DIGITAL EDITION   No. 75   May 7, 2014     EDITOR: Julia Parranto     PHOTOGRAPHERS: Kris Anderson & Diane Moresi

Our Program For May 14th

AL LOEBEL – HIS RECENT VISIT TO TURKEY

Al Loebel is a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Healdsburg. He will be telling us about his recent visit to Turkey along with some great photos and videos.

 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

May 21: The United Way
May 28: Changes in Power
June 4: 25-Year Anniversary of the Fall of Communism

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
Learn more at: http://www.projectamigo.org/

OPENING CEREMONIES

Pres. Peggy greeted us in her usual warm fashion to the FINEST Rotary Club in the District. The Pledge of Allegiance was competently led by Greg Johnston. The Invocation from Chip Rawson gave us a Shannon Perry quote: “Complaining and being gracious is like bending over and standing up at the same time. It is impossible.”

VISITING ROTARIANS

Jack Abercrombie introduced. Scott Holder from SR Sunrise; Peggy Wyman from Rohnert Park Cotati; Ted Rose & Susan Hill, guest speakers from Colima Mexico Rotary Club.

MEMBERS WITH GUESTS

Will Haymaker introduced Ted Rose and Susan Hill, our speakers today, and almost forgot to introduce his lovely wife, Joanne. Mark Burchell introduced Michael Wilson; Karen Ball introduced Rick Snell, and Jack Abercrombie introduced Steve Marburger.

RAFFLE

Robby Fouts handled the raffle this week with $54 at stake. He had his favorite redhead, Debi Zaft, draw the ticket, which was owned by Vicki Hardcastle. Vicki couldn’t find the Queen of Diamonds, and instead drew the Ace of Clubs and a ten spot.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Pres. Peggy had two announcements: 1) the District Conference will be held May 16-18 at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park. Go to the District 5130 website to register. It’s a celebration of work done throughout the District. District awards will be given. 2) the World Pillow Fighting Championships Committee is hard at work preparing for our third fundraiser of the year on September 27^th. They are currently maintaining a low profile so that our club can focus on our signature event, the Giro Bello. They will take a more prominent role in July.

Don McMillan announced that more volunteers are needed for Saturday, May 17, from 1 to 4 PM, when the club will advertise our bike ride to the Petaluma riding club. The group had great success handing out flyers at the Wine Country Century event last Saturday. Don had help from Bob Higgs, Layne Bowen, Jose Guillen, Jeanne Levin, Rick Allen, and Bill Rousseau. We’ve received three sign-ups from people who indicated that they heard about our beautiful ride at that event. Great job Don!

Vicki Hardcastle announced that the foundation will double any contribution to your Paul Harris during the month of May, as long as the contribution is at least $100 and no more than $300.

Doug Johnson announced that we are at 468 riders, which is almost 300 ahead of last year. In terms of dollars, we are $25,000 ahead of last year. It looks like it’s going to be a wonderful event! Great job, Doug!

Karen Ball announced a need for new volunteers to chair committees. Bell Ringing was quickly snatched up by Julia Parranto; still needed is a chair for the Senior Poinsettia Committee.

Debi Zaft announced that there will be a social next Wednesday at Corrick’s, to which all are invited. We will still have our regular Wednesday meeting at the Flamingo, so please come to both.

Our meeting was then crashed by Peggy Wyman of the Rohnert Park Cotati Rotary club, who announced that their club is having an event called the Rohnert Park Craft Beer Fest, June 14, 2014 from 1 PM to 5 PM at City Center Park in Rohnert Park.

BIRTHDAYS

Apparently hot August nights are not all they’re cracked up to be as there were only three birthday Rotarians in attendance: Don McMillan, Karen Ball, and Bob Higgs. Elizabeth Karbousky led us in song, and then gave each of them a truffle.

PRESIDENTIAL RECOGNITIONS & FINES

Eileen Carlisle, Julia Parranto, Debi Zaft, Nona Lucas, Jeanne Levin and Judy Glenn were called out for having their picture in the paper at a YWCA event. As it turns out, Eileen Carlisle was the instigator, having purchased an entire table at the event. Eileen told us about the great work the YWCA is doing and suggested that one of her friends pay her fine. Julia Parranto took her up on that suggestion, and took advantage of the matching funds being offered by the foundation during the month of May. Debi Zaft, Nona Lucas, and Jeanne Levin also contributed nicely. Judy Glenn was nowhere to be found.

Doug Johnson and Carmen Sinigiani were photographed at Lagunitas doing good work for Giro Bello. Doug seemed a bit jealous of Don McMillan and Layne Bowen, who took advantage of the situation and had a couple of pitchers of beer, according to Doug.

Troy Carrington was recognized for his good work with Rebuilding America. Troy led a group of Rotarians in providing free services to a nice lady who needed a lot of work done at her mobile home. The front deck was completely repaired as it had dry rot. Other things were fixed that needed fixing. Troy talked about the “satisfaction of helping others”in true Rotarian spirit.

Pres. Peggy showed us a photo of a water system built for 60 people in a mountain town in Honduras. The material was delivered by horseback, and was a joint project of several Rotary clubs. The photo showed a plaque affixed to the water tank and Pres. Peggy told us that the plaque includes the name of our Rotary club. Yay!

Pres. Peggy then invited us to confess anything that made us happy for $10. She calls this Happy Bucks!

Don McMillan confessed to 37 years with Jackie and gave $10.

