December is Disease Prevention and Treatment Month for Rotary. That’s one of our seven Areas of Focus. It’s a month that highlights Rotary’s global commitment to expanding access to healthcare, improving quality of life, and supporting people facing illness, both at home and around the world.
For our club in South Pasadena, it’s also a time to reflect on how compassion, service, and community care contribute to overall well-being. Whether through “Joy in the Streets”, youth initiatives like ”Seeds of Peace” or a possible Health Fair, we honor this Rotary theme by showing up for others. Rotary reminds us: healing begins with human connection. December invites us to put that into action.
Rotaplast: Where Rotary Restores Smiles
Imagine a child who has never smiled without hiding their face. Imagine a mother walking for miles because she dreams of her baby being able to eat, speak, or simply be accepted. This is where Rotaplast steps in and where Rotary’s compassion becomes life-changing.For more than 30 years, Rotaplast International has traveled to 26 countries, offering free reconstructive surgeries for cleft lips, cleft palates, burn scars, and other deformities.
In a single mission, hundreds of families receive the gift of hope, often for the very first time. Rotarians Make These Miracles Possible District 5300 volunteers serve side-by-side with surgeons and nurses. Some hold a child’s hand before surgery. Some photograph the first smile a parent has ever seen. Some help transport patients or comfort families waiting anxiously nearby. Every role matters. Every volunteer changes a life. And often, their own life is changed too.
You Can Be Part of the Story District 5300 has openings for non-medical volunteers on upcoming missions. Volunteers cover travel costs and submit a brief personal statement with their Mission Interest Form. Or Support a Surgery From Home A single donation helps fund sutures, anesthesia, recovery supplies, and the skilled hands that give a child a new beginning. Rotaplast is Rotary’s heart in action, restoring smiles, restoring dignity, restoring hope. Learn More Contact Project Chair Drexel L. Smith at dls@drexelcg.com.
Joy in the Streets: One Last Call to Serve & Support
On December 14, we will once again gather in Downtown Los Angeles to share warmth, dignity, and compassion with our unhoused neighbors. Joy in the Streets is one of our most meaningful service projects of the year, and we still welcome volunteers to help serve breakfast, distribute winter essentials, and bring hope to over 1,000 people in need.
If you’re unable to volunteer, you can still make a difference, donations of winter clothing, sleeping bags and shoes are still gratefully accepted. Every gift helps us reach one more person with care and kindness. Join us. Support us. Stand with us.
Together, we can unite for good and bring true joy to the streets of Los Angeles.
The Interact Club of South Pasadena High School created this video as their submission for the 2025 Interact Awards, centered on this year’s theme of Peacebuilding. They chose to spotlight Joy in the Streets, a project that has deeply shaped their understanding of service and compassion. Many of our Interactors are applying to college this year, and at least one shared how profoundly the breakfast ministry impacted them by writing about it in a college essay.
Don’t miss our last Joy in the Streets Wrapping Party on:
Thursday, December 11th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Canoe House 805 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena in the Paddle Room.
Come help us wrap gifts, support the cause, and bring any donations you’d love to contribute.
ROTARY CLUB MEETING LUNCHEON
Our final formal Club Meeting of 2025 is coming up!
Wednesday, December 10th 12-1:30 PM. We hope you’ll join us for this end-of-year luncheon! Kindly RSVP as we want to plan for catering at bettyrotary5300@gmail.com.
Thank you!
If your heart is pulling you to stay true to South Pasadena, join in helping decorate the City of South Pasadena Rose Parade Float! Sign up for volunteer shifts directly with our Service Projects Chair, Elizabeth Dever, at (213) 842-0229.
CRUNCH PARTY to support the South Pasadena Tournament of Roses is happening on Saturday, December 29th 2025. Any of you interested in going?
Please enter the raffle for a chance to win 2 tickets at: joyinthestreets@gmail.com
Winners will be announced at our Club Holiday Dinner on Tuesday, December 16th
Presenting the 2026 Rotary Rose Parade Float: Unite for Good
Rotary Presidential Theme:Unite for Good
2026 Tournament of Roses Theme:The Magic in Teamwork
Our 2026 Rotary float bursts with color and life, celebrating the beauty of teamwork in both nature and service. Set in a lush, dreamlike landscape, the float features iconic wildlife working together in harmony: giraffes, zebras, a hippo, a flamingo, a toucan, a gentle green snake, and a proud tiger watching over her cubs.
Each creature and every floral detail symbolize the strength found in community, diversity, and collective purpose. Just as these animals thrive together, Rotarians unite across borders to create lasting and meaningful change.
This year’s float is a joyful reminder that there is true magic in teamwork: especially when we unite for good.
