We are having a crab feed fund raiser
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Stories
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BBQ AT THE BEIL'S RESIDENCE |
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DIST. GOV.'S VISIT - KAREN CENDRO
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Award from San Juan Unified School District
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Ocularistry - Phil Danz
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Tour of Effie Yeaw Nature Center
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Rotary's New Leadership - 2022-2023
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Carmichael Rotary Golf Tournament
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4Kids.com - Joel Carreon
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Peace in a chaotic World
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Getting to Know Him - Frank Pease
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Carmichael Improvement District - Rebekah Evans
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Tri Tip Fundraiser
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Speaking Professionally: Lessons Learned on the Road
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Link to buy Tri Tip Fundraiser |
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Tri Tip Dinner for Four
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AWARD TO CARMICHAEL'S FIRE SATION 109
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Carmichael Rotary Club is serving a delicious Tri Tip dinner for four by prepared
by Jackson’s Catering to be picked up in front of the Carmichael Grocery Outlet Parking lot, 5025 Marconi Ave (at the corner of Walnut and Marconi) on Friday, March 11, 2022 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. The dinners include Tri Tip, Focaccia Bread, salad with blue cheese, walnuts, cranberries, croutons, strawberry vinaigrette dressing, Baked Potato with butter and rewarming instructions. The cost is $100 for the four dinners! Proceeds will go to support local parks, food closets, deserving children and schools. You may reserve your dinners or make a donation by sending a check made out to the Carmichael Rotary Foundation to 4856 Paisley Way, Carmichael 95608 or use your PayPal account by clicking on this link and press SEND: 
Dear Rotarians, Family and Friends, 
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An award was given by Vocational Service Director Frank Pease (center above) to Carmichael's Fire Station no. 109 for their great service to our community. One of their shifts came to our Rotary meeting on January 4th, 2022 to accept the Award and Captain Jeff Hickman (shaking hands with Frank) said a few words about their Station. The award was inscribed with the "Fireman's Blessing" to bring them good luck. |
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Veteran's Carmichael Park Veteran's Project -November 13, 2021
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10 Carmichael Rotarians and friends, plus Carmichael Park District Foundation President Sharon Ruffner, planted several colorful plants and spread bark in front of the Carmichael Park Veteran's Hall on Saturday, November 13th, 2021. This is the first part of our Rotary matching grant project, to refurbish and provide needed display cases for Veteran groups that use the building for their meetings. $5000 is the value of the project with our Club providing 1/2 and a matching grant for the rest. See pics below: |
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Effie Yeaw Work Project -November 6th, 2021
POLIO PLUS - Tom Cicchini
 We are honored to have the Polio Plus chairperson for District 5180, Tom Cicchini with us today. Tom has a 30+ years’ experience with Raymond James Financial Services, CA.He operates his business busing the dba Beacon Wealth Strategies, LTD. Tom has a long-distinguished record of service with Rotary and is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Point West. Tom presented a detailed slide show with some interesting comparisons between COVID-19 and the Poliovirus, and then about polio plus, history, money spent and the various District Goals and fund-raising events. COVID -19 and Polio's similarities and differences: Both generate fear and suspicion. Both kill by interfering with respiration, have many asymptomatic cases and have the ability to mutate. The Polio virus is exclusively a human virus going back thousands of years and spread only by humans. COVID-19 can spread from humans to animals by respiratory drops while the Polio virus is an intestinal virus. Paralytic polio affect primarily children and adolescents while COVID-19 primarily affects older adults and those with debilitating underlying conditions. What we learned from Polio is the need for prevention and the Holy Trinity, the need to create effective, long-lasting vaccines, global cooperation (funding research and communication), and a network to disseminate information. There was a task force created in 12/2020, creating awareness with Club volunteers, a Rotary and Vaccine cold chain, a worldwide effort to address the pandemic. Helping with logistics which are complex, storage and transportation, a seamless cold change needing equipment, personnel and processes. Tom provided in slides below some interesting facts about Polio... |
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| So above, Tom showed us how we can contribute to the District's 2021-2022 goal for Polio Plus and get a certificate and a pin, just by giving $100 and committing to continue donating until Polio's goal of eradication is finished. So why wouldn't we donate? Below are slides depicting the various fund raisers in which you can participate. |
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BIRD SONGS - Richard Howard
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Have you ever wanted to identify the sounds that come from birds in your back yard. I've been curious about the species of birds in my environment for years. We are fortunate today to have an expert who will identify those bird songs for us. : Rich Howard is a native Californian and 30+-year Carmichael resident whose love of birds and nature has taken him to all seven continents. After retiring as an environmental scientist in 2013, he visited Effie Yeaw Nature Center nearly every week until the pandemic hit. He offers classes for adults at Effie Yeaw in Beginning Birding and in a bird watcher’s website and app called eBird. His presentation introduced the songs and calls of some Carmichael birds and discusses the general subject of bird vocalizations. The purpose is to give residents an appreciation of the sounds that are all around us but may not have been noticed, and to enhance the enjoyment of the common yet extraordinary creatures that share our environment. RHowardA@gmail.com  | |||||
Above: Richard gave the sources of the information to be presented. Below: How birds are identified and voice recreated by spectrograms. He also produced pictures of many birds along with their sounds. | |||||
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| We got to hear the songs of an array of local birds. The Yellow-billed Magpie, American Crow, Anna's Hummingbird, Oak Titmouse, Mallard Duck, Canada Goose, Mourning Dove, Bushtit, California Scrub Jay and the Northern Mockingbird. | |||||
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Effie Yeaw Nature Center
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Kent Anderson has spent the last 1 & ½ years as Executive Director of the Effie Yeaw Nature Center (EYNC), but before that he spent more than 20 years with non-profit organizations. He really is a local Northern Californian at heart, being raised in Roseville and has been involved with nature and the care of wild animals for most of his life (Kent spent years taking kids on hikes into nature in what is now the EYNC. Of course great credit is given to Effie Yeaw, who was a teacher, naturalist, and environmentalist who gave tours of what was then called the Deterding Woods during the 1950s and brought attention to the idea of preserving the area from commercialization. In 1960 land was beginning to be purchased by the county and in 1972, the region was designed as a park and in 1976, it was dedicated as the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. In 2008, the park had money problems after the great recession, and so was helped financially by (AHRNA) the American River Natural History Association. In July, 2010, AHRNA was chosen by the county to take over operations and funding of EYNC. The Nature Center today publishes books, maintains a nature study area, the Discovery Store, with lots of exhibits of reptiles, amphibians, and lots of other “Animal Ambassadors.” Kent brought along a beautiful bird, a Kestrel Hawk, shown above for us to visit with. The center has programs of all kinds, school programs, a museum and exhibit programs throughout the year. They have week-long camp programs which allows people to experience the whole area (about 100 acres) through hiking their many trails. They collect almost all of their funding from their member subscriptions, programs and donations, almost no funding is gotten from the government. Kent left us with a wonderful little book, the Pocket Guide to Creek Birds of California. President Dick expressed the Club's fondness for their activities and remarked on what a beautiful place the park is, and of course, we will support EYNC in any way we can. A book will be donated in Kent’s name to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library) – perhaps one on nature! You can get more information by going to: |
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above left: Little book of illustrated "Creek Birds" 85 pages; above right Guests Melody Sipes and Kari Bauer with President Dick Bauer in the middle |
RYLA - Katie Brzozowski
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Today we had an enjoyable guest speaker, our most recent RYLA student, Katie Brzozowski. She was introduced by next-door neighbor and our esteemed member, Jay Boatwright. He said that Katie and family had moved in next door about a year ago - so that when the opportunity to send a student to RYLA camp came up, they thought of Katie and asked her for an application. Now the rest is history and Katie has completed RYLA and has come to our Club to tell us about her experiences. Katie gave us a nice slide show of her week at Camp. Katie said that she went to the Camp with no expectations but found that it was a strenuous week - go,go, going all the time. She wrote down on a rock what she wanted to accomplish - to be able to take chances and to accept her vulnerability. Students formed groups and Katie's was named Chip, Chip Monks - C squared. They each kept journals of what went on. They were challenged by "Mind Olympics", and they came up with a head band and a Chip Monk's costume and had a good time. On Wednesday they had a "ropes course". One challenge was to leap out in mid air and touch an object, it took a lot of trust - a real "leap of faith". They had the experience of greeting younger kids and helping them with things, and the last night wrote about what they learned - so Katie wrote: I will not let people judge me and give attribute to herself as "I am me". At night they would enjoy songs, put on theater dramas - fun. At RYLA camp, Katie found some wonderful, interesting friends and after their shared experience, met for a good time together. What Katie says she brought home from Camp was more confidence, realizing the power of people connections and you don't have to be the loudest to be a leader. President Dick gave Katie a gift, a Rotary Token medal and said that in honor of her talk, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library). Pictures below: |
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| left: Member Karen Munsterman, Guest Melody Sipes, and President Dick Bauer; right: George Abraham's "Most Outrageous Award" for car design from the District Conference (he is proud of it) He brought it to the meeting to show it off! But he was missing the car. |
AMERICAN RIVER - Lost & Found
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We had a guest speaker who has an unusual hobby that we found out about - thanks to a flub by esteemed member George Abraham. George was kayaking down American river when his kayak flipped at El Mante rapids and his phone fell in the river. His phone was found later by Karl Bly and friends, who dive in the area regularly to retrieve items lost in the river by paddlers and return to owners. With the help of a phone tracking software , George found that his phone was no longer in the water. He called his phone and Karl Bly answered “American River lost and found”. George got his phone back and learned about this unique service that Karl does in helping to find lost objects in the river, Actually, Karl has found over 128 phones in the river to date. So, George asked Karl to come to the Club and tell us about his exploits." Karl said that finding objects in the American River has become an obsession with him and he is fortunate to have a best partner, Melody, who lets him get away with it! He is out on the river with his equipment, dive suit and metal detector, almost every day throughout the year. He has found many unusual objects, someone’s prosthetic leg, a drone, wallets, a ten-year old police badge, sun glasses and wedding rings. Over the years, he has been noted on TV for finding a 1950’s piggy bank and sadly has participated in bringing out the bodies of drowning victims. Karl’s hobby is not a business, there is no charge for finding items – he just enjoys what he does. His Facebook page contains many of the “found items” and there is a very interesting history of his exploits. I, think we should glad that we have someone like Karl and his friends who are doing the important business of finding lost items on the American River. Past President Vicky gave Karl a book about Carmichael as a “thank you” for his presentation. |
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| (left): Terie and Karl Bly, P.P. Vicky Boatwright; (right): Tara and George Abraham |
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| From the Facebook page, American River "Lost and Found" Karl showing a found phone (left); (right) some of the many objects found |
American River College Scholarships
| Recently Past Vocational Service Director Bill Donnoe brought "thank you" letters to our Rotary meeting. These were from Kirsten DuBray, Regional Director of Philanthropy, American River College, and from three students who have benefited from our scholarships. Their messages confirm that we are making an impact by promoting education for worthy students at ARC. See below: |
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The Carmichael Easter Seals Golf Tournament
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| The Rotary Club of Carmichael accomplished their 41st Easter Seals Classic Golf Tournament. It was well attended with approximately 144 golfers following the "shotgun" format, Jay Sedlak headed up our Rotary support group and all went swimmingly, with a great lunch and dinner. There was remembrances of Jim Thompson in the Brochure (below) and his picture at the 1st hole (above). The tournament is one of the longest continuous private charity golf tournament in the Sacramento Valley and has earned over $1,200,000 over the years. |
Remembering Jim Thompson… “Jim Thompson has been an important part of Pacific Coast Building Products since 1963, originally as Legal Counsel, followed by Board Member and eventually Chairman of the Board. Jim was part of our family. Jim’s commitment to helping others and serving the community inspired us to sponsor this tournament and begin a relationship with Easter Seals and the Rotary Club of Carmichael that’s lasted over 40 years.” Dave Luccetti President & CEO Pacific Coast Building Products, Inc. “I met Jim and Pat Thompson at this tournament 27 years ago. After I joined Pacific Coast, Jim became a trusted mentor and friend. He was a brilliant attorney and businessman, and an even better person. I will miss him.” Darren Morris President Alcal Specialty Contracting, Inc. “Jim Thompson served on the Easter Seals Board of Directors and was among the first to greet me when I was hired in 1995. He helped Easter Seals navigate through challenging times and his persistent, steady guidance was instrumental as the organization grew into a prominent disability service provider. His engaging wit, understated wisdom and calm demeanor are the distinctive characteristics that made him so very special. Jim’s love and devotion to his wife Pat and their family was ever present as he would detail their activities and accomplishments during our lunches together. We are indebted to Jim Thompson for his many contributions to our community and for enriching the lives of all who knew him.” Gary Kasai President & CEO Easter Seals Superior California Jim joined Carmichael Rotary in 1957. He was a Past President and District Governor. Jim was everything a Rotarian could be and more. This tournament would not be what it is without Jim’s leadership and involvement. Carmichael Rotary will not be the same without him. |
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(Above) is info about the schedule and how Easter Seals benefits children, just above is all the generous sponsors to the tournament. Below is a few of the 80 pictures which Stan Roe and Phil Danz took of the golfers. I just included those foursomes and others with our members in them. Guess who they are.... |
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Joshua's House
Programs Chair Katha Danz introduced our speaker. She is Dr. Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, who has a remarkable record in the health care field in the Sacramento Area and has won many awards and she is also a Rotarian. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Joshua's House Hospice, the first hospice house for terminally ill homeless men and women on the West Coast. It is the ninth such organization in the country and is slated to open in Sacramento in early 2022. The plight of the homeless, which is a growing problem all over the country and in Sacramento has been of interest to Dr. Fitzwater for many years, and especially when her own close grandson, Joshua Lee became homeless and died young in 2014. Dr. Fitzwater gave a detailed slide presentation which I have chosen to include in this bulletin, because it is informative and illustrative of the subject of homelessness. |
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Dr. Fitzwater noted that since covid has happened, the Sacramento population of homeless have increased in a major way over the numbers portrayed above. |
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| Dr. Fitzwater said that there is new training of specialized hospice nurses, doulas, a new program who will take on the needs of the dying homeless persons, 10 of them. Below is information about the Health Communication Research Institute, established in 1989 which Dr. Fitzwater in also the founder and Executive Director. See below: |
About HCRI, Inc. Established in 1989 with a commitment to reduce health disparities through community-based research and program development. In 2015, HCRI, Inc. narrowed its focus to better understanding the healthcare needs of the homeless population; developing programs to address those needs; and creating Joshua’s House, a hospice house for the terminally ill homeless.501(c)(3) Tax ID: 68-0195121 – United Way Nonprofit Code: Org 7371 Contact UsJoshua’s House Hospice 5025 J Street Phone : 916-502-0946 |
President Thorman eagerly jumped at the chance of informing Dr. Fitzwater that a book, in her honor, will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library). |
Stove Team International - Forest Resener
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We had something new today in that we received a link to video from our presenter to an interactive presentation – a complete performance with no live real person! How virtual can you get. However it was very good, interesting and thorough. Programs Chair Katha Danz introduced Forest Resener. She said he is a musician, environmentalist, and wilderness enthusiast. As the Operations Director for the StoveTeam International, Forest is excited (virtually) to raise awareness for the issue of open-fire cooking, while continuing to create innovative solutions that maximize the efficiency, reach and scalability of StoveTeam’s programs. |
Some years ago, Nancy Hughes was living in Oregon and lost her husband and was looking for new pursuits. She went on some Rotary trips in Guatemala and realized that the people there were suffering from smoke inhalation from open fire cooking. She researched what could be done and with the aid of collaborators, developed simple and inexpensive stove tops which greatly improve the deleterious effects of smoke by venting it out of the kitchen. Now, the organization which she founded has facilitated the placement of safe, affordable, fuel-efficient cookstoves in collaboration with local communities to support families and protect the environment. StoveTeam’s innovative model for assisting entrepreneurs in Latin America has won numerous awards for creating local employment while improving health and reducing air pollution. To date, local projects started by StoveTeam in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaraqua, Honduras and Mexico have produced more than 78,000 stoves, improving the lives of more than half a million people and preventing nearly one million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. |
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Left above: Forest Resener (left) and (right) Nancy Hughes, founder of StoveTeam International. Above right, children and families displaying the stoves. |
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| Above shows the new model of stove which can be inexpensive installed in the home by local people. |
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Some things that were emphasized in the video, were that with the stoves, women did not have to carry as much wood every day - less than 1/2 was need, the open stoves produced the equivalency of smoking 3 packs of cigarettes per day, which was greatly eliminated, children did not run the risk of being burned since the stoves are cool to the touch, and are constructed by local people which is good for the economy. Now there is great need in the world for these stoves, and the StoveTeam organization would like to fill that need. You can imagine the need with billions of people cooking with open fire and the implications for fighting climate change. You can go to https://www.stoveteam.org and find out more details and even see their marvelous video. |
The Ever Changing American River
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It is a very exciting topic that our program' s director, Katha Danz, has chosen for today’s lecture – the Nimbus Fish Hatchery and the American River. When we lived in Gold River, around November, we would take visitors from the east coast or other places to see the spawning of the salmon on the American River. Visitors were amazed to see thousands and thousands of large salmon filling up the river right before the Nimbus Dam – I called it one of the seven “natural wonders” of the world. Katha introduced Jason Fareira, who has communicated with the public about the Nimbus Hatchery for the last 10 years. Jason said that his first career was in the military, and he was from New Jersey but after marrying his wife from the west coast, they decided to compromise on where to make their home and so came to Sacramento. Jason was smitten with the American River trails and vowed that one day he would find a job outside, near the river. Voila, he got his present job, is outside every day and loves his work. He said the mission of the American River Parkway is to enhance it’s natural beauty and properly maintain it. |
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| Historically, the salmon came up the American River and spawned way up in the Sierras in the little rivers and streams . But in the 1955, Nimbus Dam was finished and ready for power and to control flooding. This stopped the salmon's access past the dam reducing their habitat. |
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| (above left) In November, around Thanksgiving, the salmon come up the river by the thousands, ready to spawn. The Nimbus Hatchery collects the eggs and sperm from the salmon and hatches them. When they are fingerlings they are released back into the river to make their way to the ocean. (above right) shows the proposed improvements around the dam, which are now finally near completion, a nine year project. |