Eileen Carlisle told us that Troy Carrington and his crew are working on her house. She told Troy about a diamond ring she had lost; Troy’s crew found it and returned it to her. For this, Eileen contributed $100 to Troy’s Paul Harris.

Greg Johnston is the proud papa of a little leaguer who hit a home run and gave $10 for that. He also put in $100 for his Paul Harris to take advantage of the matching funds. He called out Ray Giampaoli as the winning coach.

Ray Giampaoli told us that his 11-year-old son hit the scoreboard with his home run so Ray gave $100 to his Paul Harris.

Marnie Goldschlag told us that despite a rough start, her daughter made it through her first year of college and is actually on the Dean’s Honor Roll. For this Marnie donated $25.

Layne Bowen went and saw the Giants play in San Diego and, and even though they only won one of the three games, Layne put $100 into his Paul Harris.

Ted Wilmsen has a granddaughter in the eighth grade who is going to star in her school’s production of Grease. For that Ted put $100 into his Paul Harris. Karen Ball’s bowling team won their season, so she put 20 bucks in.

Wayne Rowland’s software company got funded after three years of hard work. Wayne put $100 into his daughter’s Paul Harris to honor that accomplishment.

OUR PROGRAM

Our speakers today were introduced by Will Haymaker. Will reminded us of the story of Ted Rose getting on the wrong bus down in Mexico and winding up in Colima. He told us that Ted Rose has been Rotarian since 1980, and that he won the Service Above Self Award from Rotary International.

Susan Hill gave a beautiful presentation which opened with a quote from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:“We all have the chance to create a world where extreme poverty is the exception rather than the rule, and where all children have the same chance to thrive, no matter where they’re born. There isn’t any more inspiring work underway in the world today.”

Susan told us Project Amigo’s scholarship program, which began in 1995 with seven students in 7^th grade, has grown to include 112 students in junior high, high school and college. 45 of Project Amigo’s scholars have graduated from the University; 43 of them continue to live in Colima.

The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa has generously sponsored seven high school students this year, and Roy Thylin continues to help with a college sponsorship for Nancy Lopez. Susan gave us an update on our students:

Alexelin Garcia is finishing high school this year. She enjoys school and looks forward to going to college this fall. Her goal at this point is to enter the University of Colima’s School of Medicine. The application and interview process won’t start until June. It’s a six-year program, including an internship year of community service.

Our student Meche Rincon is a junior in high school this year. She gets excellent grades, and also has aspirations to go to the university. Like Alexelin, Meche plans to study Medicine.

Carlos Saturno’s favorite class in high school is Biology. He’ll finish 11^th grade this summer and enter his last year of high school in the fall. He comes from a very humble family, and neither of his parents completed primary school. While he doesn’t know yet what he wants to study, Carlos expects to enter the University in 2015.

Esperanza Lucas is also a junior in high school this year. She’s grateful to our Club for her scholarship because she knows that only with a higher education will she be able to help her family out of poverty. Her parents, too, did not finish primary school. Esperanza’s the first in her family to go to high school; and she plans to be the first to go to college! At this point, she’s undecided whether she’ll pursue a degree in Teaching or in Architecture.

Elvia Cristobal has just started her high school education. She’ll finish 10^th grade in June. She’s a good student, and an insightful one. She plans to use her talents to help others, and wants to study either Psychology or Social Work when she goes to college in a couple of years.

Our student Brenda Villegas is one of the very few students EVER from the migrant labor camp to go to high school. She’s a junior this year. Our friend Will Haymaker can attest to the hardships the families who live there face. Brenda’s parents work very hard, and gain very little: her father cuts sugar cane, and her mother picks blackberries. Brenda has lofty goals. She plans to go to college and study to be a pediatrician or a teacher.

Alvaro Flores is another student from the migrant labor camp who is among the few who have finished junior high. He’ll finish his junior year of high school this June, and looks forward to going to college in 2015 with the goal of achieving an engineering degree.

Roy Thylin’s student Nancy Belen is majoring in Administration at the University of Colima. She’s on the path to becoming a business leader. She works part-time as a secretary while she completes her bachelor’s degree. She hopes to work a year, and then get a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

When asked, the students invariably attributed their success in overcoming their personal challenges to their sponsors and to the visitors who pass through Project Amigo each year.

Here is the schedule for Project Amigo volunteering opportunities:

Humanitarian Service Weeks

Literacy November 8-15, 2014 March 7-14, 2015

December Fiesta December 7-14, 2014

ESL January 11-24, 2015

Spanish Immersion

July 6 – 26, 2014

Ted Rose then got up onto the stage with his wife Susan and told us that Colima is not one of the places in Mexico where it is unsafe to go; in fact, it is very safe. If you go to volunteer, you will be picked up at the airport and placed in very good housing. There are a lot of adult beverages available.

THANKS

Peggy thanked today’s meeting helpers:

Ticket Sales Assistants: Ann Gospe and Ray Giampaoli
Greeters: Debi Zaft and Nona Lucas
Pledge: Greg Johnston
Invocation: Chip Rawson
Visiting Rotarians: Jack Abercrombie
Raffle: Robby Fouts
Lunch Tickets: Darren Elliott

QUOTE FOR THE DAY IN HONOR OF CINCO DE MAYO

“History will judge societies and governments – and their institutions – not by how they are or how they serve the rich and the powerful, but how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and helpless.” Cesar Chavez

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

Tim Delaney, Debra Dorfman, Matt Fannin, Jose Guillen, Doug Johnson, Nicole Le, Robert Pierce, Jack Tolin, Cathy Vicini