More than three dozen attendees of Thursday’s monthly Networking Breakfast on Oct. 17, 2013 sponsored by Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary got their money’s worth once again — in just 90 minutes everyone enjoyed:
- watching the presentation of a tribute to Arcadia Business Icon R.J. Collins Plumbing.
- seeing the Chamber hand out nearly $3,000 in donations from Taste of Arcadia to five non-profits who each accepted the donation in person
- hearing a fascinating and informative guest speaker presentation about the importance of planning ahead for your funeral arrangements by a former TV late night monologue joke writer.
- networking upon arrival
- eating from a great breakfast buffet
- providing a 30-second elevator pitch introduction of themselves in front of the entire group
- offering testimonials about other attendees who provided them a good service recently
- and winning fun raffle prizes presented by Chamber board members Annette Ousterhout of Jan’s Towing and Vicki Knight of Century Rooter Service and Plumbing.
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Rob Collins’ grandfather started a plumbing business 90 years ago and Rob moved his own plumbing business to its current location on Second Avenue at Santa Clara Street 10 years ago. Chamber CEO Scott Hettrick and Arcadia Historical Society President Gene Glasco presented the plaque to Rob who attended the event with his wife Kim.
Glasco also noted that attendee and new Chamber member VJ Sabanayagam of VJ’s Auto Service provides service on the historic police car that is promoted at various events by the Society. Glasco, who is also City Clerk, explained to attendees that the souvenir key rings at their plates donated by the Society represent the look of the Society’s next project coming in 2014, the Thoroughbred Racing Walk of Champions on Huntington Drive east of Santa Anita Avenue.
Hettrick presented checks to Richard Schulhof, CEO of the Arboretum, where the Taste of Arcadia is held, as well as the President of Assistance League of Arcadia, Keppie Sullivan, and tenacious Taste ticket seller for ALA, Mary Dougherty, Methodist Hospital senior VP & strategy officer Cliff Daniels with hospital Communications Coordinator and Chamber board member Doneva Garcia, and Lauragene Swenson on behalf of the Los Voluntarios.
Schulhof said the Arboretum is proud to host Taste, which has already been booked for Sept. 22,2014, and noted that Arcadians can find all the beautiful fall colors they want right in town at the Arboretum.
Less than 24-hours later Sullivan, who is also editor of the ALA’s weekly Friday Bulletin e-newsletter, included a “heartfelt thanks” to the Chamber for its generous donation.
Swenson took a photo of the recipients for her weekly newspaper column in The Weekly Star section of the Pasadena Star-News.
Following a three-minute Business Spotlight presentation awarded at the previous month’s Breakfast to attendee and new Chamber member Steve Floyd of RSVP Publications (direct mail), Chamber board member and volunteer host Dr. Nina Getz of Phillips Eye Center introduced the guest speaker for the program.
Jerry Perisho has written thousands of jokes for the monologues of late night talk show hosts including David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. But his subject Thursday was “Your Life, Your Legacy,” and he engaged the audience with his presentation and his invitation for attendees to share their stories of losing a loved one without having made any plans ahead. Perisho observed that it is a curious thing that many of us spend lots of money and time buying insurance to prepare for what Might happen, but many of us spend little or no time preparing for what we know for sure will happen to all of us — we’re going to die.
It was actually Perisho’s boss who did the joke-telling prior to the featured presentation, with Rose Hills executive and Chamber board member Bruce Lazenby telling everyone that traffic was moving so slow on his commute Thursday morning that an opposum came over to see if Bruce was roadkill.