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| (above left) showing the rocks used in the filling and dredging of tailings areas in and around the river. Most of the tailings were brought from the Yuba River. (above right) showing new windows that will reveal the salmon, underwater, as they swim up the fish ladder to the hatchery. |
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| (left) dredging on the river - salmon need only about 11 inches of water to spawn. (right) the newly revised American River Discovery Park Trail which is a nice and comfortable scenic trail near the hatchery. The hatchery has been closed but will reopen with all the new improvements on June 15th. A full restoration of the ecosystem was paramount in the goals of the project - to make wild life (not just fish) friendly for their sake and provide interesting views for the public. Many educational tours are given to school students throughout the year. |
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| (left) Jason with some of his team and (right) the beautiful American River at Sunset. Jason invited all of us to come visit the Hatchery, especially in November, President David thanked Jason for his very interesting presentation and announced that, in honor of his presentation, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library) The Nimbus Fish Hatchery is located at 2001 Nimbus Rd., Gold River, CA 95670, Tel: (916) 358-2884, jasonfareira@wildlife.ca.gov |
Update on the Iruri School Project
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Catherine Survillis was welcomed to our first hybrid “in person” meeting for almost all of 2020 and 2021. Catherine is no stranger to our Club because she has given 3 presentations over the last few years. She has the interesting history in that she has been a teacher and lived in Nairobi, Kenya for a number of years. She became very interested in the Kenyan people. She moved to Gold River, but Catherine continued her interest in Africa and became a Tour Guide and while leading tours in Kenya, she came upon the establishment of the Iruri school in Keratina, Kenya. The government gave the school a shell of a building with no floor, roof, or windows. Thanks to Catherine’s persistence and to her Rotary Club (the Rotary Club of Elk Grove and others), funds were donated which allowed a floor for the classrooms, windows, a roof, new bathrooms, and now they even have wi-fi. On top of that, scholarships have been donated to top students which allow them to go to high school (a big deal) and qualify for college! Mark and Terri Urban, Phil and Katha Danz, Dana Newell and David Thorman visited the school in 2019 and gave a report to the Club. What a wonderful trip it was and the children and teachers were very grateful for our visit. Catherine’s presentation was quite detailed and extensive. I have some screen shots of her slides which better explain about all the wonderful things Rotary has done for the school |
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| (right) Some of the students who have aspirations for careers and Diana (left) who is sponsored by Frank and Lucy Garcia through High School - The tuition, boarding and all expenses are only $800 per year. |
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| Final inspection of the new sanitary restrooms for the school. The Nyeri Rotary Club was voted "Best Project" in their Rotary District. |
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| (left) students and teachers are tested for vision by Dr. Bechtel and (right) scholarship has risen dramatically for 80 students! |
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| (left) Rotarians from California in 2019 are welcomed (right) David Thorman, Mark Urban, Phil and Katha Danz in photo with teachers |
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Sofia's "B" St. Theater
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W e were privileged today to have Lyndsay Burch, Associate Artistic Director of the locally famous "B" Street Theater. Lyndsay had as her sidekick, Dave Piereno, actor of 30 years with the "B", who has played many interesting roles from scoundrel to good guy and everything in between. Lyndsay started with an "overview" of the live theater movement in our recent past. Many great live plays were produced in New York and in 1961 there were only 23 regional theaters in the U.S. The idea developed that there could be good regional theaters all over the U.S. and the number of theaters grew to 1800 in 2003. The "B" Street theater was founded in 1986. Actors were brought from all over the country (union members) to participate in the plethora of unique live plays. Then actually there has been a 2% decline in attendance for the last 5 years. Below are some reasons: |
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| (slide above) We have had the advent of Twitter, Google, and Facebook. Digital gaming becomes popular. Millennials have become less interested in live shows. 80% of people over 18 are streaming video. The average video gamer is 35 years old. It has become, as Dave Pierini says, " a competition on the couch" - add on the refrigerator. |
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| One good sign is that more children are seeing their plays. They had been bringing them in by the bus loads from schools and lots of fun for the kids and the actors. The "B" St. Theater is for "everyone". But Lyndsay says that we need to talk about what COVID-19 has done to the "B" St. in the last 18 months. (below) |
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As Dave Pierini says there is a lot that the "B" St. has to offer when COVID is over and they expect to be fully open for "in person" plays in the fall. There are a lot of smart, humorous plays being written that "tugs" at the heart and they are reading and selecting them now. The "B" St. has wonderful "state of the art" facilities at 2700 Capitol Ave, Sacramento (see below): |
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| The Kelly bar is a full bar and the Voris theater is comfortable and "state of the art" in every way. Spacious and not too crowded. They have had 7000 |
subscribers and they do 7 new plays a year and shows almost every day of the week. The Sutter theater has 380 seats and they have their Family Series there and this is where Dave Pierini says that the theater is full of kids and he has had a lot of fun there, he mentions playing the "Wicked Witch of the West" role for the kids - fun. They have improv nights. There are musical acts from all over the U.S. that enjoy playing there. It has the "Myers" sound which was developed at U.C.B. and is pristine. They will have the date of their opening soon and will definitely let us know... President David showed his improvisation skills when he announced that in honor of our speakers, Lyndsay and Dave, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library.) |
AMAROKE -Gabriel Munro
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We were fortunate today to have Gabriel Munro, all the way from Canada, who is director of communications with the Amarok Society. Gabriel thanked the Carmichael Club for having him and said that to start off, he would like to tell us a story about a young man (pictured left) who lives  in Dhaka, which is the capitol of Bangladesh, and has about 20 million people in the area. Where he goes to school, it is in a crowded room with one teacher for sixty students (Bangladesh has the worst ratio of students to teachers in the world). The teacher is overwhelmed with so many students, so he just teaches by rote learning, just yelling out words and the students repeat them. The students get very little context for the words. The teacher is underpaid and cannot live on his salary, so he gives what they call a “shadow education”. He shuts down class hours early so that if students want tutoring (for a charge) he can sell his services in these after hours. The poor get half a lesson without tutoring because they can't afford it. His parents are uneducated so they can’t help him. He also has to go to work in order to help support his family. This is a world problem, one out of three are illiterate. As time goes on, this young man , being illiterate, becomes a low paid worker, a laborer, and lives in a difficult marginalized world and becomes an angry man.Amarok (a Canadian native name for “wolf”) founders had the idea of teaching the mothers of these poor families to read and write because they will go home and teach their kids and others in the neighborhood. Women have the advantage that they can teach after hours, hold lessons and allow the kids to go to work. As a byproduct of teaching the mothers, Amarok found that the educated mothers became the champions of women’s rights, children rights, peace and religious tolerance, non-violence and education. This came along with the goal of reaching the children who are the next generation. The Dowry: It is customary to marry off girls, as young as 12 and 13, for money. The educated mothers have struck back against young dowry marriages and eliminated the practice in whole neighborhoods. Gabriel says his definition of education is “the act of giving the world to a child.” Gabriel says that Amarok does not have competition from other charities, but does have competition from the Madrassas that teach hatred and extremism. Their source are poor young men who can’t rise in society, and are seen as labor, have a sense of burden, and are vulnerable to being taught hate and anger. What the extremist fear is educated women – they provide reasons to live, not to die. They provide hope for the whole community. Q & A: Do the women and Amarok staff get death threats? They did in the beginning because men believed that education of their women will cause their downfall, but the men are not bad people, they found over time that their women did not leave them and made better wives and even invited Amarok staff into their slums. The men began to understand the benefits of the program. Gabriel said that Amarok wants to expand it's reach, and spread the word and fundraising, they have a program where you can "adopt a mother", as well as just donate money. Link to Amarok is: https://www.amaroksociety.org and to reach Gabriel, go to amaroksociety@gmail.com President Thorman thanked Gabriel for his wonderful presentation and asked him for literature and brochures about Amarok. He also mentioned, as he has done so many times before that, in honor of his lecture, Gabriel would have a book donated the the Carmichael library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library) |
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| Pics above: left, the slums of Dacha - young boy working in auto shop |
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| Pics above: left - young mother's grandfather asked her to teach him to read. right: Mother teaching children |
Inter Generational Relations - Tara Abraham
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| Katha Danz, programs chair, mentioned that we are delighted to have Tara Abraham as our speaker today. Tara is known to us as the daughter of esteemed member George Abraham and has been participating in many of our Club's projects from Special Olympics to Rise Against Hunger. We have watched her grow up from teenager to young woman in college, having gone to Folsom Lake College and now finishing up at U.C.D. She is talking to us today on an important and interesting subject, Inter-Generational Relations. If you want to learn more about Tara, she maintains a website at https://www.taratakeson.com |
Tara started her talk (and showed slides) about the importance of building a bridge between generations. She asks the question: When was the last time that you spent time with someone of another generation other than family? We isolate ourselves, we are guilty of prejudice and age-ism and we miss opportunities. Below are a few of the slides Tara showed us, left, on her talking points and right, showing that the older population is growing larger as compared to the younger. |
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| There are preconceived notions about the "entitled" millennials and the "OK Boomer" generations- a kind of "not us vs them" mentality. Tara recommends people to "step out" and tell your story, the older can provide wisdom and and the younger person can give a fresh new perspective on life - beneficial to both. Tara now talked about her own experience. As a high school student, she enjoyed volunteering for the kindergarteners and 1st graders at the Gold River Elementary School and arranging Christmas caroling at the Eskaton in Gold River. She joined Toastmasters in 2018 at the behest of Alan Gallaway (another little known fact is the Alan brought father George into our Rotary Club). During the pandemic, Tara thought of how lonely older people must feel, and looked for a way to help. She found her chance in a Eskaton program where she calls older people weekly, checking in on them. She loves doing this and tells by way of example how she has talked to Ross. Ross, when not trying to convert Tara to veganism, tells her that he has a masters degree in computer science but has earned a living for forty years as a magician - and will sing to her while playing his guitar and does magic tricks. He has recently lost his wife to Alsheimers. |
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The above slides she provided tells of the benefits reaching across generations. Tara ends with the statement: whether 20 or 80, purpose, fulfillment, and pure joy can be had by interacting with people of other generations. |
| President Thorman was full of joy when he complemented Tara on her excellent talk and told her that a book, in her honor, will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library) |
Rise Against Hunger - Update
 So the month has changed from March to April, we have just had our Easter holiday with all the promise of spring and summer to come. We have a new Rotary monthly theme and a new Programs director for the quarter, Katha Danz. The program today brings back a charity which is very much in the hearts of Rotarians, "Rise Against Hunger". Katha introduced their Community Engagement Manager for Sacramento, and our Club’s good friend, Jim Quinney. She said that Jim has been married to his high school sweetheart, Amy, for 44 years and they have two girls, one in California and one in South Carolina. Jim retired from the insurance industry six years ago and since then has been involved with a variety of global and local outreach programs. He is a member of the St. Augustine Episcopal Church in Rocklin and a proud member of the Rotary Greater Sacramento Passport One Club.Jim said how much he has appreciated our Club’s financial support of “Rise Against Hunger” and the “hands on” work we have done 2-3 times in packaging food packets at their warehouse. He mentioned that, though, they are known for their meals that they provide all around the world when crises strike and people are in immediate threat of starvation, their program is designed for much more than that. It is to stabilize food insecurity and then go beyond that with sustainability and even growing into the ability to sell food products to others. A recent example is a project in which "Rise Against Hunger" is involved - in the country of Mali, Africa. |
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Above and below shows slides about the project in Mali, a country which has been devastated by terror and civil war, political crisis and climate change. A large part of the effort there has been empowering women by education and land ownership. |
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So upper left shows the educational sessions and numbers of women and men involved in the hunger program in Mali. (lower slide) shows what was accomplished and some testimonies of those helped. |
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| So now Jim laid down a fun challenge for our Club, a competition with other Clubs testing how fast we can fill food packs, as we have done before, a Rotary quiz and a corn hole contest (testing skill). It is outlined in the slides below. |
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THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY
IN CARMICHAEL
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Our speaker, Basim Elkarra, was introduced by Program's Chair Mark Urban who said the he saved one of the best programs for last, since he will have filled his quarterly quota obtaining speakers with this meeting (Great Job!). Mark said that there is a growing Islamic community in Carmichael and we are happy to have Basim, who is Executive Director of the Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR) for the Sacramento Valley with us today. Basim is a native Californian, born in San Francisco, and went to a number of Catholic Christian schools where he was taught discipline by Irish nuns. He and his family went back to Egypt for a time to learn about Islam and he came back graduating from a private Christian High School. He then went on to graduate from U.C.B. and has been in Sacramento since 2004. Basim has been elected to and spend much time on many local and state boards - too many to mention here. Basim explained that CAIR is an organization that advocates for civil rights, and has an educational outreach about Islam, can be reached by anyone (not just Muslims) and has been around in Sacramento Valley since 2002. |
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| Basim told us a little about the early history of Islam in the U.S.(above left). He said that a good book to read about early history is "Gods Shadow" about Sultan Selim and the Ottoman Empire and the making of the Modern World by Alan Mikhail. Slide (above right) is the racial mix of Muslims in the U.S. |
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| Above (left) showing the yearly trip to Mecca with millions of pilgrims, Basin said they are all dressed alike, rich and poor, in white dress because in the eyes of God, all are equal. Slide right shows the distribution of Muslims around the world, with the largest group by far in the Asia-Pacific area. |
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| Above is Mosque at 4545 College Oak Drive in Sacramento, to the right is the Salam Community Center. Basin said that the Mosque and Center are open to anyone and have many activities and welcoming tours. |
Above (left) shows the beautiful ornate designs and Calligraphy in their Mosques. On right there is some good news that a survey shows that people are warming up a little toward Muslims. Islamophobia is a problem that needs to be dealt with for the good of all people.In Q and A: There were questions about the differences of Muslim countries around the world and many violent acts and tyrannical use of force against various peoples - like the Uyghurs in China. Basim acknowledges that there are many problems, but he believes in the long run, things will get better. We all hope so. You can reach Basim at belkarra@cair.com . President David did his good deed for the day by letting Basim know that a book, in honor of his presentation, will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library)
Global Giving, Christine Dyer, Intl. Serv. Chair, 5180
 Mark Urban introduced Christine Dyer, who is the current International Service Chair for District 5180. He said that Christine has an independent consulting company, a husband and three teenage sons. She is a member of the Roseville Club (joining in 2016) and has traveled to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Mexico on Rotary International projects.Christine thanked our Club and Mark for inviting her to speak and said that the topic for today was Global Giving. She said that she had with us (virtually) through the power of the internet, Moika, Vega, and Rena, from Honduras, and are part of the SELF (Sustainability Empowerment Leadership Foundation) who work with underserved communities in Honduras. First Christine showed a short video of what District 5180 is doing in the realm of International Service saying that there are 37 Clubs involved with 6 areas of focus, 8 DISC Team members, 22 Global grants in 17 countries. She outlined some of the various projects such as Peace and Conflict Resolution in Africa and Mexico, arsenic poisoning in Nicaragua, helping small businesses in Bangladesh, Literacy and Basic Education in South Africa and their newest focus on supporting the environment. The projects which are most important are the clean water projects, which impact all others. The District needs to have more Global Grants and encourage the 3-1 bang for your buck effect. It is encouraged that all the Clubs in the District be involved in at least one District wide grant. |
 Christine then produced a PowerPoint slide show about three water projects in Honduras with the aid of Moika, Vegas and Rena,(who are part of SELF) in Honduras to explain the details about the project.The timeline of the Grants is produced in a slide (left) and showed how quickly they were accomplished. The 3rd project was held up by COVID-19, but water is brought from a dam in the mountains which through gravity, brings water to storage tanks in the low lands and then is purified (if need be) and distributed by pumping to various villages.  A detailed description of what was done was provided by Moika, far too detailed to put in this bulletin. Christine said that it is important to have the aid of a NGO, working with local people - that love is expressed not in a language difference but how you speak to one another - by not being condescending, not talking down to them. President Thorman quickly surprised Christine by announcing that, in honor of her presentation, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library. (further slides are below) |
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Carmichael Rotary Speech Contest 2021
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It was a good night for a speech contest, as much as any night when using Zoom and doing it virtually. The speech contest staff was ready, Jay Boatwright, our technical director and Phil Danz, moderator, and Alan Gallaway, responsible for the training of the judges had practiced 2 or 3 times before the contest. And we received much encouragement from Bill Highland, District 5180 Chair, who is nicknamed Dr. Zoom (because of his expertise.) Vicky Boatwright was our timer, and the Judges, aforementioned Alan Gallaway, Tara Abraham, and Daria Hill (all three are members of a local Toastmaster’s Club and Daria is their president). This years subject for the contest is "How 2020 Opens Opportunities". The three outstanding contestants who were named #1,#2, and #3 for security purposes gave wonderful talks on the topic of “How 2020 Opens Opportunities”. They were all excellent and everything went well except that I apparently pushed a wrong button and was muted for a while, but President David Thorman took over and it was lucky that he had an agenda and so knew what was going to happen. I got my sound back on just to the last of the contest. Some of the important guests not mentioned above were Leigh-Ann Reinero, Sara Catiger, and Shannon Shope. There were 31 attendees (virtually) at the contest. |
The winners were: 3rd Place: Shawn Varshney, Oak Ridge High School received a certificate and $100.00; 2nd Place Joseph Vallejo, Cristo Rey High School, received a certificate and $200.00; and 1st Place: Elizabeth Roe, Victory Cristian High School received a certificate and $400.00 and she will compete in the semi-final contest, March 25th at 7:00 p.m. Our contestants almost convinced us that 2020 was not such a bad year! |
CARMICHAEL GROCERY OUTLET
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And so, a large number of people showed up on Thursday, March 4th at 11:00 a.m. to celebrate the opening of Heine and Ramouna Roikjer’s store, Carmichael Grocery Outlet at 5025 Marconi Ave. There were abundant dignitaries there and a ribbon cutting ceremony was performed. Over 20 of our members, friends and family were there and after the ceremony, we were invited to look around and shop. This brand new store shown like a jewel with shelves abundantly full of quality products - almost everything that you would find in a Raleys or BelAir. What a convenience it will be to local people and others who will shop there in the years to come. Hat’s off and congratulations to Heine and Ramouna for their wonderful achievement and what they are doing for our community. |
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Carmichael Water Dept.
