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King Louis Returns from Mexico

Preludes:

President Louis Capuano, refreshed by a vacation in Mexico, opened the meeting today with a mellifluous peal of the bell at 12:29 p.m. and a bunch of "y'alls."

Pledge & The Rotary Moment:

Ron Street led the Pledge of Allegiance; and Gary Lucas, for the fourth straight week, came through again with a Rotary Moment of profound depth and meaning, this one by St. Francis of Assisi.

Guests

Bill Dodson was in the spotlight again, this time introducing the visiting Rotarians, all three of them. Mike Merrill introduced his guest, Steve Weiss, who was warmly welcomed.

Announcements Galore:

Shoes: Steve Wright announced that the shoe distribution program had been completed this year. A total of 177 shoe certificates were distributed to 7 schools, and so far 150 kids have new shoes.

Dictionaries: David McDonald reported that 320 dictionaries have been distributed to third-graders in 6 schools - St. Rose, St. Eugene, Wright, R.L. Stevens, J.X. Wilson, and Kid Street. He read several thank you notes from grateful students who, because of this dictionary program, may learn to spell and  end up at Harvard.

Bell-Ringing: David also reminded that bell-ringing for the Salvation Army will be on Thursday, December 18th, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm at Coddingtown. The sign-up sheet was found somewhere in Mexico in President Louis' briefcase.

Crab Feed: John Meislahn announced that most of the duty positions for the Crab Feed had been filled, but he still needed volunteers for clean-up, silent auction set-up, and the bar. A sign-up sheet is circulating. The next Crab Feed meeting is Monday, December 15th, immediately after the regular meeting.

Crab Feed Tickets: Bob Zeni reported that about 400 tickets have been sold to date. He still has more tickets.

Crab Feed Auctions: Ed Burr and Jeri Arnold said they really need more auction items.

Crab Feed Raffle: The prize is a cruise trip to Baja California. Jim Benoit and Jim Hinton have the tickets.

Rotary Foundation: Harry Rubins asked for 7 volunteers to contribute $100.00 to the Rotary Foundation, and for each of them he would contribute $200.00 - $100.00 to the Foundation plus $100.00 to the Crab Feed proceeds. Wow, that's a total of $1,400.00 from Harry! He got a "sell out" within minutes, and he received a huge, well-deserved ovation.

Cajun Dinner: Terry Galazzo and President Louis Capuano are teaming up to steam up a Cajun dinner this Saturday night. They need two volunteers to serve. Please call them to help.

LSU: There were no takers for President Louis' tongue-in-cheek offer of tickets to the "national championship" college football game at the Sugar Bowl.

San Diego Fires: John Withers was so overwhelmed by the enormity of the devastation caused by the San Diego fires that he wrote and read a story about it. (Unfortunately, I missed most of it, but I heard him say something about a doughnut in Julian.)

Fines And Recognition:

President Louis spotted Terry Galazzo sitting at the front table (the John Palmer table), which was the first time ever that a woman had joined this table, perhaps because some of the regulars there were off in Hawaii playing golf. President Louis fined all of the men at this table $3.00 each - Bob Reinking, David McDonald, Ken Prouty, Bill Fisher, John Hathaway, John Palmer, and Don Ling.

Chuck Stark was fined $10.00 for his trip to Hawaii, where he was celebrating the 92nd birthday of his mother-in-law.

Tony Stark was fined $5.00 for missing meetings, and Doug Dilley and Ralph Lassa were hit for $10.00 each for the same offense.

Bill Gittins was fined $10.00 for an announcement about him in the newspaper.

Dennis Kelly finally showed up and got his Blue Badge, together with a $30.00 fine for missing meetings.

Program: The [Proposed] Children's Village:

Leah Rowley, the Executive Director of Children's Village, and Walter Scruggs, a banker who is a volunteer and a foster-care survivor, spoke about the proposed Children's Village which will be built on a 2.2 acre site on Kawana Terrace in southeast Santa Rosa.

The dual concept of Children's Village is long-term care and keeping siblings together, an alternative to the usual foster home shifting and splitting. There will be 8 buildings housing a total of 48 foster care children, as well as an elder's building and a recreation center. Construction will hopefully begin in 2004. When built, foster care funding from the federal and state governments will be available to operate the facility, and the children will attend public schools.

Leah showed a 5-minute video about a prototype children's village facility in Florida. Leah and Walter expressed confidence that the Santa Rosa Children's Village will succeed.

Your Bulletin Reporter, Jim Hinton		Your Bulletin 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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