The Gainesville-Haymarket Rotary meets every Wednesday at 7:30 am at the Piedmont Country Club. Here's the address:

14675 Piedmont Vista Drive, Haymarket, Va 20169

Please sign on to the District Club Database and review/update your membership information.

This is just a reminder that our meeting is CANCELLED if Prince William County Schools have a cancellation or delayed opening.

Sometimes life runs in circles. Sometimes, by a circuitous route, we get another perspective on the same scene, with a new challenge. There was a time in my life when I wanted nothing more than to be a SCUBA diver. The Navy trained me in Hawaii. One of our final practical exercises was to do hull inspections of submarines. Available ships were divided among the class, and my diving buddy and I swam the hulls of the USS Blueback and the USS Barbel. I remember reporting a few patches of grass on the hulls, but nothing requiring dry-docking. Barbel had torpedo guidance wire hanging out of a couple of her torpedo tubes, and I cut it away with wire-cutters.

But broader challenges beckoned. I heard a call to be an officer. Again I finished the training, and completed my next two sea tours as a submarine officer. Then, seventeen years after I entered that pool to be a SCUBA diver, I was assigned as a submarine Executive Officer, followed by a tour as Commanding Officer. Even though those last two shipboard tours were served three thousand miles from that pool, in opposite directions from it, and two decades removed in time, my last two tours were served in ……………….. the USS Blueback (San Diego) and the USS Barbel (Sasebo, Japan)! Today these ships are gone, and I am a Life Member of the “B-Girls” Reunion Association that preserves their memory. Life goes in circles. And now you know … the rest of my story.

In grateful remembrance of the life and style of Paul Harvey ………. Good Day!

John T. Stirrup – Gainesville District Supervisor & Sam Alattar – Prince William County Department of Transportation

John T. Stirrup – Gainesville District Supervisor

Supervisor John T. Stirrup, was born, raised and educated in New Jersey. A graduate of Seton Hall University, he moved to northern Virginia in 1982 and has lived in Prince William County for the last nine years. He was elected in 2003 to represent the Gainesville District at the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and in 2007, he was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term. Additionally, Supervisor Stirrup was elected by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to serve as Vice Chairman of the Board in January 2008.

John has had a distinguished career and as an accomplished Washington government affairs representative, he has worked with a wide range of elected officials in the United States Congress, the Executive branch, state governments and the private sector.

Presently, he is the top policy advisor to a transportation logistics trade association and represents their interests before Congress, the Administration and in state capitals. He previously worked for one of the Big Five accounting firms, served as chief of staff for a Member of Congress, served as a political appointee in three Cabinet Departments in the Reagan Administration and worked as a commercial real estate broker.

In addition to his professional work, he serves on the Museum of the Cold War, Board of Directors, is a member of the Gainesville Ruritans, Optimist Club of Manassas and the Prince William Republican Committee. He is the 2008 Prince William Republican of the Year. He is a founding member of St. Katharine Drexel Mission in Haymarket.

An avid outdoors man, John enjoys waterfowl hunting and fishing, as well as the family horses, cats and dog. He has successfully completed the US Marine Corps marathon, is an accomplished downhill skier, swimmer and bird watcher. John is married twenty years to his wife Heidi, and they have one daughter, Sarah and reside on a small horse farm.

Sam Alattar – Prince William County Department of Transportation

Sam Alattar has been with the Prince William County, DOT since 2004 as a project manager for design and construction of roadways and bridges. He has managed and completed the following projects while there: Manassas Airport Access Rd., Discovery Blvd., Sudley Manor Drive and Linton Hall Rd. PPTA projects. Currently he manages the Rt. 15 Improvements PPTA project in Gainesville.

Sam has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is a Certified Project Management Professional from the Project Management Institute.

Cindy Seidel, P3 Bodyworks

Cindy gave a great presentation on the value of making time for physical fitness and the importance of making it a priority in your life. She even had us all up out of our seats doing jumping jacks in an effort to get moving.

Her presentation brought home the idea that sometimes you need to put yourself and your health and well being first so that you can be best equipped to being a productive worker and effective in the other aspects of your life.

Linda Marlow had two guests at the meeting last week - Jessica Clay, an attorney practicing right here in Haymarket, andJeff Knight, the owner of TrueShred. Hopefully everyone had a chance to meet and talk with both of them. We hope that they will be back at future meetings. Please invite someone you know who might be interested in learning more about Rotary to join us at one of our breakfast meetings.

Date	Speaker	Description	Guest Of
March 11	John Stirrup & Sam Alattar	Prince William Update	Linda Marlow
March 18	Zed Wondemu	Zed's Restaurant	Linda Marlow
March 25	Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt	News & Messenger	Linda Marlow
April 1	Earth Day Team	Earth Day, Every Day Update	members
April 8	Club Assembly	Board of Directors
April 15	Debi Alexander	Rainbow Center Therapeutic Riding Center	Linda Marlow
April 22	Michael Kieffer	Bull Run Mountain Conservancy	Linda Marlow
April 29	Timothy Burtch	Aircraft Accident Investigator - National Transportation Safety Board -	Linda Marlow

Date	Event	Time
Saturday, April 25	Earth Day, Every Day
Saturday, September 26	Childrens Wellness Festival

2008-2009 Board of Directors

Officers	Name	Directors	Name
President	Dennis Fargo	The Rotary Foundation	Russ Tuck
President Elect	Charlie Mills	Club Administration	Lori Power
Vice President	Alan Myers	Membership	Linda Marlow
Secretary	Don Rusch	Service Projects	Marilyn Karp
Treasurer	John Grzejka	Club Public Relations	Amelia Stansell
Sergeant-at-Arms	Ali Sayed	Rotary Community Corp	George Layne
Interact Club	George Layne	Past President	John Grzejka

Places to make up a meeting

If you would like to make up a meeting online, you can click here.

Excellence is the result of:

• caring more than others think wise
• risking more than others think is safe
• dreaming more than others think is practical
• and expecting more than others think is possible

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