It was great to have the Public Information Officer for the Carmichael District, Chris Nelson with us to give us an update of the activities of the District. It was also in keeping with Rotary's monthly theme "Water and Sanitation" that we focus on water. Chris has been with the Carmichael Water Dept. for 22 years. Chris mentioned that it has been some time since he has addressed our Rotary Club. Actually last time it was during the long draught that we had a few year's back. Now we are in the COVID crisis. Chris said he would divide his talk into three topics, Overview, Past Projects, and Current Conditions. He showed us a few short videos and some slides on water topics. He said the main source for the Carmichael Water District is the American River (about 75-80% and they serve 37,000 people every day. The 2nd source is ground water and wells figure in for 20-25%. He talked about the filtration of ground water from the American River and the 3 Ranney collector systems that were deployed in the 1950s. He mentioned the necessary job of the maintenance of the equipment. Then there is the La Vista booster system (1971) and the Bajamont water treatment plant of 2001 which produces 22 million gal. of clean water, and that in 2021, they will break ground on a new plant to be finished in 600 days. They, of course, are reliant on a good snow pack in the Sierras and currently is 60% of average, but this is better than last year at this time. Being optimistic, Chris is hoping for a miracle March like what happened in 1992 when at this time, the beginning of March, the snow pack was at 14% and then it snowed and snowed and after March it ballooned to 85%! Chris ended his talk by explaining how water saving can help with keeping water abundant, with eliminating water loss and with more judicious use of water - through water saving nozzles - shower heads, etc. Our President David had little to add about our water issues, but he did elicit a positive response from Chris by telling him that a book will be donated (maybe on a water topic) , in his honor, to the Carmichael Library, subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library. Some of the interesting slides presented are below. |
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The Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera
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We were fortunate today to have two representatives from the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera Association, Kayleigh Neff, Development and Engagement Management,   and Giuliano Kornberg, Chief Revenue and Development Officer, to tell us about the exiting happenings with the Philharmonic and Opera Association in this hopefully ending season of COVID. Also our creative hosts Mark Urban and Geronimo cooked up an appropriate beginning with the Looney tunes offering a cartoon show centered on "I want to kill the wabbit" by Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny "What's Opera" (above).Because of the beautifully organized slide show about their activities, I have mostly just recreated it below. |
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| In the Q and A session, Giuliano mentioned that the performances probable will not get back to live audiences until the fall, but, in the meantime there are wonderful performances that you can get digitally by becoming a subscriber for $125.00 or to see a particular performance, you can, for a donation of $25. You can go to https://sacphilopera.org for information. Tara Abraham made an interesting comment that perhaps the performances might be put into "virtual reality form" where you are surrounded by the whole audience - both Giuliano and Kaleigh thought this was a "terrific idea"! President David also put in his "terrific idea" when he announced that a book, in honor of their presentation will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library). |
TRI TIP FUND RAISER - MARCH 27, 2021
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LIVE LINKS: PAYPAL: https://paypal.me/tritipdinner4four?locale.x=en_US
WEB SITE: https://www.carmichaelrotary.org
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
 We were honored today to have as our speaker, Ms. Thandile Babalwa Sunduza, Council General of South Africa based in Los Angeles and serving the western states. Mark Urban, in his introduction mentioned that Ms. Sunduza’s topic today, The Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, is germane to Rotary’s theme this month of Peace and Conflict Resolution. South Africa has shown the world that it is possible to transition from a very unjust system of government (apartheid) to a more just one without war or widespread violence. As we all may know, apartheid was implemented in South Africa from 1948 to 1990, and many South Africans suffered severe human rights violations, including forced relocations, exclusion from politics, deprivations of citizenship and systemic segregation. In 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) under Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first multi-racial democratic elections. The new government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a court like body intended to investigate human rights violations perpetrated during the apartheid regime. They have for the most part recommended what they call “Restorative Justice” rather than “Retributive Justice”, promoting a tolerant, more just society. Part of justice and peace is to forgive white people and end a tragedy without bloodshed and yet fight injustice – if you do not, you are a part of it.Ms. Sunduza said that the first atrocity of a society is not to respect another human being – the idea of being superior. What we plant in our children will be the future. Ms. Sunduza then opened up for discussion and Q and A. What was discussed is summarized as follows: There is better kinship between the races, it has been important to get rid of old fears, young people are learning about their culture and traveling and living in different areas. She admitted, for instance, she loves Indian food. Ms. Sunduza made the observation that Americans don’t talk about race, South Africans talk about race more openly. Her opinion is that Americans have two parties, Democrat and Republican – the young people should coalesce and start their own party. She said that the police since apartheid are more service orientated as well as doing enforcement and many are women. The South African government is a respected member of the Community of African Nations, and is a “peace keeping” nation and leading in race relations. Ms. Sunduza ended with an invitation to consult with her on all things South African and when Covid-19 is over, to come and visit her beautiful country. President David could hardly wait to tell Thandile that a book, in her honor, will be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library. |
| The Consulate's email is: consular.la@dirco.gov.za or info.losangeles@dirco.gov.za |
THE RED CROSS - GARY STRONG
 We were honored today to have as our guest speaker, Gary Strong who is C.E.O. of the Gold Country Region of the Red Cross. Being that he is a friend of Gary's, Frank Pease took to the introduction. He said that Gary had worked as controller for the L.A. times, over 10 years as Senior V.P. of Finance for the Sacramento Bee and has spent the last 5 years as C.E.O. of the Red Cross, Gold Country Region.Gary took to the podium and announced that he also is a Rotarian with the Sacramento Club. He said that the Red Cross is similar to Rotary in that it is run mostly by volunteers, is not for profit and a very efficient organization. He produced a mission statement of the Red Cross: |
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| In Northern California, the Red Cross has helped and is known for it's Disaster Relief. For instance, at the time of the Oroville Dam crisis, Red Cross evacuated 180,000 people and helped them find shelter. Also in the Camp Fire, they sheltered 1000 people for 3 months, and in the recent wild fires, over the period of 4 months, people were given shelter and food. In our times of COVIC-19, people were taken to hotel rooms all over California. In Northern California, Gary says that home fires occur at the rate of 3 times per day and the Red Cross volunteers find a place to sleep and money for the victims. The Red Cross helps people to prepare for disaster, when they are in a disaster, and to restore people to normalcy after the event. |
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| Above: Even though they are not known for this in Northern California, a slide is shown about the Red Cross program for giving blood, Nationwide, the Red Cross supplies 40% of the blood donations made and is a 2 billion dollar operation! They have an office across from Cal Expo and have a blood drive there every two weeks. |
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| Although, each country has it's own Red Cross around the world, the American Red Cross helps to re-unify people who have lost family members and in 2001, they have worked to vaccinate people who have measles. Like Rotary, they have helped reduce Rubella Measles deaths from 1/2 million world wide to 100,000 per year. |
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| Gary tells the interesting story of the origins of the Red Cross, how Andre Dunant (early 1800s) noted that injured people were just left on the battle field to die after a battle (during one of the Italian wars for independence) and he arranged an organization to try to save them and then, fast forward to the Civil War when Clara Barton noticed the same thing and with other nurses, established the American Red Cross. Gary says that the American Red Cross helps out the military from "Soup to Nuts" - they will fund bringing a military person home when there is a problem with his/her family, help during during deployment and help getting reintroduced to civilian life. The are there for homeless vets and military burials. |
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So March is "Red Cross Month" and you can participate in "giving day" on March 24 March was designated as "Red Cross Month" by F.D.R. in 1943. Gary thinks that Rotarians are a good fit to become Red Cross volunteers - you can go to redcross.org/goldcountry. You can do "virtual" training to become a Red Cross volunteer. Gary ended by giving the fact that a number one killer in the U.S. is single home fires. The Red Cross volunteers check smoke alarms to make sure they are working. They have saved over 170 lives this year.
So, President David, for the 31st time this year, impressed our guest speaker, Gary, by announcing that a book will be donated (in his name) to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library.....
Rise against Hunger
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 Eleven representatives of the Carmichael Rotary Club traveled to the Rise Against Hunger warehouse in Sacramento and along with Jim Quinney, Community engagement Manager and another volunteer from the local Presbyterian Church Scott Olsen, filled over 1200 meals to be sent overseas to hungry people in crisis. Each packet consists of a nutritious rice-soy fortified meal that will serve four meals. We each took our station and weighed scooped amounts of the ingredients into clear plastic bags. We weighed, sealed and labeled them (batch number) and packed them in boxes for shipping.There was music accompanying us and tapping out toes, and swaying to and fro, we accomplished our mission in a little over an hours time. It was fun.. |
| Jim Quinney told us about a place in Zimbabwe where the food packets were keeping a community from starving, but that meanwhile another affiliated charity was teaching how to grow grain and sunflower plants and they evolved into becoming food independent and are now selling surplus. This is the aim of the Rise against Hunger program - not only to feed people but to help them become food independent. They believe that hunger can end by 2030 - I believe them. (below, we are getting instructions from Jim Quinney.) |
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SACRAMENTO METRO FIRE DISTRICT
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 On a blustery, rainy night, we were fortunate to be honoring the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Dept. and to have it's Chief Todd Harms to talk (virtually) to us about the challenging year of 2020. This event is in keeping with Rotary's Vocational Month of January and our desire to thank and honor those 1st responders who keep us safe and healthy. Todd said that 2020 is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Sacramento Metro Fire District. The District has 41 fire stations, encompasses a large area, 350 square miles, and are divided into 3 Battalions. Mike Lozano, Assistant Chief is shift commander and has 760 people under his command, 400 paramedics, and the daily average of people at work is 189. Every company has a paramedics unit. Fire Engines usually respond to emergencies because they have the ability to get to the emergency quickly - ambulances take a little more time. Fire Engine personnel have a paramedic on board and enough people to take on arduous situations. In the District, there are 2 helicopters which can put water on fires, 2 rescue boats and 2 bulldozers. |
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Captain Chris Vestal , Public Information Officer , took over and said that this last year with COVID-19 has made the fireperson's job very difficult. In early February, they had their 1st case and special protective equipment had to be acquired and protocols changed. Members had to be tested over 1000 times - 100+ tested positive and all the people around him/her had to be tested and some quarantined. This last year, due to electrical storms, the biggest fire year on record occurred. The District helped the State and Nation during the crisis - some members went to Oregon and Hawaii and 177 responded out to the fires. It was nice for our personnel to help out the State. We have a lot of experienced people.The Grant line fire was the largest fire since 2008, it gave our people experience to be better prepared for future fires. 2020 was most challenging, but with the support of people in the District, incredible work was accomplished. Now Chris showed us a very nice video and after that, President David could hardly wait to tell Todd and Chris that a book, in honor of their presentation would be donated to the Carmichael Library (subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library).
Chinese History and Human Rights
 We were (virtually) visited by Dr. Wen Chen all the way from Pasadena. Wen was born in China at the end of the Great Cultural Revolution. Being victims of the horrific atrocity that killed two million intellectuals and destroyed traditional Chinese culture, Wen's parents had mixed feelings about her education. Despite their discouragement, Wen eventually won a national prize at a science competition when she was 16. Hence, she was accepted into a top university for undergraduate study. In 1994, Wen came to the U.S. for graduate school and received a doctorate in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 2000. Because of her personal experience of being brainwashed in China, she decided to be a voice for the voiceless. Since 2012, she has given over 200 presentations to community organizations about Chinese culture, history, and human rights.Dr. Wen Chen has been working for Caltech since 2000 as a biologist and information scientist on genomics and biological research. Part of her everyday work is to speak at scientific conferences and seminars in universities like UC San Diego and Harvard Medical School. In her personal life, she is an active member of the Amnesty International Chapter at Pasadena, a board member for Caltech Women in Biology and Biological Engineering, and a special event host for the Caltech Alumni Association. She lives in Pasadena with her husband and two daughters. |
Dr. Chen showed us a very nice slide show starting with the rise of Falun Gong (a.k.a. Falun Dafa) movement which grew exponentially in the latter 1990’s. It is a body and mind practice based on traditional Chinese culture. It’s principles are truthfulness-compassion and tolerance. You can see proponents in parks doing exercises similar to Tai Chi. 100 million people practice Falun Dafa in more than 100 countries. You can find out about it by going to http://Faluninfo.net . Then Chinese Communist party turned against Falun Gong and began persecuting them. To us and the rest of the world Falun Dafa seems like a rather benign or even peaceful and beneficial religion (if you can call it that), but to the CCP (Chinese Communist party, they were considered a dangerous growing threat. So they were and are persecuted by the CCP, rounded up and sent to concentration  camps. Suddenly there was an “spiked” increase in organ donations in China, so that whereas the average wait for a donated organ in the U.S. and elsewhere is 2-3 years, the wait in China 1-4 weeks. People found out that many or most of the donated organs were coming from Falun Dafa prisoners. It was a very profitable business. See https://chinatribunal.com/ The idea of killing live people for their organs without their consent is so horrendous as to be unthinkable in the western world. At the end of this article there are graphics of two books and a documentary movie which were published on the subject. It was reported that in June 2016, there were 60,000 to 100,000 transplants annually in China – 90% from the Falun Gong. This practice invoked an international response as Israel (2008) would not cover organ transplants in China, Spain (2009) asserted that transplants in China breaks criminal law, Taiwan (2015) gives sentences of 1-5 years for organ tourism brokers, Italy-3-12years in prison, and in the U.S., H. Res. 343 condemned forced organ harvesting in China. |
Wen went on to talk about CCP’s infiltration into the U.S. media. In February 2020, the U.S. State Dept. identified five Chinese Media as Foreign Missions – Xinhuya News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily and the People’s Daily. Dr. Chen went on to talk about the Confucius Institute that has been operating in 538 high schools and 106 universities offering courses on Chinese culture and spending 200 million dollars over 15 years, spreading propaganda and blocking topics about Tibet, Taiwan, the Tiananmen Massacre and blocking human rights speakers. China has also infiltrated Hollywood and influence and changed movies there. Wen makes the point that the CCP is powered by trade with cheap/slave labor, pollution for profit, currency manipulation, subsidizes on export against WTO rules and participates in intellectual theft of technology, reverse engineering our products and counterfeiting. Since then human rights lawyers have sprung up in China, one such person was lawyer Gao Zhisheng, he was harassed and “disappeared” , detained for 9 years and suffered severe torture. He was released on August 7, 2014, and kept in house arrest and then "disappeared" again in 2017. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/08/bravest-lawyer-china-gao-zhisheng Amnesty International is calling for his release. A backlash is that 363 million people have quit the CCP and it’s affiliated organizations. Again more information can be found at: |
| Dr. Chen was pleasantly surprised when she was informed by President Thorman that a book, in honor of her presentation. will be donated to the Carmichael Library ( subsidiary of the Sacramento Public Library). |
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*Dr. Wen Chen gives lectures on a variety of subjects including history, Chinese attire, culture, & tea making. Her email address is wchen2005@gmail.com.
Iyolwa Clean Water Project
 Our friend from Uganda, Rotarian Samson Egesa gave us a most interesting program about one of our most successful projects, the Iyolwa Clean Water project. Samson was going to visit us in California in June, 2020, but because of COVID-19, he had to cancel his trip. However, he came to us via Zoom all the way from Uganda (later evening here and very early morning there). Richard Bauer introduced Samson: Samson has been a Rotarian for eight years and has the classification of Hospitality management services. In this short time he has served in many positions in the Rotary Club of Tororo, Chair of Youth Service, Secretary, and President. He is married with two kids, daughter and son, 7 and a one and a half years respectively. Samson says “Rotary has given me opportunity to do more with my life than I would have ever imagined” |
| Because I have copies of his slide show, I have produced it below with just a few comments. It is self-explanatory. |
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| President Vicky delighted Samson by informing him that a book, in honor of his presentation, will be donated to our local Carmichael library (subsidiary to the Sacramento Public Library). We hope that, in the near future, when the time is right, that Samson will come visit us so that we can return the hospitality to him that he and members of his Club gave to us when some of us visited over there! |
Dictionary Project
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Dictionary distribution on February 26th at Starr King School and Deterding School included Chairman Bill Donnoe, Vince Iosso, Rich Plath, and David Thorman. At these two school we provided over 190 dictionaries to Third Grade students from 7 classrooms. Dictionary distribution at Carmichael School and Del Dayo School were Dick Bauer, Vicky and Jay Boatwright, Richard Olebe, Stan Roe and Greg Herrera. At these two schools we provided 152 dictionaries to Third Grade students from 6 classrooms. We have 14 dictionaries left over. They are quality books.... |
Holiday Party at Carmichael Elementary School
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| MERRY CHRISTMAS ! |
At the Carmichael Rotary Pancake Breakfast at the Carmichael Elementary School on December 7th, "We supplied 12 volunteers (including Santa and Mrs Claus) Our club rented the grill, purchased the food and helped prepare and serve over 300 pancake and sausage breakfasts for children and their parents. We also donated many gifts for the school raffle and assisted the school staff in helping make the Christmas party a huge success." - Chairman Dick Bauer photos below |
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Book Donations, the Gifts that Keep on Giving - update, June 26, 2018
SPEAKERS/BOOK DONATIONS TO THE CARMICHAEL LIBRARY
As of June 26, 2017, we have purchased nearly 160 titles in honor of our speakers! Because of the large number of books, we are not showing them all at this time.
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Carmichael Rotary Africa Trip - The Gang of 8
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How to Defend against Fraud - Wayne Bell
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Effective Philanthropy - Or Smart Planning for Your Future
The Carmichael Chamber of Commerce - Advocating for Carmichael's Future!
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Increasing Membership & Improving Retention
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The Carmichael Improvement District Executive Director and a Visit From Citrus Heights Club Prez!
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The Council of Legislation - PDG Bob Deering the District 5180 Voice
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Carmichael's Annual Joint BBQ... and a Special Event!
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Our New District Governor Rides Into Carmichael!
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Making History... The Year of "Vicky!"
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Changing of the Guard in Carmichael
June Is Time For The Easter Seals Golf Tourney!
Touring Law Enforcement's Eye in the Sky!
Producing Local Food in Urban Areas - Liz Blum
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My Kids, Your Kids, Our Kids - Dr. Philip Darke
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Carmichael Rotary's Service Above Self Recipient - Thanks Chuck McBride!
