Next Meeting is Hybrid
Wednesday September 22, 2021

Polio Update
Past DG – Bob Rogers

Past District Governor Bob Rogers will tell his story about surviving polio and give an update on where we are in our battle against this disease.   He will also talk a little about the Polio Plus Society and in the process “induct” the 8 members of our club who have joined the society thus far.  In his presentation Bob will show a brief video of a National Immunization Day in India which he attended last year.

–>  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. <–

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

In-Person / Hybrid Meeting details:
All meetings are in-person and online meetings. In-person meetings will be located at the Epicenter Sports Center located at 3215 Coffey Lane, Santa Rosa, CA.  Use the first door, closest to Piner Road. There will be greeters at the door to guide you.

–> Please note that you NEED TO MAKE A RESERVATION IN ADVANCE so we have a proper count.  Payments received by Saturday will be considered for the upcoming meeting.  Payments after that will be for the following meeting.
–> Debi Zaft will email you the link for online, once you have paid.  Use this link for details and to pay.  CLICK HERE!

Wednesday September 29: Afghan Peace Fellow
Wednesday October 6: Art Start

Keep checking back.  New Programs coming soon!

UPCOMING SOCIALS

Sept 18th:
There is no social on Saturday, September 18th. See “Octoberfest” below for details.

Ann would love more people on the social committee and someone to be in charge. See Ann if you are willing to help.

Keep checking back.  New socials coming soon!

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 9/26/21

Opening Ceremonies:

President Ray welcomed us, and Ryan Thomas led us in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegience and the Four-Way Test. Ryan is approaching a “significant birthday” and it caused him to reflect and his reflection is the story of the jar, rocks, pebbles, and sand. You know the story…a teacher has an empty jar, and he fills it with rocks. His students say that the jar is full. Then he adds pebbles. Again, the students agree that it is full. Lastly, the teacher pours in sand. Yes, they say the jar is now full. The morale of the story is that the rocks are the most important things in life. The pebbles are the less important and the sand even less so. Fill your life with the most important people first. There is room for the others.

Sunshine Report:

Cecil Humes fell last week, but it was not serious. He was back at our meeting today.

Polio Update:

No new cases in the world this week per Bob Rogers. President Ray asked us to put our change and dollars in the table buckets. Interesting news out of Afghanistan. Our partners in vaccination, The World Health Organization and UNICEF, are negotiating with the Taliban to continue vaccinating the children of Afghanistan. Let’s hope this goes well!

Raffle:

Pete Lescure says we had $18.00 from last week and it looks like an additional $26 today. Six marbles; 5 yellow and 1 blue. Jose Guillen had the winning ticket, but he pulled a yellow marble. Pot rolls over to next week.

Giro d’Wine Country Update:

On the tables were the list of positions that need filling for next week’s rides. We need more people is several areas:  course markings, trailer loading, course signage, O’Reilly site set up, rider check in, parking, site maintenance, SAG, Felta rest stop, Course Host, and tear down when we finish. The jobs are posted on Signup Genius or call Ann Gospe.

Oktoberfest:

There is no social on Saturday, September 18th. It has been decided that an Octoberfest would be more…festive! No date yet, so stay tuned. Ann would love more people on the social committee and someone to be in charge. See Ann if you are willing to help.

World Community Service Update:

Jose Guillen gave us an update on where they planned to invest our money around the world this year. They apply the Four-Way Test to determine what projects they will fund. The first six projects for funding are:  Shelter Box, Pathways Back Home, Project Amigo, Telemedicine, Project Peanut Butter and Amigos de Guatemala. Depending on funding, they could do more. Also, for the first time, our club is planning an overseas, hands-on project. In conjunction with the Rotary Club of Puerta Vallarta Sur we will put together water purification buckets for families in Mexico. It will be in late March 2022. More details to follow.

Rotary Means Business:

Mark Burchill has doggedly worked to get the Rotary Means Business Fellowship in the Rotarian magazine a couple of years. So, open your September issue and you will find the story on pages 23 and 24. A little RMB history:  Jock McNeill brought Rotary Means Business to our club several years ago. Mark took it over. He thanks Kris Anderson’s husband, Jim Manos, for designing the first website and Wayne Rowlands for taking it to the next step. Through the website it attracted the attention of Rotary International, eventually becoming a Fellowship. It now has been seven years and RMB has grown around the world and has over 1000 members and 125 chapters.

Recognitions:

Mark Burchill concluded by giving $50.00 to the local foundation and $50.00 to the 100th birthday party in December. Jeff Gospe is a Stanford graduate and Ann is a USC graduate. Stanford trounced USC in football this last week 42 – 28 so he said he would put is $42 to Polio Plus if she put $28 to Polio Plus. Needless to say, Ann was gob smacked. Good fun, Jeff! He will pay Ann’s share as President Ray pointed out.

