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Helping Children and
Families
Helps All of Us
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King Louie started our meeting at
12-something and called upon... |
Pledge:
Jim Benoit to lead us into the Pledge,
The Rotary Moment:
Cal Kimes to give the Rotarian Moment,
Visiting Rotarians
PE Jim Hinton to introduce and welcome our Visiting Rotarians.
(With so many visiting Rotarians, a few people wondered if there would be
time for today’s program.)
King Louie proceeded to thank the rest of the Club Service
volunteers:
| Jim Valinoti for set-up, Bill Dodson for
break-down,
Bob Harris for photography,
Caroline Fox for bulletin writing,
and Kim for cashiering. |
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Introduction of Guests of
Rotarians:
PEE Chris Parr-Feldman introduced Past DG Mike Merrill’s
guest, Scott Weiss, manufacturing sales representative with Geil
Marketing Associates.
Sunshine Chair Bob Marigo introduced Dr. Mark Doolittle,
counseling professor at Sonoma State University.
Announcements
The Rotaract Club of Greater Santa Rosa
President Elect-Elect Chris Parr-Feldman announced that there’s a
Rotaract meeting tonight at the LBC. In a
Rotaract Club, members
develop professional and leadership skills and serve their communities.
Currently, there are 26 members ranging 18 to 30 years of age. Please let
Chris know if you’d like to attend or know someone between the ages of 18
and 30 who might be interested in joining.
St. Patty’s Day Party
Fellowship Chair John Meislahn encouraged our Club members to attend
a St. Patty’s Party at Michele’s at 6:00 PM on Monday, March 15th. The Club
will be Dark that day. Sign-up sheets were on the tables or contact John
directly.
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Coming
Up
Click
here for full Calendar
March 8th
Judge Arnold Rosenfield will discuss the juvenile justice system in
Sonoma County
(Reporter: Richard S.)
March 15th
Dark
St. Patrick's Day Dinner at Michele's
March 22nd
Dr. Robert Erlach, a local dentist, has recently returned from
Kosovo. He will be speaking about the United States and NATO involvement
in Kosovo.
(Reporter: Roger O.)
March 29th
TBD
(Reporter: Ron S.)
April 5th
TBD
(Reporter: Chuck B..)
April 12th
Vince Mestrovich, a detective with the Sonoma County Sheriff's
Department, will discuss identity theft (your mail, credit cards, etc).
(Reporter: Gary L.)
April 19th
Bill Gittins will present a program on Seniors Inc, which is a
community project to create a new senior center for Santa Rosa.
(Reporter: Ann A.)
April 26th
Sarah Castellain, our exchange student, will talk about her
experiences here in California and tell us about her home in France. Her
parents will be visiting with us that day, her father started the Rotary
club in their town of Bethune.
(Reporter: Chris R.)
May 3rd
Santa Rosa's new police chief, Ed Flint, will be speaking to us about
the challenges he sees in our city and how he plans to handle them.
(Reporter: Richard S.)
May 10th
Tom Robinson will speak to us about the Open Space District
(Reporter: Tom L.)
May 17th
Our own Bill Fisher will present the 40th anniversary program for our
club.
(Reporter: Roger O.)
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* * * * * *
Crab
Feed
& Live Auction
Past
President's
Celebration
Bartley Barbecue
Bulletin
Archives
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|
| Debunk King Louie (in June) Mark your
calendars! Debunking Chair Mike Moore has picked when and where
we’ll debunk King Louie – June 27th at Pete Lamonica’s
Wikiup Tennis & Swim Club. He’s asked for volunteers, so please contact
him. It’s an event you won’t want to miss! (I overheard folks say there
may be cranes and heavy equipment involved, and after the debunking,
possible re-sodding of Pete’s place.) |
 |
Next Fireside
Saved for later. King Louie was crunched for time as Bob Marigo
demanded 40 minutes for today’s program. (It was interesting to see our
president in a rush.)
District Conference
King Louie said District Governor Norm is looking for a
volunteer to handle registration for the District Conference. See or contact
Ken Dansie if you’re interested.