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Carmichael Rotary Tours Japan & Its Underside With President Greg
MEMBER Jane Lampard earns "Blue Badge"
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Be it known to all, that on April 30, 2019, at an official Carmichael Rotary Meeting, Jane Lampard was presented with her new "BLUE BADGE" by President Greg Herrera and mentor Vicky Boatwright. The criteria for earning the "Bue Badge" (going from neophyte "Red Badge" to "Blue Badge") is below: |
Carmichael Rotary Tours the World with Alan!
A Uganda Project Update... and Big News For Our Speech Contest Winner!!
Carmichael Rotary Speech Contest Winner... On to the Next Level!!!
Join Carmichael Rotarians In a Worthwhile Cause!
Assistance League - Sacramento
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Crab Feed Debriefing - Club Assembly
Eyesight & The Doctor Who Saves It!
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Crab Feed Special - Friends, Fun & Crabs!
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Your Decisions When Making Investments
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One Child, One Hen Fights Poverty in Kenya
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Carmichael Rotary's Peace Officer of the Year!
Beer... The Old Fashioned Way By Jay
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It's a Carmichael Rotary Christmas!
Bob Mulcher - Iron Lung to Iron Butt (Riding Polio Into History)
Canine Companions for Independence
Dictionaries & Wells in Uganda
Carmichael Rotary Grows Again! Welcome Dr. Hamid Ahmadi
PDG Glenn Fong & Rotary International Foundation
Awards Galore For Carmichael Rotary!
The Harp - Dr. Beverly Wesner Hoehn
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Brother George Abaham's International Guests
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Mark Urban's Travels - Ethiopia
Mark first thanked Dr. Greg Herrera for helping him with his audio-visual for his slide show. He mentioned that he had spent a two-week trip to Ethiopia. First, he gave out some facts: Ethiopia is a land-locked country with access to other Arab countries and Egypt. It is the 10th largest country in Africa and twice the size of Texas and France. Its main crop is coffee. Coffee originated in Yemen 500-800 A.D.Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa – except for a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it was never colonized. It’s G.D.P. is under $1000.
It is a country with high elevation and the capitol is Addis Ababa at 7.726 feet. Ethiopia’s population is estimated at 105 million and the Oromo is their largest ethnic group with the Amhara second. The Amhara have been politically dominant since the 13th century. Their religious majority is Ethiopian Orthodox Christians (Coptic Christians) followed by a size-able Muslim minority and the others – Protestants and a very small minority who follow traditional beliefs.
Mark’s trip consisted of a circle going from Addis Ababa to other interesting sites and then back to the Capitol. He showed us some interesting churches, for instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church Gondor, built in the late 1700s.
He showed us pictures of the Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches which are amazingly carved completely from one solid block of stone (sand stone) both inside and out and completely functional! Also, we saw European looking Gondar Palaces.
Mark traveled to Simien Mountains National Park which is located near Gondor and is very mountainous (10,000 feet) and saw Gelada monkeys/baboons which are unique to Ethiopia.
Mark went to Bale Mountains National Park which is an Oromo region and has various ecosystems, a high mountain 14,350 feet (similar to Mt. Whitney), and home of the Ethiopian wolf, which is the rarest and most endangered canine species in the world with only 500 to 1000 remaining.
Mark then told us about visiting a museum there and seeing the bones of “Lucy”, discovered in 1975 and 3.2 million years old. And “Ardi”, whose remains are estimated at 4.4 million years old and was discovered in Ethiopia in 1992-94 in Ethiopia.
When they were there, political unrest occurred, which caused them to alter their plans a little bit, when they got back to Addis Ababa, the prime minister had resigned.
Mark said that since they left Ethiopia, there has been a lot of ethnic violence. Two weeks ago, attacks near Addis by Oromos killed 25 people. Clashes between Oromos and ethnic Gedeos in southern Ethiopia have caused nearly 1 million people to flee the area. In July, there were clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Bale Mountain area where they stayed.
President Greg surprised everyone by saying that “in honor of Mark's presentation”, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
Mark first thanked Dr. Greg Herrera for helping him with his audio-visual for his slide show. He mentioned that he had spent a two-week trip to Ethiopia. First, he gave out some facts: Ethiopia is a land-locked country with access to other Arab countries and Egypt. It is the 10th largest country in Africa and twice the size of Texas and France. Its main crop is coffee. Coffee originated in Yemen 500-800 A.D.
Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa – except for a five-year occupation by Mussolini’s Italy, it was never colonized. It’s G.D.P. is under $1000.
It is a country with high elevation and the capitol is Addis Ababa at 7.726 feet. Ethiopia’s population is estimated at 105 million and the Oromo is their largest ethnic group with the Amhara second. The Amhara have been politically dominant since the 13th century. Their religious majority is Ethiopian Orthodox Christians (Coptic Christians) followed by a size-able Muslim minority and the others – Protestants and a very small minority who follow traditional beliefs.
Mark’s trip consisted of a circle going from Addis Ababa to other interesting sites and then back to the Capitol. He showed us some interesting churches, for instance, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Debre Berhan Selassie Church Gondor, built in the late 1700s.
He showed us pictures of the Lalibela Rock Hewn Churches which are amazingly carved completely from one solid block of stone (sand stone) both inside and out and completely functional! Also, we saw European looking Gondar Palaces.
Mark traveled to Simien Mountains National Park which is located near Gondor and is very mountainous (10,000 feet) and saw Gelada monkeys/baboons which are unique to Ethiopia.
Mark went to Bale Mountains National Park which is an Oromo region and has various ecosystems, a high mountain 14,350 feet (similar to Mt. Whitney), and home of the Ethiopian wolf, which is the rarest and most endangered canine species in the world with only 500 to 1000 remaining.
Mark then told us about visiting a museum there and seeing the bones of “Lucy”, discovered in 1975 and 3.2 million years old. And “Ardi”, whose remains are estimated at 4.4 million years old and was discovered in Ethiopia in 1992-94 in Ethiopia.
When they were there, political unrest occurred, which caused them to alter their plans a little bit, when they got back to Addis Ababa, the prime minister had resigned.
Mark said that since they left Ethiopia, there has been a lot of ethnic violence. Two weeks ago, attacks near Addis by Oromos killed 25 people. Clashes between Oromos and ethnic Gedeos in southern Ethiopia have caused nearly 1 million people to flee the area. In July, there were clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Bale Mountain area where they stayed.
President Greg surprised everyone by saying that “in honor of Mark's presentation”, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
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Missy McCall and Blue Heart International
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Mark Meuser... Election Law Attorney & More!
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Great Lessons in Expanding Club Membership!
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An Evening of Happy... and Sad!
The Mission of Strong Harvest International
STRONG HARVEST INTERNATIONAL - Rick Kemmer
 We were fortunate to have Rick Kemmer, who, along with his wife Jeri are the founders of Strong Harvest International a non-profit 501 c 3 corporation which aids poor farmers in the poorest parts of the world survive and thrive. Imagine being a poor subsistence level farmer. You get up early before dawn and work hard for a living. You live with insecurity, dependent on rain, and you want to get potable water. You want a better life for your family. Strong Harvest International has an answer for you which will improve health, add to family income, and better the environment. It is the Moringa plant which has abundant nutritional properties and it’s seed will clean contaminated water by coagulation. The Moringa trees or plants grows well in the poorest regions of the world. Thus, it is easy to access the plant and use it in those regions. Rick provided excellent brochures about this wonderful program that I have reproduced below explaining in detail Strong Harvest’s programs. It would be a good cause for Rotary to get involved with. Rick is a Rotarian with the Lewis River Club in Battleground, Washington. He is traveling to Rotary Clubs and Churches educating people about the great benefits of the Moringa plant. President Greg mentioned that a book will be donated, in his honor, to our local Carmichael library.   |
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We Begin A New Rotary Year!
 Rotary New Leadership Month (see "Read more"..for details about our new leaders) |
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Carmichael Paul Harris Fellows
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A “PAUL HARRIS” FELLOW IS AN AWARD GIVEN TO AN INDIVIDUAL IN WHOSE NAME $1,000
HAS BEEN DONATED TO THE ROTARY INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION.
AS YOU CAN SEE (ABOVE), AT PRESENT, WE HAVE 24 MEMBERS WHO ARE “PAUL HARRIS FELLOWS”
Officer of the Year - 2018
Police Officer of the Year Presentation - Chuck McBride Rotary Club of Carmichael April 3, 2018 On February 23, 1905, Paul Harris, a Chicago attorney; Gustavus Loehr, a mining engineer; Silvester Schiele, a coal miner and Hiram Shorey, a merchant tailor gathered in Loehr’s office for what would become known as the first Rotary club meeting. Harris’s desire for camaraderie among business associates brought together these four men and eventually led to an international organization of service and fellowship. This set the framework for membership in Rotary and formed Rotary’s historic commitment to vocational service, the second of Rotary’s five avenues of service. Each club strives to create a microcosm of its community’s business and professional leaders and today we are comprised of 1.2 million members in 137 countries. Vocational Service calls on Rotarians to empower others by using their unique skills and expertise to address community needs, to promote high ethical standards in all their business dealings and to recognize the worthiness of all useful occupations. Tonight, we have the distinct honor to recognize a member of our community who epitomizes the basic concepts of vocational service and works tirelessly with the youth.  Deputy Joe Gordon moved from the Bay Area to Sacramento in 2008. He graduated from Sac State with a BA in International Business and Marketing. Deputy Gordon is a three-year member of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and was awarded top academic honors for his academy class. He was assigned to the Sacramento Main Jail where he supervised protective custody and psychiatric inmates. After working in custody, Deputy Gordon was assigned to the Main Jail Compliance Team where he investigated assaults inside the jail and he works with the district attorney’s office on alternative treatment programs including the Chronic Nuisance Offender Program. Deputy Gordon also worked on the facility ADA Compliance and the Prison Rape Elimination Act.Deputy Gordon worked patrol and has earned his current assignment with the Youth Services Unit. Joe is involved in numerous youth outreach programs through the Sheriff’s Activities League and Sheriff’s Community Impact Program including the Youth Leadership Academy, SHOCK Diversion Academy, Street Hockey, Read Across America, Shop with a Cop AND CSUS Law Enforcement Summer Camp. Deputy Gordon is also a Terrorism Liaison Officer, Auxiliary Recruiter and works in the 911 Call Center. On Thursdays, in his spare time, he finds time to wash his wife’s (Alexandria’s) car and mow the lawn. On a personal note, Joe is married to Alexandra and they are expecting their first child. Joining us tonight is Joe’s wife, Alexandra and his immediate supervisor Captain Steve Ferry. Captain Ferry began his career in Law Enforcement in 1988 and has been assigned to most of the divisions within the Sheriff’s Department. He has been honored with assignments such as K-9, Internal Affairs, CSI and Major Narcotics.  Captain Ferry, who will introduce Deputy Gordon and is his boss and mentor, is a recognized expert in narcotic enforcement and has provided drug education to countless schools, concerned parent groups and professional organizations.He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and is currently the Commander of the Field Support Division. He is a life-long resident of Sacramento and holds a strong belief in Public Service. Sounds like Rotarian material to me!! Captain Ferry will provide us with additional information as to why Joe was chosen to receive the 2017-18 Police Officer of the Year Award. Captain Ferry said a few words of praise and explained why Deputy Gordon deserves the honor of being Carmichael's Rotary Club Policeman of the year. He especially extolled his work in youth services in which Deputy Gordon has excelled. |
Deputy Joe Gordon thanked the Rotary Club for their distinct honoring of him. On a personal note, he mentioned that his parents divorced and with no dad living at home, he did some dumb things. He attended Sac State and then got a job involving cell phone sites in the San Jose area. He kind of got dismayed with his job and got to know a policeman and liked the profession. He got a degree in business and went to the police academy and served inmates in jail and found that so much of the job is talking to people. So now he is in Youth Services and wanted to compliment the CARMICHAEL ROTARY CLUB for helping to buy the van for youth services. Joe said that the van goes all over the area doing field trips taking at risk kids to interesting places that help to educate them about the wider world. For instance the van goes to different schools where the kids get to play various sports, they have programs and talk about the dangers of the internet. Joe said that probably the most powerful place they go is to the prison where they hear the stories of the inmates. Then there is the girl's circle from the ladies division where they have programs like basketball and they talk about cyber safety and the dangers of human trafficking. Joe says that his work is the greatest and that he knows that his job makes a difference. Almost as an afterthought with all the great things that Deputy Gordon mentioned, President Dick informed Joe that a book will be dedicated in his name to the Carmichael library. |
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| Deputy Joe Gordon (Policeman of the Year) and Captain Steve Ferry |
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| Dick Bauer, Joe Gordon, Alexandria Gordon, Steve Ferry, Chuck McBride |
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Deputy Joe Gordon and Assistant Governor Desiree Wilson, - Officer of the Year Award
Our Contestant wins Semi-Final Speech Contest
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| Julia Luna (third from right) with family just after winning the semi-final speech contest |
| It was a sweet night, Tuesday, March 27th at the Crocker Riverside Elementary School, for Julia, her family, teacher Shannon , the Victory Christian High School and for the Carmichael Club. It was a great end of a beautiful spring day. Rotarians Phil Danz and George Abraham (co-chairs of the Speech contest for the Carmichael Club ) were ecstatic to be there. There were four Club winner's participating and ALL were excellent in their presentations. The District put on a good contest - very well done and efficient. Among the notables there were District Governor, Sandi Sava, District Speech Chair Patrick Hassna, and our own favorite Assistant Governor Desiree Wilson. Julia was rewearded $250 for her efforts. Note pictures below: |
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| Phil Danz, Shannon Shope, Julia Luna, and George Abraham |
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| Teacher Shannon and Winner Julia |
Below: D.G. Sandi Sava, Julia Luna, and District Speech Chair Patrick Hassna
PUBLIC IMAGE - Rita Gordon
 Rita Gordon is a member of the Pt. West Rotary Club and Public Image Chair for the District. Rita started off her talk mentioning that the primary goal of P.I. is to make sure the Club get's credit for what it does. Members should have an awareness of the Club activities. The Carmichael Club is the right size (30s-40-s) so that all can know what's going on. The Club should want activities to be in the media, like by having a newsletter, to be on Facebook, website, and Instagram. Also it's a good idea that when you are sharing about an activity that you use your Facebook announcement to "share with the public" so it gets out to a wide audience. Reach out to other P.I. professionals in Rotary - they will help you. It's a good idea to have a display that you can use at Chamber of Commerce events and other public events in the community. Rita's suggestion is to invite a community member to your projects and encourage members to wear your Rotary pins - in short to create awareness in your community. Keep an updated website, perhaps post new things on it on certain day so that you don't forget and make sure that your Rotary image is in line with Rotary's official image - show Rotary's brand. Share your projects with local media by having a contact and writing a story about it. Rita said that she is impressed by the many wonder activities of the Carmichael Club, the golf tournament where we have put so much money into Easter Seals and especially impressive is our Uganda Water Project which is so near to fruition, a real accomplishment of which you all can be proud. Rita suggested that Richard Olebe make a presentation at a future district conference and/or District Leadership Assembly. Rita suggests having mixers with people in the community, tell them of your activities which will encourage more new members. Rita outlined some resources that we might use for P.I.: my.rotary.org ; .zone2526.org ; .greatideastoshare.com ; and Rita's email is rita@dhfirerestoration.com Pres. Dick further impressed Rita by noting that a book will be donated, in her name to the Carmichael Library. |
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Guest Mary Cate Gustafson- Quiett, Pres. Dick Bauer, Speaker Rita Gordon
Trip to India - Desiree Wilson
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| President Dick Bauer and A.G. Desiree Wilson hold up banner which Desiree received during her trip to India |
So today we had our esteemed Assistant Governor and speaker, Desiree Wilson, who, on a moments notice came to fill in for another speaker and (talk about being totally dedicated) told us that it was her 4th Rotary meeting for the day! Desiree reported on her recent Rotary trip to India and gave a nice presentation with pictures. She heard about a trip to India to vaccinate children as part of the Polio Plus project and went for it. She went with Cal India Tours which is owned by two brothers who are Rotarians in India. She described what it was like to help out with giving out flyers to people about their impending vaccinations and then going to 16 different places to immunize children who are 5 years of age or younger. She explained that it is necessary to continue to immunize children even though India is polio free - due to it's proximity to Pakistan, which is not. It was a wonderful experience. She described one school that they went to that was three stories and the kids lived at the school. After doing immunizations, she went on a short tour and showed us picture of some mosques and the Taj Mahal. President Dick pleased Desiree by announcing that, in honor of her presentation, a book will be dedicated, in her name to the Carmichael library. |
Tour of the Sacramento Bee Facilities
It was a nice night, Tuesday, March 6th, 2018 and a goodly contingent of members and their guests showed up promptly at the entrance to the Sacramento Bee offices at 2100 "Q" Street - some 18 or so. We were met by Greg Saunders who is officially a "Loyalty Manager - West Region". McClachy established the Bee in 1857 and over the years they have earned 6 Pulitzer prizes. Their mascot "Scoopy the Bee" was invented by Disney 1943. We began on a fascinating tour of their main facilities there from top to bottom and saw where they write all the elements of the newspaper and put them together for the various regions (in the west and throughout the U.S.) to just about any city in our region - Fresno, Modesto, Grass Valley and on and on. It is a massive undertaking that goes on 24/7 and the printing of all their newspapers are right there in their headquarters and then shipped out all over with special editions for the many cities and localities. I have below, photos of what the tour included; it took about 2 hours time. After the tour, we met at the "Old Spaghetti Factory" for dinner and fellowship. It was altogether, a very enjoyable evening. We must thank Karen Munsterman, Programs Director for wonderful outing. |
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| An old fashioned printing press - circa 1930s |
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| Greg Saunders, Loyalty Manager -West Region - our Tour Guide |
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| Modern Printing plates made out of aluminum |
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| Giant roles of paper - used for newspapers! |
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| Lots of Ink - using 4 basic colors |
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| The newspapers are assembled and sent out |
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| Below -Celebration Dinner at the Old Spaghetti factory |
CRAB FEED 2018
| Another successful crab feed was completed thanks to the absolute 100 participation by members of our Club in addition to spouses, friends, family and some Rotarians from the Rancho Cordova Club. who paid us back for our participation in their recent crab feed. Again we had the best crab available (we got lots of complements) and the best soup (clam chowder) by our authentic Portuguese member, Tony Marques, great salad a la Chef Jeff Thompson and others in the kitchen - like Tim Marquess and Vince Iosso. Now the Sundance Kid did great as auctioneer and getting people up to dance, Chairman Greg Herrera was very proud of the effort with the dessert, silent and live auction and of the boys from the Jesuit High School baseball team who served our over 350 patrons. I'm sure we did well and made money for our various charities.... |
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RYLA Students
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| Sarah Freese and Bella Lopez (our third student Courtney Warner was not able to attend) |
| Each student spoke in tandem about their experiences as RYLA students this last year. They got on a bus with a bunch of strangers and at the end of the week at camp, they were all best friends. They had to forego using their cell phones. They laughed, they cried and told some of their most intimate secrets to each other - it was very emotional. What they learned and practiced was to "Be the best kind of Self" and to put out "Outstanding Effort". They would share life stories and do exercisers like playing "Cross the Line", if you have something high risk to say, then you "Crossed the Line". They were asked to keep a log of all of their experiences and played "Brain Olympics" were they learned to be a "team player", had rope course in which they learned to trust one another, and broke a book with their bare hands (see photo above - in Bella's hands". Both Sarah and Bella said that the experience for many made them more outgoing (Neither Sarah or Bella have a problem with shyness). Individually, you got in touch with "who you are". It was, it seems, a happy transforming experience for both of them (and, I am sure, for Courtney also.) It was a wonderful inspiring presentation and their enthusiasm was very catching. pic below: |
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| President Dick Bauer, students Sarah Freese and Isabella Lopez and RYLA Chairman George Abraham |
Planting Trees at Effie Yeaw Nature Center
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Tony Marques, Jay Boatwright, Richard Bauer, Fred Fix, Shyama Chakroborty, Mary Maret (Phil Danz and Marilyn Escobar are not seen in photo.) |
On Saturday, January 20, 2018, some 8 hard working souls (5 of which are Rotarians) showed up at the behest of our president, Dick Bauer, to plant 20 (twenty) Oak trees at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael. It seems that, in this particular area of the park, Oak trees were dying – probably due to shifting of underground water from the American River and new trees needed to be planted. We started at a little after 9 a.m. and after instructions from Mary Maret, Nature Resource person, we got after the planting which took a couple of hours. Satisfied in our efforts, we happily went on to other things on a nice, but cold, Saturday. More pics below: |
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| Above showing Mary Maret planting acorns, covering with cone (for squirrels) and finally a wire fence (keeping the deer from eating the tree.) |
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| Marilyn Escobar in foreground - It takes team work |
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Shyama Chakroborty and Phil Danz - Proud of their work!