Today’s Program:  Four members doing their craft talk:  Bill Hatcher, Vickie Hardcastle, Pete Lescure and Robert Pierce

Bill Hatcher joined the club in 1995 when Steve Olson was the president. Roy Hurd of Empire College was his sponsor. He had only been an attorney for four years. He has specialized in real estate and business law his entire career and loves it. He said his personal life has been a little more interesting (?). He has been married and divorced twice and is presently engaged. He hopes three times a charm is true for him! His first marriage gave him two sons. His fiancée is retired from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. They live in Petaluma on Sonoma Mountain with views to die for. Currently building a second unit for Bill’s elderly parents. He loves to fish and is president of a duck club in a Suisun marsh. He has been on the club board several times and joined the club foundation board about 10 years ago. He is the corresponding secretary and serves on several other committees. He loves the foundation and considers it the icing on the cake of his Rotary experience. Most proud that we have fully funded the Larry Miyano Scholarship. In fact, he donated and additional $200 to the scholarship. He hopes to spend his next 26 year on the foundation board.

Vickie Hardcastle joined our club in 1994. For the last 25 years she has been the chair of the foundation committee and she is the treasurer of the local foundation. She was born and raised in Sacramento area. She is a graduate of the University of the Pacific, and it was there that she met Allan Hardcastle. They got married on September 15, 1979. She majored in accounting after toying with the idea of pharmacy or math. After they got married, Allan had taken the Bar exam, but did not have his results back. Wanting some adventure, he joined the Army and became a JAG officer. Vickie enjoyed the life when in Charlottesville in particular! When he was at Fort Benning she went to work as an accountant. It was an eye-opening experience living in the south. They decided they like the Santa Rosa area and moved here. Allan went to work as an attorney and Vickie as an accountant. In 2018 she retired after 40 years. Along the way they had two children. Vickie calls herself a sports junkie, baseball in particular. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Tribe from both sides of her parents.

Pete Lescure, “I have a business, a family and I am a Rotarian.”  Married twice, he and Demerus have been married for 30 years and they have two sons. His first wife worked while he went to college so he and Demerus help support her “because it is fair to all concerned.”  Born and raised in Contra Costa County, both his parents were mechanical contractors. He and his two older brothers grew up in the business, “I may be 78, but I have 70 years of experience.”  In college he tried chemical engineering and architecture for a brief time. Dropped out and did construction for a few years. He feels he is like Larry the Cable Guy (GitRDone). He really enjoys our hands-on projects. He left construction as a journeyman carpenter and went back to school at San Jose State in engineering. He eventually got here because a friend told him to get a backhoe because everyone needed a backhoe, and he would never be without work. After 5 years that lost its magic, and he finally went into engineering. He joined Rotary in 1995. He brought Jeff Gospe and Craig Meltzner to our club (he and his son lived at Craig’s home after his first marriage). He is on both the club and foundation board.

Robert Pierce joined our club in 2002. Kathleen Archer was his mentor. He is very thankful to our leaders who have demonstrated good leadership and how important it is to be a leader. He was born in Ventura County and raised on the Santa Barbara and Ventura beaches. When he was a high school sophomore, he moved to Mill Valley with his mom and grandmother. He enjoyed the Bay Area in the 60’s, what he remembers of it! he studied fine arts and mechanical engineering. Changing schools, he studied advertising and commercial art. He got more interested in the camera and preferred that to having someone tell him what to do. He enjoyed people so it was a natural transition to become a professional photographer. He has photographed anything and everything. He has traveled the world taking photos. He loves taking pictures of people. All people are beautiful to him. He stopped photographing weddings in 2002 after having done some 1750 weddings. It was a privilege to photograph a couple on what was the most important day of their life, thus far. He did weddings of all faiths. The common denominator was love and family. He has had a good career and a good life. Married 28 years, but not to the same person. He has two children and 4 grandchildren. Some of you might remember when his daughter was injured. She had a traumatic brain injury, but she is coming back. He is now doing more painting. He is very thankful for his Rotary family.

Additional Pictures:

Governor, District 5130

Dustin Littlefield

Secretary

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

Board of Directors

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
Community Service I, Member Involvement, Rio Ray
Community Service II, Youth, Andrea Geary
Vocational Service, Carolyn Fassi
International Service, Dan Balfe

DIGITAL EDITION No. 425 September 15, 2021  EDITOR: Kris Anderson PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeff Gospe PUBLISHER: Richard Lazovick