Monday Noon, Los Robles Lodge
925 Edwards Ave., Santa Rosa, California

Cool Kids Club

1) President Brian called the meeting to order more or less in the vicinity of 12:30 PM while making some quip about tax day…..

a) The Pledge was lead by Tony Stark…

b) The Rotary Moment was led by PDG John Withers, and it was truly just a moment.

c) Dave McDonald introduced the 4 visiting Rotarians.

2) Susan Nowacki rose to give the oxymoronic Sunshine Report (no intended reflection on Susan; it’s just a misnamed report!). This time the not so lively report had to do with the upcoming surgery that Lisa Greenfield will have on her back; she has a herniated disk. This is a very painful and potentially debilitating problem that several of us have had to deal with in the past. We all wish the very best to Lisa.

3) The various upcoming conferences were discussed. The District Assembly will take place this weekend. Details are available on the District 5130 Web Site: http://www.rotary5130.org.

a) The District Conference is coming up also. Details are available on the same Web Site.

b) President Brian noted that the District needs funding for the conference and called upon Caroline Fox who discussed an advertising campaign that is available to Rotarians who want to advertise their businesses in the program for the Conference or otherwise spread the wealth. The available packages are as follows:

• Event Sponsor – the range of sponsorships available runs between $500 and $2,500.
• Program Sponsor – the range here is $250 and $500.
• Business Card Advertisement – the old standby; these start at $40 and go up depending on the size of the advertisement.

c) Also, volunteers are needed for the District Assembly. The District is looking to have 2 people from each club volunteer to help.

 4) Harry Rubins rose to note that we have exceeded the District goal on per member donations to the Foundation; we are at $134 per member. The Sunrise Club is in the District lead at about $160 per member.

5) President Brian reminded new members that when they are ready to give their craft talks, they should contact either him or their sponsor to get this requirement behind them.

6) Ginny Pitts announced that a "Crab Feed Wrap Up" will take place at her home on April 25 at 5:30 PM. Left over crab???

7) The President Secretary’s Dinner is coming up. All who want to attend should contact Fred Zmarzly who is the penultimate Rotary Secretary. The Healdsburg Club will host the event. Fred has all the details.

8) President Brian launched into a fining frenzy….

a) Chris Parr. She hasn’t been fined the entire year.. (!). $25 for being an active and valuable Rotarian.

b) Jim Underhill. Jim also has not been recognized. Pres Brian asked Jim about RYLA. The Club was treated to a 5 minute informative talk by Jim about what RYLA is, what it does, how it does it and why it’s important. In characteristic Jim Underhill fashion he gave all the credit to PDG Duane Blackwell, who really was the sparkplug to get RYLA going in this area. However, Jim is the sparkplug who KEEPS IT GOING. Plaudits to Jim!! Pres Brian fined him $25 with many members saying the money should have gone the other way!

c) Ron Allen. President Brian just wanted to get Ron; after all it’s been awhile. Ron mentioned that for a kick he took his wife to the Grammys and had a great time. Brian asked him how much he’d like to kick in: Ron wrote a check for $500 to the Foundation….maybe we’ll get closer to Sunrise Rotary!

9) Ginny Pitts had the Raffle ticket for the marble pull….she just didn’t get the marble. However, she also had the ticket for the bottle of wine, which she said she’d use at the Crab Rehash meeting (above).

10) Jim Hinton rose to display a special calendar that was put together by our sister club in Cherkasy Ukraine. Jim went on to describe how Santa Rosa had established the relationship with Cherkasy during the time when Dave Berto was mayor of Santa Rosa. About five years ago the Rotary Club of Cherkasy was established and the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West established a sister club relationship. The calendars that Jim displayed are for sale. They conform with the Eastern European method of script, date numbering, etc. The proceeds of the sale of the calendars is being used to assist children in the Ukraine.

11) Paula Wrenn introduced our guest speaker, Tom Farrell Sr., of the Sebastopol Club. Paula went through a litany of accomplishments that Tom has achieved. One that struck this Bulletin Reporter was that Tom is one of 133 people worldwide who has been awarded the Service Above Self Award by Rotary International. He is a very impressive person.

a) Tom spoke about the ‘Cool Kids Club’, which was established in 2000 as a week long summer camp for children from abusive families. He talked about the need for this camp, the benefits that it provides the children and how it is run at Westminster Woods.

b) Tom pointed out that 90% of the inmates at San Quinton came from abusive families. If the Cool Kids Club can show the children that there are better ways for them to be treated by adults and that better relationships are possible, who knows what benefits may arise for the children as well as society as a whole.

c) Tom showed a short video of the camp and provided more anecdotes about the camp. It was a very inspiring presentation that was very positively received by the club.

d) Tom mentioned that he had grown up in an abusive family and had a very strong feeling about how these children must feel. He talked about how at one point when he was nine years old he had taken his two siblings and run away from home to his uncle’s house in Berkeley. He and his siblings were of course taken back home where they were severely punished. He talked about how trapped children like this feel.

e) Tom mentioned that only the Sebastopol Club originally funded the Cool Kids Club. However, during Mike Merrill’s term as District Governor, it was decided that the District should fund this camp because of its importance and the desire of many clubs to participate. It is now a district project.

f) Accordingly, Tom stated that the District is asking each club to sponsor three children in the club. The cost is $350 per child. Our Club came up with the $1050 to sponsor three children.

12) After Tom’s presentation, President Brian adjourned the meeting. All in all it was a really nifty meeting!

Your Reporter: Bob Harris
Your Editor: Jim Valinoti

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Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.

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