A lovely day for meeting on the Chrysler stage at the Scope.  Displaced by wild animals here to entertain for the circus, we gather to enjoy fellowship and a different kind of entertainment. 

 

President Sigur rang the bell and reminded all to silence cell phones.  Music was led by the melodious voice of Bob Heely as we sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and “My Country Tis of Thee”.  Lacking a flag to pledge to we skipped that part and Irv Wells presented a lovely invocation.

 

The school of the week is Granby Elementary, which figured prominently in some happy bucks later on.  Jim Baker gave the visitation report – Dean Thomasson’s wife, Erin, is undergoing cancer treatments.  Please keep the Thomassons in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Barbara Lipskis introduced out guests.  Dona Overstreet brought two prospective members:  Mary Mick and Susan Smallwood.  Sally Hartman introduced her guest, John Stewart.  George Campo had two guests, Hahns Copeland and a prospective member, Walt Sobczyk.  Please watch for our prospective members to return in the coming weeks to extend a warm Rotary welcome.

 

John Stewart with the Friends of the Norfolk Environment was introduced and gave a brief synopsis of what his organization is doing as he thanked the club for the recent grant of $1,000 that they received. 

 

All Rotarians were reminded to vote for new member Steve Shultz.  The Board meeting will take place Monday, April 13 at 4:30 at Kaufman and Canoles.  Marty Raiss reminded us all that the Spring Family Social at the Norfolk Zoo will be April 19 from 2 – 4:30 PM.  Anyone who has not already done so, should RSVP if they are coming as soon as possible.  Rotary shirts are still available for only $38 – see Laurie Harrison.  We have 6 – 7 attendees signed up from the club to attend the Rotary Leadership Institute at Virginia Wesleyan on April 11 between 9 and noon. 

 

Happy Bucks:
            Marty Raiss contributed to honor NCAA Champs, Duke.
            Mal Branch gave dollars and a ‘hats off” to Duke, but noted they were lucky they didn’t have to play Kentucky.
            Sharon Laderberg owned up to buying a new car and made the requisite contribution.
            Colin McKinnon and Jerry Friedman, led by Ed Lilly each gave happy bucks in honor of our School of the Day, Granby Elementary.
            And finally, Sally Hartman gave some happy bucks to encourage all of us to make sure we contribute to EREY ASAP.

 

Happy Birthday was sung to all of our April birthday Rotarians and President Sigur introduced our Rotarian of the Day, John Searing.  John is a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch and an avid runner.  John introduced our guest speaker, Jerry Frostick, President, J&A Racing.  J&A Racing is a nationally known race company that was started in 2003 when they acquired the rights to the Shamrock Sports Festival.  The Shamrock Sports Festival was originally begun by a Virginia Beach Rotary club. 

 

Jerry works with his wife Amy, the J and the A in the name.  Amy is the basic driving force in the business which runs on the philosophy Live, Love, Run.  Since beginning with the Shamrock Sports Festival, J&A has added 6 other races.  The racing industry has changed over time from one where runners came to compete and improve their time to more of what Jerry calls ‘bucket list participation’.  People come to have fun and enjoy the experience, lifelong friendships are formed and races are very social.  Each of J&A’s races is still growing, and Jerry is not quite sure why.  It might be because they run their operation to be more happiness driven than profit driven, focusing on what runners want.  They want people leaving their races happy. 

 

Jerry believes they have grown by trying to do the right thing.  He is picky about the details of the give-aways they hand out, meticulously making sure the shirts are just right for example.  However, in one instance, he let the details slip by on medals he gave out for one of his races where Virginia was spelled wrong.  It has now become a collectors’ item. 

 

The race events have a huge economic impact.  The city of Virginia Beach asked that they do more so they added the Blue Moon race in October where every participant had to wear a costume.  Two or three years ago they started working with Norfolk on the Grand Illumination weekend – it sold out the first year.  Jerry and his wife have a passion for this area and are not looking to expand.  They actively support the Smile-a-Mile charity and have a kids’ race to support them. 

 

Happy is the man who can make a living at his hobby and Jerry obviously loves what he is doing.  He closed by thanking us for our help with the Harbor Lights event. 

 

Following some questions, Sigur let Jerry know that we were presenting a book, The Dark, to Granby Elementary School in his honor.  With that, we were adjourned.