Member Spotlight

We were pleased to have Club member and RI Foundation Chair Bernardo Wolfson give us an update on Rotary International (RI). Bernardo talked about the RI’s Vision that was approved by the RI Board of Trustees in 2017 to reflect the direction Rotary wants to take to address the world challenges of the future. The RI Board invited Rotarians to participate in focus groups and interviews and come up with a set of actions and priorities to make the new approved vision a reality. A group of 500+ Rotarians representing 28 countries participated and came up with four recommended [...]

We had a focus to identify and honor those members and spouses who have served in the military and are now proud veterans. The following shows those in whom we identified. We also were delighted to have Doug Heiser, Rotary District Governor Elect and head of the Rotary Toy Drive explain the program to our members. The main event is being held in Sugar Sand Park on Sunday, Dec. 12 from 10 am to 3 pm. 

We were pleased to have Club member Rick Zimmer of Zimmer Construction Management as our guest speaker who was joined by his nephew David.  Rick shared with the members why the Champlain Towers South in Surfside collapsed. First, it is helpful to see a visual of the Champlain condo tower complex both before and after the collapse. It is easy to see how significant of a disaster it was looking at the first and then second images: Now, the entire problem stemmed from water under the pool paver [...]

We were pleased to have Wendy Santory Link, Supervisor of Elections for Palm Beach Country as out guest speaker.  She leads an award winning program of excellence for the state and nation.   Supervisor Link provided a great overview of how her organization works to help protect and insure fair and accurate election results. She stated that she has three guiding principles: Integrity, Accountability and Service..    One early thing that she did under her taking office: She decided to eliminate a requirement to pay postage to give everyone, regardless of their economic status, the opportunity to vote.   [...]

We were pleased to have a Craft Talk with new member Lisa Talley hosted by Jeff Tromberg. Lisa is a recent transplant to Florida. Lisa and her husband Geoffrey Wetherell relocated for Geoffrey’s new position as an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University. They have permanently settled in Palm Beach and are exploring their new hometown. Lisa believes in strong community involvement, volunteering and business positive initiatives. As a recent graduate with a dual Master of Science in Digital Media and Master of the Arts in English Communication, Lisa has advocated for and [...]

Introduction by past president Vanessa Havener: Rotary's motto is "Service Above Self" and I can't think of anything more fitting than describing the service a veteran provides to our country by volunteering in our uniformed services.  The military literally owns your body and dictates your medical care, appearance, where you live and for how long, what job you do and what you can tell your family.  If you deploy, you are also most likely missing birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths & graduations and if you deploy to a combat zone you might get shot [...]

Jeff Tromberg led a Craft Talk with Bill Riddick. William (Bill) Riddick is a second-generation Floridian born in Boynton Beach and raised in Boca Raton, FL. His mother was born in the small seaside town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and his father moved to Pompano Beach, FL in the 60s where his family has multiple businesses. Bill now lives in Palm City, FL with his wife Melanie and sons Winston & Theodore. Bill has always been a go getter, accomplishing anything he has set his mind to and leading many organizations. His leadership skills started to develop at a young [...]

The Club was pleased to receive a great talk from Albert Slap, President of Coast Risk Consulting - a geospatial technology, modeling and data analytics company located in Boca Raton. Albert grew up in the Philadelphia area and earned a B.A., University of Pennsylvania (1971) and then a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law (1974). Mr. Slap was a nationally recognized environmental trial attorney and law professor. Albert taught environmental law at University of Cincinnati College of Law and FIU Law School. Here in South Florida our biggest concern is too much water. [...]

We had a special meeting this week with Club members Rachel Huerta, ARPN and John Strasswimmer, MD, Ph.D. Rachel runs Direct Primary Care of Boca Raton and handles most medical issues not requiring a specialist. John and his partner own Strasswimmer & Smirnov Dematology in Delray Beach. John is Board Certified in Mohs procedures.  John and Rachel provided answers to questions posed by the Club members about the terrible novel coronavirus and resulting Covid-19 disease that develops. Here is a summary of the answers they gave: Masks There were many questions about masks. Rachel  [...]