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DIGITAL EDITION
No. 149      October 28, 2015        EDITOR: Julia Parranto      PHOTOGRAPHER: Nicole Le

The Club will be dark Wednesday, November 4th
due to the Veteran’s Luncheon November 5th

Our Program for November 11th:

REFLECTIONS OF A  MAJOR GENERAL

gary-medvigy-generalMajor General Medvigy has had a distinguished United States Army service for more than 30 years.  His most recent reserve position, from May 2012 to May 2015, was as Deputy Commanding General (Wartime), Eight Army, Yongsan, Korea.  He previously served as Commander, 14th Psychological Operations Battalion from 2001-2003, Commander, 7th Psychological Operations Group from 2005-2007 and Commander 351st Civil Affairs Command from 2009 through 2012.  His more significant active duty assignments have included wartime service: Director of Judicial Sector and Security Sector Reform for the Office of Military Cooperation in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2004; Assistant Officer in Charge, future plans for the Combined Special Operations Command in Qatar; and Rule of Law and Command Judge Advocate Bosnia in 1998.  From 1982-1988, he began his active service as U.S. Army Judge Advocate in the capacity of Senior Prosecutor in three military communities in Germany and at the Presidio of San Francisco.  He has received over 34 awards and decorations for his outstanding service.

 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Wednesday, November 18th: District Governor Visit
Wednesday, November 25th: Club is DARK due to Thanksgiving
Wednesday, December 2nd: A Capella Group

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

PLEDGE

With a hearty “ready, begin!” Kathy Schwartz led us in the pledge.

INVOCATION

Keven Brown gave a heartfelt invocation in gratitude for the 100 year anniversary of his family business, Corrick’s. Keven reminded us that we all each have a large circle of friends that we should be grateful for. Amen.

VISITING ROTARIANS

Tony Roehrick introduced Steve Amen from the Sunrise Club, Jennifer Adams, also from the Sunrise Club, and Dan Erickson from the Healdsburg Sunrise Club, a former member of our club. Welcome back, Dan!

ROTARIANS  WITH GUESTS

Kim Murphy introduced (for the umpteenth time) her husband DeWayne White. Diane Moresi introduced Graham Rutherford, Principal of Cardinal Newman High School, as well as our speaker, Patricia Shafer.

Jeff Kolin looking confident about the Raffle

Jeff Kolin looking confident about the Raffle

RAFFLE

Kathy Schwartz also did the raffle and the pot is up to $400. Jeff Kolin had the winning ticket, but he only got the $10 consolation prize.

SUNSHINE REPORT

Services for Knick Knickerbocker have been set:

Saturday, November 7th @ 11 am.
The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
550 Mendocino Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Debi Zaft told us that Fred Levin has a slipped disc in his back and won’t be around for a while. Hmmm. What can we get away with while he’s gone? Maybe we should officially endorse Bernie Sanders for President?  Free college for everyone!

OUR WEEKLY THERAPY SESSION

Cathy Vicini told us a “joke”. It stunk. Groans ensued.  So instead of repeating it here, I thought I’d pull a better one off Cathy’s Facebook page:

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Now that’s funny! And worthy of Cathy.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

President Doug announced that the Annual Best Practice Disability Award Breakfast had been this morning and he was asked to give a welcome address to the 168 attendees. Doug told them about our ongoing efforts with polio eradication.

Elizabeth Karbousky announced that our next social will be at Corrick’s on Thursday, December 10, 2015.

Vicki Hardcastle announced that this is your last chance for the buy one, get one free on the donations to the Rotary Foundation.

President Doug announced that the SCARC meeting that we are hosting is tomorrow night, Thursday, October 29, 2015, at Rosso’s. Our speaker today will be the program tomorrow evening.

Roseland University Prep is doing a Career Day and President Doug is encouraging all of us to go talk to the kids about something other than becoming a copier salesman when they grow up.

President Doug also announced that our participation at the Gran Fondo resulted in a $300 donation to the charity of our choice. President Doug put it towards Polio Plus.

President Doug also mentioned the event for World Polio Day at Rosso’s, Gesine Franchetti’s restaurant, which raised a modest sum as Gesine donated 10% of the day’s take to Polio Plus.

President Doug congratulated the club on its generosity: we were asked to raise $500 in memory of Knick Knickerbocker, and we raised $1620. Yay us!

