OPENING:
The meeting was opened by Steve Click at 7:30 AM. The Pledge of Allegiance was initiated with all present.
INSPIRATION:
Maureen Merrill provided a nice dose of inspiration with a quote from Henry James (1843-1916), a famous author and Harvard Law School graduate. He said, “three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind.” Stay kind Windsor Rotary!
SONG:
Doug Williams led song for our group with “I’ve Been Working On The Railroad” in anticipation of the upcoming Sonoma County Smart Train extension into Windsor.
GUESTS:
Allison Hoover. This was Allison’s 4th meeting with our morning Rotary group!
Hewlett. Future 2019-2020 exchange student.
Hewlett’s parents.
Jana. Current exchange student
Abigail. Robin Phillips’s baby daughter.
Marianne McBride. President & Ceo Council On Aging.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Diane Brabetz informed us that Jack M., Jackie Coffin’s husband, is very sick and currently at Memorial Hospital. She also said Dick Bishop is back in the hospital at Kaiser.
- Maureen Merrill offered 4 free tickets to the Giants game!
- JB Leep and Carol Martin shared their Project Grad experience at Windsor High School. JB wore his classic bow tie and Carol wore her dealer vest and dealt cards to the 2018 grads until 3 AM! They said it was a really fun event to be a part of. They recognized Allison Hoover for her instrumental clean up efforts once the event ended.
- Renee Hyde said this is the first time in many years that she can’t find enough host families for the next incoming exchange student. She needs help and asked to call if you have an extra bedroom and want to host for a two to three-month timeframe. She said it creates an international family in your house. She also said to let her know if you have a friend that has an extra bedroom who may be interested in hosting. The incoming exchange student is a young man from Paraguay, age 16-17 years old. Maureen Merrill announced that she will be the first host family for this student!
- Renee Hyde discussed State Farm grants that Windsor Rotary may want to get involved with Windsor Town Parks and Recreation and Sonoma County Parks and Recreation to see if they want to compete for these funds. Grants are $25,000 in categories such as, Health and Safety, and Community Improvement.
- Steve Click announced that June 15th is Linus Blanket Project event.
- JB Leep announced Kids Summer Movies Series kicks off on the Town Green tonight. There will be a kids concert at 6PM with band “ABC ROCKERS”. The movie begins at 9PM.
- Jack Hyde announced Jack’s Bar needs more staffing for the Town Green’s first Thursday Night Market this week.
- Carol Martin announced that we will take a break from Redwood Empire Food Bank volunteering for the Windsor Rotary group for the months of June, July, and August of this year.
- Sandy Krutz shared her birthday experience. She said she enjoyed brunch in Geyserville and manicures with the girls in her family. She quoted that she’s older than she’s ever been!
- Chris Landwehr shared his birthday experience. He said he enjoyed a few nights out on the Mendocino coast. He announced he will donate $100 to the Paul Harris Fellow! Nice Chris! He followed suit and said that he’s older than he’s ever been!
SPEAKER
Marianne McBride, President & CEO Council On Aging
Introduced by Diane Brabetz
Marianne said she comes from 5 generations of family in Sonoma County. She currently resides in Cloverdale. She has past history with Rotary International and has hosted an exchange student from Germany in the past. She’s been the President and CEO of Council On Aging since August 2009, and was previously the organization’s Development Director with the responsibility of raising $4 million dollars annually. She also had prior experience with United Way of Sonoma-Mendocino as Vice President of Resource Development and also served as the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Cloverdale.
Marianne said we have approximately 130,000 seniors living in Sonoma County, and that number is expected to grow significantly in the future. She said 41% of seniors in Sonoma County are living in poverty due to the high cost of living. Her team has conducted many surveys on the senior population in Sonoma County over the years. She said the biggest concerns that seniors currently have pertain to high housing costs, and transportation availability. She said many landlords are raising rents on our seniors putting many in a housing crisis. She also said that 25% of our seniors will likely outlive their ability to drive. She said the Council On Aging is involved with the California State Homeless Prevention Grant, which currently has 80 seniors in Sonoma County on this waiting list. She also said they are also involved with an innovative program in Petaluma called Share Housing Petaluma, which assists seniors in shared housing arrangements.
