DIGITAL EDITION No. 62 February 5, 2014 EDITOR: Jim Johnson PHOTOGRAPHERS: Kris Anderson & Diane Moresi
Our Program For February 12th
TARA SMITH OF TARA FIRMA FARMS
From business suits to muddy boots, Tara Smith is living out her convictions jumping from a successful executive career in the Long Term Care Insurance industry to Farming. Raising and Growing Real Food. From the hen house to cows that sequester carbon, she seeks to share her experience, inspiration and the humor that has brought her down the unlikely and surprising path as a successful farmer.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
February 19: Past Presidents
February 26: California Water
March 5: Sheriff Steve Freitas
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.com
Find out more: http://tarafirmafarms.com/
OPENING CEREMONIES
President Peggy called the meeting to order by welcoming our special guest, Miss Sonoma County: Ashley Kimball and her escort for the day, Past President Bill Rousseau and his classy tuxedo. As beautiful music filled the air and everyone rose to their feet for a standing ovation, the beautiful couple made several rounds of the Flamingo Ballroom until the appropriate moment when it was calm enough for the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Steve Olson (Past President—1994-95).
Today’s invocation was presented by Rotarian Sonja Butler, who ruefully recalled her disabled introduction into the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa last year with her broken ankle, the brace, crutches, and Sonja’s cute little one-legged wagon. But those painful days are over; today Sonja is a very active Rotarian and her invocation captures her optimism:
I am in charge of how I feel
And today I am choosing Happiness.
Don’t stress over the past, it’s gone.
Don’t stress about the future, it hasn’t arrived.
Live in the present and make it beautiful.
Everything happens for a reason,
Live it, Love it, Learn from it!
Make your smile change the world,
But don’t let the world change your smile.
GUESTS OF ROTARIANS
Between Rotary’s special guest & speaker, Miss Sonoma County Ashley Kimball, with her handsome escort & musical talents, Rotary members with guests, and the gathering of Rotary Hosts at the reserve table, no written record of guests was available; but everyone in attendance was warmly welcomed and had an enjoyable time.
ROTARY RAFFLE
The larger the jackpot, the more nervous grows those who hold those red tickets. With the elusive jackpot getting closer every week, it took some time before someone read the winning number correctly, but things settled down when Bob Sorensen discovered he held the right number. Even with only 17 losing numbers in the velvet bag, Bob was unable to draw one of the two lucky Jokers and ended up generously splitting the $10 consolation prize with perennial winner Ted Wilmsen.
Student of the Month Victoria Eyler
STUDENT OF THE MONTH
Bill Hatcher recognized this month’s recipient, Victoria Eyler from Ridgeway High School and introducing Ridgeway High’s school principle who emphasized Victoria’s outstanding qualifications as this month’s scholar of the month, with Victoria’s father Mark watching with pride.
SUPER BOWL WINNERS
1st Place: Roy Thylin
2nd Place: Rich de Lambert
3rd Place: Rick Mordecai
4th: Place: Cathy Vicini
THANKS TO O’REILLY MEDIA
Before announcing the encouraging news about this year’s Giro Bello’s kick-off registration Doug Johnson & Layne Bowen introduced our honored guest, Florence Del Carpio, to express Rotary’s appreciation to O’Reilly Media for their hospitality and generous support of Rotary’s annual Giro Bello cycling events. Florence is our primary liason with O’Reilly Media which generously allows our club to use it’s Sebastopol campus as the site of our Giro Bello bike expo. O’Reilly also serves as both the start and finish line for our fundraising event. As a gift in appreciation to Florence’s effort on our behalf, Doug and Layne presented to her one of the original Giro Bello Jerseys from the first Beautiful Ride in 2010, four years ago, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa.
Darren Elliot, Jeanne Levin, and Chuck Bartley
FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS
With only three February birthdays to celebrate and only three identical bottles of wine to choose from, Birthday Chair Elizabeth Karbousky might have set a speed record before we sang Happy Birthday to veteran Rotarians Jeanne Levin & Chuck Bartley and new Blue Badger Darren Elliott, whose birthday was on this very day, February 5th. The good news is that the Rotary Choir sounded better than ever, thanks to the enthusiasm of the crowd.
GIRO BELLO’S REGISTRATION
Doug Johnson announced that Giro Bello’s successful registration kick-off on January 31st generated four times the number of cyclist registrations for our highly-popular Beautiful Ride’s first week. Posters and fliers of various sizes are available to pick up and distribute to highly public places all around Sonoma County (and beyond) and again this year, fellow Rotarians can borrow the Giro Bello banner to display for a week in your place of business. It’s your job to spread the news immediately to all of your bicycle-riding friends about the three beautiful rides of the 5th annual Giro Bello: Saturday, June 28th!
ROTARY MAGAZINE QUIZ
Rotarians made the promise to fight to the finish to ensure that no child suffers the paralyzing effects of polio ever again. What are the four steps to “The Endgame Plan?” (answer on page 68)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Social Chair Debi Zaft announced that the next Rotary Social will be held early next month on Tuesday afternoon, March 11th, at Greg Johnston’s home.
