Sunny, warm weather, barbecue, fellowship and gleaming custom steel were the orders of the day at Thursday's 5th Annual Car Show. Nick Rogers, who worked very, very hard and made many, many announcements had it all pay off. The event raised more than $20,000 for Rotary Scholarships, making it a critical component in the club's fundraising. Congratulations, Nick. We were almost as happy as your dad, Tom, and mom, Elissa, to see your childhood fascination with custom cars come to wonderful fruition. Tom explained he made sure you and your sisters had Mustangs to fix up and drive growing up. He knew if you had coin and sweat equity invested in a car, you'd take care of them. Smart man. Brilliant son. And Rotary, and many, many, students, profited thereby. What a country. What a family.

Scholarship mavens John Root and Margaret Taylor presented two scholars whose stories brought home the purpose of it all. From atop Phill Raiser's Kazbus San Mateo High School grads Sethmi Kachchakaduge and Nina LoSchiavo testified to the importance of the scholarship program.

Sethmi arrived with her family from Sri Lanka in 1976, completely lacking any English language skills. This year she graduated at the top of her class and is on her way to UC Davis, where she intends to major in cognitive science, artificial intelligence and robotics. Eventually she expects to wind up a classic entrepreneur with her own company -- likely companies. Nina graduated two years ago from San Mateo High and testified to the importance of two Rotary programs, scholarship and Interact. She's a long-time San Mateo High Interacter who made multiple trips to Mexico on Rotary's behalf, delivering school supplies, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs to the poor.