A nice group of 28 gathered to hear the ring of the bell at 7:30… President Bill Bolster gave us a chance to reminisce on the past meetings and the number of attendees gained to 38
A pledge of allegiance was offered by Catherine Hanron.
Alison Huber offered a quote from Anne Frank, How wonderful it is that no one needs to wait a single moment to change the world.”
JB Leep let us know that he studies Karaoke and it inspired him to rewrite the lyrics to Foggy Day… I believe more were muted than turned on by the performance. But what the heck… the sun was shining by the end.
Tom Boylan was back to offering words for the day.
Michael Juric has offered his services as Zoom master, which means we are moving our address from Glenn Sugden’s Zoom to a dedicated Rotary Zoom. Keep an eye out on your emails for the new address.
Visiting Rotarians:
None to be seen.
Guests of Rotarians:
Our featured speaker for the meeting Mark Scott, Exe. Dir. of North Bay Animal Services.
Announcements:
Rotarian of the month is JB Leep.
Leslie Lewis took on the role of recognition master (finemaster), and immediately offered Michael Juric an opportunity to share a picture of Alison May, his newest granddaughter.
Leslie found a doubleheader with Alison Huber who is celebrating her birthday and her anniversary.
We are reminded that there is an $80 charge for our annual membership and if you didn’t pay it on the annual bill, you can make it happen during the year.
Tom Hassur is vacationing in Eagle Lake and will wait until next year to be recognized for his birthday.
Maureen and Mike Merrill took a trip down the Russian River and opted to pay $32 toward their fines, to match the number of years they have been in wedded bliss, but Maureen offered that she and Mike would increase the dollars.
Sandie and Wally Krutz took a drive out to the coast and celebrated their 51 years of marriage. We found out they spent more time necking in the front seat, possibly the back seat was a little uncomfortable. They kept the fine evenly split down the middle.
Steve Klick celebrated 20 years married to the best cake maker in the West, Mapi Klick, and went on an adventure to Charlie’s for a getaway. He offered that he will be depositing dollars monthly into the John Lewis Fund.
Carol Martin offered a donation to the Windsor Rotary Community Project Fund, because she is celebrating a second retirement!
We heard there is a continuing effort to promote the food security drive. Pres. Bill let us know we have some exciting meetings coming up, including a candidates forum, a visit from James Gore, and District Governor Doug Johnson.
Alison Huber put out a call for volunteers for 2021. She would like us to keep the ball rolling as the committee prepares for another special night for 2021 graduates. The committee meets every third Thursday of the month and you can contact Alison to learn more of the contact.
Diane Brabetz brought us to Mexico and Playa del Carmen where the need for assistance with medical clinics is great.
Community Projects are underway and Heather Cullen had a chance to send money to the Food Pantry, along with food. Glenn Sugden filled us in on the Cali cal meca robotics team, by purchasing robotic kits, but he really wants to find volunteers ready to learn robotics. There is a need for up to 10 Rotarian volunteers. In addition there is a District Grant application in the works to work with our parks. Redwood Food Bank is looking for volunteers from Rotary as well.
Participation Opportunities:
Robotics Mentoring
- We plan to support the Robotics Club at Cali Calmecac again this year with our District Matching Grant. We were so impressed with Mark Galli’s presentation about what the club accomplished this last year using virtual robots. We’d like to help him expand the club to bring in more kids, but to do that he needs more adult mentors!
- Our solution:
- We offer Rotarians the opportunity to learn about robotics and coding with Virtual Robotics Toolkit so they can be mentors. Learn more here: https://www.virtualroboticstoolkit.com/
- We offer any left-over licenses to Mark Galli for interested parents or to teachers at WHS/WMS for either parents or students – for the same purpose.
- Through their teachers, we encourage some WHS STEM students to do their senior projects utilizing some phase of helping younger kids in the Robotics Club.
- We turn our Rotarian mentors into an awesome, extremely talented coding cadre – and we help Mark however we can.
- Glenn provides technical support and encouragement to the group and all!
- Here’s the plan:
- WRCF will purchase 10 Perpetual licenses for the Virtual Robotics Toolkit at a discounted group price of $40.00 each.
