Written By Club Secretary, Nelson Crandall,
Pre-Meeting. Setting up Zoom for the Club meeting at Seascape is like a box of chocolates. I never know what I’m going to find. Will there be a piano? Will there be an American flag? Will the flagpole be larger than the flag itself? Will there be an extension cord? Will there be something to prevent the cord from becoming a tripping hazard? Will there be a table for the projector? The treat this week was two upside tables instead of a flag. The creativity is amazing.
Call to Order. CPOM Laura Grinder presided over the August 9 Club meeting. (CPOM stands for “Co-President of the Month.”) Laura started what I hope is a new tradition – acknowledging three members who joined us on Zoom.
Thought of the Day. Dr. Art Dover paraphrased Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, “it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
Thank You Note. Nelson Crandall shared a lovely thank you note from our scholarship recipient, Celeste Ferreira.
Keith's Celebration of Life. Al De Camara announced that Keith Medeiros's celebration of life will be held at Keith's home on Saturday, August 27.
Jacob's Heart School Supply Drive. Julie Lambert announced that last week Club members generously pledged $ 1,000 to be matched by the Capitola-Aptos Rotary Foundation for Jacob's Heart. Julie asked that anyone who had not yet made good on their pledge to pay Julie in cash or by check or to pay Michele Bassi by Venmo.
Board Meeting. CPOM Laura announced that the August Club board meeting will be prior to our lunch gathering at 10:45 a.m. next Thursday, August 18 at Seascape Golf Club. Everyone is welcome.
Opening Anthems. We were treated once again to the musicianship of Al on his new, lighter electric piano and Sam Nigh on his resonator guitar. Singing our Club songs is always a highlight.
Detective. Co-President Elect Lowry Fenton was the detective of the day. The themes of his trivia questions were saxophones and Africa in honor of our guest speaker who was both a sax player and an Africa scholar.
Scholarship Recipient. We were treated to a visit by one of our Club scholarship recipients, graduating Soquel High Interact President Danika Marlatt visiting with her mother, Monica. Danika will be attending Vanderbilt University in the fall. In the photo below, Win Fernald presents Danika with her scholarship certificate.
Guest Speaker. Thursday’s meeting featured a presentation by David H. Anthony, III, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of African History at UC Santa Cruz.
Dr. Anthony spoke at the invitation of Dr. Art Dover. The two bonded when they realized that they both spoke Portuguese.
Dr. Anthony confessed that he had just this month completed the complex task of retiring from the faculty at UC Santa Cruz – a process that required him to produce, among other things, his marriage license and other oddities that kept him from providing a topic in advance of our meeting. With no input from him, the topic of his talk was listed as “Racism,” but that wasn’t correct. Not even close, really. So strong are pre-conceived beliefs that when he was introduced as a professor of African History, I heard African American History. But no, his scholarship centered on Africa, not America.
Dr. Anthony showed how we are all aware of many of the conflicts that have characterized the African continent. We are also generally aware that colonization and decolonization have played important roles in shaping modern Africa. Dr. Anthony stressed that factors other than conflict – especially language and clan structure – have affected Africa’s evolution. For further reading, he recommended Getting Somalia Wrong?: Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State by Mary Harper (African Arguments, 2012).
National Nonprofit Day was August 13th and we were on the News! Below the article launched in the Sentinel Newspaper
The Hub - August 11th, 2022
