UPCOMING SOCIALS & PROJECTS & EVENTS  

More socials, projects, & events coming soon!

Rotaract Fund Raiser
If anyone would like to donate money to GRA (Global Rotaract Alumni Club) they can donate the money on the GOSC site and include a note that it is for GRA. This would help us tremendously to continue growing as a club and be able to conduct larger scale projects. Here is the donation link: Donate Now – Global Offsite Care

Opening The Meeting

“Welcome to the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa where the Magic of Rotary is alive and well, as we continue to do good in our world….and have fun doing it.”

Susan Nowacki led is in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four/Five Way Test.  Her Reflection was a few quotes from Mark Twain:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.”

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it does not matter.”

Visiting Rotarians:

Marilyn Lira, Assistant Governor

Guests of Rotarians:

Elaine Olson, Linda Cornell, Ruben Garcia and Joshua Lazovick

Sunshine Report:

Keven Brown’s dad, Corrick Brown, just turned 95! Sam McMillan said his wife, Rita, broke a vertebrae, but she is up and walking.

50/50 Raffle:

Ray Giampaoli told us there was $92.00 in the pot, but did not count the marbles. He asked Marilyn Lira to pull a ticket…and she pulled her own ticket! Alas, she did not pull the blue marble. Ray explained what to do with the consolation prize of $10.00…put it in the Polio Pail.  She did.

Birthdays for May:

We only have two this month, Wes Daniels and Steve Marburger. Steve was here so he was forced to hear us sing and graciously accepted his gift card to Corrick’s from Keven Brown.

Announcements:

1. Tuesday, May 20, from 9:00 to 1:00, there is a barbeque for the public works employees. Jeff Kolin asked for some volunteers.  Curt Groninga, Pete Lescure, and Ann Gospe said they would help.
2. A good bye party is scheduled for May 31 to say goodbye to Saras. See attached flyer.

Rotarian of the Month:

Peter Holewinski is our Rotarian of the month. Not only has he stepped up to be a future president for our club, but he also took it upon himself to get the Interact Club at Cardinal Newman High School going again.

Notes from the last Board Meeting:

The board voted to donate $13,000 to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library project that is just getting started by the area Rotary clubs. You should also know that this presidential year our board has also funded: The Boy Scouts, the Children’s Christmas, Salvation Army Bell Ringing, the Face to Face Coat Drive, 1700 copies of the “Book of Why” were given out to our local third graders, continued support to the Santa Rosa Symphony Strings, sent two kids to Kool Kids Camp, two kids to RYLA, and support to Soul Yoga for their work in the local schools.

Patty Kolin:  From Red Badge to Blue Badge 

Last week the membership committee announced that Patty could have her Blue Badge as soon as she did her Craft Talk and attended a board meeting. She attended this week’s board meeting and today she did her craft talk.  She was born in San Pedro, CA.  She has two brothers and two sisters. She attended Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance and went to Long Beach State (where she me Jeff).  They got married in 1982. I think they have two married daughters and three grandkids. She started a 40-year career in interior architectural design for commercial and government buildings. She opened her own private practice in 2004. In 1995 she was in a head on collision that still plagues her to this day. In 2017 they lost their home in the Tubbs Fire. In 2023 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Everyday she wakes up, happy to be alive! She likes to play Bunco and belongs to a book club. She is a member of a local Impact 100 group.  She likes to garden and cycle. She loves to sew and makes blankets, prom dresses and costumes.  She loves to travel…even backpacked through Europe with a friend in 1978.  Living in Beverly Hills 2010 – 2015 when Jeff was the city manager was fun.  They got to go to a lot of posh events including five Golden Globes and two Academy Awards.  She was active in our club as a guest for nine years before she officially joined.

President Casey was johnny-on-the-spot with her new blue badge.  Yay!

Paul Harris Fellows:

Doug Landin gave a brief history of the Paul Harris Award and what has been done with the money, like 2.5 billion children vaccinated since 1979 leading to a 99.9% reduction of Polio in our world. Did you know that Rotary has a 100% rating on Charity Navigator?

Steve Olson wanted to thank his sister, Linda Cornell, for her support of our foundation. Therefore, he gave his most recent Paul Harris award to her (he is a Paul Harris +12 member).

Andrea Geary was then awarded her plus four pin.

Welcome home Casey!

As you may know, Casey was gone for about three weeks because his niece was getting married while on a safari in Africa. He brought back a table runner to be auctioned off by Ray Giampaoli. Kris Anderson snagged it for $75.00

There were water bottles on every table. Ray Auctioned them off for $25.00 a piece to go to Giro Bello.  Kris Anderson said she would give $25.00 to not take the bottle!

Lastly Ray auctioned off four hand woven placemats from Mexico that Patty Kolin brought back on their last vacation to Mexico. Pete Lescure donated $75.00 for them.

Ruben Garcia on the Student Investment Program at SRJC

Ruben is finishing up at SRJC, but he has left his mark.  A foster kid while growing up, he became interested in financial literacy.  He is currently the student body president at SRJC and was a scholarship award winner at last week’s meeting for the Olson Family Agriculture, business or Education Scholarship (on his way to Stanford or the University of Virginia).

Ruben and Anthony Spinozzi started this program at their school with a goal of earning $20,000, to start, to help fund scholarships at SRJC and in doing so would teach financial literacy to the students involved.  They see 2.1 million students in the 100 community colleges in California. 70% come from families of low to moderate income. He emphasized that this is a club, not a class.  He sees 200 + students would participate in the evaluation and selection on the stocks. 12 people, trading officers, do the final decision on what stocks to invest in. Since most students are at SRJC for only two years, sustainability is an issue to be resolved. They are heavily recruiting and seeking an advisor.  Ruben would like to see this program at all 100 community colleges.  He envisions a $1,000,000 donation from the State(?) that would give each school $10,000 seed money to start.

 

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