The Rotary Club of Catonsville - Sunrise, Maryland

Club Meeting January 7

ROTARY CLUB MINUTES, Catonsville Sunrise – January 07, 2009
GREETER: Bruce Van Dervort
DEVOTION / INSPIRATION: Ed Tolzman
WORLD OF ROTARY: Bruce Van Dervort

Pres. Cal Oren opened the meeting.

Bruce Siddens moved to have the 5K race in September moved to CCBC.
There will be more runners from the school and Charm City thinks that it will be a better site for runners coming from Annapolis and Glen Burnie. There is also better parking.
Bruce and Cal have a meeting set up Friday 1/09/09 with Tonya Ringgold, Dean of the CCBC Catonsville Campus and a meeting with St. Agnes on 1/16/08 concerning the race.
Chuck Ludis, an experience runner, has stepped up to help.

Quick Announcements

There will be a Guest Bartender event at Dimitri’s on February 23 from 5 to 9 p.m. to benefit Catonsville High School Speech and Debate.

George is reviewing his files and callings schools to determine which school is scheduled for dictionary distribution on January 15.

Happy Dollars

George – Excited about his new business venture – the Winning Edge
Rosemary – is glad to be feeling better
Cal – put in a dollar for the Ravens
Al – Excited to spend time with his son over the holidays

Housekeeping

Cal said he needs biographies of members on the Website.

George is going to take photographs for the Website.

Paypal is available on the Website to pay dues.

Speaker
Jonathon Zawacki gave a classification speech

He was born in New Haven, CT and moved to Columbia when he was seven. He considers himself a Rouse brat.

He was raised by a single mom, dental hygienist turned acupuncturist. She has a practice in Ellicott City.

He went to Centennial High School and Towson University when he majored in psychology. He was also involved with mountaineering.

He lead groups in Mountain Climbing and Hands-On Skills. After graduating, he went to Maine and Vermont for a month. He came back and started working at Gennesse Valley. He taught rope courses for everyone from 5th graders to ROTC and Corporate Classes. During the breaks, he was a Snowboard Bum.

Then he went to Santa Fe to work at Brush Ranch School where he worked with 10 – 15 16 year olds teaching Shop and Drama at a small private school. When he wasn’t in school he shared a trailer with other teachers.

Then he biked across the country for 3 months. After which, he had a year of transition.

He started Jonathon’s Odd Jobs. He noticed there were no younger people painting houses and decided to train to paint. He made more in one summer painting houses than he did in a year of teaching. He developed a business plan in 1997-98.

He attributes his success in the early days to using his cell phone and computer to deliver an estimate within one hour of visiting the job. He gave 1,000 estimates a year.

He bought a small commercial property in Arbutus and opened up his current business Hands-On Painting. Everyone in the business does everything, he even scrubs toilets. He has been in business for 12 years.

He had an article in a National Sherman Williams Publication.

He is 37 and married with two children, Ameila, 2 ½ and Leo, 9 months.

He and his wife moved to a charming old house by Patapsco park which is 5 minutes away from work.a

He met his wife at speed dating for Jewish Singles.


Bruce V. won the 50/50.

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