CHRISTMAS BASKETS PROJECT
| So, for lo these many years, at Christmas time, our Club again filled boxes with food (and a turkey) and delivered them to approximately 100 needy families. It showed the potential of our Club to bring some 40+ people (members, family, & friends) together for a good cause and the work went very smoothly. A big THANK YOU should be given to Rich Plath for his leadership of the project and to high schools in the area for providing us with the names and addresses of the needy families. Pics below: |
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Chautauqua Playhouse
chautauqua playhouse - warren harrison
Stan Roe introduced our speaker today, Warren Harrison, is an actor who has played in many venues and many places. At the Chautaugua playhouse, he has played Bob Cratchit many times. The Chautauqua Players were formed in 1975 by Rodger Hoopman. The Chautauqua is located adjacent to the Sierra Community Center where we have our Crab Feed every year. It has been around a long time, 41 years and was downtown until, their location burned down in 1983. Then they moved to Carmichael. The group is the only one of it's kind and one of the oldest in the Sacramento Valley.Warren went on talk about the many plays that have been shown at Chautauqua, "On Golden Pond", "Charlies Aunt", and they are on their third show of the season, "Old Muskatiers" - a comedy, and will play Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". In February they will do "Beer for Breakfast", "Time to Kill" and a 1776 Musical to end the season - all female players.
They have an ongoing Children's Theater with "Cinderella" , "Secret Garden" and "Jack in the Bean Stock".
Kids audition to sing, dance, act and they have a full program for youth to train for 5 weeks to put on a show.
Warren said that they can always use donated scholarships to enable a child to go to classes. Cost is $300 per child. Warren also said that they are looking for underwriters (they are a 501(c)3 and they could use some good vintage clothes, furniture or even extra paint. Right now they are renovating their lobby. Their website is www.cplayhouse.org and telephone (916) 489-7529
Warren generously gave one FREE FLEX PASS to every one in attendance.
President Bauer generously mentioned that, in honor of Warren's presentation, a book will be donated to the Carmichael library.
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SMALL CLAIMS COURT - MARK JOHANNSSEN
SMALL CLAIMS COURT - MARK JOHANNSSEN
Mark Urban in his introduction of our speaker, said that Mark Johannssen is going to talk to us tonight on the Small Claims Court where he serves as a volunteer judge.
Mark is an attorney is private practice specializing in family law and is city counsel member mayor protem. Mark has attended Chico State, Golden Gate University where he earned his MBA, and his Doctor of Jurisprudence at Southwestern University. Interestingly enough, he served as CPA/Attorney with Price Waterhouse in Amsterdam and as attorney with a Japanese law firm in Tokyo.
Mark said that he is a volunteer judge or protem judge a few days a week. The small claims are generally for money and is not a family court. There are no attorneys there and it is for people who don’t know the law. In using evidence you can use “hearsay” evidence, what is important is credability.
Some issues are landlord/tenant issues – perhaps the landlord doesn’t want to give back the apartment deposit; there are cases of people accused of reneging on bail bond deposits; car accidents, dogs biting people, dogs biting dogs; general contractor disputes and home owner issues.
The claims are generally for $5,000 to $10,000 max., and $25,000 limit per year.
Protem judges have to take a course on small claims court and their purpose is to keep people from fighting on the streets. He/she needs to control the courtroom and keep things respectable. The process is that you file a claim and then there is a cross claim. It doesn’t have to be very specific. You can’t sue someone who is out of state.
Trial Process:
Mark says that he gives people a lot of leeway – which is good for family disputes and likes to work with a mediator. Certain cases like a dispute about dental implants with your orthodontist is not appropriate since it needs to be determined by a professional opinion.
There are a lot of shows on TV like Judge Judy but there is not that amount of drama in real small claims court. Emotions get tamped down, Mark tries to work things out. The judgement rendered is appealable to a regular judge which in Mark’s experience doesn’t happen very often. The judgement does have the weight of law and Mark makes his decisions under submission – delaying the giving of his judgement to a later time. Credibility is very important in making a judgement.
President Bauer creditably mentioned that, in honor of Mark’s presentation, a book will be donated to Carmichael library.
Guy Micheliier - Honorary Consul for France - Sacramento
guy michelier - honorary consul for france
The honorary consul for France, Sacramento was introduced by Mark Urban. said that Guy Michelier was born and raised in the region of Provence, France (a very beautiful area) and his first job in the U.S. was with Levi Strauss and the Haas family. He was employed as a butler and enjoyed that a lot and has great respect for the Haas family. He worked for 28 years for the Dept. of Consumer affairs enforcement division. Now after retiring from Consumer affairs, he was appointed to a very interesting job as Honorary Consul for France - Sacramento.Guy said that his position is honorary not official. He takes his orders from the official French Consul in San Francisco. He helps French citizens in any way he can and there are 25,000 in Northern California and many who travel from France to the U.S. A lot of his duties consists of stamping passports, registering French citizens in California and he is on call for any concerns or emergencies like losing your passport at the airport (he can get a temporary one issued). Guy mentioned that he has traveled as far as Weed, California to deliver a passport. He has helped French people whose homes have been destroyed by fire. Guy told us of helping a homeless French woman and that when French people die, they often want to be buried in France - so he can help facilitate their wishes. He checks on people who are collecting pensions from France on a yearly basis to make sure they are still alive. He has goes to visit French prisoners once a year. He is busy.
Guy does not collect a regular salary but he does have expenses reimbursed. He told us a very interesting story about certifying a document which had been in a family for over 200 years and he translated the document and found that it had been signed by Napoleon! He honored the family with his signature. Although his position is an appointed one - his official term is seven years. What a great job that Guy has. A very active questioning session continued after Guy's talk.
President Dick Bauer mentioned that, in honor of his presentation, that a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
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| Mark Urban, Guy Michelier, Dick Bauer |
Effie Yeaw Nature Fest
the effie yeaw nature fest
We Carmichael Rotarians and friends, on Saturday, October 8, 2017 accomplished one of our most enjoyable service events, namely, manning a Rotary Food Court and the Effie Yeaw Nature Fest. Early in the morning we set up our food court tent and got the kitchen ready, all under the watchful eye of our professional food guru, Jeff Thompson. We served big soft pretzels, nachos with cheese and/or Jalapenos, lemonade, hot dogs, and tasty Caesars salad with or without chicken. Perhaps 25 or more Rotarians and friends participated in all aspects of the event, that consisted of food preparation and cooking and running the food down to the food court (about 200 feet away). We were busy as bees. The event went on from 9:30 in the morning to after 3 p.m.
What was most enjoyable was seeing the many wonderful parents and young children (I’m told over a thousand), enjoying themselves and learning a about nature and the many wild creatures that live in our area.
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The Civil War - Doug Bonetti
the civil war
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Above is Professor Doug Bonetti (left) displaying a Civil War officer's sword with President Dick Bauer (next right) and Members Troy Drennon and Tim Marques with period rifles. A tough looking bunch of dudes!
Professor Doug Bonetti has a passion for the history of the civil war and we were fortunate to have Doug to share that passion with us. Doug gave a wonderful slide show all about the Civil war interspersed with little known and interesting trivia.......
Too much detail for this bulletin but did you know that during the civil war, we had the 1st national income tax (both sides)the first machine stitched shoes, the first woman surgeon in U.S. Military History - Mary Edwards Walker and the first time that a submarine sunk a ship. On February 17th, 1864, the Hunley sank the Housatonic? Also Doug mentionedthat 2 out of 3 fatalities were caused by disease - over 100,000 died mostly of dysentary and diarrhea due to the unsanitary conditions.
Doug is a retired professor who gives a course for the Renaissance Society - a wonderful place to continue to learn in your old age. A brochure is displayed below.
President Bauer proudly mentioned to Professor Bonetti that, in honor of his lecture, a book will be dedicated to the Carmichael library.
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District Governor Elect-Elect Ray Ward and President Dick Bauer
VENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY - KELLY SORENSON
ventana wildlife society - kelly sorenson
President Dick Bauer introduced his son-in-law, Kelley Sorenson, who is the executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society. He said that Kelly and his daughter got married in 2003 and now have two children. Kelly went to the University of Virginia and earned a degree in Wildlife Management. He initially was interested in the bald eagle, got a further degree in Product Management and his present job as Exec. Dir.
Kelly said that the Ventana Wildlife Society has been focused on Condor recovery back from the brink of extinction in 1982. They developed a non-profit organization which is 95% supported by private sources and focused in the Big Sur area.
The endeavor costs $400,000 per year and involves:
- A strategy to release condors to the wild
- Effective strategy for release
- Monitor them
- Resolve problems
- Determine reproductive success.
Condors live over 50 years, are social and gregarious, they lay only one egg (size of a goose egg) and have a 54 day incubation period and then take 6 months of care to be on their own. The Ventana Wildlife Society had their 1st release in 2006. They kept the birds in Big Sur and let them loose on the coastline and also in the mountainous Pinnicles area. They used a special “fly pen” and trained them in near outdoor environments. They attached radio transmitters, one was Standard FM and the other GPS.
They are on their 2nd release right now. The condor population was near extinction at a little over 20 pairs in 1982. It was determined that the cause of the decline was lead poisoning from bullets and buck shot from hunters who killed wild game such as squirrels, deer and the condors ate their remains. It was estimated that 80% died from lead poisoning. Now the Ventana Society has distributed copper bullets to hunters and it is having a positive effect.
As of 2016, there are 270 condors in the wild and 170 are captive. Kelly says that the goal is for the condors to achieve a self-sustaining population. The future looks bright. Kelly expressed the opinion that human kind and wild creatures can co-exist and thrive.
Ventana Wildlife Society
President Bauer offered a book to be donated in Kelley’s honor to the Carmichael Library.
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Dr. Sasha Sidorkin, Dean of Education,, Sac State
Dr. sasha sidorkin - education in america
Alan Gallaway introduced our speaker, Dr. Sasha Sidorkin who is the Dean of Education at Sacramento State.
He said that Dr. Sidorkin was born in Russia in the region of west Siberia and studied education in Moscow and earned his PhD at the University of Washington. He has taught in 5 states, but moved here to Sacramento in February.
Sasha upon taking to the lectern, kidded that he had had three meetings with Trump, but did not talk about collusion.
He asked “Why is education important”. It was found in the 1970s that human capital is perhaps the most valuable thing to have in any endeavor. The more education you have, the more valuable you are – and this is true in all countries. It is not obvious as to why this is, maybe more education makes you more cognitive, but it is true and stops at some level. In terms of literacy in the developed world, Americans are just average. Some say that American Schools are bad, it is not true when you look at the demographics. For instance Massachusetts school are excellent and comparable to Finland. Other areas are not so good. It has been estimated that 75-80 percent of one’s human capital comes not from school, but depends on how rich is your family, how educated, how connected – etc. Schools started in the 1830s
but it has been elusive to make education a level playing field.
Dr. Sidorkin said that three things are involved in the level of education: Choice, Accountability, and Technology. There is no complete answer.
It seems that the ability to think creatively can’t be measured. Perhaps one important aspect is collaboration. If the teacher is creative etc, students do better. Almost everything has been tried to enhance the education of our youth, but results have been disappointing. Perhaps we need to go back to grass roots with small every day innovation.
Dr. Sidorkin said they are continuing to do research to find answers.
People talk about a shortage of teachers, but there is no shortage of teachers. In California, the turnover is high. If you pay more, teachers will come, and they will stay.
This was a most interesting lecture on an important topic.
President Bauer said that in honor of this lecture, a book will be dedicated to the Carmichael library.
How appropriate and germane to this topic!
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| Ms. Lisa Woodward-Mink (guest), President Dick Bauer and Dr. Sasha Sidorkin (speaker) |
Easter Seal's Golf Tournament
We had a good day for our signature event, the 38th annual Carmichael golf tournament whose proceeds go directly to Easter Seals. Some 123 or so golfers attended Ancil Hoffman Golf Course and enjoyed a good lunch, practiced tee shots, entered a putting contest or otherwise had the opportunity to have their picture taken with two lovely Sacramento King dancers. Then shotgun golf ensued for 18 holes. There was provided plenty of water, beer, and at on certain holes, ribs, tacos and beautifully tasty and potent margaritas. The day was topped off with various prizes for special feats, like longest drive, closest to the hole, and, of course, best score. Pacific Coast made our event with a donation of $40,000 and other businesses put in over $12 thousand as sponsors with various sums of money. Many raffle tickets were sold and great prizes were provided. All in all, the Carmichael Rotary Club, the Sponsors, and all participants can be proud of the support given to many sick children served by Easter Seals. The total amount donated over the years is well over $1,000,000! Below are a few pictures, most of which were taken by Brett Schneider of ALCAL who graciously allowed our Club to publish them. .JPG)  | |
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ROTARY INTERNATIONAL 2016 UPDATES
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Mark Orr - Sacramento State Athletic Director
mark orr
Mark Orr was introduced by Karen Munsterman. She said that Mark is the new Athletic Director for Sacramento State University and has been on the job for only one month.
Mark said that he is a born and raised in Sacramento. He went to Christian Brother’s High School and his father was a scout for the New York Yankees for 36years. Mark’s brother played baseball for Chico State, and his sister was a soft ball player.
Mark got a football scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley and played 4 years for them. He also had 4 knee surgeries but was fortunate enough to be able to earn a graduate degree.
Mark embarked on a career in Athletics and became the athletic director at St. Mary’s and did some good things there, particularly in basketball.
Then he got a call from Dr. Robert S. Nelsen, President of Sac State and just like that, he became their new athletic director. Mark is very happy to here, in his home town, and doing what he loves.
He said there are a lot of wonderful things going on at Sac State, and challenges – for instance they need a new event arena (with all the various events that are on-going at the campus). They will have the U.S. track and field trials next month. World class athletes from all over will be there. Also, there are very good plays and musicals there and don’t forget Football. Come to their events and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg!
Mark said that he has great respect for Rotary, the Rotary Club of Carmichael and what we do for the community. He said that “community service” is a priority for students and if we need help at any of our charity events, he would be happy to provide volunteers.
Please call on him anytime!
President John Mangels mentioned to Mark that, in honor of his visit, a book will be donated, in his name, to the Carmichael Library.
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| Tracy Newman, Shyama Chakroborty, Mark Orr, John Mangels |
The Iruri School - Kenya
Iruri school kenya - catherine Survillas
Programs Chair Alan Gallaway introduced our guest speaker for the day, Catherine Survillas. He said that she is a Rotarian with the Elk Grove Club and has a special project that she would like to tell us about.
Catherine presented a very organized slide show. Catherine said that she led safaris in Africa for many years. She decided that she wanted help the people in Kenya in some way. She met the head teacher at the Iruri school. It seems that in Kenya, the government just builds the shell of the school and then it is left to the community and others to build the infrastructure. The Iruri school is at 6,000 feet and situated in a harsh environment, cold and no electricity. Most people in the community only make 1 to 2 dollars a day – so they needed help.
Catherine said the school runs from kindergarten to 8th grade and has 350 students.
They have done many good things over the last seven years, too detailed to put in this bulletin, by partnering with her Rotary Club and grants and fundraisers from the community. They had a Feast in 2015, slaughtered two bulls and had 500 people. They got the school wired for electricity, and got windows and doors installed. Also had toilets installed, and a cement walkway finished.
What impressed me is that their interact Club, 37 of them, supported 9 new scholarships at $800 each enabling these student to get into higher education. Their wish list now is toilets for the staff, getting internet, and coverings for their walkways.
Catherine and the Elk Grove Club are to be commended for putting together such a wonderful project
To contact them and help out:
WEBSITE: http://www.irurikurota.org
President John mentioned to Catherine that, in honor of her presentation, we are donating a book to the Carmichael library.
