Meeting was called to order by club President Joe Lins. He welcomed everyone in attendance with a joke, “what do you call a fish with a bow tie? So-Fish-ticated!”

Today’s Important Facts, Zoot won the club second place with his amazing pot of chili during the District Chili Cook-off. President Lins took the time to thank Carl Camp, Daniel Stewart, Gerardo Chagolla, Cathy Gach, Bill Edman, Susan, Dan, and Rob Ouweleen for working the event. “That chili, Zoot! It was like a mixture of beef, pork. It was smoked meat with chunks of it. We were instructed not to boil it too long because it will get too soft. It was absolutely phenomenal. Thank you Zoot!”

On This Date, in 2018, one of the newest baseball phenom, Shohei Ohtani, hit a bases loaded triple in the Angels 7th inning. Helping the Angels beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 in their 5th straight victory, “that was back in 2018, congratulations to Ohtani.” In 2022, Alyssa Nakken, the first woman coach in the history of MLB. “She set another milestone as she became the first woman to appear in uniform on field during the game replacing the third base coach who had been ejected from the game.”

President Lins welcomed and asked Giselle Monterrosas to come up to stage to be awarded her Rotary Certificates, “Welcome aboard.” Jordan Garcia, “I am really sorry about the raisins in the cole slaw.” Fun fact, raisins are on the list of Jordan’s dislikes. “I tried to take a little bit out. It didn’t work out well.”

President Lins shared an anecdote that was a punchline to a joke. “I love walking at Laguna Lake. That’s my happy place. I look over and see this guy with this great looking dog. Unfortunately, the ducks came up and started biting the dog, going crazy around this dog. I thought to myself, ‘that’s what he gets for having a pure bread dog.’” This joke received some mixed reviews. A member in the crowd yelled out mercifully, “65 days!” referring to how many days President Lins had left in office.

For our Commencement Ceremonies, Past President Terri Grassi gave us our Invocation. Terri led us a prayer for food for thought, “our hard job is the dream of the unemployed. Our small home is the dream of the homeless. Your smile is the dream of those that are depressed. And your little money is the dream of those that are in debt. So, remember to thank god for your blessings.” She led the group in prayer.

Farrell Hirsch gave us our Patriotic Moment. He remembers being at a meeting where a young individual said, “I think the pledge is stupid.” Farrell explained the meaning of the pledge itself, “AND to the Republic, for which it STANDS!” He explained that when reciting the pledge, you are pledging allegiance to your nation, to your home, to your community, and not the flag itself. He led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Bud Lang continued with American Patriotism with, “Grand Ole Flag.” Great selection Bud! Today’s guest in attendance were, Randy, guest of Matt Reekstin. Thad Sandford introduced his brother Byron Sandford and his wife Susan Sandford, who come from Sandy Springs, Maryland. Jim Williams introduced his guest, Susie Erwin, who taught elementary school for 38 years in our district, and Geoff Erwin. He also introduced all of the Fullerton alums from his table. Jim Ripley introduced Norm Kredit and Lori Kredit.

Today’s announcements:

District Governor Dan Ouweleen announced the District Conference May 5th through the 7th at the Marriot Renaissance, “I would love to see as many people as possible from our club participate.” The conference is a two- and half-day event. Saturday is the main event, where the club awards will be given out. “We’ll have a ton of inspirational speakers.” Keynotes speakers and special guest include Gaddi Vasquez, former Peace Corp Director, Catherine Liang, Miss California 2022, and Erin Gruwell, Author of Best-Selling Book, The Freedom Writers. A new feature this year is, The House of Friendship, which takes place all day Saturday. It will cost $150 and allows for a non-profit to have a booth there or a business to sell a product at the event. For more information, please check online or reach out to Dan Ouweleen.

Bailey Klein announced the Recruitment Event which takes place on Wednesday, April 26th during our clubs meeting. Please contact her for any questions.

Rick Crane announced Titan Baseball Fellowship Night on Tuesday April 18, at 6 pm.

