Bulletin for July 27, 2009
Former Red Badgers score big with new fundraiser:
Dogs for Diabetes!
By Ginny Pitts
Preliminaries
 Our fabulous President Susan opened the July 27th meeting with a great blonde joke, something about a blonde painting a "porch" versus "Porsche." Hmm, any blondes in the audience? She welcomed all visiting Rotarians and guests alike. |
|
||||||||
| Casey Williams led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. |
| Barbara Larson gave the Rotary moment regarding hope, hope, hope; something we can all believe in at this time. |
 |
| Visiting Rotarians: Mike Merrill introduced visiting Rotarians. From the Santa Rosa Club visitors include Tom Nightinger, and Vicky Hardcastle, and from the Sunrise Club Michael Flanagan, Ralph Kelly, and Peter Hobart. A hearty welcome was extended to our visitors. |
Our one and only Mike Moore walked around the room with the roving mic to find all our guests of Rotarians. Darcie introduced Jason Lee and Marianna Schmidt. Doug Angelo introduced Brad Lesley.
 |
 |
Much to Ex-Prez Fred’s delight his son Craig and daughter-in-law Becky were visiting from Austin, Texas. Pam introduced Corey Oakley and Paula Cooke. A big welcome was also extended to all our friends and guests of Rotary.
 |
 |
Announcements & Such
President Susan had a fun time with her announcements.
Business first; Jim Hinton’s correct e-mail is the correct one in our roster.
Now for the fun! We all joined in union to sing "Happy Birthday" to our following buddies – Fred, Chris Young, Will and Von.
There was a brief message from the President to the "new" bad boys table - to pipe down when we have announcements! All in fun, we think.
Darcie Fellows was joined at the podium
by Tracy
Klein, Chris Lepore and Casey Williams, to speak about the wildly
successful Dogs for Diabetes fundraiser last Saturday evening. Just a little
reminder how this all came about; The Membership Committee provided the new
kids ("the class of 08") with $1,000, and instructions to see how they could
expand that for a worthwhile charity. They did that in spades! Spearheaded
by Darcie Fellows, our "Fearsome Foresome Former Red Badgers" chose
"Dogs for Diabetes," and this past
Saturday night, with entry tickets, silent auction donations, and Casey’s
delicious appetizers they brought in $7,400!! What a great idea. Llots of
hard work and lots of fun. Great job "class of 08"!!!!
President Susan has asked the club to be in attendance for a cocktail party at Ginny Pitts’ house August 9th from 4:00 to 6:00pm to welcome District Governor "Captain" Kirk Brown. She has also asked the club to "wear" Hawaiian shirts for DG Kirk’s visit to our club August 10th. Please remember all board members to show up at 10:am for our annual meeting with our DG.
Phil Talamantes gave a sunshine and cloud report. Teddie Sipe is out of the hospital after surgery and resting comfortably. She hopes to join us soon at club meetings.
Alas, our Bulletin Guy Jim Valinoti wasn’t so lucky. He was involved in a car accident that totaled his beloved Benz. L He is recovering at home with a fractured tibia that should keep him off that leg for about 6 or more weeks. Please keep our beloved members in your thoughts and prayers. (Actually, he was damn lucky! And thanks to German engineering, he is still here to say so! –Ed J )
 |
 |
 |
Membership chair Diane Winsby threw the gauntlet down to the Sunrise Club to start as of now to have a race for the most new members for one year. President Peter Hobart joined Diane at the podium to accept the challenge. He and Mike Flanagan had a little "trash talk" fun. Each club has 69 members so we all are starting on the same foot. Don’t forget Peter. Is it the truth? Let’s get to know the members of Sunrise better and have a good time with this contest.
President Susan introduced a very fun sidebar: "Getting To Know You!"
She threw out clues like:
Who was a go-go dancer?
No, it wasn’t John Withers!
Janet Codding, spoke about her fun
past. She has 3 grown children, 31, 33 and 43. Has spent 30 in the escrow
business and is currently involved in the nutrition and skin care business, all
products based on science.
 |
 |
Who rode bareback on horseback??
None other than Future President Bill Dodson! Who would have thunk? Born on a ranch and a stint at Cal Poly where they
asked him not to come back. Bill spent a year and a half designing
control rooms for submarines. We sure didn’t know that about you Billy!
He has been a principal in the architectural firm of Axia & Associates since
1974.
(And here’s one for the future: Who won numerous talent awards while "playing washboard" in a popular San Antonio Bluegrass Band??? Ed-J )
Keep these vignettes coming Susan!. Lots of info, and lots of fun.
Raffle
20 marbles, and $375. Who’s the lucky ticket holder? That honor went to Rich Pratt but Rats! No black marble. Doug Angelo, no way. Lucky guy had the winning ticket for a nice bottle of wine. You will remember Doug pulled the lucky ticket for the BIG raffle last month!
 |
 |
Recognition
Only one fine today, and the honor goes to Mr. John Palmer for a picture of wife Anne in The Press Democrat volunteering at the Sonoma County Fair. Since John didn’t recognize his own wife, he was fined $20. Nobody tell Anne!
Program:
| Bill Fisher introduced our own guest speaker, Gary Lucas. |
 |
| Gary has had an exciting life and career. He was born in Santa Rosa in 1946 but relocated with his family to Marin and on to Catholic school. He joined the Navy at 17 to see the world and boy, did he ever! He ended up in Vietnam on the USS Montrose and participated in 13 important landings in Viet Nam. |
Gary just returned from Taiwan and Viet Nam with a Dao Master. Gary was his Assistant.
Viet Nam has recovered from the war. 90% of the people ride motor Scooters with 5 to 6 people riding on one bike. He also travelled up the Mekong River with the Dao who brought hope and peace to many people that they met.
These people cannot drink the milk produced in their area, due to contamination of Agent Orange.
The languages are mainly Chinese and Vietnamese. There is limited access to medicine, but acupuncture is widely accepted.
People live above their stores and some families have lived there for six generations.
Gary was invited by the Dao to accompany him because he (Gary) has a good understanding of his own spirituality.
The local currency is Vietnamese dollars and bartering seems to be the norm.
GARY provided a great side show that covered a convention that he attended in Tawain.
Thanks for an interesting and enlightening Program Gary!
| Bulletin Reporter: Ginny Pitts  |
Bulletin Editor: Jim Valinoti  |