Marianne Sonoma County seniors were greatly impacted by last year’s recent wildfire disaster. She said many seniors faced higher fleeing risks due to some not having any sense of smell, mobility issues, and lack of access to transportation to flee the fires.
Other survey results indicated that many seniors feel disconnected with their neighbors and the community at large. She informed us of the Older Americans Act of 1965, which was the first federal level initiative aimed at providing comprehensive services for older adults. It created Federal Funding that got passed down to the State level, down to the County government level, and then down to our local nonprofits. The goal of the funding is targeted towards promoting well being for our seniors, and to give them more independence.
She shared the Council On Aging offers social, financial, legal, and nutrition services to seniors. For a fee, some of the services offered are basic daily money management, such as bill paying and balancing bank accounts. They can provide basic estate planning, and act in the capacities of trustee, successor trustee, and conservator. They are currently acting as Trustee for 150 seniors in Sonoma County. They offer senior care program services in the home. Their adult programs provide help for many seniors inflicted with cognitive impairment and respite for caregivers. The adult programs also offer exercise programs for entire families. The Family Justice Center is involved with Elder abuse issues and family violence. They have 3 mental health programs for depression, peer support, and Project Hope, which is county and FEMA backed. Project hope is currently a 9 month program offering crisis counselors, who help seniors in the community impacted by the October wildfires in their recovery process. They have a full time Disaster Case Manager funded for a year to support the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park residents, who lost everything in the fire. They recently secured 5 modular homes in the park from a federal grant.
The Meals On Wheels program extends from Rohnert Park/Cotati to the Russian River area to the Sonoma Valley. They deliver 1000-1200 meals per day or approximately 200,000 meals per year. Marianne shared that Windsor in the only town currently in Sonoma County to partner with Meals on Wheels to help provide a subsidy for their food deliveries. Meals On Wheels currently has funding challenges. Their cost to deliver one meal is $7.50 and their current budget is underfunded to cover these costs. They offer seniors the opportunity to donate some money towards delivered meals. However, only 55% of seniors receiving deliveries donate money for the food deliveries they receive. The average donation is only 65 cents per meal, which is significantly less than past average donations from these seniors. This is mainly attributed to the high cost of living in Sonoma County.
Sonoma County Meals On Wheels provides food recipients 4 meal choices per day, which gives them more choices to select food they like to eat. Marianne said this is the first Meals On Wheels program in the country to offer this much variety of food choices. She said that they have new clients fill out a survey prior to establishing service and download it to their computer program, which then customizes meals for them. She hopes to expand this service nationally for a fee, which will help raise more money for her program in Sonoma County. The four food choices currently available in their Sonoma County program are Vegetarian,Diabetic/heart friendly, Beef, and Chicken/Fish/Pork. Some of the senior centers in Sonoma County have a Bistro set up, which provides entrees and deserts. There is no Bistro Set up in Windsor’s Senior Center, but they hope to have one set up in 3-6 months.
The goal of the Council On Aging is to be “Age Friendly”, where seniors wisdom is valued. Their vision is to create cities where it’s a great place for seniors to grow old, to be relevant, and to connect with the communities they reside in. Sonoma County has adopted their “Age Friendly” program, and have gone through two phases of integration for most cities in the county. These phases include projects like reviewing adequate benches are situated in parks, walking trail safety, availability of restrooms in parks, adjusting timing for crosswalk meters, and setting up contact networks for seniors in their respective neighborhoods.
Marianne Mcbride announced that the Wine Country Senior Games start this weekend (June 9th and 10th). She said 30 soccer teams are competing at “A Place To Play Park” in Santa Rosa. A team from Canada will be part of this event. Track and Field events will be coming soon after.
We thanked Marianne for her thoughtful and informative presentation to our Rotary group.
CLOSING:
The meeting ended at 8:30 AM, with Steve Click announcing that his last board meeting as President will be on Monday, June 11th.
Submitted by Jason Black, Scribe for the day!