Santa Rosa West

Coming up

January 16th
Crab Feed

January 19
Captain Al Haynes speaks to Windsor Rotary (See Announcements)

Santa Rosa West Catches the Great Academic Brain Wave

December 21, 1998

Order! Order!

President Richard Standard (right) got the meeting off to a laid-back start. The holiday crowd was light. Brian Herndon introduced seven visiting Rotarians, most of whom haled from the downtown club. The pledge was briskly led by Lori Burmeyer. Jim Sullivan offered us an invocation keying on gratitude in this season of giving. Most especially, we should be grateful that we are not elected officials or in Baghdad. Rotarians with Guests Paul Stychno introduced Ron Allen of Ron Allen and Associates.

Announcements

Paul Stychno (left) announced that our sister club in San Jose, Costa Rica is seeking donations of used crutches, canes or walkers which they will assemble into a lending bank. Contact Paul for further details. Jeff Ray announced that this year's Ski Challenge will be on the weekend of March 5, 1999. The particulars will be announced as soon as they are known. But, as this trip generally fills up very quickly advanced registration is advisable.

Bob Marigo announced that donations are still needed for the crab feed which is less than a month away. Paul Schwartz (right) announced that the international committee had an excellent meeting last week. Their speaker was the driving force behind a district wide project to improve watersheds in South and Central America. They are hoping to arrange for him to come to speak to the group as a whole in the near future.

	Mark Decker (left) announced that our bell ringing on behalf of the Salvation Army went smoothly. Phil Talamantes, because of his fear of the dark, will be receiving an earlier shift next year. Contacts for Crab Feed Needed: We need to arrange for transportation, lodging and rental car for one week trips to Mexico and Hawaii.
We need contacts, names and phone numbers of people who can help us put this together. Contact Ron Street with names or numbers of people who are in the know.

Windsor Rotary Club is having a special speaker, Captain Al Haynes of Unitied Airlines, who will be sharing with them the inspiring and life changing story of United 232.  January 19, 1998, 7:00 a.m., probably at Luther Burbank, $10.00, continental breakfast, call Beverly Graham at (707) 838-3737 for reservations and info.

The cost of lunch will increase from $11.00 to $12.00, starting January 4, 1998. The additional dollar will be used to cover the costs for guests who attend our meetings.  Previously, we had a rebate system arranged with Los Robles Lodge wherein a portion of each lunch that was collected went to the club for this purpose.  However, when they increased the price of lunch they did not add the rebate into the new cost.  Please direct any questions or concerns regarding this matter to Richard Standard or Bob Harris.

Proposed New Member: Ron Allen

Paul Stychno has proposed Ron Allen of Ron Allen & Associates, a magazine subscription agency as a potential member for our club. Any members with questions or concerns concerning Mr. Allen should contact Terry Evans or Paul Stychno.

Rotary Videos Available

President Richard showed a professionally prepared video introducting Rotary that is available from our "library" to show to prospective members.

Avoid the Rush

By filling out the ticket stubs on your crab feed tickets and getting them to Chris Rosell ASAP, you can avoid having to stand in line to register and get your bidding books at the Crab Feed.

Neil Silverman Recognized by District G.S.E. Chair Chris Parr, the district chair for the G.S.E. committee recognized and thanked our own Neil Silverman (left) who is the team leader for the upcoming G.S.E. trip to the Philippines. Neil reported that the team had had its first meeting and it looked like an excellent group.

Craft Talk: Ed Ritch

Ed was raised the son of a tuna fishermen in San Diego CA. He got his college education at Chico State where he studied social work and met his wife. After college he worked in the residential treatment area until he realized he suffered from his own deep-seated emotional traumma: poverty. A friend of Ed's invited him to check out an innovative new machine which was sure to completely revolutionize the modern home: the Kirby vacuum. After selling 15 vacuums in his first week, Ed found a new career. Ed views his time selling vacuums door-to-door as the Marine Corps boot camp of sales. The last 15 years Ed has sold insurance and now owns his own insurance sales company herein Santa Rosa. Ed has a son and a daughter and began his strong community involvement coaching their teams as children. It is his love of community involvement and his respect for Rotary which has led him to our group. Welcome aboard Ed!

Prudential and Santa Rosa West Team up to Help Needy Children

For most of us, the holiday season is filled with gifts and cheer.  For some children, their holidays are filled with emptiness and sadness. The joys and gifts of the holidays bypass many children, from infants to teens. Children from needy families, abusive families or families torn apart due to unfortunate circumstances do not always share in the holidays. Our own Ron Street, working through Prudential California Realty's "Adopt an Angel" program has helped Santa Rosa West Rotary make a modest contribution so that 17 children who might not otherwise share in this joyous season will have warm winter coats, dolls and/or hotwheels. Thanks Ron! Thanks Santa Rosa West Rotary!

