COMMUNITY & CLUBS: Rotary says thanks to First Responders

For the past six years, the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa has thanked the Newport Beach Fire Department on the Wednesday night closest to the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the First Responders Thank You dinner.

At Wednesday’s dinner were Newport Beach Fire Chief Steve Lewis, Capt. Ty Lunde, firefighters Jon Lauderdale and Less Hall, engineer Oscar Dysesten and paramedics Jude Olivas and Steve Martin.

Chief Lewis spent several weeks in New York City following the attacks of 9/11, helping to find survivors, bodies and attend funerals of first responders.

The late Arnold O. Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, and Dave Maggard, Irvine chief of police, received the William H. Spurgeon III Award; Newport Beach Police Explorers Zach Licudine and Andrew Gordon were honored with Young American Awards; and Newport Beach Sunrise Rotarian Chuck Hirsch received the Cliff Dochterman Award at a luncheon on Thursday.

In 1957, Spurgeon founded Exploring Council of Orange County, a program for high school-aged students that explores careers in research and technology. Two honored with the Young American Award for their excellence in academics, character and community service were Newport Beach police explorers Licudine, who rose to the rank of captain in Post 1050 and has donated more than 3,500 hours of community service, and Gordon, also a Post captain. Both want to become Newport Beach police officers.

Chuck Hirsch, a Rotarian since 1981 and Newport Beach Sunrise member, has been involved in scouting since 1934. He has served scouting at local and national levels.

Hirsch received the Cliff Dochterman Award.

About 30 members of the Rotary Clubs of Newport-Balboa, Newport Beach Sunrise and Costa Mesa clubs, along with members of the Newport Beach Fire Department, cooked at both the California Fish and Game facility at Shellmaker Island and Orange County’s Muth Environmental Center at University Drive and Irvine Boulevard for over 1,000 volunteers at Saturday’s Coastal Cleanup Day.

From the Thought for the Day, as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport-Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council, “At least 80% of all successful millionaires are self-made. That is, they started with nothing but ambition and energy, the same way most of us start.”