RECOGNITIONS

Keven Brown was recognized for Corrick’s 100th anniversary on October 24, 2015. Apparently, the store put on quite the party with food and music. That was worth $100 for the Foundation; nice job Keven!

Kim Murphy was tagged for taking a trip with her husband and George Clooney to Zürich, Switzerland. Virginities were lost, apparently. A side trip was taken to Venice, there was a full moon, and high heels were ill advised as the square in front of St. Mark’s had several inches of water. You won’t be surprised to hear that wine was involved. President Doug suggested a donation of $500, which Kim declined, but she did pony up $100 for her husband’s Paul Harris (sorry George) and $50 for the club.

The Gospes being fined

The Gospes being fined

Jeff Gospe spoke for himself and his wife, Ann Gospe. Jeff told us that 25 years ago, his favorite veteran was deployed in operation Desert Shield, which is worth $25. Jeff also just celebrated his 25 year anniversary of graduating from Stanford University, also apparently only worth $25 (go Bears!). Ann had a significant birthday, which was worth $50 (guess why?). And finally Jeff thought it appropriate to donate an additional $100, for a total of $200, due to Ann’s poor choice of a husband. Can’t say that I agree with that last bit.

Kris Anderson is over her jetlag after having traveled to Spain and Morocco for 2 ½ weeks. It was a fabulous trip and the occasion was Kris’s 60th birthday party! A friend told her that the Costa Del Sol in Spain is the most fun trip you can take, so she went. Her intention was to spend her whole trip in Spain, but then she made the mistake of watching television, which led her to want to take a trip to Marrakesh and ride camels, which she did on her actual birthday. For some reason, Kris thinks that camels are fun. She called them “hilarious” with no explanation? Hmmm. Kris generously donated $250 to help kick off Emily Harrington’s efforts with Giro Bello sponsorships.

Ted Wilmsen announced that his daughter is opening a party supply store in the St. Francis Center over on Highway 12 and it’s called Banga’s Party Supply. It’ll be open Saturday. That was worth $50 to the club.

Dan Schell told us about his son, who has a degree in industrial design, and has done very well and has created a model of Candlestick Park and is the project manager on a project to tear down a AAA building recently. Apparently, he and his boss share the same obstetrician (?!). Dan gave us a C-note, literally, for his Paul Harris.

Tim Delaney took a trip to St. Louis and made the mistake of getting on the mechanical bull one too many times. He tried to get us to give him money for his own folly, but ended up donating $50 for his Paul Harris after taking flight off the offending bull.

PROGRAM

NewGen Peace speaker

NewGen Peace speaker Patricial Shafer

President Doug introduced our speaker and the topic by telling us about his trip to Rio for the Rotary International Conference and Peace Symposium earlier this June. Doug is convinced that Rotary is going to replace Polio Plus, which is slated to end in 2018, with a worldwide effort towards world peace. If you doubt Doug, check out this month’s Rotarian magazine and the letter from RI President K.R. Ravindran. Our speaker, Patricia Shafer, is herself a Rotary Peace Fellow and the instigator of our newest club project, NewGen Peacebuilders.

NewGen Peacebuilders will start in Santa Rosa in January.  It will involve approximately 25 local High School students, who will be taught to become peacebuilders using Patricia Shafer’s program.  It is essentially a 5 day intensive workshop which will culminate in the creation and implementation of a peacebuilding project by the end of April. The students will be mentored by Rotarians, and our Club has committed to paying for the program. 18 Rotarians showed up for a 3-hour training this morning (see the end of this article for photos from the training.)

Patricia gave us an example of a peacebuilding project carried out by some high school students in South Carolina.  They were concerned about the situation in South Sudan, so they studied the civil war there, and its lingering effects.  One of the things they learned in their research was that this new nation of South Sudan is made up of 12 different tribes that have nothing in common (or so they believe).  So the high school kids held a walk-a-thon with 4 other local high schools to raise funds, and then used those funds to create and publish a reader for elementary school students.  The reader has 12 chapters, each chapter has a story about values, and each story comes from 1 of the 12 tribes.  In this way the children of South Sudan are learning that they have certain values in common, and they are learning the stories of tribes other than just their own.  Patricia made the point that the walk-a-thon part of the project is “just a service project”; the book publishing part is the peacebuilding part.

PHOTOS FROM NEWGEN PEACEBUILDER TRAINING

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New Gen Peace Training

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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