In-Person Meetings Return

Next meeting – Hybrid
Wednesday, February 16, 2022

High School Recognition Awards

Ryan Thomas

–>  Debi will send you the Zoom login link for the 12:00 meeting once you have paid. Feel free to put your feet up, grab a sandwich, and join the meeting. <–

PLEASE NOTE: In-Person & Zoom meetings returned!

–> Debi Zaft will email you the link for online, once you have paid.  Use this link to pay.  CLICK HERE!

Wednesday February 23: International Projects
Wednesday March 2: Fence At The Top (details coming soon)
Wednesday March 9: Negro League Baseball (details coming soon)
Wednesday March 16: Public Health Awards

Keep checking back.  New Programs coming soon!  Click here for the current calendar, subject to updates.

UPCOMING SOCIALS & PROJECTS

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

Watch The Meeting:  Did you miss the meeting?  Here is a link to the recording of last week’s meeting:
(Click Here)
Please note it is only available to view until: 2/19/22

Opening Ceremonies:

President Ray greeted us, and Julia Parranto led us in the reciting of The Pledge of Allegiance and The Four-Way Test. Her Reflection:  In her family the best prayer is gratitude. She is grateful to be back together soon (next week!). Our club has a nice place to meet. She is grateful to Zoom for giving her the ability to practice law for the last two year. She is grateful for the members of our club (so sorry she cannot name more):  Ted Wilmsen for the dictionary project, Jeff Kolin for Hop to it for Hunger, Matthew Henry for taking the job as director for the Giro Bello, Debi Zaft as treasurer, Kris Anderson, and Ann Gospe for becoming our presidents over the next two years, Susan Nowacki for the wonderful programs she puts together for us. Sabra Locke, Gail Schwarz, and Odalis Medianeros for joining our club. Ray Giampaoli for his leadership. Lastly, she reminded up it is not the place, but the people who make Rotary special.

Sunshine Report:

Nothing new. That is a pretty good thing!

Announcements:

• Jeff Kolin has taken the reigns for Hop to it for Hunger. The goal this year is to sell 150 bags of beer (6 cans to a bag) for $50.00 each. We expect to net $5000 for the Redwood Empire Food Bank. The flyer will be available shortly. February 26 is the date the beer goes on sale.  We need volunteers for 3 parts to this project: 1) Pick up the beer on March 11. 2)  Label and pack the beer on March 12. 3) Distribute the beer at the Foodbank on March 13. A QR code will be on the club website for easy ordering.
• Pepperwood Preserve is hosting us this Saturday, February 12, to plant grass seed and grass plugs as part of our District Grant this year.  As email went out to everyone that signed up to work with the directions.  If you have not signed up, but want to help, you can still participate.  Just give Steve Baime a call.
• Mark Burchill announced that he is still taking reservations for our Centennial Party on Sunday, May 15, 2022.  We will be socially distant at the event and there is seating outside if you prefer. We have room for another 30 – 50 people without being crowded.
• Matthew Henry announced that we only have 136 days until the Giro Bello on June 25, 2022. Everyone is expected to help as this is our major fundraiser.  Contact him at [email protected] for assignments.  We expect 600 riders. The cost of the ride depends on the distance, $75 to $100. Ann Gospe is the sponsorship chair, and we already have on $2500 sponsor! There are four levels of sponsors. Ann will have the sponsor packages ready soon.
• President Ray says there is still time to donate $55.00 for the water filters for the Puerto Vallarta trip. the World Community Service Committee is matching donations up to 50 filters. Everyone who has pledged has been billed.  Treasurer, Karen Ball would like everyone to pay up as soon as possible as she must wire the funds to Mexico.  Our goal is to provide 300 filters.
• Next week we go back to in-person meetings!  So go onto the website and sign up! This will be the High School Recognitions meeting, so we hope to see you there.

Recognitions:

President Ray is going on a special hunting trip for Veterans, arranged by the Department of Fish and Game. He donated $50.00 to the John Brown Veteran’s scholarship fund.

Julia Parranto donated $100 for her and Rose since they got away to Los Angeles over the Martin Luther King weekend. They had the worst Los Angeles city guide that you could imagine.  The guy hated Los Angeles!

Karen Ball donated $50.00 because it was just Dennis and hers 41^st wedding anniversary

Craig Meltzner, our contra, country, and western style dancer donated $50.00.  Besides dancing he serves on the North Bay Country Dance Society and serves on the CDSS board which organizes dancers and caller across the country.

Rotarian of the Month:

That would be Craig Meltzer!  He may be quiet, but he is always pitching in on every activity that our club does. Craig is a constant contributor to all things Rotary. When Casey Carter needed one more bell ringer, he was there. Thank you, Craig, for what you do for Rotary and your community!

Today’s program, “Getting to Know You Better”

Today we had 4 long-term Rotarians do their craft talk.

