and went around collecting Happy Bucks from Rotarians that were willing to give a few extra dollars to talk about all the reasons they are happy and grateful!

This week's Guest Speaker was none other than Orange County's "Professor of Real Estate" and our Rotary Club's Sir Secretario, John Veytia! He gave an excellent. presentation on the current real estate market and we were all impressed by his long and prosperous career in Laguna Niguel and beyond! John surpassed a 50-year milestone as a real estate professional, and was recognized for this accomplishment by Special Resolution presented by the Honorable Tom Harman, former 35th Senatorial District. We are blessed to call him a dear friend and Fellow Rotarian!

On Monday, President-Elect Chandra and Rocky were able to join me for the Rotary District Leadership Forum at the Tustin Ranch Golf Club! We had a great time networking with all the current Rotary Presidents and President-Elects, as. well as current and future board members. We had a great program as always, provided by Governor Cisca. It was great to hear about all the great work that Presidents and their clubs are doing in our communities and throughout Orange County!

We have a District Training Assembly scheduled for April 2nd at Chapman University at noon so I am encouraging all of President-Elect Chandra's incoming board, as well as my current board, to attend if possible! If you are interested in attending, please respond to this email and I will add you to our club registration or you can register at MyRotary.org through your personal account. Below are a few other important dates to remember:

Please be sure to email any photos you take, including a brief description, when you are out and about having fun with other Rotarians or volunteering in your communities! My email is egomez.lagunaniguelrotary@gmail.com.

We are currently looking for volunteers for the Niguel Botanical Preserve & City of Laguna Niguel Earth Day Celebration on April 23, 2022, to help plant, weed and clean up! There will be a sign-up sheet available at Fratello's on Friday. You can also email if you are not able to attend in person.

In a continued response to the deepening refugee crisis, the Rotary Foundation Trustees have decided to prioritize contributions made to the Disaster Response Fund until April 30, 2022, to support disaster response grants for districts affected by these events. These expedited disaster response grants can be used to supply water, food, medicine, shelter, and clothing. This is primarily an appeal for individual donations so please feel free to give any amount possible. Please follow the link below if you would like to make a person donation for this worthy cause. There is also information in the flyer posted at the end of this President's News Flash.

We are always looking for great speakers in our community so please be sure to email any individuals in our community that you would like to have come out and speak to our club! We have lots of great programs scheduled so don't miss out!

I look forward to seeing you all at Fratello's on Friday at Noon!

This week, we will have two guest speakers which is a special treat! Please join us at Fratello's at noon to show your support for Roy Jefferson from Anaheim Hills Rotary Club and District Governor Nominee!

11:45 am - Socialize

Eileen Gomez is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting!

Join Zoom Meeting

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