Chris Haddow, Red Badger…

Chris gave his long awaited Craft talk on Friday, January 24.  Intended to have pictures to dazzle us with; but it did not work out this time. Chris is a big Los Angeles Dodger fan, and he shared a great memory of his father (who passed away just last year) taking him to Shawn Green’s house to meet him and look at some of his baseball memorabilia.  Shawn gave Chris a baseball signed by all of the famous Dodgers. When asked if he planned to put that one in the upcoming “silent auction” Rotary fundraiser, Chris indicated that he was not quite that generous, actually he said no, he is keeping that one, taking it to his grave… or something.

Chris comes from a large Catholic family, growing up in West Covina, his parents were married 62 years. Currently fortunate to be working with the fantastically successful Citizens Bank, recently transferred to the Arcadia branch. He thanked the many Rotarians that are customers for their support and loves both working and socializing in the community.

Wife Jeanette brings 3 kids to add to his 1 for a total of 5 in the happy family of 10 years. Passionate about music, Clarinet and later guitar, Chris took a break from playing in several rock bands to graduate from college, get a job and then get back to music. Chris promised pictures later, welcome to the greatest rotary club in the world.

Mike Ojeda, President Elect & Red Badger…

Mike grew up in Monterey Park and attended Alhambra High School, graduating in 1980.  After a semester at the beloved USC, Mike and his dad determined that a short stint in the US Army would be helpful for developing focus. Mike trained at Fort Ord in Monterey California, where he spent one of the coldest winters of his life.

Mike then traveled to Panama in 1981 for jungle training, where he recalled one memorable train trip where the local roving military was shooting at the train they were traveling in, just for the heck of it. Mike was a “comfort engineer”, hmmmm…

Now very successful as a Title Insurance professional, Mike meets and works with great people, although admittedly the work is not to terribly hard. Mike cautioned us Rotarians to pay attention to how documents and assets are held as it relates to Trusts. If not kept up-to-date and properly recorded, it causes delays in transferring property and has negative consequences.

On Q & A Mike was ask if he dated or was aware that the fabulously hotter than hot Cheryl Tiegs was at Alhambra High when he was there, he was not aware that she was, nor did he date her. Welcome to the Arcadia Rotary Mike.

[posted by Brian Hall]