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| President John Mangels and Speaker Catherine Survillas |
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| Five guests from Elk Grove, three Rotarians and two who were "checking us out" |
Proposed Water Project in Uganda
Richard Olebe
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Stan Roe introduced our speaker and new member of our Club, Richard Olebe. He said that Richard is a graduate of the University of Nairobi, with a degree in engineering, and has two master's degrees from Stanford.Richard, who was born and raised in Uganda, came to the U.S. and has worked for the California Department of Water Resources for 25 years and has lived in Carmichael for 35 years. He has been discussing this project for months with our Club's elite coffee clutch group from 7-9 a.m. on Fridays.
Richard started a slide show and outlined the proposed water project in Iyolwa, Uganda. He said a big problem there is the people have contaminated water. Young girls have to walk hours every day to fetch water for their families. This has an effect of keeping them out of school. Also disease is a big problem.
Richard says that collecting water that is contaminated is a problem, and the wells there are shallow and not deep enough to get to clean water. So what could help their water needs? Water gravity flow from rivers, but at times the rivers run dry, Dams on the rivers - too expensive, treat water with chemicals, it won't work, and the easiest solution is to drill wells and pump water to big tanks and then distribute it to different localities. The wells have to be deep enough to get to the clean water, Richard estimates that 5 wells that are 300 ft deep and 3 big water tanks would fit the needs of 10,000 people. And the pumping of the water could be run by solar power.
The results of the water project would be healthier people and the girls could go to school which would greatly benefit the families.
How expensive would the project be?
Richard estimates - Five wells might cost $80,000; Water storage tanks - $80,000; water and distribution lines - $25,000 and spare parts $15,000.
Total $200,000. Richard estimates it will take 3 years for completion.
How could we fund the project? First get a commitment from our Club to sponsor such a project and allocate 4-5 thousand dollars. Go to other Clubs in our District and hopefully get like commitments and then use matching grants.
One idea also is to ask "friends of friends" in our Facebook pages, to give to our Club foundation for the project.
Richard asked the opinion of the assemblage at the meeting and if there was anyone opposed to looking into going ahead with the project. There was no one opposed, all were in favor. Richard plans to travel to Uganda (at his own expense) in June and talk to the people in Iyolwa, their Chief and government to iron out details. There will be ongoing cost of maintenance and the community will collect money enough to run the system for 10 years and must be in place before starting. It is an exciting project and probably doable if we put all the pieces together!
As a sweet addition to Richards presentation, we had a guest at the meeting,
Deepak Chabra, M.D. who is a retired Kaiser urologist and friend of Walter Malhoski, M.D. Deepak has spent some time in Uganda and gave us an overview of the need there. He said that he is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (L.D.S.) and he went on a Mission in Uganda. He said that Lake Victoria is the biggest lake in the world. In Uganda there is the highest birth rate because so many of the children die young. The life expectancy is just 58 and 1/2, They are in dire need and help for clean water. They are 80% Christian and 20% Muslim. Deepak very much supports the proposed water project.
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| From left to right: Deepak Chabra, Richard Olebe, John Mangels, and Ray Ward |
Christmas Baskets 2016
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December 21& 22, 2016, will be remembered as another successful Christmas Baskets event which started a while back (few months) with the procuring of apple boxes, and then assembling the food and the delivering of them to needy families in the Carmichael area and beyond. I am told by the “God Father”, Jim Thompson that the Christmas Baskets project goes back to 1948 when our Club was founded and has been a continuous event. So, in continuing with our tradition, the 40 or so volunteers assembled & delivered the baskets to around 100 families......
Kudos must be given to our special Carmichael Interact Club of Del Campo High School who amassed much of the needed can goods and to Del Dayo Elementary School and WinCo Foods on Greenback Ave.
Also thanks should be given to the friends and spouses of our Rotarians and a special thanks to the two Passport Rotarians, Jim Quinney and Jan Valine, volunteers who diligently worked right along with us.
Also, a special thanks should be given to Mark & Monica’s Family Pizza (http://www.markandmonicaspizza.com) 4751 Manzanita Ave, Carmichael, (916) 487-1010, who donated their delicious pizza’s on both days for our sustenance while we worked.
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• (left) are Jim Quinney and Jan Valine,
both volunteers from the Passport Club.
• (above) many of the people who
participated & the great pizza that was
donated.
• (below) pics of workers filling baskets and
a partial picture of the group with Walter
Malhoski's daughter, third from left.
• Below left is Grandma Plath and her grandson Andrew
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Delivery of Carmichael Park Benches, November 14, 2016
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The Carmichael Park Picnic Table Project was the brainchild of ex Carmichael Rotary Club President Ed Bunting with input from Sharon Ruffner and Ken Hall of the Carmichael Park Foundation . By donating $3000 to the Carmichael Park Foundation and receiving a $3000 matching Rotary District 5180 grant, the Carmichael Rotary Club was able to purchase 7 cement picnic tables to be placed in the park on concrete platforms. Five of platforms were already in place , but two needed to be constructed. On October 29, under the supervision of Rotarian Jay Boatwright, and with the help of Kyle Deller, project manager with Teichert Construction , Rotarians Rich Plath, Steve Girard, Walt Malhoski, Phil Danz, and Dick Bauer along with four Carmichael Park employees, Ron Shilliday, James Perry, Curtis La Duke, and Mark Dexter, concrete was poured to form two 8 x 12 ft. platforms and an additional small platform for a BBQ grill. On November 14 the seven benches were delivered to the park and placed on the appropriate platforms. Tim Berry of Berry Lumber donated the necessary lumber. The Project was managed by Community Service Chairman, Dick Bauer and Keith Madison, Park Services Manager under the direction of Tarry Smith, District Administrator of the Carmichael Park District. A terrific project that will be used by patrons of Carmichael for many years to come! (more pics below)
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| The very heavy benches were placed on the cement platforms, once there, they were permanent. | |
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From Ken Hall, President, Carmichael Park Foundation
“Thank you again to Carmichael Rotary. The benches will serve our park visitors for years to come and I bet all of them will give an appreciative nod for your help. The park serves thousands in our community and your support is a wonderful contribution.
Thank you for your generous donation.”
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Carmichael Rotary Food Stand Project at Effie Yaew Nature Fest
| Sunday, October 9, 2016 turned out to be a beautiful day for a festival at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center. Many exhibits were set up and informative lectures given regarding the animals which thrive in Northern California. Within the different spread out exhibits, our Club set up a food stand and , under the watchful eye of our culinary expert, Jeff Thompson prepared food in the near adjacent kitchen. We sold cheese nachos with or without jalapeno peppers, big warm pretzels, hot dogs, salad and lemonade. Hundreds of customers, mostly young families with kids lined up to buy our goods. Over half of the Club showed up and worked the court and in the kitchen, in shifts, from 9:30 in the morning until after 3:00 p.m. Those who participated ( that I know of ) were:
Dick Bauer – Chairman – Kari Bauer ( photos ), Phil Danz, Chuck McBride, Mark & Carol Beil, Mark Urban, Greg Herrera, Mo McBride, Stan Roe, Stephen Girard, Walter Malhoski, Jeff Thompson, Tom Thompson, Tim Marquess, Vince Iosso, Donna & Everett Thorne, and
John Mangels. (hope I didn't miss anyone).
A project like this one is what makes Rotary so much fun!
You can find out more about the Effie Yeaw at : http://www.sacnaturecenter.net
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| The Food stand in Operation | Steve Girard greets customers |
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•(Left) Entrance sign
with all of the sponsors
•(below left) Lectures to Families
•(Below) sign describes the
California Indian Cultural
Demonstration Area
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| (above) Native American wares | (above) S.M.U.D. exhibit |
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| (below) customers at Food stand | (below) trainer with owl at an exhibit |
DISTRICT GOVERNOR'S VISIT - BARBARA TRACY
dISTRICT 5180 YEAR "FEEL THE POWER"
Our own esteemed Assistant Governor, Jennifer Curtsinger, (LEFT) with her introduced District Governor Barbara Tracy. She told us that Barbara is a native Californian who was sort of a tomboy and played on the Boy’s softball team in school. She has made a career of teaching, as a math teacher, and then got into Administration and was principal of three different schools and now even now gives free tutoring in math twice a week.
In her Rotary career, Barbara was President in 2007-2008, RYLA Chair and Assistant Governor for our District (5180) from 2011-2015, and now District Governor. She is married to Jim and has 3 kids and 2 grandchildren.
Barbara Tracy (PHOTO LEFT) said that she often travels with her husband Jim, and he is many things to her, administrative assistant, counselor, driver etc., so she has been trying to give him a title and people have suggested DOG, driver of the governor, or governor’s 1st Dude, or ESP, expert staff person, anyway he is an indispensable person to Barbara.She went on to talk about R.I. President John Germ and going to the International Convention in Soul, Korea – and feeling the power of Rotary there with all the different people who were there from all over the world, all dedicated to Rotary. Hence we have her Theme for District 5180 “Feel the Power”.
Barbara mentioned that the International Convention will be in Atlanta Georgia next year, 2017 and that the Fair Oaks Club (I believe through Fred Rowe) and setting up a U.S. block of rooms – think about going, it will be fun and not that far away.
Barbara talked about Polio Plus and how we just about have polio exterminated and just recently she learned that 3 new cases popped up in Nigeria. Polio elimination is close but it still is a tough fight.
Now our District Governor turned to membership and talked about the District's new Passport Club. It is important to keep Rotarians who are too busy for regular membership, to be involved with Rotary. She mentioned the new Passport Club in which members only have to commit to 40 hours of community service per year. Passport members are anxious to give service to clubs that need them and they will help with your projects and may even choose your Club for their permanent club and become a member – be sure to use them
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This is the 100th year anniversary of the founding of the R.I. Foundation which started in Atlanta with Arch Klumph.
Some dates to remember. On October 8th, 2016, there will be a seminar on the Foundation. October 22nd will be the District’s “Oscar Night at the Foundation Dinner”(see flyer further down in this newsletter) and on May 20th, 2017, R.I. President John Germ will be here in Sacramento (it is unusual for a R.I. president to visit).
Then there is the 100 year celebration project which PDG Bob Deering talked to the Club about a few weeks ago. It is about the establishment of a potentially large important project regarding Human Trafficking. This will be a big project for California and for prevention involving substantially girls from 11 to 13 years of age. The important purpose of the project will be to educate “at risk” children to avoid getting involved with prostitution and drugs. There will be established an “Assessment Center” which will coordinate various charitable groups into one center in Sacramento. Dignity Health will be involved and there will be reverse grants from other countries. Many of the children involved in Human Trafficking are from other countries.
Barbara said that all had a wonderful time at the District’s Family BBQ recently and hopes to continue with another BBQ next year. She said she hopes the picnics will encourage families to work together on projects.
Then, as one of her pleasant duties as District Governor, Barbara was pleased to give a special award to Dick Bauer for all of the “above and beyond” work that he has done for our Club in his 1st year as a member – very well deserved.
Barbara ended the presentation by showing a movie about the upcoming District Conference for next year (date) which will be in Santa Clara County just ½ mile away from Levi Stadium. It will be a lot of fun….
Last but not least Jim Tracy is heading up a “Zany photo” contest and contestants will have to get their pictures in by April 15th! No photo shopped pictures allowed.
President John Mangels thanked Barbara for her excellent and comprehensive presentation and that a book will be dedicated (in her honor) to the Carmichael Library.
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| left to right: A.G. Jennifer Curtsinger, D.G. Barbara Tracy, President John Mangels, Jim Tracy |
STRANGE BEHAVOUR - Professor Richard A. Kowaleski
Prof. Richard A. Kowaleski
Programs Chair Terry Sweeney, in his last assignment for the 2015-6 Rotary Year, introduced our Speaker for the day. He said that Professor Richard Andrew Kowaleski who teaches critical thinking at California State University, Sacramento for the university's Renaissance Society. he has been researching why humans act in ways that are counterproductive, or seem to be. Hence, the title of his presentation, Strange Human Behavior.Professor Kowaleski previously taught engineering and mathematics for Sac State's College of Engineering and Computer Science, and before that he taught similar courses at the United States Air Force Academy.
He has been a member of the Rotary Club of Sacramento since 1979, and he is currently serving his ninth term on the District staff as chair of the District Speakers Bureau.
Richard began by throwing out to the audience a variety of questions that he would ask his students and what their response would be. Questions like "What do you think the upper limit of poverty level income is? and What do you think is the lower limit of the top 1% of income?" How you answer the question tells the researcher a lot more about the bias of the person who answers than the question. For instance, if you make a high income, you might raise the upper limit of poverty (from your view) and raise the lower limit of the top 1%. The answers from the audience were all over the map - I said 1.5 million is the lower limit of the top 1%. It is actually $350,000.
Richard went through many interesting and funny examples where we come up short in our critical thinking - too many for my not too nimble mind to recall here.
He finished by showing us a book entitled, "How to Make Your Man Behave in 21 Days, using the secrets of a professional dog trainer" by Karen Salmansohi. It was a very entertaining presentation and makes one wonder if one's political bias is based in reality.
President Bunting assured Professor Kowalewski that in honor of his lecture, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
President Ed
Carmichael Interact Book Drive
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Del Campo Interact held our first school-wide book drive this spring. The mission plan was to advertise the book drive throughout the whole school and collect all types of books for a less fortunate school in our community. We managed to collect a good amount of books and we will be taking them to students at Isador Cohen Elementary School in the Sacramento City School District so that they will have more available supplies for the upcoming school year. We are hoping for the book drive to become an annual tradition and for it to grow more and more over the years.
Bella Lopez
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Neel Hasan - RYE student
| Hey all,
Just as I was about to reply to one of my brother's/best friend's mom, I figured you guys should also receive some pictures straight from Viking Denmark.
Here's some context for them (assuming they're in order).
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 Pic 1) With Simone and Sigurd, my Danish siblings in the third family. They've been pretty welcoming siblings, being kind and occasionally irritating, the latter showing how sibling-like they are.
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 2) This was with my Danish class
when we were in Barcelona, Spain.
We were there for 4 days, and it was
insane, stories to be shared later.
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 3) My third family and I discussed me going into a freezing, Scandinavian sea...because why not? They call it the Viking test, so of course I had to do it. Still need to find a Viking name.
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 4) This is with my second Danish family, on the day we parted ways, me moving to the third family. Awesome, loud, and odd people. They helped me so much with Danish and expressing myself better.
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 5) This was a huge group photo with
all of my Danish families, counselor,
and extras. My mom (from
California) took it.
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 6) The town I'm living in decided to
include me in the local newspaper. It
was just an article about my
experiences. It's flattering to be
kinda-sorta-not really famous.
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 7) This is my mate Franco from Lima, Peru. He invited dozens of people to his birthday party, and we took a photo together. He's been a huge influence in my life in Denmark, through all of the great and crappy moments.
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8) The girl in the this pic, Ida, and I went to the school's gala party together. We had to do a formal Danish dance with fancy clothes. Considering it's Denmark though, most of the kids were wasted from vodka shots and beer pong, so the performances were a bit stumbled.
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All right, so this was a recap that doesn't do justice to the range of adventures I've had here. Nonetheless, I hope this tidbit was interesting for all of you.
Take care fellas,
Neely
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A LONG JOURNEY HOME - Judy Sweeney
A Long Journey Home - Judy Sweeney
There was something in the fresh outside air that, for me, appropriately blended with our keynote speaker's topic tonight. Our own member Judy Sweeney reminisces about an event that happened 36 years ago and was reported in the Sacramento Bee. Judy was a respiratory therapist with Sutter Hospital back then when a patient, a young lady, Lorna, 26 yrs old) suffered a terrible injury to her brain, a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and was in a coma for some months and the family wanted to fly her home to die to Rhode Island. 3 volunteers, 2 ICU nurses and 1 respiratory therapist, including Judy, took it upon themselves and defying protocol accompanied the patient on the long 5 hour trip. Not being accompanied by any doctor, but with specialized equipment and on a small private plane, they left at 9:00 in the morning. Judy's job was to make sure that the patient had an adequate amount of oxygen and to maintain respiration with the use of a manual respirator. It was a very cramped and arduous trip with each of the volunteers having to step over each other to perform their duties. When they arrived the patient's eyes opened surprising all.
They were met by a team of respiratory therapists and ICU nurses and doctors when they landed and were treated very well that night and traveled back the next day.Judy said that the patient recovered completely, got married and has had a wonderful life. Nowadays, it probably would not be possible to carry out such a task because of insurance difficulties - but they did - and it was a wonderful accomplishment.Our acting president, bell-less Jay Sedlak, assured Judy that a book, in honor of her presentation will be donated to the Carmichael library.
some pictures from the evening Acting President Jay Sedlak A comfortable outdoor setting! Nice pleasant evening meeting in the open air!
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Carmichael/Easter Seals Golf Tournament - 2016
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CARMICHAEL SPEECH CONTEST, MARCH 1, 2016
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| Our six speech contestants, above, one from Del Campo H.S. and five from Victory Christian H. S. | |
.JPG) Speech Chair Phil Danz kicked off the contest by welcoming everyone and going over the rules. He then began the contest by welcoming each speaker (by number) and each gave a 5 to 8 minute speech on the topic "Be a Gift to the World".The contestants were remarkably good and the Judges had a difficult time picking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd winners, but did award $200 to Sarah Freese and an invitation to the Regional Speech Contest on April 4th at the Double Tree Inn (Sacramento); 2nd place and $100 went to Karina Kamyshin; 3rd and $50 was awarded to Victoria Neptune.
Others, coming in a close 4th were Sam Villalpando, Tanner Coppernoll, and Victoria Buszinski.
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| Kudos are in order for those who made the contest work, George Abraham, who acted as co-chair and helped set everything up; Timekeeper Stan Roe; Judges Shyama Chakorboty, Jay Dudley ( Alan Gallaway's friend from Toastmasters) and Judy Sweeney. The tellers were Everett & Donna Thorne; and our menacing Sgt. at Arms duo, John Walton and Stephen Girard. Also impressive were the 10-15 parents and family who were there to support the contestants. (Thanks to Terry Sweeney for helping with the "notes" and to Tim Marquess for taking pictures, some are below:) | |
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Teacher Shannan Shope with Victory Christian
High School students.
