Rotary President Frank DiMarco welcomed Karen Berry, who spoke on desert tortoises.
The Palisades Rotary Club held a demotion party for outgoing president Marie Tran at the Bel Air Bay Club on June 28. Tran handed Frank DiMarco the gavel to start his year as president.
“I was recruited by Rotary member Pete Crosby and joined so that I can be of service to the community that has embraced me and my business,” DiMarco said, and noted that he hopes to be able to reach out to different Palisades residents and businesses “that make up our great community.”
He was born at USC Medical Center, just 18 days after his parents came from a coastal town in Sicily Campo Felice Di Roccella.
“I grew up in the Culver City/Mar Vista area,” DiMarco said. His family then moved to the San Fernando Valley, where he attended Van Nuys High School.
After high school, he joined the Navy. “After basic training I went to the Naval Academy of Health and Sciences, eventually wanting to become a pediatrician.”
During that time, he worked off base in construction and realized he loved building and really enjoyed the construction industry. “I decided to forgo medical school and pursue a building career,” DiMarco said, and went full-time into construction in 1987.
“My website (pacificcoastdg.com) gives a clear picture of what we do,” he said. “I love creating something out of nothing.”
He said there’s a satisfaction that knowing what he designs is a center place for families and businesses, “where life happens.”
He came to Pacific Palisades in 2008, and his company does all types of construction. “Mainly high-end custom homes ground up and commercial,” said DiMarco, who speaks four languages, Italian, Sicilian, Spanish and, of course, English.
As a builder, he feels a special connection to his projects. Early in his career he worked on one of Charlie Chaplin’s mansions. “We worked with a historian and were able to bring a piece of history back to life,” he said.
This year for Rotary, he hopes to have a few special fundraisers, possibly involving cars and coffee. “It would be a great way for members to get together and raise money for community project,” he said.
Annually, the Rotary donates to local causes, for example, one year they built a library for an inner-city school, through Access Books and last year they gave a grant to that program to provide children, many of whom didn’t have a book in their homes, one to take home.
With funds they’ve raised, they’ve donated to the Westside Food Bank and to various programs at Palisades High School and Paul Revere Middle School.
The group also names a businessperson of the year and this past year Gordon and Shirley Wong, who have owned Knolls Pharmacy for 33 years, were selected.
The Rotary Club has been working with worldwide Rotary Clubs to eradicate polio. The organization was a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and have helped reduce polio cases by 99.9 percent since its first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
DiMarco invites you to come to a weekly meeting, which are held at 12:30 p.m. at Modo Mio, or contact him at frankd.palisadesrotary@gmail.com.