NOW ON TO RECOGNITION
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Passports … Don’t leave home without ‘em.
Pete Lamonica was recognized for his trip to Whistler and was
asked to pay $5 for his friends, Bill Dodson included, who went
with him on the trip. It would have been a great trip, but Pete and Bill
forgot their passports!!! Oh well, what’s there to do but go back home
and get ‘em. Can’t say it wasn’t a memorable trip! |
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Vroom – Vroom
Ken Davenport is enjoying a new vehicle, which he described as a
light truck, modest and so on and so forth, hoping to play down how
fabulous it really is (otherwise, why would he buy it?). He bought
himself a red Chevy SSR. “Part roadster. Part pickup. Pure joy ride.
It's the new Chevy SSR — a vehicle that transforms from a fully-enclosed
roadster to convertible in less than 30 seconds.” Ken generously fined
himself 100 bucks. |
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35 Bells
Gary Lucas was recognized and fined $20 for his 35th year of
marriage to his wife, Carolyn. Congrats! |
24 Bells? 23 Bells? 22 Bells? Well?
There was some confusion as to how many years Richard Standard has
been married to his wife, Jean. King Louie thinks it’s 24 and he’s
sticking with it. Regardless, Richard was fined $15. Congrats!
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In the News
New member Chris Young ponied up $10 for a recent article on him
in the paper. He was the biggest grossing rep at Chase. Kudos to you! |
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“My drinking team has a skiing problem”
Ski buffs Jim Hinton, Jeff Ray, Chris Rosell, Gary Lucas, (hmmm …
I can’t remember who else), lately skiied at Lake Tahoe and were
recognized for 5 bucks. Pre-skiing celebrations resulted in “DNF,” aka
skiiers who “Did Not Finish.” I think next year’s ski trip is up in the
air but the drinking trip is still on. |
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Check Presentation:
Barbara De Odonne of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa graciously
presented SOS with a check for $750, which Bob Marigo happily
accepted on behalf of the program. (Recall that recently during the raffle
draw at our Rotary Club’s meeting, Barbara came up with the right marble,
and won the big pot.) Talk about keepin’ it in the family? Thanks, Barbara!
Program: The SOS Program:
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The introduction of our guest speakers today was given
to us by Past President Bob Marigo. Today’s program was on The
Rotary Clubs of Santa Rosa’s Support Our Students (SOS) Program, a great
program that benefits our youth and, furthermore, families, schools and
our communities. Supporting SOS helps all of us. |
Our distinguished guests from the SOS Program were:
- Nancy Aita, SOS Chairperson
- Dr. Mark Doolittle, SOS Program Supervisor and SSU Counseling
Professor
- Teresa Godino, M.A. MFT – SOS Counselor at Roseland/Sheppard
Elementary
- Dino Ruffoni, M.A. – SOS Counselor at Hidden Valley Elementary
- Bob Marigo – SOS Treasurer
- Bob Zeni – SOS Secretary
- John Palmer – SOS Member
According to Nancy, the SOS Program began with a focus on truancy and its
related causes. The first collaborative effort among all four Rotary Clubs
of Santa Rosa has developed rapidly into a comprehensive community-wide
partnership that has successfully inspired awareness and
intervention/prevention.
Awareness – The SOS Program originally designed collaboration between
schools, merchants and police. This quickly led to a larger awareness of all
the factors placing children and families at risk.
Intervention/Prevention – With this increasing awareness, an innovative
collaboration between the Rotary Clubs, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa
schools, the Finley Foundation, Sonoma County Community Foundation,
non-profit agencies, merchants and law enforcement has been developed, and
it has become a rapidly expanding model program attracting increasing
interest and support.
The Family Education Center, another SOS Program partner, was picked up
by Sonoma State University and now helps and educates 30 to 50 parents.
