Past-President and longtime VB Rotarian, Harold Rollin, does a craft talk for the Club.

Josie Eivens gets inducted into the Aviators Club. Although Josie was in a triathlon where she was eventually passed by an elderly woman, her call sign was more related to getting a concussion while jumping during a ping pong match: "Mid-Air"

Ale, our Youth Exchange student from Ecuador, presented her year to the club with some tearful good-byes.

Caro, our other (and less quiet) Youth Exchange student from Germany, also spoke to the club about the impact this year has made in her life. Caro and Ale both used the words "Awesome" and "Amazing" many times while describing their exchange year. Both of these young ladies made a tremendous impact on our club this year and they will be sorely missed. It was a great year and we'll look forward to visiting you some day.

The BloodMobile showed up early for our annual blood drive. In all, VBR donated approximately 20 units of blood - Great Job!!! And, a huge thank you to Anthony Fultz who coordinated the entire event.

Soon to be President Bob Dickey and his sons enjoy their bacon. We've got a funny feeling that this is a bad sign of things to come for the 2010-11 year, bacon boy!

Cal Sisto was inducted this morning into our Aviators Club. Cal was a famous weatherman from the Gulf Coast and was caught in a nasty hurricane and had some experiences with doors blowing open (next time don't open heavy metal doors during a hurricane). Cal's call sign was "Windy".

A representative from the Blood Bank was our program today. She spoke extensively about how the Blood Bank works and the lives that are affected.

As usual, Dougs first stop while "helping" us cook was at the tailgate. Actually, this is probably Doug's 7th year coming up to help us feed the 160 students and volunteers that help run the camp.

Bruce Panttaja, our illustrious leader and Director of VBR's Youth programs, begins cooking the 80 pounds of Tri-tip from Glick's.

A new addition to the menu this year was Bonnie Preston's awesome cheese raviolis. These were a huge hit with the boys this evening and here you can see Katherine, Dru and Bonnie cooking them up. (yes Milt, I did just use a preposition at the end of a sentence)

This was Katherine Montajano's first year up at Camp Royal. If you've never come up to cook for the kids, calendar it for next year in mid-June.

One of our new-ish Members, Jesse Casillas, works the salad.

Thank goodness that we brought a taste-tester along with us. Reggie got started on the food quite a bit before the kids did. And, funny enough, almost every Rotarian up her tested the tri-tip as it was being pulled off the grill.

The finished product was actually quite impressive and we pulled the meat off the grill at the perfect time. Hungry yet?

We serve the food family-style and each table sends up a runner.

And the final result is a very large crowd of very happy kids. Camp Royal is a leadership camp for incoming high school seniors that are selected by all of the Rotary Clubs of District 5230 between Monterey and Porterville.

Here we see most of our crew. Each year we have 10-15 Rotarians go up and work for about 3 hours prepping dinner for all of the students and counselors.

Long-time Member, Doug Udlock, does his craft talk for the club. Way, way, way back, Doug was the President of one of the Anaheim Rotary Clubs that met at Angel's Stadium.

Frank Saucedo gets an award for Best Photo Caption with Harold's pony picture.

Our Photo Caption for the day,

and here were some of the winners:

Krista, you say the baby is mine?  How did that happen? -Stan S

The reason Unicorns became extinct! -Mike Rakes

Krista's childhood fantasy of unicorns and her adult fantasy of Harold triggered a nightmare last night that included this image. -Frank

Christian Anderson was inducted this morning as "Hans", which relates to his name. But, he was actually named after his parent's neighbor's dog.

Rich Rumery traveled to the Middle-East recently and brought back a gift for our President.

Our Program today was Caroline Koontz and Toni Best, who spoke about the Visalia Arts Consortium.

President Matt's family showed up for his last meeting and he honored all of the work that his wife did to support VBR this year with an orchid.

One of our newest Members, Geoff Sharp, completes his craft talk for the club. Nice to have you join us, Geoff.

After what seems like years, Terese Lane finally gets her blue badge. Great job Terese and it's been quite nice having you back and active at the club.

Since Bob Dickey was still at the RI Convention in Montreal, Canada, Emily and Sarah filled in for his as we discussed Bob's upcoming year and his ode to bacon.

As a final PhotoShop, we took this picture of Bob's sister.......

.....and gave her more of the family resemblance!

Our program for this meeting was the Director of the Tulare County Government Assocation, Ted Smalley, who discussed with the Club progress using Measure R funds. Measure R, among other things, is helping to improve the transportation system throughout Tulare County including the widening of Mooney Blvd and building the overcross bridge at Santa Fee and 198.

Milt and Marie Morrison enjoying a cocktail with our newest Member, Paula Mueller.

Nate Roldan and his wife Margie, sign in and get their name tags from Krista and Dru. Each Rotarian was given their name tags with their call signs and each spouse was given theirs as well. Nate's call sign was "Buckled" and his wife received her name tag as "Mrs. Buckled".

Frank Saucedo opened the celebration and did an outstanding job as emcee and head-instigator.

Many awards were handed out at the beginning of the meeting to recognize the efforts of some of our most active Rotarians. Here is the list of those receiving awards:

Membership - Kareem Dada

Youth - Bob Dickey

Club Service - Kevin Daniel

Public Relations - Frank Saucedo

Projects -Ed Kuykendal

Fundraising - Reggie Johnson

Rotarian of the Year - Todd Martin

And then the roasting of our outgoing President Matt began without any mercy. Here, Bruce Panttaja starts us out with a little Aviators Club story. (which cannot be repeated in print, sorry!)

George Crites was next as he "attempted to impersonate" our late President. He also shared some "special" stories about Matt's past, which again cannot be shared in print with anyone.

And then came Harold with one last dagger, et tu Harold?

New President Bob was then anointed and given his gavel. Have a great year with Bob!