In the shadow of a waning March full moon, good, moist, bright blue sky beamed down as our President Rick called the meeting to order.
Donna Pantzer lead us in Pledge of Allegiance, Karen Daniels followed with our harmonic America The Beautiful,
and Brad Benedetti
shared a thought from Bard A. Palmer:
"Success depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character."
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
At 12:29PM, after most of a very good ham, scalloped potato, green bean, and salad lunch, Pres. Rick reminded us of our ongoing need for instructors for the Learn to Swim Program at Ives Park.
Jack Blasco introduced guest Rotarian Dan Bornstein from Santa Rosa.
Harry Polley introduced Guest of the Club Ellen Harrington.
Neysa Hinton, former (and future?) member of our club, introduced guest Timothy Sergent Candidate for Sonoma County 5th District Supervisor.
Jack Dunlap introduced his wife Ruthie.
Rookie Sketch
Green Appler Steve Zivolich, with a very functional, well-edited, audio visual guiltless display introduced himself by his rookie sketch to his comedy media San Diego Lala Land youth, and nonprofit CEO career, then to the green vineyards of West County.
He is actively (looking for dwelling and acreage for support of alpaca, wine and cheese for family rather than a convent or catechism.
Announcements
Robin Maybury reported on Cool Kids Camp that he co-chairs. The Camp, envisioned by Rotarian Tom Farrell at a 160 acre site in West County, now welcomes more than 400 kids, including three sponsored by our club, to a week of rural outdoor activities to just be a kid and experience a life-changing break from everyday challenges. Clubs throughout District 5130 contribute to send kids to camp at $475 each.
The 2016 Rotary International Foundation Campaign was introduced by club Chair, Dorothy Rodella. She told us this is the 100th year of RI Foundation that was launched with a $26.50 donation and has through matching grants raised over 3 billion dollars primarily for care and relief for disabled including the Polio Plus program – which has virtually achieved the eradication of polio in the world. Our club has contributed over one million 50 thousand dollars, and will continue to take contributions at today’s meeting.
The 70th Apple Blossom Parade will transpire again on April 16, 2016 and our club, family, and friends are invited to join President Rick to support the Rotary float and/or march in the parade.
The Career Fair will be held on March 31, 2016, 5:00 to 7:00 PM, at Analy High and the public is invited.
Our next President Elect David Schreibman was recognized and honored with photos of his youngest, Zeek, and the rest of the kids (6) and family.
Recognitions
Paul Yeomans was recognized for his new job with Tri-County bank and fined $35.
Pauline Pelini was recognized for the passing of her family’s dealership building that has been there on the corner her whole life.
Jerry Warren was recognized for his unreported Kauai trip ($35) – with fellow member Russ Cunningham ($35)
Next Week's Program
Next week’s meeting (April 1) will be presented – according to President Rick – with some slight trepidation concerning the sensibilities of Sebastopol youth and Rotary Interactors. Parental discretion is advised and while our open-minded Pres. has not announced a formal R rating, we are all warned not to have too much fun.
Tony Given introduced the seven winners of the 2016 Trade Paths Award: Wesley Albini (El Molino senior), Branden Carrell (Analy senior), Jesse Kanihan (Laguna senior, who was unable to attend the event), Maddy Richard (El Molino senior), William Steele (El Molino senior), Ben Tiche (Analy junior) and Gianna Zanzi (Analy junior.) In turn, each of the students introduced their guests, who included parents, grandparents, siblings and teachers.
Master of Ceremonies Rick Williams invited Branden Carrell to share a video he had made, an entertaining piece featuring local bands, school events, local scenes and one of Branden’s specialties, local skateboarding --all in under five minutes. As a sophomore, Branden had already created a documentary for which he was paid.
MCRick then asked the other winners what their special interests were, via secret questions that even our able spokesperson wasn’t aware of. Each of five students (Branden was spared this challenge) answered with humor and aplomb.
The club’s trade paths award (formerly vocational education recognition) has been a tradition for 14 years, but the 2016 group was special --in diverse fields, creativity, perseverance and commitment. Their fields included the aforementioned video creations, as well as water conservation construction projects, culinary arts, design/graphic web skills, school site improvements, agriculture-machine repair and creative, whimsical products (two of the award winners were also part of the Maker program).
In addition to Torrey Olson’s annual, outstanding tri-fold commemorative program, one-page flyers were included at each table, under the title “7-Up” -- a reference to the 1964 BBC documentary that followed the lives of a group of seven-year olds from different backgrounds --to see if the old Jesuit theory was correct (‘Show me the child at seven and I will show you the man.’) Every seven years a documentary update follows the lives of these subjects (the most recent was “56-Up“, in 2013. In fact, the subjects --now almost 60 years old --did not change much in attitudes and behaviors over all those years.
The seven high school students highlighted on this day have, in fact, made changes. In addition to their regular school work, they have carved out different niches that will help them perform well in the future.
Torrey handed out the certificates and cash awards to the students as the program came to a close (with MCRick still looking for the source of the secret questions). However, two local teachers
--Joe Maloney and Ann Humphrey --took a moment to thank Rotarians for their efforts and recognition of local youth as the meeting came to an end.
The Final Bell
President Rick gave Rick Williams and Mike Cary official bottles of Pinot for Polio, and then rang the bell ending the meeting.