Redwood Empire Food Bank – 2nd Wednesday of the month.  The next one is December 13th – 5 PM – 7 PM

SRJC Rotaract Fundraiser – You can make your donations here: Click here to donate

SRJC and Sonoma State Rotaract members support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. If you would like to donate, you can make a donation here.

For more details and additional events, see the Announcements section below.

More socials, projects, & events coming soon!

Rotary Announcements

See the Announcements section below.

Opening the Meeting

Ann kicks off the meeting by introducing the dashing Paul Hamilton who walks confidently to the front of the room, holds the mic to speak, and… the mic doesn’t work. But you knew that already, didn’t you? As they fumbled around with that Sargent of Arms, Robert Pierce, flags down someone from the staff to turn off the music. Finally, we are ready to go. Paul took the opportunity to play good Samaritan by asking who had left their glasses up at the sign-in desk. I knew it wasn’t me because I could see everything but it turned out it was Jeanne Levin who didn’t realize she couldn’t see and got her glasses back.

Finally, we hammered out the pledge and the 4-way Test before Paul gave a reflection on giving thanks and read off some quotes that included Willie Nelson counting his blessings. Willie might have more blessings than you and I but his point is well taken.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

Our one visiting Rotarian came all the way from India, Nilesh Kapse, from the Rotary Club of Bangalore to grace us with his presence. We will learn more about Nilesh in a bit. I promise.

As far as guests, Mark Burchill introduced his lovely wife Mel and their friend Shirley Ward. Casey D’Angelo introduced his wife Pam, Jeff Kolin invited his wife Patty. Susan Nowacki introduced Karen Wisen (At least that’s what I think it was. It was hard to make out. Sue me.).

Sunshine

Ginny Cannon shared some sad news that former member Peggy Sobrantis has suffered a mild stroke. Thankfully, she is recovering well.

Opportunity Drawing

Julia Parranto was in charge of the raffle this week and put us all at ease right away by saying that Ted Wilmsen came too late to buy tickets so we all actually had a chance. She then asked one of our Guest Speakers, Paul Gullixson, to pick the winning ticket. I had high hopes of winning that $52 until Julia read out the numbers and John Paremba stole my winning number by purchasing the four tickets right after mine! If John had been just a little earlier for once, I could be holding some cold hard cash right about now.

At any rate, John’s luck ran out as he chose a yellow marble and President Ann guilted him into giving his $10 to Polio.

Visiting Rotarian

Nilesh Kepse and Ann exchanged Rotary banners and then Nilsesh gave a wonderful overview of all the amazing work that the Rotary Club of Bangalore is doing. The club is well-funded with $2-$3 million in p projects around the world, including a river rejuvenation project, Happy Schools projects, and they have the largest blood bank in South India. It was so amazing. All I could think about was how the Burchills are gonna have to raise a lot more money.

Announcements

I’m gonna be honest. Richard, a fine gentleman until you’re late with the bulletin, has been hounding me to get this done and I’ve got other things that need to be done. So I’m just gonna spit out these announcements as fast as I can. Also, would it hurt you all to go one meeting without a gazillion announcements? Anyways, here it goes…

• Meet auction is still going. See Sam.
• Holiday Party at Chez Gospe is Saturday, December 9^th and Ann wants you to RSVP. Like now. Do it. In fact, don’t even read the rest. Just RSVP to Ann.
• If you’re a rebel and still reading this, Natasha is planning a kickbutt Christmas event for the kids. It will be on December 16^th at 2 pm. Come early to greet the 108 students that will get some holiday cheer. Also, if you signed up to bring cookies, bake those things by the 12/13 meeting. Or just by some from Costeaux. You have my permission.
• Bell ringing is coming fast. 12/2 and 12/9. If you signed up for Oliver’s on the 2^nd, don’t go there. Go to the Safeway on Calistoga. There were problems.
• On December 16^th there will be a toy and food distribution at the Salvation Army from 8am to 5pm. All are welcome to help.
• Jeff Gospe was running late as usual so Ann told us that the first payment of $36,000 was sent to the Ukraine for batteries.
• Steve Olsen got up on behalf of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation and announced that Mark Burchill and his wife Mel have started the Burchill Fund to support local Rotary community service projects. They will contribute a significant amount each year with a goal of getting the fund to $100K! Wow!

Guest Speakers

Our guest speakers were Paul Gullixson and Anne E. Belden, who co-wrote a book called Inflamed that recounted the night of the Tubbs fire and how it affected the residents of the Varena Retirement Home and the Villa Capris Assisted Living center. It was a story of heroes and courage with villains and everyday people doing extraordinary things. The book sounds amazing. You should buy it. And read it.

Program Slides