Our meeting got off to a little slower start today with 27 members present at the ringing of the bell.
President Maureen Merrill welcomed us and then shared a photo of John Nelson’s seagull.
President Elect Bill Bolster offered some inspiration authored by Charles Swindoll: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
Technical advisor for today’s meeting was JB Leep. The scribe for the day was Tom Boylan.
Visiting Rotarians:
Pres Maureen introduced our District Governor Kathy Flamson, who shared that she is governing by Zoom today.
Guests of Rotarians:
Erica Vogel was introduced as our speaker for the day.
Announcements:
Our newest members were once again recognized for their commitment to Rotary under strange circumstances. Katherine Haron, Beth Smith and Matt Rush are looking at 100% attendance!
April’s Powerhouse Sue Nelson was recognized for her photographic creativity and her devotion to the Club.
Sandie Krutz shared her Youth efforts and asked for volunteers to step up and become Host Parents. She gave the screen to Craig Curreri who shared his experience with hosting. He and Elaine have enjoyed their time with students and suggest that every home would have a great experience.
Sandie says there are three host families and asked us to please consider. There are possible changes to the program due to the Virus, but we are staying the course and awaiting what, if any, changes might come round.
It has been reported that David Culley and his wife Kathy are in their wonderful new home.
- Marie Coakley enjoyed her birthday phone calls and says we can continue to do random phone calls in the days ahead. According to Sandie, E. Marie is chipper, upbeat and doing fine.
Sandie and Wally are planning and preparing for a “BIG” vegetable garden this year.
Kate Smith is getting ready to head out to Germany. She is working on the language and the various tasks that Rotary requires and her mom Beth says she is raring to go.
We heard from Bill Conklin that his newest family member, Emilia Dolores Corcoran, his granddaughter is doing well in Colorado and Bill and Julie are anxious to get the chance to visit in person. Brian Ling blew the whistle when Bill shared he is making a donation to the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation.
Carol Martin shared some exciting news regarding grants. The club will be making money available to three local organizations, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, Windsor Community Alliance, and First Presbyterian Church. Each is going to receive a grant of $2000 to assist their efforts to relieve food needs.
Craig Curreri let us know that another grant was given to Brooks Elementary School so they can build a Rotary Scholar Garden. We are sending $750 towards the scholar garden, similar to what we did for Cali Calmecac Academy.
Sandy shared that Hand sanitizer is free from Barrel Brothers Brewing, you have to call ahead to get an order in, the cost is free. Check them out at their website. (Link: https://www.barrelbrothersbrewing.com/)
Chris Landwher is on the mend and appreciating President Maureen letting us know he is feeling better.
DG Kathy Flamson shared that Rotary has managed to switch gears to combat Covid-19 over Polio when it comes to work in Third-World countries. Polio still has the partnership of Rotary, but the focus has to be on the Pandemic first and then hopefully, we get back to business of eradicating Polio. For more information on the work that Rotary is doing look here. (link: https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-monitors-coronavirus-outbreak)
DG Kathy shared a new effort by the State of California to acquire volunteers to help during the COVID-19 crisis. There is some training required and the place to get a look at what they are trying to do can be found here. (Link: https://volunteersurge.com)
Pegi Ball is asking for Farmers market volunteers to help keep people separated. Connect with her and be prepared to start your Saturday at 8:30 am.
Heather Cullen is planning a food drive and asks that we keep an eye out for additional information.
Bill Bolster asked that we recognize all the effort that Carol Martin has done to find community needs that we can assist with. President Maureen says we should take a walk around 6500 Faught Rd., Bill’s property.
Program:
Program coordinator JB introduced our speaker Erica Vogel, She is the interim CEO of Community Matters in Santa Rosa. The organization promotes safe schools around the globe, with a high intensity of California Schools. She is a graduate of Spring Harbor University in Michigan, and has a long list of associations she has worked with.
Erica gave some praise to JB for his sharing tech tutoring.
They work with schools to provide a variety of needs for the education of social issues, including safe school ambassadors, a program that sets out to change a schools cultural understanding of topics such as violence, sexual harassment, suicide and threats to schools.
Students are being tasked with becoming the change agents to work within their school to identify potential mistreatment and understand how their actions can help to stop problems before they become extreme.
This is a program with a lot of moving parts, so I suggest you go to their website to learn more. (Link: https://community-matters.org/)
By the conclusion of today’s meeting we had 33 people signed in. Let’s reach out to others and be sure to let them know they don’t need to have a computer to participate. Anyone with a phone, either smart phone or land line can call in and listen to the meeting.