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The Winner, Sarah Freese from Del Campo
High School
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| Assistant Governor Jennifer Curtsinger | Contestants & their Families |
CRAB FEED 2016
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| Our Interact Club, helping with setup | Some Jesuit baseball team members serving crab |
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| Giants "World Series" rings for auction | Happy Kitchen help! |
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A SUCCESSFUL CRAB FEED - President Ed Bunting
Great Crab feed, thank you to everyone for your help and participation. As you know, the Rancho Cordova Rotary provided helpers for our event so we could break away and enjoy some crab. Now Father John needs your help so we can return the favor on Saturday, February 20th.We open our doors at 6:00 pm and I would like four volunteers in the bars, two at ticket sales and four in the kitchen. The Kitchen crew really doesn't get started until 6:30. See you on February 20 St John Vianney church 10497 Coloma rd. Rancho Cordova
That's a total of 12 people to sign-up and help. We had many that raised their hand the other night to volunteer, now we need you to officially sign up. If you have questions please contact Father John Mangels at jfmangels@att.net.
Thank you,
TWO NEW MEMBERS
John Walton
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So sponsor of John Walton Father John Mangels (left in photo) introduced John Walton (right). Then Past District Governor Jim Thompson formally inducted John as a new member and asked John to say a few words. John mentioned that he went to El Camino High School and graduated from Sacramento State as a naturalist. He persued various careers and finally became a 3rd grade teacher in Palo Alto. He was a Rotarian there and is a past president and a Paul Harris Fellow.John retired and moved to Sacramento, where upon he noticed our Rotary signs at Effie Yeaw and contacted our Club just 3 weeks ago. He came as a guest to our Club and was pleased that everyone made him feel so welcome and he felt like he was coming home to Rotary.
Now he is home as a new member. Welcome John!
Dr. Shyama Chakroborty
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Now the sponsor of Shyama Chakroborty (left in photo), Phil Danz (right) , introduced Shyama. Immediately Past District Governor Jim Thompson inducted Shyama as a new member and asked Shyama to say a few words.Shyama said that he has had a wonderful career here in America since coming over from India with $9.57 in his pocket. He loves America and thinks it is the greatest nation on earth, because anyone can make something of themselves if they work hard and play by the rules. Shyama has multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. from Ohio State. He has been a cosmonaut, professor at U.C.L.A. Shyama recently retired as Chief Engineer at Northrop Grumman. Welcome Shyama!
It is hard to believe but we now have 9 new members in this last Rotary year!
Your Bulletin Editor would like to thank Jay Sedlak for helping with the "notes".
A CELEBRATORY MEETING: THREE PAUL HARRIS AWARDS
So it was a milestone meeting marking the addition of three Paul Harris Awards, along with the induction of two new members. The new members continued the welcoming of new member Steve Girard
last week.
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| Vicky Boatwright - 2 PHF | Jay Boatwright - 5 PHF |
Vince Iosso - 2 - PHF
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SHRINERS HOSPITAL - Alan Anderson
SHRINER'S HOSPITAL
Long time Shriner and member of our Club, Everett Thorne introduced Alan Anderson to talk about our local Shriners Hospital. Alan said that the Shriners are a service organization like Rotary. It was established to treat Children in orthopedics and then got involved with helping children with polio. Later, thanks in great part to Rotary, polio has diminished. Shriners Hospitals take on children with complex orthopedic conditions and burn care, along with spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate conditions.Shriners care is for ALL children who are accepted to be treated - regardless of nationality or race. Once a child is accepted, he/she is treated for free until adulthood.
Our local Shriners Hospital (located on Stockton Blvd) was established in 1997, moving from San Francisco. Shriners wanted a central location (to Northern California), close to a medical teaching facility (U.C.D.), and with a welcoming community. Shriners is a top tier facility, the best children's hospital, with the best and brightest in the community and not competing with others. The Sacramento Shriner Facility had taken care of between 200 and 400 kids and is now going up to the 600 kids. Not all stay at once, considering that some come and go depending on their need. The Shriners hospital is not a high volume facility but serves those in need well. The goals are 1. To make the kids better, 2. help them to be functional, 3. Produce good citizens. The Sacramento facility has 21,000 visits from patients each year and has a service area of Alaska to Mexico.
Shriners is 93 years old and for most of that time were fully funded by endowment funds. Lately, in addition, Shriners will bill insurance companies (if there is insurance), but never the patient. You may also have seen the wonderful and very poignant TV ads asking for monthly donations.
Shriners Hospitals for Children - Northern California
2425 Stockton Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95817
(916) 453-2000
After some very interesting questions from the audience, president pro tem, Vince Iosso, mentioned to Alan that, in honor of his presentation, a book, in his name, will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
Our Exchange Student - Neel Hasan - December Report
Hej alle sammen,
Finally, the report is here. The flu was really throwing me in a whirl, and it was pretty damn tough trying to focus my mind toward a semblance of concentration. But now we're good. Hope you enjoy what's below.
Thanksgiving is a bit more relaxed here from what I saw. The different events involving hand turkeys and being grateful for stuff like in the US isn't too popular here. There was a Rotary party for my district where the exchange students, parents, and plenty of Rotarians, including the governor, showed up. It was a goodbye to the inbounds who would be leaving in January, and they were given credit for their hard work on stage with a speech and a certificate displaying the completion of their exchange.
CHRISTMAS FOOD BASKETS
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In the photos are also the new van that
the Carmichael Club helped to buy
(along with Arden-Arcade and Pt. West).
It went on it's first "Rotary Mission" and delivered the food boxes to two families. (below).
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Above are pictures of the goings on of
the loading of the Food and the many
volunteers that got them together and
delivered them. It was quite a logistical
trick and even though management,
namely Rich Plath and Jim Thompson
worried that there would not be enough
delivery vehicles, the members of the
Club along with many "Friends" of our
Club, were up to the task and made
it happen.
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Effie Yeaw Sign Project - 10-24-2015
Effie Yeaw Nature Trail Sign Project
It was the right date and time for the finale of the Trail Sign project because it was National Volunteers Day (October 24th) and the month was October which is Rotary's Community Building Month - so the stars were aligned for a very successful project, which it was, digging holes (2 & 1/2 ft deep) in the hard pan of the various trails and planting 14 new directional signs. We had 16 volunteers and split up into 7 groups of two (two extras at large to give help where needed) and each group dug two holes and planted two signs. In about two hours of pretty hard work, the mission was accomplished. See picture (left above).
Dick Bauer was the chairperson of the event and it went flawlessly, from the assembling of signs a week ago to the event itself. Dick had everything ready and organized. Those heroes who participated in the project were: Chuck (Digger) McBride, David Thorman, Jay Boatwright, Jeff Thompson, Ken Saunders, Mark & Carol Beil, Chairman Dick Bauer (Keri Bauer was the official photographer, Stan Roe, Tim Marquess, Walter Malhoski Steve Girard, Garry Yee (all the way from Hawaii), Matt & Evam Ormond.
Some pics of the event are below.
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Photos above (left) the whole gang (including
naturalists Paul Tebbel and Rachael Cowan.
(Left) Those who assembled the signs at Jim
Thompson's home the week before the event.
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THE PASSPORT CLUB - Dwight K. Chambers
Dwight K. Chambers
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Dwight was born, raised and educated in the Bay Area, and remained there until he retired for the second time in 2001. He relocated to Sacramento for warmer weather and to be closer to his parents. Throughout his career, he. has held senior and top level management positions in both privately held and publicly traded companies. Dwight remains active in several companies that he consults with, is a partner in and/or owns. He is a 32nd Degree Master Mason, Scottish Rite, is a Shriner and an Elk. He has served on the Board of Directors for several companies, again both public and private, as well as a few charitable organizations.
Dwight says: “It was five years ago when I was blessed to discover, and to be introduced to Rotary, Point West Rotary in particular. It is true when they say ‘Rotary changes lives’. It has re-ignited a passion within myself for giving”.
He minimizes his contribution stating that what he does is just a very small part of the greater whole, he has participated in, lead and/or been on numerous committees for Rotary activities.
Dwight said he was here today to talk about a new concept in Rotary, a Passport Club, that has been founded exclusively in District 5180 and is District Governor Glen Fong's idea. Dwight then introduced a bona fide member of the Passport Club, Joanne Tanner. Both, together, gave a thorough and interesting slide show presentation about the "Passport Club" (outlined below).
JoAnne Tanner
The Passport Club is an e-Club, it has no brick and mortar meeting place which does not have regular meeting, service projects, a geographical bragging rights, dual membership or weekly networking opportunities. It is sort of a "floating" Rotary Club which allows people to stay in Rotary.It has a low dues structure with no weekly commitment, no fines, access to "My Rotary", and to Rotary Annual Giving and other RI giving avenues. The members do have access to weekly newsletters from District 5180's web site. It has access to ClubRunner and to all District 5180 training sessions. It's leadership consists of officers and 5 directors and it expects 40 hours of service annually from members.
It is a place for busy people to be in Rotary, a way of being initiated into Rotary with free access to all Clubs. It is respite for those who can not find time (temporarily) for Rotary.
Both Dwight and JoAnne emphasized that you may be seeing people from the Passport Club attending your meetings and perhaps they will like your Club and become regular members! Treat them well.
Our president pro tem, Vince Iosso, (without his bell), mentioned that "in honor" of their (Dwight & JoAnne's) visit to our Club, a book will be given to the Carmichael Public Library.
| Go to: http://rotary5180.org/page/passport.cub |
EFFIE YEAW NATURE FEST - October 4th 2015
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| The event was well attended and everyone enjoyed the educational displays, the weather (beautiful in the 80s) and especially the shows and all other interesting and diverse animals. |
The four volunteers from our Club, Phil Danz, Dick Bauer, Stan Roe and Vince Iosso had the important job of monitoring the kiddies and parents at the main arena shows. John Mangels (not seen) manned the "Welcome" booth.
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| THE AMERICAN EAGLE (above) | TURKEY VULTURE (above) |
 TWO OTHER TYPES OF RAFTERS
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In addition to Rafters - Eagles, Owles & Hawks etc, there were interesting others: Rattlesnakes, an opossum, many others and oh, a skunk (right). Most of the animals had been injured or imprinted by humans and so were unfit to being returned to nature.
Effie Yeaw Nature Center is a Community Service of the American River Natural History Association.
WEBSITE: http://www.sacnaturecenter.net/
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FAMILY PICNIC AT THE BEIL RESIDENCE - 9-22-15
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Our Family BBQ took place on September 22nd in the spacious outdoors at the residence of Mark & Carol Beil. There was more than enough food and drink, prepared by Tony Marques, Tom
and Jeff Thompson. Sausages and hamburgers and more. The salads and side dishes which were brought by many of the attendees were delicious along with desserts.
Those guests enjoying the festivities were Ann Mangels, Patty Malhoski, Jan Marques, , Jean Marquess, Kari Bauer, Tom Thompson, Erin Drennon and Emily, Barbara Berry, Debbie Plath, Jenny Holmes and David Thorman's childhood buddy from Texas, the one and only Paul Harris.
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More pictures...
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IT WAS A FUN TIME!
Celebrity Dinner - September 12th, 2015
Celebrity Chef David Thorman
Amanda Walker from Gold River bid $500 at our 2015 Rotary Crab Feed last February and won a Texas Dinner for 10 that was held at David and Dana’s last Saturday night. Chef BoyarDavid was assisted by sous chef Dana, Carmichael Board members George, Vince, Stan (and his wife Nan), and sommelier Walt.
The dinner included a BBQ’d shrimp appetizer, guacamole and chips (provided by Vicky), BBQ’d ribs and chicken, New York steaks, grilled corn on the cob, Texas pork and beans, Texas cornbread with mild chilies, wedge salads, and a fresh fruit layered trifle and chocolate cake for dessert. This was all washed down with Margaritas, beer and wine.
Amanda’s guests were Dave Harden, Laura and Gregg Duffin (plus Caryl Klein, Laura's Mother visiting from Missoula Montana), Elizabeth and Pete Pullen, Gloria Oates, and Linda and Roy Vogel (a Arden Arcade Rotarian).
A grand time was had by all (including the Rotary hosts).
David
A grand time was had by all (including the Rotary hosts).
David
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District Governor's Visit - Glen Fong
.JPG) Katy Fong (left) and her sister Sarah (middle) told us about their sale of delicious cookies for charity, after which our esteemed Assistant Governor, Jennifer Curtsinger (right) introduced our keynote speaker, District Governor Glen Fong. |
District Governor, District 5180, Glen Fong
Glen asked the audience if they remember the cassette receiver, the Sony Walkman, the CD-ROM, or the old cell phone? (now we have the new "smart" phones). What they have in common is that they have been outdated.Rotary is similar in that it has to evolve or die.
So we have the "Objects of Rotary", 4 Way Test, Polio Vaccine, Women in Rotary, Youth Services, and now Club Central.
Rotary is a "family" Glen told a poignant story about a 96 year old Rotarian in his club who never missed a meeting and to whom members brought the bell, so that he could ring it one last time at his hospital bed.
Rotary needs new generations and is working towards that end by the Passport Club, using social media and websites. Rotary needs fresh ideas and diversity, not necessarily just skin color but in what you do and how you do it. Glen mentioned that all training programs in the District are now free to encourage all to attend, now there is the Rotary Travel Card and on Rotary.com you can advertise your business there (something new).
Glen encouraged all to attend the District Foundation Dinner on November 7th - it's going to be great, but he also noted that the Carmichael Club will have 23 attending - kudos to us.
Now Glen announced that for the first time Nigeria is free of polio!
Also that for the first time in six years, our District Membership has increased. Glen asked if we know what our Rotary International President "Ravi" K.R. Ravindran did for a living in Sri Lanka. He is in the "tea" business, producing tea bags. Definitely a "Gift to the World".
Honored Members, George Abraham & Judy Sweeney
George for all his work with "Youth Services" and Judy, for encouraging membership. She brought in two new members, Everett & Donna Thorne. (above left to right, Glen, Judy, and George).
In conclusion, Glen showed a wonderful video, produced by his daughters, encouraging us to attend the District Rotary Convention which will be in Berkeley, California, this year. It will be May 19th to 22nd at the Double Tree, Berkeley Marina - only $159 per night.
President Ed Bunting acknowledged Gov. Glen's fun presentation and presented him a cowboy hat. He also mentioned that, in his name, a book will be contributed to the Carmichael Library.
SCORE - Mike Cunningham
SCORE
Terry Sweeney, Programs Director introduced our speaker as follows: "Mike Cunningham is a management and technology consultant with vast business experience.
As vice president of quality assurance at Metricom he created and led testing groups that directly led to the company’s rollout of the first billion dollar wireless mobile data network.
From 2004 to 2014 he owned and operated “Woodcraft of Dublin”, a retail store providing woodworking tools, exotic lumber and classes. He developed technology resulting in a company gross of 1.7 million dollars annually with 11 full and part time employees.
Mike currently is a small business counselor and mentor and a volunteer counselor with Sacramento SCORE."
As vice president of quality assurance at Metricom he created and led testing groups that directly led to the company’s rollout of the first billion dollar wireless mobile data network.
From 2004 to 2014 he owned and operated “Woodcraft of Dublin”, a retail store providing woodworking tools, exotic lumber and classes. He developed technology resulting in a company gross of 1.7 million dollars annually with 11 full and part time employees.
Mike currently is a small business counselor and mentor and a volunteer counselor with Sacramento SCORE."
So Mike said that he is a successful business person who benefited from the SCORE program when he began to start a new business some years ago. Now he is "giving back" by publicizing the program.
SCORE started in 1964, sponsored by the Small Business Association (SBA). The program helps people who are thinking about opening a small business, by pre-mentoring them. It is important to start a business with a realistic business plan and people who have had the experience of being in business can help. It is through a process of self realization, a series of steps, to check out their dream by having experienced people helping them.
There are 300 Chapters in the U.S. and uses 11,000 volunteers. Mike says he would not have been successful in business without the help SCORE gave him.
In 2014, SCORE created 56,000 new businesses, creating 47,000 jobs and women were predominately helped. 39% of those helped were minorities and 13% were veterans.
Mentoring means working with the client and giving expert advice.
SCORE gives work shops to would be small business owners with topics covered like "How to write a business plan" (important for getting a loan from a bank), the correct use of Quick Books, and "How to win using the internet".
Mike passed around a sign-up sheet so that he could send a copy of his presentation to the attendees and perhaps garner some volunteers to help with the SCORE program by mentoring people with small business aspirations.
To augment his presentation, Mike, gave an informative slide show.
At the conclusion of the talk, many interesting questions were posed and answered and then President pro tem Stan Roe mentioned that "in honor" of Mike's presentation, a book will be donated "in his name" to the Carmichael Library.
More information is available at: http://score.org
FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER - Jan Scully
JAN SCULLY - FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER
Former District Attorney Jan Scully gave a very comprehensive presentation on the soon to open Family Justice Center being developed by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and Sacramento State’s College of Health and Human Services.
She explained that the Center will bring together forty agencies to help victims of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse and child trafficking. Currently victims must go to each of the forty agencies to get help and support which is arduous and discouraging.
She talked about the difficulties of breaking the cycle of abuse. Victims become totally dependent on their abuser and once there is intervention tend to not follow through with charges, letting the abuser go free. The abused then return to their abusive circumstances and the cycle continues.
By having a safe haven where active support is available, the abused will have a better chance early intervention, of getting their life together and following through on charges against the abuser. There will be a focus on children, hoping to break the abuse cycle.
While the community will be the center’s primary beneficiary, Sacramento State instructors and students also will benefit through opportunities for faculty research, student internships and community service.
Funding for the Center will be provided by local governments, federal and state governments, a foundation and grants.
The Family Justice Center will be a place free from violence, restoring hope and allowing families to thrive.
Additional information on the Center can be obtained at
President Ed Bunting mentioned to Jan that, "in honor of her lecture", a book in her name will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
(the above notes were taken by David Thorman)
Tom Thompson - Art Restoration
Tom Thompson
P.D.G. Jim Thompson introduced his brother Tom. He said that Tom was into music for many years but now he has turned his interest into fine art restoration, and he has become quite an expert in the field.Tom started a fascinating slide show showing various methods of art restoration (some pictures of these are below).
He said that art restoration can greatly increase the value of a painting. He uses his four senses in ascertaining the right fix. Smell is important - one painting he restored had been hanging in an Italian restaurant and smelled of cigarette smoke. Others will have mold or mildew or colors killed by sunlight. Tom showed us a painting that was torn and he added a patch of canvas to the back and repainted over it.
