Youth Exchange Month
Call to Order – we were greeted by Brian Ling who introduced our Club to Past President Glenda Sales.
Pledge of Allegiance – led by Sandie Krutz
Song Meister – Bill Bolster who led us in a rousing song of “Charlie Brown”
Announcements:
Barbara McChesney – spoke on the Environment, her passion and how the District will be issuing a monthly challenge leading up to the Governor’s Citation Award to the clubs in our District. May’s challendge is to find your carbon footprint. Go to https://www.footprintcalculator.org. Write your name and your score on a piece of paper, bring it to a meeting and give to Barbara, Bill, Heather or Dave or email to Barbara at [email protected]
Maureen Merrill – she just returned from Chicago as a delegate to Rotary. The purpose of the meeting was for the Board and delgates to meet and vote on policy issues. They meet once every 3 years and she was appointed by our District Governor to represent the 47 Clubs in our District. Thanks Maureen for being there for all of us!
Past President Glenda – she realized she forgot to do Introductions and fined herself $5….. she also shared with us if we catch her using swear words, the Past Presidents could fine her….. She hit Mike Merrill with “why do you have Dave Culley’s badge on…. She then did introductions and her husband, Sergio, Past First Husband was introduced along with Domingo who is staying with Renee. Jack and Janet Hyde were also introduced on Zoom from New Jersey where they moved. Both were formally in our Club and Jack was a Past President and founder of our Rotary Bar!
Heather Cullen thanked our Club for the Grant given to Brooks Elementary and encouraged us to go see Moana that they are putting on.
It was Renee’s birthday Monday and the Club celebrated her by singing Happy Birthday to her.
Renee shared with us that our Rotary Bar will be starting up for “Music on the Green” nights. She will need help and will be sending out an email of what nights and what positions she needs. Regulations require that our Bar have at least one person trained in ABC on site at all times and she will help anyone interested in doing that training.
Pegi Ball – RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) at Westminster Woods , a leadership camp will be happening once again. It stopped because of COVID – we like to send 2 students but so far Pegi has no applicants. She will focus on getting the word out more and let us know. Our Club, Healdsburg and Cloverdale go together to do a BBQ on that Tuesday and she will need some help if anyone is interested. More information to come.
Thank you notes put around on the tables for us to read from students in 3rd grade who received our dictionaries.
Di Brabetz, RN CPNP PHN share she had been asked by her “other club” of Playa del Carmen, Mexico to thank our Windsor Club for the $10,000 donation for their Cleft Lip/Palate clinics. Di volunteered at the first clinic in April and will be sharing photos and more information later, but wanted all of us to know that Playa was forever thankful….
Pam Moulton – she shared with all of us her “Rotarian of the Month” is someone who joined us this past year and jumped in and got involved in the scholarship program. Our Rotarian of the Month for May is Terry Andreachhi. Terry asked to speak and shared that he had help from both Wally Krutz and Doug Williams and wanted to publicly thank them and made a donation to WRCF of $50 each in their names.
Beth Smith – Project Grad is coming up and she thanked our Club for our $2,000 donation we made for a safe and sober night. But she does need some help that night, June 4th, managing booths, etc. It’s only 3-4 hour blocks or anything you can do. Contact her if you are interested.
Rotary Program:
Since May is Youth Exchange Month, it was perfect to have Past President Glenda Sales here to lead our program. Glenda was our District Youth Exchange Leader for some time and she and her husband hosted many kids that became their children and are still part of their family. Glenda and Pegi who also chairs Youth for us gave us an overview of the Youth Exchange program. Students come in August and usually return in June or July. 3 Host Families are needed and the kids usually stay with the first family August to November, 2nd family November to February and 3rd family, March to June. The first family is extremely important as the kids are homesick, do not know the language or our customs and it is a big adjustment. The 2nd family has them during the Holidays and then the 3rd family is dealing with a student who doesn’t want to go home and leave here.
We got to hear via Zoom from 2 of Glenda’s previous “daughters” both from Chile – Maria or “Kani” as we know her is now a nurse in Chile. (Di Brabetz was cheering as she spent time with Les and Di and went to Mexico with them in 2014) She talked about all she learned and how she returned and began nursing school. I don’t think we have seen the last of her and we hope not!!!!! Di got to share the mic and tell her how proud she was of her!