- Each person will need a computer to participate.
- We are asking members to pay $40 for their individual license so they will have skin in the game and be motivated to keep going. District matching grants do NOT allow for ‘train the trainer’ funds, so we need to cover these costs separately from the grant.
- This will be a self-directed effort, meaning you will be learning on your own – in your own home, on your own computer. Glenn will do a kickoff session to get us going, but he will NOT be doing classes.
- Given the COVID situation, we are not sure what the eventual mentoring will look like, but we are going to learn these new skills so we can be ready when the opportunity pops up.
- How to get started:
- Send an email to Carol at [email protected] – and say “Count me in for the Robotics Mentor Team”. We will eventually come up with an appropriate name, but we can do that as a group.
- Write a check payable to “WRCF” for $40 and write “Robotics Mentor” in the memo section. Send the check to Ed Turner at Airport Business Center, 414 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa, CA 95403.
- We are ordering the licenses and will send you a link and all the information you need to get started.
- We will plan to have a kickoff ZOOM meeting in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for details. We will arrange this for a time when everyone is available.
Volunteer with Redwood Empire Food Bank
REFB is in URGENT NEED of volunteers to help at their main location and also at distribution sites throughout the area. To find out more, go to this link https://refb.org/ and click the “Volunteer” button at the top to see the opportunities available.
Windsor Middle School – Landscaping Support
Heather Cullen is organizing a group to help out at Windsor Middle School. She says…
I need 8 people to help me with a service project at Windsor Middle School THIS SATURDAY (7/25/20) from 8am to 12pm. We need a couple people to lay ground cloth on the dirt in the island on the parking lot under the solar panels, 2 people to shovel mulch into the wheelbarrows, 2 people to wheel the mulch to the island and dump onto the ground cloth and 2 people to rake it flat.
Please bring wheel barrows, rakes and shovels with you. We’ll take more helpers if we can..but I think this will work too.
Project Grad – Seeking volunteers for committees & the Board
Alison Huber told us this morning that Project Grad was definitely cancelled for the 2020 grads. But they are already planning for next year – and they are looking for volunteers. Find out more information here https://www.windsorhighprojectgrad.org/ about how you could get involved.
Program:
JB Leep introduced our speaker for the day, Mark Scott, Exe. Dir. of North Bay Animal Services. He is a senior animal control officer with experience around the county. He has been instrumental in the Tubbs fire animal rescue efforts.
Mark let us know that the facility is located in Petaluma 7622267. Their mission is to help people keep their animals in their homes versus surrendering the animals to the shelter. The goal is to help families understand the importance of keeping their pets, and keeping them healthy. The goal is compassion, community and connection. North Bay animal; services works with a wide variety of cities, including Windsor, Calistoga, Petaluma, Cloverdale, and Healdsburg, where they provide animal control services, but no sheltering.
Paid staff is eleven people, but they rely heavily on the volunteers that become dedicated, especially during disasters. They also provide the “Cuddle Shuttle,” which is an adoption van that shows up around the county offering pets and if you are interested, you might be able to make arrangements to have it appear at your business.
The innovation of the program has helped them to continue their outreach to children through an online introduction via ZOOM. We were told that any teacher can ask to have the program introduced to their students. We got an opportunity to see firsthand Safe to Pet, or not Safe to Pet.
Safe to Pet, or not Safe to Pet takes the children on a visual tour that includes a variety of pets in daily activities and asks them the question about making contact. Understanding the various times when not to pet will minimize a traumatic event. The program looks to be a success with children and families.
For anyone interested in being spayed or neutered, the service is available through North Bay Animal Services. The cost is pretty affordable too. They stay pretty busy, so be sure to call ahead.
In addition to their animal control and services they also have been busy donating food to families in need. Mark shared that his team is sometimes affectionately referred to as the Door Dash team, especially during the COVID times.
We found out that the Town of Windsor has a dedicated animal control officer who is on hand to administer to the various problems that might occur, including bite reports and safety calls for both the animal and the community members.
President Bill says “Excellence is a habit,” according to an old friend named Aristotle. Then we heard the bell ring