May Speaker

May 15, 2024 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 noon, PDT

Our speaker will be Bill George, historian and author.
His subject will be “How a Maverick Coach Upended Society & Led a Group of Young Swimmers to Olympic Glory .”
This meeting will be held in the Rose Room at Auburn City Hall.
The public is invited. The meeting is free to attend.
Click here for Rose Room address, map, and directions. Also, info on Rose Room parking, now offsite only.

Bill George is a historian and the author of “Victory in the Pool: How a Maverick Coach Upended Society and Led a Group of Young Swimmers to Olympic Glory,” (Rowman & Littlefield). An inspiring story about the swimmers from a Sacramento swim club who won 20 Olympic Gold medals, the swimmers included Mark Spitz, Debbie Meyer, Sue Pedersen, Mike Burton, John Ferris and Jeff Float, and their coach was Sherm Chavoor. Bill is also a filmmaker. He founded Nimbus Films in 2011 and has written and produced seven award-winning documentary films about California history for PBS. He is the author of “Rails, Trails and Tales.” Bill has more than forty years’ experience in journalism, government public affairs, and corporate marketing. He was an award-winning television and radio journalist who has covered the World Series, the Super Bowl, and NFL and MLB playoffs for CNN and ESPN. https://billgeorge1.com/

T0 The winners of the 2024 Gold Country Writers Poetry Contest: First place Catharine Brankamp; Second place Lisa Schliff; Third place Leslie Warren. The 16 entries were judged by three published poets from Lincoln, who compared language usage, mood development, and overall story success to pick the winning poems. Leslie Warren’s poem, “Baja Morning,” about a trip to Mexico took third place. Lisa Schliff’s emotional poem, “Downhill Slide,” about her aging cat, took second place. Catharine Bramkamp’s poem “Lilith,” about Adam and his first wife, took first place. The celebration of winners was held on April 3, 2024, and included all of the submitted poems being read for an audience of 35. Randy Whitwell served as emcee, with Chery Anderson and David Anderson as co-chairs.

To Roseann McHenry for holding her Book Signing and Launch party on Sunday, April 14, 2024, from 2 pm – 4pm at Canyon View Community Center, 471 Maidu Drive in Auburn. Her book is Tales from a Rogue Ranger. View some great photos from the event here.

To Joan Griffin for hosting a new monthly series of Local Author Interviews at OLLI at Sierra College titled “The Spotlight on Local Authors Lunch Pail Series.”

To Dorothe Kress, Frank Nissen, Rebecca Inch-Partridge, Nanci Woody, Catharine Bramkamp, and Mary Helen Fein for getting interviewed later in the year by Joan Griffin at Sierra College (see above).