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Dr. Mark Doolittle of SSU sincerely thanked our
club for supporting the SOS Program. SSU has provided supervision and
has stepped forward to provide additional funding for both service and
program development. The recruitment of high-quality interns and
graduates from nationally accredited SSU Counseling Department is vital
to the SOS Program. Dr. Doolittle explained that the program continues
to be successful. |
| |
1994-1995 |
2003-2004 |
| Collaborative Budget |
$10,000 |
$62,000
20% from Rotary
80% from Community |
| School Involvement |
3 schools |
7 schools on site in Santa Rosa City
Schools 3 schools in the Roseland School and Kid Street Learning
Center |
| Services / Counselors |
7 counselors providing 40 hours of
counseling service each week |
13 counselors providing 120 hours of
counseling service each week |
Dr. Doolittle then introduced two of the program’s counselors:
Theresa Godino and Dino Ruffoni.
| Theresa Godino, SOS Counselor at
Roseland/Sheppard Elementary, shared a story about her first case. It is
of a little boy whose teacher described as a slow learner,
uncooperative, and one who has difficulty communicating. After Theresa
met with this little boy “Jay”, she discovered that he was going through
a life of domestic violence and abuse, to say the least. |
 |
The SOS Program and Theresa changed and improved Jay’s life. Today, he’s
not a little boy any more, but a 17-year-old with dreams of being a dentist
or perhaps developing his own radio show. The last time Theresa and Jay’s
paths crossed, Jay thanked Theresa for being there for him … for changing
his life.
 |
Dino Ruffoni is the SOS Counselor at Hidden
Valley Elementary. With 600 students, it is the largest elementary
school in the district. The number of referrals he gets has dramatically
increased: 64 the first year, 160 last year. He helps students (and
parents) with problems or situations such as separation anxiety,
divorce, 1st time kindergarteners, social skills, etc. |
Dino also shared a story about one of his cases. A young girl in K-3
grade was having problems with anger, attendance, tardiness, not turning in
schoolwork, etc. She had seen outside counselors but would not make any
dialogue or connections because she felt that “adults can not be trusted.”
It took her some time but she finally trusted Dino and shared her problems.
As Dino discovered, she was going through trauma, emotional and sexual
abuse throughout her whole young life. With the collaborative efforts of
investigators, detectives, the SOS program and Dino, her problems were gone.
Now, she’s first to arrive in school and turns in her work. What an
improvement!
Dino later read a few letters from schoolteachers in support of SOS. One
teacher said, “Kids are unable to learn when their troubles are in their
minds.” The teachers want the SOS program to continue, and so does Dino. To
help raise funds for the program, Dino puts together dinner fundraisers at
Fresh Choice, Chevy’s, and Krispy Cream.
In closing, Dr. Doolittle emphasized that the SOS Program is VITAL …
ESSENTIAL … to students with short and long-term problems. With the current
state budget dilemma, budget cuts would surely affect the program.
Let’s continue to support the SOS Program!
Your Bulletin Reporter,
Caroline Fox |
|
Your Bulletin Editor,
Jim Valinoti |
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|
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* * * * *
| Internal
Service Recognition Roster |
| |
March 1 |
March 8 |
March 15 |
March 22 |
| Cashier: |
Kim |
Kim |
St. Pat's |
Kim |
| Set-up: |
Doug D. |
Doug D. |
St. Pat's |
Doug D. |
| Set-up: |
Doug D. |
Doug D. |
St. Pat's |
Doug D. |
| Greeter: |
Jim H. |
Tom L. |
St. Pat's |
Phil T. |
| Pledge: |
Jim B. |
Chuck B. |
St. Pat's |
Roger O. |
| Ticket Sales: |
Caroline F. |
Tarina H. |
St. Pat's |
Ed B. |
| Moment: |
Cal K. |
TBD |
St. Pat's |
Gary L. |
| Photographer: |
Bob Harris |
Bob Harris |
St. Pat's |
Bob Harris |
| Programs: |
Susan Nowacki |
Susan Nowacki |
St. Pat's |
Susan Nowacki |
| Bulletin Reporter: |
Gail J. |
Richard S. |
St. Pat's |
Roger O. |
| Bulletin Editor: |
Jim Valinoti |
Jim Valinoti |
St. Pat's |
Jim Valinoti |
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