First up was Steve Olson. Steve was born in Casper, CA. In 1948 his family bought a dairy farm and they moved to Santa Rosa (he still owns the farm). He went to college at Fresco State and UC Davis in Agriculture and education. He met his wife, Elaine, at Fresno State and they have been married for 57 years. The have two daughters and several grandchildren.  His first connection to Rotary was meeting Wes Jamison in high school.  Wes took the FFA kids to a Rotary meeting.  After getting his master’s degree at UC Davis he went to Ferndale, CA to teach.  He was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Ferndale in 1968. They moved to Santa Rosa in 1970 to start the agricultural program at Santa Rosa Junior College. He joined our club in 1976 and has had perfect attendance ever since.  Attendance has always been important to him. In 1988 he went into administration as dean of the Agricultural Department. He also started the education abroad program. He retired in 2007. He was our club president 1994-95. He was an assistant governor when Norm Abrams was the District Governor. He has attended nine Rotary International Conventions and will be going to Houston this year. Every member of his family is a Paul Harris Fellow with next up being his sister. He and Elaine have just started a scholarship within our local foundation to fund youth majoring in agriculture. The Wes Jamison fund has received $40,000 in contributions this year that will help finance 40 – 50 high school students in FFA raise a lamb, pig, or steer.

John Poremba joined our club in 1997 when Norm Owen was president. He remembers that Steve Olson did the Rotary Information meeting. Gordon and Penny Shurtleff introduced him to his wife, Judy. He is from Wyandotte, Michigan where everyone was in the auto industry, or something connected to the auto industry. Working on an assembly line in high school convinced him he needed higher education. He went to Michigan State and studied social science. He was drafted and served two years. He came to California, first to San Francisco working at California State Employment Development Department.  After five years he had to stop after visiting with a man to find our why he could not work.  The man was so ill and cried the whole time he was there.  He went to work at the San Francisco Mayor’s Office in employment and training. He got a position in Santa Rosa in 1978 as manager of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Employment Development Departments, eventually regional manager with a district from Del Norte to San Mateo Counties. He has been retired for 35 years. Now he and Judy travel as much as they can. They have been to all seven continents and 59 countries. They plan to go to Europe (Ireland, Iceland, and Italy) and Australia this year. His first Rotary project was the children’s play area at Howarth Park. He has chaired the disability awareness committee, served as a trustee on the Foundation board, and mentored students in the New Gen program.

Ted Wilmsen joined our club in 1975. His parents emigrated from Germany in 1923. His dad had a brother in Omaha, Nebraska and they moved there. Eventually they moved to Arcadia, CA and had a chicken farm. Ted was born in 1941. He wanted to be a helicopter pilot for the Army, but at 18.5 years old he was not old enough to be in the helicopter program, so he became a fixed wing aircraft mechanic. He went to school in the army in Virginia and then spent two years in Germany where he got to meet his grandparents and other relatives.  Out of the army he went to Pasadena city College for two years.  He married, had two children, and divorced. In 1966 he went to work for Union Oil. That got him up to Santa Rosa working at the Geysers. He met his wife Deanie in 1972 (they lived in the same apartment building), and they married in 1973. She had one child and one of Ted’s came to live with them. He joined Rotary because his boss said that was the place to meet people. Over the years he has served on the board twice, served on the Foundation board for 8 years and has overseen the third-grade dictionary project for 25 years.

Last up was Cecil Humes. He was born in 1941 and for the first six years of his life his family lived in a duplex near an airport where they built and tested six engine bombers. He went to school in La Mesa, San Diego State and what is now UC San Diego. He thought he would become an engineer, but accounting was more to his liking. He joined a new fraternity that became a part of Sigma Nu Fraternity. In 1956, at age fourteen he was diagnosed with diabetes. At that point he thought he might live to only 50. He met his wife, Gerry, right after graduation and his first job and only job was here in Santa Rosa, which has been known by the various accountants over the years, but Lee Linkenheimer has always been there (editor’s note, I think it was called Linkenheimer, Hebrew, Cooper, and Kerr back in 1983 when I came to Santa Rosa). When he arrived in Santa Rosa rent for a 2-bedroom apartment was $164. You could buy a house for $14,000. He got his CPA certification after four years. He has served on a committee regarding insurance for CPA’s that he really enjoyed. Before Rotary he was a member of the 20-30 club. He left in 1980 when he became 40 years old. A friend suggested Rotary and he joined in 1983. Lee Linkenheimer was the club treasurer and Cecil took over when Lee retired from the position. He thought he would do it for five years. He ended up doing it for 22 years. One of the things he liked about his company was that every year they take all the employees on a vacation before tax season starts. They have gone to Hawaii, Mexico, and Nicaragua. He retired from Linkenheimer in 1975. He and Gerry both love photography. They have 3 sons, four grandkids and 4 great grandchildren. One of his grandchildren has been an exchange student.

Slides:

(No slides this week)

Additional Pictures

Governor, District 5130

Dustin Littlefield

Secretary

Debi Zaft P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Board of Directors

President Elect, Kris Anderson
Club Service I, Membership, Julia Parranto
Club Service II, Club Meetings, Casey D’Angelo
Club Service III, Fundraising, Diane Moresi
Club Service IV, Member Activities, Anne Gospe
Club Service V, Information Technology and Records, Pete Lescure
Club Director, Casey Carter
Community Service I, Member Involvement, Rio Ray
Community Service II, Youth, Andrea Geary
Vocational Service, Carolyn Fassi
International Service, Dan Balfe

DIGITAL EDITION No. 443 February 9, 2022  EDITOR: Kris Anderson PHOTOGRAPHER: Kris Anderson PUBLISHER: Richard Lazovick