Plaza Rotary at a Glance 10/14/2015

Our guest speaker this week is Gail Lozoff, a third-generation entrepreneur and partner in SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza, based in Kansas City. The company operates five locations in the Kansas City area and is expanding through franchising into the Southern California market.

 

SPIN! was founded in 2005.

 

Gail may be best known as the CEO and co-founder (with her husband) of the wildly successful Kansas City chain Bagel & Bagel. (The first Bagel & Bagel was in Brookside — at the same location where her father and grandfather had once operated the Cake Box bakery.

 

Bagel & Bagel grew rapidly and was purchased in 1995 by Boston Chicken and formed into Einstein Bros. Bagels. She served as VP of Merchandising and Design and later as Chief Marketing Officer for Einstein Bros./Noah’s Bagel Corp.

 

When Boston Chicken ran into financial difficulties and sold Einstein Bros., Gail was hired by Houlihan’s Restaurants Inc., where she served as the chief concept officer for two years from 2001 to 2003. 

 

Her expertise in restaurant and food services businesses started early. She is the daughter of the late Sam Pasternak, who operated, with his father Ben, the Cake Box bakery. The local pastry chain operated from 1946 to 1980. One of Gail’s earliest jobs was to assemble cardboard cake boxes — for a penny each! At the chain’s height, it had 35 locations, including shops within the Milgram’s markets. 

 

Gail has a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design from the Kansas City Art Institute and a bachelor’s in English from Beaver College in Pennsylvania.

 

Welcome, Gail! 

 

The members of the Plaza Rotary Club have raised more than $8,400 in pledges and contributions in support of the District’s second annual Pars v. Polio Golf Marathon and Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio – and the final numbers are still out on the course!

 

Of that amount, $3,000 has been donated by members’ becoming Centurions, and the rest came from additional contributions and pledges to support Erik Dickinson and Jerry Venters, the club’s two golfers in the marathon.  Erik and Jerry (pictured with Ryne Kloeppel of the Parkville Rotary Club) played 100 holes of golf on September 22.

 

Districtwide, Pars v. Polio has raised more than $21,000 this year, and that number is expected to go higher as clubs report on their fund-raising efforts.  This will qualify Rotary for an additional match of more than $42,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Jerry served as the District Pars v. Polio chairman last year and this year. 

 

Congratulations, Plazans, for your continued support of the effort to end this crippling disease!  

 

 

Oct. 16 and 17 – District Conference in Kirksville, MO

Oct. 23, 3 p.m. – Vocational tour of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Nov. 15, 3:15 p.m. kick-off – Kansas City Chiefs vs Denver Broncos game party, Bill and Celine Moran’s home: 8927 Sagamore, Leawood, KS 66206