Here are some more memories of Arcadia Rotary history from Ernie Jensen who was the 1990-91 Club President and 1996-97 District Governor. If you have some past recollections you would like to share with Club members, please contact Dan Place.

At the International Convention in Sidney, Australia, when Bob Harbecht was incoming President of Arcadia, I had signed up for Home Hospitality. They had to many requests, so we had no hosts. I left my card and telephone, in case something came up. I received a call a few hours before the time of the host night, asking me out to dinner. I said that I had already arranged for dinner with 2 other couples, but the hosts said, OK, bring them along! We had a number of people from around the world at our dinner, at a crawdad restaurant. Later Gail & I went to Melbourne, and met “Peter” our host, and he toured us around the City for the day, finishing at his Mall. It turns out that Peter was in charge of the Pacific Westfield Malls, his family company.

As District Governor for District 5300, I had the opportunity to speak at all 63 Rotary Clubs in the District. Two that I especially remember are Alhambra and Las Vegas.
In my speech I spoke of the International President Lois Giay’s theme of “Build the Future with Action and Vision”. He had given every Governor a ½ brick with the theme stamped in it. I would pound the real brick on the lectern, then in the coarse of the speech walk out into the crowd and throw a real looking foam brick (Found by Mike Real) at a Rotarian or two, then a few bags of “mortar”, and then masonry trowels to the president and possibly other leaders in the district.
At Alhambra, I started out by throwing a brick at Past District Governor Tim Siu. A year later, at another meeting he told the table that I almost killed him. It appears that he had been in the Hospital for a heart attack, the doctor did not want to release him yet, but he wanted to go the Alhambra Rotary meeting to listen to my speech and support me. He was so surprised at me throwing a brick at him that he almost had another heart attack!
Las Vegas Rotary met at the Desert Inn on the showroom stage, with about 1,000 people in the audience. They would pass the microphone around the hall to have Rotarians from out of the country introduce themselves. Then they would say Hi to the few hundred Rotarians from around the United States. To throw my bricks, bags of mortar, and pass out trowels, I needed to be fully “miked” with a traveling mike, to go all over the audience. So I was able to “play” the Desert Inn, before they tore it down for another Casino.