DGE Jennifer Strong Inspires Us

Scribe notes by Barbara McChesney

Welcome from President Elect and guest President Brian Ling.

Pledge of Allegiance by District Governor Nominee Tom Boylan
SONG – Bill Arnone sang ‘Let it be’ in keeping with all that is happening now.

Visiting Rotarian: Jennifer Strong, District Governor Elect, member of Rotary Club of Lakeport with a classifaction of financial planning.

Tom Boylan introduced his guest, Jeff Cave.

Announcements – Brian announced the very exciting news that meeting rules being rescinded as of Friday, Feb.11 so we return to Charlie’s Tuesday, Feb.15th. The hybrid option will still be available, and the club will follow all proper protocols regarding masks and vaccinations.  Look forward to seeing you all in person.

SPARK SUCCESS TEAM updates:

Happy Hour bundle charcuterie board is hot off the press! Order today!!!
Register for the event at windsorrotary.org
Beautiful business cards and postcards are available from Kurt and Bill for distribution.
Register by Feb. 18th for an opportunity to win one of 5 happy hour bundles prepared by caterer extraordinaire Pegi Ball.
Donate a bottle of wine valued at $35 or more for the live auction wine bundle. Jo Timmsen will be happy to collect your wine at our next in person meeting.
Catherine Hanron has 15 silent auctions and needs more. Do you or your friends have an interesting item, service, or activity that would make a perfect silent auction item?
Create an in home virtual event watch party. It would be a lot more fun to participate with a group and encourage each other to bid on all the live and silent auction items. Get your friends together!!
Team will email a fillable wine form and a sponsor form. These forms are also available at windsorrotary.org.
Donation total as of today is $20,000! Woohoo!!! Ask your contacts for donations or if you are too shy, contact Maureen and her sponsor team will do the asking for you. Remember our club and Senator Mike McGuire will take good care of our sponsors.
Share out text messages from Kurt about the event with friends and family.
Share Facebook messages on your own FB page. Find posts about the event at https://www.facebook.com/windsorrotary and share!
Online bidding opens on March 12th.

Club Social next week on Thursday, Feb. 17 at Volo Chocolate in Windsor. Joan Mora will be sending out more information.

Maureen bedazzled the club wearing her beautiful sequin top in honor of introducing the shining star and next District Governor Jennifer Strong. Jennifer is a natural leader within Rotary, her business and community. She contributes personally and through her professional work.  Jennifer is a pilot and looks forward to her ability to visit District 5130 clubs quickly.  Check out her bio online to learn more.

Jennifer’s presentation was both inspiring and informative, sharing information about her history as a Rotarian and some of the exciting projects she has led.  Planting 3,000 trees in one day in Lake county was a highlight and included our own club members Wally Krutz and Bill Bolster.

Ken Moulton was foremost in Jennifer’s thoughts with her beautiful acknowledgment of Ken’s recent passing. Rotary is a family, a very big family and Ken was a pillar of Windsor Rotary as well as clubs far and wide. She described Ken as a true gentleman and leader. She took to heart him telling her “leadership is a privilege and take that opportunity for leadership beyond your club”.

Jennifer is very humbled and excited to move into role as DG for the “best district in the world”.  She shared with great enthusiasm her joy that she is becoming DG the same year as the first woman International President in 118 years.  She introduced the club to Jennifer Jones from Windsor, Ontario,Canada via a video clip. Jennifer Jones shared her vision and theme of ‘Imagine’ the possibilities we can all do through Rotary. “You may say that I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one”.  Make dreams a reality. Taken from the Broadway show Rent, we have 525600 minutes in a year.  How are we each going to use our minutes?

Jennifer shared her thoughts that we are all given a super hero cape when we join Rotary. We can each make a difference and help inspire one other person to imagine something different. She will be challenging us in her year to focus on the environment, focus on our brand in the community, and to tell our Rotary stories.  We can effect change in the world.  Jennifer’s goal is to be proud of the time she will have spent on this earth.  Jennifer read the poem The Dash by Linda Ellis.  President Pam mentioned that this was a favorite of Ken’s as well.

Jennifer closed her presentation by answering questions from club members.

President Elect Brian’s closing remarks:

Thank you Jennifer, our District Governor Elect.  I learned the importance of being a Rotary District Governor when I was a kid and John Withers, a friend and neighbor, was elected Governor of our District from my Dad’s Santa Rosa West Rotary Club.  I am so appreciative to have Michael Juric, Maureen Merrill, and Mike Merrill as Past District Governors with us, plus Jennifer Strong and Tom Boylan as future Governors with us,and knowing that our 6th Governor Ken Moulton is happily watching everything that we are doing too.  There probably isn’t another Rotary meeting world wide that has such tremendous participation with such great leadership.

My closing quote comes from George Dutton who is the President-Elect of the Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary Club and going back to my days in Active 20-30 #50 prior to my joining the Rotary Club of Windsor.  George’s legendary quote is “You will get out of 20-30 (Rotary) as much as you put into it.”  I’m inspired by how much our District Governors have put into Rotary and how much they enjoy what they get from being a Rotarian.

Our WRCF Funds at Work – Report from Susan Cole
On Monday, February 7, members of the Rotary Club of Windsor gathered at the North Bay Met Academy to watch the installation of a “Blue Barrel Water Catchment System” by the students of North Bay Met. The project was funded by our Windsor Rotary Community Foundation, and guided by friends from Daily Acts.

The North Bay Met Academy school garden is watered by long hoses from potable water. In our current drought, and as a more sustainable practice, the students installed a demonstration rainwater collection system to water their garden. Using rainwater slows down storm water, saves potable water, and offers others in the community an opportunity to see what we can do to preserve our water resources.

The project consists of an 8 barrel rainwater collection and storage system. It will collect rainwater from the roof of one of the Windsor Oaks Academy portable classrooms and store it for use in the dry season for the school garden.

Here’s what the project can accomplish:
1.   Provide irrigation water for the school garden (which had lovely lettuce plants growing and flourishing on Monday during our visit)
2.   Present an example of sustainable water use for the Windsor community
3.   Demonstrate sustainable design principles in a changing climate
4.   Promote healthy lifestyles and environmental design principles at school
5.   Offer a hands-on learning opportunity for students to connect to the real world
6.   Create math and science lesson opportunities

Our Club members watched as the students handled the 8 barrels, drilled the holes for connecting them together, and planned how to connect the pvc piping that completes the system.
Here are photographs of your Rotary Community Service funds at work.