Our very own Rotarian Tom Camarda returned from RYLA this weekend not just as a camp facilitator: he came back IGNITED.
He walked onto that mountain to guide the teens……and walked off it with the same unstoppable energy, clarity, and purpose that THEY did.
Tom said the transformation wasn’t just for the students: it was for EVERYONE in the arena. The breakthroughs. The courage. The connection. The belief that we can do more, be more, and serve more. RYLA didn’t just inspire our teens…it lit a fire in Tom, in our club, and in the future we’re building together. GET READY: BECAUSE THIS KIND OF MOMENTUM IS CONTAGIOUS!!!
Tom with his group of 10 RYLA teens!
The South Pasadena High School RYLA team: from left to right - Alison Chan, Jaiya Zafra, Amélie Fiss, and Interact Club President Lorenzo Jones.
First, from the very nice husband-wife team Randy Clement and April Langford (one of their former long-term bartenders is a good friend of mine, so April and I had a nice conversation once in their Altadena location - very nice, very down-to-earth lady) behind Hippo and Triple Beam Pizza on Fig in Highland Park, Everson Royce Bar (or, as the cool people call it, simply “ERB“ : if you go, their warm chocolate chip cookies 🍪 are an absolute must!) in the Arts District, and the Neighborhood Bar and West Altadena Wine + Spirits on Lincoln Ave, is Cannonball. (It’s a railroad term since they are right across the street from the Metro Rail station.) They took over the former space of Piccolo (and before that, Crossings). Small but high-quality menu. Ditto their wines-by-the-glass list and cocktails, although they do have a very eclectic wine-by-the-bottle list of about 100.
Excellent food, especially their biscuits with honey butter, which everyone seems to love: including a chef friend of mine who raved about them - although I think the food at Piccolo was better. But with a menu by Matt Molina, who won the 2012 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific for his work at Osteria Mozza, the food is going to be excellent.
I didn’t have it, but apparently many people also rave about the burger and fries, also brought in from ERB along with the biscuits. That’s also the opinion of one of my doctors, a foodie I discuss restaurants with more than I do my medical issues whenever I go in to see him. He said he is “not impressed” with Cannonball but loved Piccolo.
One thing to be aware of is that you need to book a reservation a week in advance for off days/times and two weeks for prime weekend slots.
Another issue is the noise level. It is very LOUD. And that’s on the ground floor indoors. I’ve been told that the small 2nd floor is far louder.
I highly recommend dining on the very nice back patio. Small, but nowhere near as noisy—even with the train tracks literally only a few feet past the back fence. Interestingly, I ate in Piccolo a few times and it was never anywhere near as loud as Cannonball is. Could be because the latter is more crowded, or maybe the new owners modified the interior to make it louder, as that is the hip trend now—the supposition being that people like loud restaurants because it creates a “vibrant” atmosphere. I didn’t like the noise level, nor did the +1 nor our 2 friends.
A slight drawback was the unfriendly hostess, who seemed like she wanted to be anywhere but there. But the server was very friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable.
As for price, on a scale of Canoe House being $ and places like République and 71 Above being $$$$$, I would put this place at $$$. Most reviewers put it at $50–$100 per person; then add tax and tip and you’re looking at $130–$260 for two. I would put it at about $225.
Last point: if you go on a Thursday, good luck finding parking due to the Farmer’s Market a block away. (I went on a Thursday and took the train so didn’t have to worry about it, but our friends said they had to park so far away they had a 10-minute walk.)
Overall: excellent food, drinks, and service - and definitely get the biscuits. Just be sure to book your reservations on Resy a week or two in advance and try to get the patio.
December Birthdays
December 8: Camille Leon
December Anniversaries
December 15: Charles Wiggington Rotary Anniversary
Wishing each of you a wonderful year ahead filled with joy, health, and Rotary spirit!
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the lives of others.”
- Simone de Beauvoir, The Prime of Life
Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s insight that we become the sum of the choices we make, I offer my gratitude for the choices you embraced throughout 2025: choices of service, of community, and of peace. Each act, however small, has shaped not only the world around us but also the people we are becoming.
As we step into 2026, may we remain brave in the face of uncertainty and united in purpose. May we continue to choose courage when indifference is easier, kindness when the world grows weary, and the steady, deliberate work of building a future that reflects the very best of our shared humanity (de Beauvoir).
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), a French philosopher, writer, feminist theorist, and public intellectual, remains one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.
Works Cited
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Prime of Life. Translated by Peter Green, World Publishing, 1962.
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, Vintage Books, 2011.
I hope you enjoyed this December Rotator! As always, I'm so grateful for your support and love having this opportunity to serve you in Rotary.
With love -
Betty Bui
PO BOX 362 South Pasadena, CA 91031, United States
