Okay every body let us raise a glass of Tea or Water to welcome in one of our newest blue badger to the Arcadia Rotary Club, Pilar Hanson. This is her final step in completing her journey as a Red Badger. Now if you have not met Pilar you may think that she is a quiet, soft spoken CPA who knows her way around numbers. Well, that is just a small tip of the iceberg to the history behind this quiet fire storm. She started off her craft talk giving us a little history about her past experience in Rotary. Not Arcadia Rotary but the Morrilton Arkansas Chapter. She held the position as the assistant to the Governor of that district and she is a proud member of the Paul Harris Fellowship. Pilar currently holds the position of Director of Environmental.

Like many of us we have a history of where we lived prior to landing in sunny Southern California, for Pilar her journey began in Guadalajara Mexico. She and her family moved to the San Gabriel Valley when she was just three years of age. Pilar is one of five children that resided with their parents. All five attended and graduated from Bishop Amat High School where education, hard work and discipline was mantra both at home and at school. After graduating from Bishop Amat, she then attended Cal Poly Pomona and while completing her studies, she met the man that would sweep her off of her feet, her husband Ron. She completed and received her degree in Zoology with a minor in Medical Technology, oh yea, she also married Ron after a three-year courtship.

Ron’s work included some relocating to several parts of the country, starting in Colorado and ending in Arkansas for a 15-year period. While in Arkansas the Hanson’s owned and ran a cattle farm with the assistance of their two children Lucas and Cristina. When talking about her children, you could see a smile come across her face along with a sense of pride for her children. Lucas was accepted into West Point and Cristina moved out to attend the University of Arkansas. This also meant that they were now empty nesters. They took this opportunity to sell the ranch and move to a small town that had a total of 6000 resident. For the next 6 years the empty nesters took to traveling to various fishing spots in Matamoros, Cayman Island, Hawaii, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. (Where are the pictures?)

So, before the pull to work with numbers came calling, she was interested in working with animals. Well, she soon realized that this was not quite the match that she had intended. She stated that she had always been good with numbers and she had spent considerable time assisting her parents running the family business and rental property by maintain the financial books. Pilar realized that this path was much better than working with animals, and she then took accounting courses at Cal Poly where she qualified to take the CPA exam. She is currently a certified public accountant. She stated that this move was the best move she ever made.

This accounting career path has guided her to also receive a teaching credential and for awhile a license to sell life insurance. The love of numbers gave her opportunities at facilities like Lockheed, Union Bank as VP of Financial reporting, and with Winrock International a non-profit organization that helps to empower the disadvantage. Her jobs also gave her the opportunity to do a little traveling to Germany, France, England, Peru and China. Pilar is currently doing some consulting and she still teaches at Santa Monica College where she has taught accounting for the past 20 years in-person and recently on-line.

Now, here is a little information that just may have you saying Hmmmm. Now Pilar ended her talk by telling us that she was always this tall. Okay, was she 5’8, 5’5 well she stated that due to an auto accident that keep her confined for 6 weeks. The accident resulted in a fractured vertebrae and a fully compressed vertebrae, which actually reduced her height by 1 inch. So as I stated in the beginning of this Craft Talk Review, Don’t judge a Book by its Cover. Congratulations on all of your achievements including the receiving of your now Blue Badge.

David Muse