Recognition (a.k.a. FINES)
	Ken Davenport (left) came to give us a visit from Montana where, he reports, there are quite a few friends of Mike Mullins. However, all of them seem to be incarcerated. $50.00 Pete Lamonica was fined fifty dollars for being the ring leader in some mischievous action by his tablemates. He was fined $50 and they were fined an additional $10 each.

The long-lost Pat Sizemore has resurfaced; and with a new bride no less. He and Valerie were married last October. In a vote of confidence, when asked if they would attend the wedding, his Kansas brothers responded, "sorry can't make it this time, we'll catch ya next time." Honeymoon festivities included a tour of Motel 6 establishments from San Diego to Susanville. Pat does not recommend vacationing by motorcycle if one is bringing the whole family. $50.00.

According to the Press Democrat of December 13, 1998, our very own Chuck Baker has been elected international director of The Association of Automatic Transmission Re-Builders. $20.00.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Happy birthday to Gary Antonini, Ken Kushnir, Noel Beuhler, John Palmer, Pat Sizemore and Phil Talamantes. Happy anniversary to Harry Rubins, Ray Schofield and Chuck Baker.

Raffle

This week we had $770 in the pot with 39 marbles to choose from, the yellow marble being the winner. Bob Marigo, of all people, won the opportunity to pick for the prize. Amidst cheers and jeers the pressure was to much for Bob and he was unable to pick the yellow prize from the bag. Ron Allen (again) picked the second-place prize.

PROGRAM-THE GREAT ACADEMIC BRAIN WAVE

Most of us have been approached by our children or our grandchildren to make contributions to their schools through such activities as jog-a-thons or walk-a-thons. Some rather deep thinking individuals may have even gone so far as to wonder what jogging or walking or this chocolate they were buying really had to do with their child's or their grandchild's education. Today's speaker was Philip Nix, the head master at Sonoma Country Day School has asked those same questions and more and has come up with some interesting ideas.

In 1967, Mr. Nix left his doctoral program to travel with his wife to Biafra to volunteer in the fight against the famine which was crushing that region. Back then, raising money to help the suffering was relatively easy. Show people a picture depicting the effects of the advanced stages of starvation on a child and they would send money. However, long years of fighting the good fight led Mr. Nix to the inescapable conclusion that we cannot cure all the suffering in the world, at least not anytime in the near future. His experience also taught him that continuous and regular exposure to the suffering experienced by others will eventually de-sensitize individuals to that suffering. The answer that Mr. Nix came up with to this dilemma was that we should teach philanthropy to our children. Not just the occasional gift when there are some scraps left at the end of the month or the end of the year; but regular, planned, accounted for contributions as part of a way of life which involves giving and civic involvement.

Part of the means through which Mr. Nix has attempted to bring this curriculum of philanthropy into the lives of his students is through the vehicle of "The Great Academic Brain Wave." This program substitutes academic achievement for walking, jogging or chocolate in the venue of school fund-raisers. Children go to their families, friends and local businesses to solicit donations on the basis of how many questions they can correctly answer in quizzes designed for their grade level. The more questions answered correctly, the more money they can generate for their school.

The twist on this fund-raising vehicle and one way in which Mr. Nix has been able to teach philanthropy to the children is that, instead of receiving gifts or prizes for contributions obtained, 10 percent of the proceeds generated by any given class are donated to the nonprofit organization of their choice. Children research the nonprofit organizations and, through discussion and investigation, mutually decide who they wish to donate their proceeds to. The children, themselves, present the check to the organization they select.

To offer some perspective as to the power of this vehicle consider the following: The Great Academic Brain Wave began in the 1992-93 school year at one school. In the 1997-98 school year the number of schools had gone from 1 to 47. The number of participating students had gone from 185 to 19,149. The funds raised had gone from $25,000 to $400,000 of which $40,000 was donated to 177 nonprofit community organizations. The number of business sponsors went from zero to 53 and the number of donors went from 2,400 to 87,000.

Any inquiries concerning this extraordinary and powerful project should be directed to Todd Phillips at (707) 547-4030.

This Bulletin has been brought to you by David Bjorklund

Happy Holidays!

New E-mail address or Fax number?

Let me know at DRBjork@thegrid.net or
phone (707) 576-7632 or fax (707) 576-7672.

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