We also heard from Carolina from Chile, who was Glenda and Sergio’s first exchange daughter in 2005. She came to our club as a 16 year old and has since gotten married and has a baby now. Glenda and Sergio have visited and will always have her as a part of their family.
Jack and Janet Hyde spoke to us via Zoom from New Jersey – during the time they were in our club, they hosted 6 exchange students and took in 2 others from other clubs. They shared that these kids are bright, funny teenagers and the experience is life-changing for both the student and the Host family.
Di and Les Brabetz’ eldest daughter Melissa was our Club’s first exchange student we sent out and she went to Sweden. They, in turn, had the daughter of the family Melissa was staying with stay with them. “We continue to consider Anja part of our family – she is our daugher, her husband is our son-in-law and their son is one of our grandkids.”
Renee Hyde who also was involved in the Youth Exchange program for years and had many students shared that you are never too old to host, single is ok, if you have a vacation planned others will cover, and if you do not have kids in the school, so what? But please contact Sandie Krutz if you are interested in hosting. WE NEED HOST FAMILIES! Thanks to Brian and Jamie for agreeing to host and to Heather and Reg Cullen. We have a boy coming from Germany and a girl from Brazil. But we need more host families. We will also be hosting some short-term exchange students for 3 weeks and will have more information on that later.
Please consider hosting a child. It is life changing, so much fun and we learn as much as we teach.
Closure:
Past President Glenda ended with sharing this…. “whatever you are, be a good one!” Abe Lincoln…..
From your Rotary Nurse – Update on COVID
05/10/22
NEWS: STATE OF CALIFORNIA NEARS 90,000 DEAD FROM CORONAVIRUS! California has one of the nation’s better vaccination rates – 72% and here in Sonoma County we continue to remain at 82%. But, COVID-19 infections still continue to rise here in our county; our deaths, however, continue to be low. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions are on the rise.
Please be aware that people who are immunocompromised are still at risk and continue to practice good hand washing and wear a mask around those who need us to.
COVID UPDATE: The pandemic is not over so encourage those who have not had their booster to do so. The 2ND booster dose is available for those over 65 or those 50 years old with chronic health conditions. We do still have some of our community members dying (we lost someone in Windsor) and the current wave of cases is tied to the variant BA.2 and a newer variant, BA 2.12.1.
Total Cases: 87,177 (last week 86,174) Recovered: 84,196 (last week 83,787) Active Cases: 2491 (last week 1897)
Deaths: 490 (last week 490)
Hospitalized: 23 confirmed cases and 23 in the ICU (last week 17 confirmed and 3 in the ICU)
Vaccination information…. As of May 8th, 2022, 1,066,482 doses of vaccination have been given to residents in Sonoma County. (last week 1,059,926). We remain at 82% of our population 5 years and older who are fully vaccinated and 7% have had at least one (1) dose.
MASKS:
Regardless of vaccination status, masks are no longer required in most public settings, although Public Health Officials strongly recommend masking in public indoor settings, especially in crowded or poorly ventilated spaces. Masks are now optional on airplanes; however, they are still required in airports and most other forms of public transportation. The CDC is still recommending masks on airplanes so it has now become a personal decision.
Vaccine sites are still open and offering vaccinations and boosters. We continue to encourage everyone eligible for the booster, to get one. We have seen the proof that this prevents disease and hospitalizations and those who still breakthrough have minor symptoms.
TESTING:
Go to socoemergency.org to learn more about free COVID -19 testing in Sonoma County. Look for COVID-19 Testing and Tracing in Sonoma County. In addition my staff at At Home Nursing still are available to provide you COVID testing if you need it (PCR), FIT testing for a N95 mask so that it fits properly or answer any questions you may have. Call our office at 707-546-8773 to schedule an appointment. If you want to schedule either a booster or the vaccine, appointments can be found by visiting: https://socoemergency.org/events/category/pop-up-vaccine or call 707-565-4667.
Continue to stay vigilant as this pandemic is not over. We need to live our lives but not at the risk of others. So take care, be smart and safe!
Di