aug/sep 2012
Monarch Beach
sunrise rotary on the california riviera
The Red and the Black The red of a thousand lobsters delighted more than four hundred attendees at our third annual Lobsterfest and, not incidentally, put our club more than $30K in the black. The event was, as it has been the previous two years, held at Doheny State Beach on the Saturday nearest the Summer Solstice (i.e. the longest day of the year). It was a delightful evening with perfect weather. The lobsters were huge and though this year we instituted a two-lobster per person limit, there was enough for all. Chef Louis Lepe and his volunteers did their magic and produced an excellent selection of side dishes to compliment the lobster. The Nick I Hernandez band played from 4:30 until…, stopping only for announcements. One of those announcements was the Head and Tail drawing. With Terry Rifkin calling the flips by patting either her head or her “tail,” we brought in over a thousand dollars. The silent auction was a major part of the evening’s success bringing in over $15,000. To all who brought in silent auction items, know that you were a big part in the financial success of the fund raiser. Although all of us in MBSR chipped in, it mostly fell to chairman Russell Kerr and his hard working committee to put together this fantastic event. As Russell said, “I wish to thank you all so very much for your support of this great event with my special appreciation to Susan Jeffries for her tenacity and attention to detail. I am also extremely grateful to our 2012 LobsterFest committee, each of whom invested hundreds of hours and significant effort to make it a success. It takes a huge amount of work to pull off this event.” John Coffman led more than a hundred volunteers who helped with everything from serving food to cleaning up. “Approximately 70 came from two National Charity League (NCL) organizations (Monarch Beach and Laguna Beach),” said John. “We had around 12 from Interact and another 15 or so from the Boys and Girls Club. We also had six individuals who just volunteered on their own. Of course, several of our members volunteered. I may be inviting the Monarch Beach NCL to one of our upcoming meetings to talk about their organization.” The evening was a delight and a success. As Mary Jefferies wrote, “I liked it the best so far! This year was so organized, food lines, drink servers, lots of appetizers! Dessert! Everyone seemed to feel so at home with the evening. Hope we made money at it. (We did!) Thanks everyone!” And as Russ wrote, “Thank you again for making this such a memorable event – everyone I spoke to had a good time. Hope you did too.” What a great idea! Serving humanity by eating lobster. MBSR meets on Wednesday mornings at 7am at the laguna cliffs marriott in dana point • monarchbeachrotary.com