Meeting was called to order by club president Jim Ripley. “Good afternoon, everybody. I heard there was a Countywide shortage of GasX over the weekend.” The Fullerton Rotary Club won the District Chili Cook-off with Zoot’s 7-day chili, over the weekend. President Ripley asked Zoot to stand and be recognized.

CIA awards update: the club is now up to $13,000 with the goal of $20,000, “thank you very much for those who have contributed, and we hope to still make our goal by the end of the year.”

For our Commencement Ceremonies: Amy Choi-Won gave us our Patriotic Moment leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pat Hartnett gave us our Invocation, leading us in prayer to St. Francis. “Lord, make me an instrument of peace where there is hatred. Let me sow love where there is injury. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, that there be hope. Where there is darkness, let there be light. Where there is sadness, let there be joy. Amen.”

In Lieu of the Halloween party on Monday, we decided to celebrate All Hallows Eve during our Rotary Meeting. The Fun Committee set up a spooky table with ghoulish treats and raffled them off. It was a fun time created by Leslie McCarthy, Judy Atwell, and Sally Williams.

Our Recognition/Fine Master today was Leslie McCarthy. She jumped right in with a Shakespeare question for John Phelps’ table that heckled her as she was coming up. They surprisingly answered correctly and were deemed fine free. Leslie asked Bill Hite to please stand and be recognized for his 23rd Rotary Anniversary. Because Rotary is all about giving back, he was asked a MacBeth trivia question, which Bill answered incorrect. He was fined $5. Pat Hartnett was asked to stand and be recognized for his 15th Rotary Anniversary. He was asked a witch related question, to which he answered incorrect and was fined $5. To end her time as Recognition Master, she played her Halloween trivia game with each table. Questions varied from “which year was MacBeth brought to the stage by Shakespeare?” to famous witches’ spells. Everyone had a fun time even if she did play tricks and gave out no treats. Great Job Leslie McCarthy!

Today’s announcements: Mike Oates announced a panel discussion with Cal State Fullerton professors on Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Fullerton Library from 7 pm to 9 pm. The discussion "The Future of Artificial Intelligence: The Possibilities and the Problems", is presented by the Fullerton Public Library Foundation, and will feature professor experts Dr. Mira Kim, Dr. Michael Shafae, and Dr. Roselyn Du, as they delve into the future of AI in our modern world.

President Ripley announced that the club will be dark on December 27. Our Program at Hand was introduced by President Jim Ripley, today, we are having one of our own. It's none other than Principal of Sunny Hills high school, Craig Weinreich. Craig received a huge round of applause, "good afternoon, it's a pleasure to spend the afternoon with you all." His craft talk was about his path to how he got to be the principal of Sunny Hills High. Craig is a Fullerton resident and is married to his wife Nicole. They have two kids, a 16-year-old who is a junior at Sunny Hills, and his oldest is a second year Fullerton College student, "I had the privilege a couple of years ago to be able to give him his diploma as he graduated, which is a really special moment for me." Principal Weinreich is a midwestern boy. He grew up outside of Chicago, in Rockford, Illinois. He lived in a farm that grew soybeans and corn, "I grew up in that kind of lifestyle. Kind of prototypical midwestern kind of growing up." He stayed in Illinois until his parents divorced. Craig's mom is from Fullerton, and his parent's met at Fullerton College. After his parent's divorced, Craig moved to Fullerton for Junior High and High School, where he went to LaVista High. During his time as a high school student, he played basketball, baseball, and other athletics, trying to see what the future had in store for him. Craig went to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where he majored in architecture but quickly learned that he wasn’t very artistic, so he switched over to History, "I like drafting. I like working in that realm. That's the direction I was going in." He loved San Luis Obispo mostly because he met his wife there and got married to Nicole shortly after college. During his time in Central California, he coached eighth grade basketball which he says started his love affair with coaching and working with kids. He also did some substitute teaching and realized that there was a connection, so he decided that education was the direction he wanted to go in. Once he finished at Cal Poly, he found it difficult to find jobs, so he decided to come back down to Fullerton and earn his teaching credentials at Cal State Fullerton. The rest is Fullerton history, he worked at all the high schools in the Fullerton District being a positive influence on those that he came in contact with. Sunny Hills was his first school, where for 16 years, he taught History, English, physical education, and coached girl's basketball. He also went the administrator route as the Dean of Students, where technically he was still a teacher, "I was working as a pseudo admin, overseeing things like attendance and other issues on campus," said Craig. "I had no desire whatsoever to move to the dark side." Craig remembers working together with Roco and the Boys and Girls Club of Fullerton plenty of times. "It was a way to really deepen some of those relationships and deepen some of those impacts that I really wish and wanted to be able to have on students." After 20 years at Sunny Hills, Principal Weinreich was moved around to a couple of different schools. First, he was placed at Fullerton High School for one year as assistant principal and then La Habra High School for two years. While at La Habra, the position for Principal opened up at Sunny Hills. Craig jumped at the opportunity to come back to Sunny Hills, “I never wanted to be a principal. I never wanted to be an admin. None of us ever do." He considers Sunny Hills home, a place that is near and dear to his heart. With the help from his leadership, Sunny Hill's reputation for kids going to college is at 93%. Craig credits his admin team, which includes 4 assistant principals, for all the success Sunny Hills has attained. "The five of us work together for the same goals. Our leadership team consists of 25 teacher leaders on campus." Craig ended his craft talk by taking questions from the audience.

President Ripley thanked Principal Craig Weinreich for his presentation, and presented him with a certificate in his name to Working Dogs 4 Warriors, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping our Nation’s Warriors by training and donating service dogs to Veterans and First Responders. “Thank you for being here. Next week, we’ve got a really good program. My favorite professor is going to be here, Dr. Mira Farka, giving us an economic update. So, invite a friend, please hit that like button and subscribe. With that, I call this meeting adjourned.