Miko announced Top 100 Banquet for Fullerton Union High School on Wednesday, April 26. She is looking for some volunteers for this event. She also announced Sunny Hills Top 100 Banquets was a success.

Daniel Stewart announced Love Fullerton at Tara’s Chance. He is looking for volunteers to get a hold of him.

Andrew Gregson announced the forming of a committee for UnCorked event. If you want to participate please get a hold of him.

Today’s Finemaster/Recognition Master was Larry Bennett. “I have to raise money really quickly here.” He went straight to work recognizing Dick Ackerman, “What is it and how many years?” Dick humorously answered incorrectly, which cost him $5. He recognized Bob Jahncke for all his work he does maintaining the site. In a funny dialogue, Larry called out Bob for inputting Bob Beans birthday at 123 years old. Bob Jahncke was fined $5 for this. Larry played a game trivia with the tables. The topic was Tax season! This made for an awesome time where he was able to raise $17 according to President Lins. Great Job Larry Bennett!

Today’s program at hand was introduced by Jim Ripley. “It is my pleasure today to have the Honorable Mary Fingal Schulte with us. I’ve known Mary for 20 years and she is very young.” Honorable Mary Schulte is a retired judge, after spending 20 years on the bench of the Orange County Superior Court. Her judicial career as a respected trial judge, trial lawyer and civil litigator paved the way for her appointment to the bench. She received the Trial Judge of the Year Award from the Orange County Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2016. She received a warm welcome from club members. “You guys are a fun group! This is my first time in a Rotary meeting.” She claims to not have a power point presentation because she has been practicing law for 45 years now, which didn’t leave any room for her to be techy enough, plus she only gets 25 minutes. She references the most moving and memorable speeches in American history, The Gettysburg Address, which is 282 words and lasted 2 minutes long. “The last thing I ever expected to be was somebody who spent 45 years in law. I was in my last year at CSUF, in 1973, and somebody suggested I take the LSAT. I did well on it.” Judge Schulte put her history degree and French minor on hold for Law School at UC Davis. She was a prosecutor for 3 years and spent most of the rest of her career as an attorney representing business’, doctors, and legal professionals that were being sued, “one of my most memorable jury trial was in Fullerton North Court. That poor jury was told that it was a 5-day time estimate case and it went 2 months. The plaintiff attorney gave a 5-hour closing argument.” 1997 was the year she was appointed to the bench by Governor Pete Wilson, in the misdemeanor courts. She remembers her late husband who was a judge as well, and how they had adjoining court rooms. Many jokes were made between her and him, but she had one rule, “after 6 o’clock, we’re not talking about law anymore.” As a judge, she would take on a lot of overflow trials, and some of them were probate, “this stuff is really interesting.” She was up for any difficult assignment, but probate courts called on her. “After my first week in probate in the tower of pain, I called it that because, in that building, children are being taken away from their parents.” Judge Schulte shared some war stories of her time on the bench. Now that she has retired as a judge, she works with a private mediation service company doing primarily probate and trust mediation. She recommends to those that have or have not gotten their estate plans in order to get a good estate planner and know the difference between someone who is a transactional planner and somebody who goes to court and litigates. Judge Schulte answered some questions from the members in attendance. President Lins took the stage to congratulate Judge Schulte, “judges have always scared me for a good reason.” He awarded her with the highly coveted speaker’s gift. “I am sure you’re going to want to display and put it on social media.” Save the Date, Titans Baseball, Tuesday, April 18. Our club’s monthly board meeting is next Wednesday at 10:45, if you are a newest nine, feel free to attend.

Last thing on the agenda, the 50/50 Opportunity Drawing worth $43. Lucky ticket holder 6370027, Terri Grassi wins the drawing. “Please contact Andrew if you want to be a part of the UnCorked planning committee. Please join us next week for another great program featuring Carol Morris’ daughter, Rebecka, as she details her journey as a past recipient of a Rotary Scholarship. Thanks everyone for being here. If you need anything now until then, please let us know. Charge On! Meeting is adjourned.”