John Brown Scholarships: Steve Olson announced that recent contributions to the John Brown Veterans Scholarship Foundation now stands at $8,000 and the matching contributions had reached $22,500 toward the $25,000 goal.
BOARD MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS: TUESDAY, FEB. 4TH
[list style=”arrow” color=”blue” el_position=”first last”]
- Following Wayne Rowland’s pitch on the feasibility of our club working with the Kenwood Firefighters Association to bring back the legendary Pillow Fight fundraiser next September in Rohnert Park, your board of directors gave us the go-ahead to revive the big event. Mark your calendar for this great fun family event to be held next fall at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park. The big date is Saturday, September 27th.
- Your Board of Directors announced that Kerrie Chambers and John Breazeale have withdrawn from the Rotary Club due to financial and job demands.
- It was announced at the board meeting that two other applicants are going through the process to come into the club.
- The Board voted not to replace this year’s Casino Royale event in Windsor but rather explore having an evening social at the Flamingo where we could still feature our traditional live and silent auctions. Stay tuned for more details in weeks to come.[/list]
ROTARY ARCHIVES
Last week, the official history of Rotary District 513’s first 50 years of service was placed in our Rotary Club’s archives after Past President Jeanne Levin donated it to our 92-year-old club, raising questions in the minds of some Rotarians: What are archives? What are they for? Where are they stored? As the appointed historian of the Santa Rosa Rotary Club, I thought we all deserve a short answer.
Archives are an organized body of records pertaining to an organization or institution where such records are preserved. As one might imagine, for a large organization with a rich and long history, storing archives could be a huge project and archivists are soon aware that we can’t keep everything, yet records held in an archive can preserve for posterity the story of an organization’s work and its people; and give insight into what’s going on in its community. Deciding what to keep and what to pitch can be tough, even for the experts. The archivist for Rotary International flatly states, “It’s an art that requires being able to forecast the future in order to preserve the past.”
Learn more about our Rotary Club’s archives next week in The Santa Rosarian.
Ashley Kimball with her violin
ASHLEY KIMBALL: MISS SONOMA COUNTY
Bill Rousseau, immediate past president and Miss Sonoma County’s handsome escort introduced today’s honored guest and speaker; expressing his good fortune this year to get to know Ashley Kimball and her chaperone Tony Geraldi. A Rohnert Park resident, Ashley is a 21-year-old senior at Sonoma State University majoring in theater arts with a minor in music. Upon graduation she plans to obtain a teaching credential with an emphasis on music education. An accomplished singer and musician who has been studying violin for 16 years, she sang and played while she rang the bell for the local Salvation Army Corps during the holidays.
In her spare time, Ashley founded a local children’s theater company here in Sonoma County and has applied for 501( C ) 3 status as a non-profit organization. While at SSU, she received the Evert B. Person Scholarship and is the Public Relations Coordinator for Associated Students Productions. In addition to her scholarship for being crowned Miss Sonoma County in June, Ashley receiving a talent scholarship for her playing at the Miss California Scholarship Pageant in Fresno and at today’s Rotary meeting she demonstrated her capabilities and talents as a performer.
MISSING CREED WOOD
Creed Wood
Creed was a valued member of both our Rotary Club’s Board of Directors and the board of the Club’s Foundation. He loved to get involved in hands-on Rotary projects, such as refurbishing a school, handing out dictionaries to 3rd Graders, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army bell, and manning the break stations for riders in the Giro Bello since its inception…just to name a few. He exemplified the Rotary motto “Service Above Self” and he will be long remembered as a person who cared about his family, community, friends and fellow Rotarians. Eileen Carlisle gave a special invocation in Creed Wood’s honor and we observed a moment of silence. May God bless you, Creed.
As we learn of the family’s plans for Creed’s services, we will keep you informed. Memorial contributions are being accepted to the Rotary Legends Fund of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation, PO Box 1513, Santa Rosa, CA. 95402.
Past President Steve Olson
THANKS TO THESE MEETING HELPERS:
Greeters: Doug Chase & Rich de Lambert
Raffle: Kris Anderson
Visiting Rotarians: Ray Dorfman
Ticket Collectors: Chip Rawson & Jock McNeill
Ticket Sales Assistant: Sonja Butler
OFFICERS
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Officers
President: Peggy Soberanis, President Elect: Mark Burchill, President Elect Nominee: Jose Guillen, Past President: Bill Rousseau, Secretary: Jack Abercrombie, Treasurer: Cecil G. Humes, Sergeant at Arms: Jack Geary
President Rotary International
Ron D. Burton, member of the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Governor, District 5130
Helaine Campbell, Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise
Attendance Secretary
Jack Abercrombie P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707-538-4770
Board of Directors
Debra Dorfman, Matt Fannin, Jose Guillen, Doug Johnson, Nicole Le, Robert Pierce, Jack Tolin, Creed Wood, Cathy Vicini