Peter Holewinski, chair of the World Community Service Committee, will emcee this program and will describe some of the projects chosen this year.  

Here are the approved projects for our WCS committee this thus far this FY:

$ 4000 – Project Amigo – One third of the WCS budget goes to this, our signature WCS project.

$ 1000 – Shelter Box – where most needed in the world

$ 1000 – Project Peanut Butter –  Africa

$ 1000 – Telemedicine – India – w/ Cotati Rotary Club

$ 600 – Water Filters – remote areas in Mexico – w/ Puerto Vallarta Rotary Club

$ 400 – annual scholarship for a student in Guatamala thru high school

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Wednesday, April 27th: World Community Service
Wednesday, May 4th: Cannabis Initiative
Wednesday, May 11th: Rye and Rebound Students

USEFUL LINKS

Visit our district at: http://www.rotary5130.org
Check out Rotary International at: http://www.rotary.org
Come see us at: http://rotarymeansbusiness

WELCOME

Pledge:  Peggy Soberanis

Invocation:  Kim Graves

VISITORS

Most did not sign in today, so I apologize for not getting them all.  We had seven students, Marcia Crandall, Jan Wood, Jillian Haggans, and David Stare

PROGRAM

Guest Speaker – Bob Padecky

Bob Padecky and His Experience with Child Abuse

You could tell that this is a very difficult subject for him to talk about even though he has been open about his past for over 20 years.  Attached are two articles that Bob has written on child abuse.  As he said in his talk today, it was a conversation with Barry Bonds of the Giants that got him to open up about his childhood.  Barry and he were in a conversation and Barry was complaining about his children and the demands upon his time that they took from him….like it was a major inconvenience.  Didn’t those kids understand he was busy and had not time for them?  Then there was the O.J. Simpson trial.  These were the two events that made Bob finally speak out about child abuse….in his 30’s.

It was his father who was the abuser.  His grandfather was an assassin for the KKK.  Yikes!  Bob would spend hours reading in the bathroom because that was the one place his dad would not go.  His sister says she has no memories before she was 12.  It was that bad.

In school he tried to sit behind the biggest kid in the class to hide.  Abused kids don’t want to be noticed. They are fearful that if they make a mistake is class they will be punished.  Sports were the one area that Bob said was fair.  He was drawn to baseball.  On the pitcher’s mound he had control.

He did not go into detail on the beatings that he, his mom and sister got from his dad.  He spoke of scratching at the walls in his sleep to escape the monster in his dreams and wake up with his fingers bloody; the time his dad dumped a bucket of ice on him as he slept because he was not already up and mowing the lawn.

After Bob finished Robin Bowen from the Child Parent Institute spoke about what her organization does for children and their families.  She showed a short video on the statistics of child abuse in our county.  It is pretty horrific!  Go to www.calparents.org for more information.

Now back to our meeting, already in progress!

Rotarian Vicki Hardcastle hoping to pull the winning ticket – nope!

RAFFLE

About $120 in the pot and 6 marbles.  Vickie Hardcastle had the right number, but she did not get the right marble.

ROTARIAN MAGAZINE QUIZ

Don’t forget to read the magazine and sign in with Debi Zaft!  We want 100% participation.  You don’t have to read the magazine cover to cover to qualify.

SUNSHINE REPORT

Jack Abercrombie is home recuperating.  It will be a while before he is back at our meetings.   Bob Sorenson is back and he brought his part time care giver to lunch with him.  Nice to see Bob back!  Rich de Lambert had shoulder surgery, but he is fine.

Mikki Cardoza

CRAFT TALK

Mikki Cardoza is only moved here to Santa Rosa.  She is from Humboldt County and still has a real estate office up there.  She has a blended family that really supports her in her business and volunteer life.  She has been married to her husband for 18 years.  She used to be a school teacher and was planning on becoming a principal when she took a leave of absence. A friend convinced her to try real estate sales during this time off.  She loved it!  Shortly thereafter she stopped teaching and went into real estate full time.  She took her exam on 09/11/01.  In 2007 she got her broker’s license.  In recent years she had to restructure her business because she was successful to the point of burning the candle at both ends.  She wrote up a business plan and hired more people to help her and the transition has been very successful for her and her clients.  She has always been one to volunteer so Rotary is a very good fit!  On each closed transaction she donates 1% of her company’s profit to a charity of her client’s choice. She opened her Santa Rosa office in 2015.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/RECOGNITIONS

New Gen Peace Builders:  The 26 kids from 5 Santa Rosa high schools made their presentation on Saturday April 16^th.  They are going to do seminars/workshops/events for foster kids ages 8 -12.  Jose Guillen and his connections with the courts help find a way to reach these kids who would normally not be easily found.  The first program will be coming up soon.  We’ll see how it goes!  Good luck!

President Doug will be speaking at the District Conference in May about the program.  Rumor has it that a club in Argentina is applying for a global grant to do a New Gen program there.  President Doug would like to help…….

Layne Bowen gave some money for no apparent reason (maybe Doug has gotten word about the debunking?).

Don McMillan says he needs Giro Bello help.  Drop him an email or call him.  Sign Up Genie will be emailed out again soon.

Emily Harrington has just switched jobs.  She is now working for American River Bank.

Don McMillan just wants more help with the Giro Bello

SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS FOR 2016

Steve Olson and his committee waded through about 150 applications to find the 8 students who have won this year’s awards.  Seven of them made it to our meeting today.  All awards were for $1750 unless noted:

Jacqueline Rocha got the Larry Bello Scholarship.  She is studying radiologic technology at SRJC.

Alejandro Torres got the Stanley L Lance Scholarship.  He is studying Mmechanical engineering and hopes to be attending UC San Diego in the fall. He previously recognized by our club as an outstanding high school student!

Austin Schuler got the Christopher Wood Memorial Scholarship.  He will be attending Sonoma State, majoring in business administration and marketing.

Joel Barnett got the RCSRF Trustees Scholarship and will be going to UD Davis, majoring in math.  He is a highly sought after math tutor right now!

Hani “Sam” Sedaghat Pisheh got the Spence and Shirley Flournoy Scholarship.  He is off to UC Berkeley to study electrical and mechanical engineering.  This award is renewable for an extra year.  I see useful robots in our future homes!

Sarah Wikle got the RCSRF Presidents Outstanding Student Scholarship.  This is a $2500 scholarship.  She plans on attending UC Santa Cruz to study social and behavioral sciences.  She is interested in policy and advocacy.

Celeste Gonzalez got the Jack Levar Memorial Scholarship.  The is a $1500 scholarship and it is renewal for a second year.  She is tentatively going to UC Davis to study communications.  She wants to be a creative director that uses social media for positive change.

Scholarship group with Rotarian Steve Olsen – Master of Ceremonies

CLOSING

To end the meeting, President Doug asked for any voluntary recognitions.  He has also asked that for the remainder of his term that the donations go to our local foundation.

OFFICERS

Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Officers

President:Doug Johnson, President Elect: Jose Guillen, President Elect Nominee: Julia Parranto, Past President: Mark Burchill, Secretary: Jack Abercrombie, Treasurer: Cecil G. Humes, Sergeant at Arms: Jack Geary

President Rotary International

K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran, member of the Rotary Club of Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka

Governor, District 5130

Erin Dunn, member of the Rotary Club of Fortuna Sunrise

Attendance Secretary

Jack Abercrombie P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707-538-4770

Board of Directors

Jack Atkin, Karen Ball, Tim Delaney, Tim Fawcett, Gesine Franchetti, Bill Hatcher, Will Haymaker, Elizabeth Karbousky, Steve Olson