We also got advice on how to know the painting is not-genuine. Looking at the back of the painting, or at the pixels if it is a lithograph or print to see if it is just a computerized work. Some of the printed ones actually smell like ink and are black and shiny. Tom concluded by saying that he has passed his talent onto his son Jeff Thompson who is a good artist.
President Ed Bunting informed Tom that "in honor of his presentation", a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
Rotary in Liberia
Dan Boeger
Father John Mangels introduced Dan Boeger, an International Service chair at the Gridley Rotary Club. Dan briefly told of the help given to Liberia in the areas of clean water and sanitation with the help of a Rotary Club Global Grant and the collaboration of Rotary District 5180, the Episcopal Church and donations from friends. He then introduced Gus and Cecelia Flomo of the Sinkor Rotary Club in Liberia.Gus and Cecelia Flomo
Gus told us about the water and sanitation problem there—using open pits, damaged hand pumps, and running creeks for drinking water. 80% of illness is due to lack of sanitation and waterborne pathogens. Children travel many miles to haul water from creeks which leads to child abuse, teenage pregnancy and sexual assaults.The team arrived march 2014 with the goal of clean drinking water, food sanitation, hygiene, and health education. This resulted in new wells, hand pumps, trucks for transportation and training. This is an ongoing project of the Gridley and Sinkor Rotary clubs which have seen great progress so far.
Cecelia Flomo then told us about Liberia’s battle with the Ebola virus. The Ebola outbreak there broke down their health system. Educational institutions closed for more than 6 months. The huge loss of jobs also took an economic toll. There were 4808 deaths. US partners, including Rotary 5180 led by the Gridley Rotary club and the Episcopal Church helped greatly in fighting this epidemic by providing supplies and education.
President Ed Bunting thanked Dan, Gus, and Cecelia for their inspiring and informative presentation showing can do with small groups of dedicated people and informed them that "in honor of" their lecture, books will be provided for the Carmichael Library.
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Augustus J. Flomo, MBA, email: augustisjflomo@yahoo.com ;
Cecelia K. Flomo, RN, email: ceceliakf1@yahoo.com ;
website: www.liberianchildren.org
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Acknowledging Terry Sweeney who took the notes for the above article.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING - JOANNE TREMELLING
Joanne Tremeling
Joanne Tremelling has come to us today to talk about shocking happenings called “Human Trafficking”, particularly “sex trafficking” of minor children that has spread around the world and is prevalent in the Sacramento Region. She is a member of the Soroptimist Club of Folsom/ El Dorado Hills and the Stop Trafficking Task Force Coordinator overseeing approximately 60 clubs in the Sierra Nevada Region.Joanne said the “sex trafficking of children” is not in your backyard- it’s in your front yard.
There are approximately 130 kids being followed by the Sacramento County Probation Department who have been rescued by law enforcement. The average age of the children trafficked is 12-14 for girls and 11-13 for boys. They are kidnapped, drugged and put into prostitution. Incarceration is not the answer.
These children are victims. Many of the children that are trafficked are runaways from Foster Care. Many go unreported as missing.
The perpetrators come on as a romantic or a bully. The romantic promises things to the child, the bully will threaten harm to the child or the child’s family.
The longevity of children trafficked is from 3-7 years. They die from Aids, being HIV positive, sexually transmitted diseases or a general malaise. Neglected children are the most vulnerable.
Joanne talked about a court hearing recently on 14 girls where only 3 parents showed up.
Soroptimist Clubs are supplying clothing, hygiene products, backpacks and gift cards to the children who have been rescued. The Linnus Project has provided afghans and quilts. Notes have been added to the backpacks saying “someone cares”.
In a sweep last summer across several states, the buyers of these kids were found to be 40% college educated and approximately 50% married.
It is useful for the girls in recovery to go to the schools and talk to the students about their experience.
Tell people in your life about this phenomenon. If you see a child that you suspect is being trafficked, call 911 and ask for a welfare check on a minor child.
Because of Sacramento County’s freeway system, Sacramento has become a hub for trafficking.
Placements for these kids are a challenge.
There is a shift taking place for the kids rescued from law enforcement to Health and Human Services.
They need protection, but also therapy services.
Perpetrators are now going to prison. Some of the grant money coming to the states from the Federal Government may use “Wounded Warriors “to monitor the programs.
A grateful President Ed Bunting mentioned that “in honor of her presentation”, a book will be donated to the Carmichael Library.
Rotary 2015-2016
EFFIE YEAW NATURE CENTER
Paul Trebble & Kari Bauer, Co-Host Speakers
Paul Trebbel, left showing arial photo of Effie Yeaw Nature Center, was introduced by President David Thorman.He said that Paul has has over 20 years of experience running nature centers and became Director of Effie Yeaw in May of 2011. Other centers that he was involved in were in New Mexico and Nebraska. He has worked for Patagonia, Inc. in Venture from 1983-1995 and has a BS in biologhy and a MS in Zoology.
Kari Bauer, wife of our member Dr. Dick Bauer, has always had an interest in the outdoors and has shared her love of nature with others for over 20 years as a volunteer at the Errie Yeaw Nature Center.
Kari and Dick's son was married at the Nature Center in 2000 where they we serenaded by a sweet voiced House Wren during the entire ceremony. Fifteen years and two lovely grandchildren later, they will always have fond memories of this magical place.
Kari showed us a nice slide show and movie about Effie Yeaw and her interest in not allowing the area to become a suburban housing area. She was able to stop the housing development and started the nature area in 1976.
Effie Yeaw Nature Center is open daily and has many activities there. It is a fun place for kids. It is run by volunteers. Even though the area is not easy to find, there are over 100,000 visitors yearly.
Our Club has done a number of projects for E.Y.N.C. including the donation and maintenance of benches in various locations near the American River.
The discussion turned to what our Club could do in the future for Effie Yeaw, and many ideas were put forth, the building of a platform, getting rid of concrete, adding an informational sign etc. Matching grants were discussed. I am sure that in the future we will do some of these projects both by giving money and "hands on" projects. I have added below Effie Yeaw's informational flyer.
President Thorman thanked both Paul and Kari for their excellent presentation and impressed them by the fact that, in honor of their visit, two books will be given to the Carmichael library.
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Golf Tournament - June 5th, 2015
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Joe Sheimer - "Hidden Treasures"
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| Joe Sheimer |
Alan Gallaway introduced Joe Scheimer, Rancho Cordova Rotarian and multi-careered gentleman who has two master degrees and 4 Instructor pilot ratings.
Joe spent 25 years in the Air Force and logged over 4,500 hours in flight and over 1,000 in combat in the Vietnam war. He has won many Air Medals and Awards, ending up as a Colonel.
Joe then became an Investment Advisor for 20 years and retired in 2013.
Joe has been married 40 years to Marie, his wife, and has two daughters, Joanne and Jessica.
Joe has been a Rotarian since March of 1996, GSE Team Leader to Colombia in 2010, and a Past-President in which his Club (2012-3) won the District's Outstanding Medium Club Award.
Today, Joe is going talk about his "Treasure Hunting" experiences based out of Florida.
PROGRAM, AUGUST 19TH - DOUG OSE, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE
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| Doug Ose |
Doug Ose was introduced by President Jay Boatwright. He is someone who is known to everybody, as a congressional candidate and as past visiting Rotarian to our Club and thus really needs no introduction.
Doug greeted some of the friends that he has known in the Club and professionally - like Jay Boatwright, the Gallaways, Stan and Nan Roe. He said he has lived in the community for many years with his family, his dad is now 90 and his mom is 89. Doug said that although he is a candidate for congress, he knows "Rotary Rules" about neutrality in politics and really wants to talk about how to make a community better and Rotary does make the community better.
Speaking of the "reach" of Rotary, Doug related a story of how, in Washington D.C., the wearing of his Rotary pin sparked the interest of a then stranger, Congressman Hobsen , who he just met coming out of an elevator and got him in touch with Newt Gingrich and helped his candidacy. (so always wear your Rotary pin!)
As a case in point, Gibson Ranch was literally closed and in dire shape a few years ago. It was leased to Doug for one dollar. He would pay expenses. If it made money, he would turn that profit back into the community. In April of 2011, he took it over, there were 27 homeless there and it was in bad shape. Since the 1st day it opened and every day since, the government has not paid one single dime to the project.
Now the cabins are rented there ($50 per night), 40 weddings occur there annually (for profit), 55 horses stalled there, a venue to do monthly yard sales (for $10). It is open every day with an annual revenue of $500,000 and 250,000 people visit there every year. They are starting to open the renting of RVs in the near future.
The point is that more government doesn't always do things well. The first year Gibson Ranch lost $120,000, second $80,000, and four months into the third year loss of $60,000.
The park is open, maintained, and has saved thousands of dollars. Doug said that there is no job he hasn't done there, and also others in his family.
President Jay thanked Doug for his informative talk and mentioned that, in his honor, a book will be dedicated to the Carmichael library which will give readers many hours of pleasure.
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| Rotarians listening to Doug's talk | Bulletin Editor Phil Danz, Doug Ose, President Jay Boatwright |
River Cat's Game, August 3, 2014
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| River Cat's Day at Raley field was fun even though the "Cats" lost to the Las Vegas 51ers. Above is a picture of all who went on the District bus excursion from Fair Oaks, and below, a few of the Carmichael people who were there. namely (left to right) Katha and Phil Danz, David Thorman and Dana Newell. Laurie Edwards, (professional photographer) and long time member of the El Dorado Hills Club took the photos. |
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ROTAPLAST - STAN ROE, M. D.
We have been lucky to have good speakers in our Club, like the "Mystery Speaker", Alan Gallaway and others, who can step up with a good program on a dime. Today our speaker was Dr. Stan Roe, one of our own members who, at the last minute so to speak, stepped up to give a talk (in lieu of our scheduled speaker). Stan's topic was about Rotaplast.
Stan has, in the past, gone on a few Rotaplast "Missions" most notably to Chili and to Bolivia. Rotaplast sends surgeons and other medical and non-medical personnel to treat debilitating conditions such as cleft lip/palate problems in countries where local medical treatment is inadequate. One of Rotaplast's slogans is "Saving Smiles, Changing Lives". Stan gave a very nice slide presentation showing the patients they served there, their successes and their conditions which were at times primitive. Dr. Roe is an anesthesiologist and so played an important part in the operating room, putting the children to sleep, so that the surgeons could do their magic. It was difficult working in a strange environment and hauling a large part of their equipment.
Stan said that in Chili, the Minister of Health was a Rotarian and so smoothed the way for their team. Locally, Rotary Clubs planned several months ahead to get patients from all over the hinterland to the surgery center. Many stayed for days, sleeping on the ground in the outside until they could be seen. One thing they needed to do was to check out the overall health of the patients so that they could safely do surgery. If a child had a runny nose, they just couldn't take him/her.
Local Rotarians were influential in giving the Rotaplast team access to the hospital and teaching local medical people was an important byproduct of their visit. One problem they encountered is that they found themselves at 11,000 feet altitude and it was difficult administering oxygen.
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Equipment for local Doctors were hard to come by and actually, a simple thing, like throwing away soiled rubber gloves, the locals washed them and used them again.
Stan said that the kids were incredibly stoic and the parents were so grateful after the surgery. The amount of kids that greeted them in the morning was staggering and they sometimes worked from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. At night the locals would have a fiesta for them, the medical people would just crash and the non-medical persons would take on the socializing duty. Doctors from all over the world have participated in Rotaplast and the missions have been growing in number and in more and more countries. Stan said it was great to meet so many diverse people and to befriend them.
President Jay Boatwright thanked Stan for his great lecture and told him (as if he didn't know) that a book in his honor is to be given to the Carmichael library.
For your information, you can learn a lot more about the Rotaplast program by going to their website: www.rotaplast.org 
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| President Jay Boatwright, Guest Todd Andrews, Dr. Stan Roe |
PAST DISTRICT GOVERNOR CLARENCE PARKINS - HISTORY OF ROTARY
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| Past District Governor, Clarence Parkins |
President Jay welcomed PDG Clarence Parkins to our Club. He told us of the many achievements in Rotary that Clarence has attained including being District Governor of District 5180 in the 2007-8 Rotary Year. He then went on to tell us and something I did not know about Clarence and that is that he has played in two basketball NCAA tournaments and has run two marathons. Very impressive. Your bulletin editor, Phil Danz, was president of the Foothill-Highlands Rotary Club in 2000-2001, and Clarence was president of the Rancho Cordova Club that same year as was Dan Enright of the Carmichael Club and Ralph Carhart of Fair Oaks. We worked together (the four Clubs) on a Casino night fund raiser for WIND (helping homeless children). Clarence and I talked privately about that year at the meeting. Good times!
Clarence's topic today is, "The History of Rotary" and he started by saying the Rotary is the largest charity organization in the world except that, just recently, we have been edged out by the Lion's Club. He told us that Paul Harris, Rotary's founding father, born in 1866 in Racine, Wisconsin was not from a very successful family. His father apparently was a big spender and when Paul was 3 years old, his family moved to Vermont to live with Harris' paternal grandparents. Paul was not a good student, and got into lots of trouble. He was sent to military school but was expelled for arresting incoming freshman (he and three friends) in his school. Funny thing - he was a freshman himself at the time.
He attended Princeton, and then law at the University of Iowa. For the next 5 years, he floundered around working odd jobs until he moved to Chicago and spent the next 40 years practicing law.
Clarence said that Paul was sort of a "backwards guy" who didn't know who to trust. In 1905, he started Rotary in order to talk with business associates and the name Rotary was borne because they rotated meetings at different member's offices.
To show how viral Rotary went, in 9 months there were 100 members. A second Club was founded in San Francisco (1908), Oakland became the 3rd Club and Sacramento was 97th in 1914. In 1917, there were 100,000 members world wide.
Archibald Klumph started what became the Rotary Foundation in order to be "doing good in the world" with a beginning contribution of $26.50 and it grew slowly to $5,000 in 1945.
One of the very first projects that the Chicago Club did was to provide comfort stations for women shoppers in downtown Chicago. Very smart because it enable women to spend more time shopping.
The old Crippled Children Services changed into what is now Easter Seals, and an offshoot morphed into Polio Plus in the 1980s. Success has been great, we now know that polio only exists in three countries Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.
The Paul Harris Fellow program was started in 1947, the amount needed to become a PHF was $1000. Now, 67 years later, to become a PHF, it is still $1,000! What a deal.
Clarence went on to talk about Rotary Clubs accepting women in 1987, with Rotary taking the issue to the Supreme Court. Now, of the 1.2 million members world wide, 20% are women. What a mistake it would have been to exclude them.
In conclusion, Clarence made the point that we should share our history with others, neighbors, friends; show them the marvelous things that Rotary does.
Our President Jay let Clarence know that, in honor of his very informative lecture, a book will be given to the Carmichael Library which will give someone(s), hours of reading pleasure.
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| President Jay Boatwright with PDG Clarence Parkins | Members in rapt attention |
Carmichael Rotarians visit the Rotary Club of Ilhavo, Portugal
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| Members of both Clubs mingle for a photo at the end of the meeting, President Joao Ribeiro is 4th from the left. |
Seven members of a delegation from our Club visited the Rotary Club of Ilhavo, Portugal on July 1st, 2014 at their weekly meeting. We were welcomed with open arms and enthusiasm. We talked of our mutual projects, such as our Golf Tournament that has made so much money for Easter Seals and they about many thousands of Euros that they earned for what seemed to be like our "Special Olympics" project. Although some of the members spoke English, Tony Marques, who speaks fluent Portuguese, was very helpful in allowing us to communicate together. After our 1 and 1/2 hour luncheon (the food was great), in a lovely 100 year old room, many members lingered to talk to us about Rotary and other subjects. Their president, Joao Ribeiro presented us with very nice quality "soccer shirts", while we gave presents of a Rotary tie, clasp , our Club flag, a Rotary hat and two scarves to two of the three young ladies present, two of which were members and one who was at the meeting as a prospective member. Those in our group were Tony Marques (our leader), Bob Paulsen, Stan and Nan Roe, Phil & Katha Danz, and Nan's sister, Noel Meyer. News of the event was reported in the local newspaper and also was aired at a local radio station.
On the Rotary Club of Ilhavo: the newpaper article which has the picture featured above is translated as follows:
"On the 1st of July 2014, Rotary Club of Ilhavo, was honored by the visit Rotary Club of Carmichael, Sacramento - California - California delegation, during its weekly meeting in Hotel de Ilhavo.
More than strengthening relationships between clubs, the meeting aimed at sharing experiences by presenting each club activities and finding a way of expanding this link to their communities.
Therefore, both clubs define the need to promote, by the use of new technologies, intercultural exchanges between their youngest.
The purpose of this initiative, would be approaching the youngest generation of the wide Portuguese community in California, to their roots, traditions and cultural references in Ilhavo and also allow the youth of each community to share, learn and respect different perspectives and thus build more enlighten people.
Besides the Fellows of both Rotary Clubs the meeting had the presence of Past-Governor and Fellow Alvaro Gomes that stress the need and the importance of cooperation between clubs".
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| The Newspaper Article |
PROGRAM - Honorable Brian Van Camp - "Courts in a Free Society"
President Jay gave a very nice introduction of Judge Brian Van Camp and outlined many of his accomplishments in the field of law and there are many that are presented below at the end of this article.
Brian warmly greeted some friends in the audience, namely Judge Jack Shearer, Doug Ose and Jim Thompson. My guess is that they had crossed paths (professionally) over the years.
He then presented an overview of the history of how the freedoms we have today developed over time, first beginning with the Magna Carta in 1215 with King John of England where it was written that no man could be deprived of his life or property without a trial by a jury of his peers. Of course, as Brian stated, it meant a jury of the high in society (nobility) but then that changed over the years. Trial by Jury was continued as a right through our War of independence, and in having a constitution backing it up. Judge Van Camp mentioned Ben Franklin's statement when asked if we have a Republic and he replied "Yes, if you can keep it". Therein seems to be the problem, many governments have beautiful constitutions, but do not abide by them. Hitler's Germany where the Judges were instructed by Hitler to follow his rules and not the constitution. Mao Tsetung in China who sent 15 to 20 million people to the country side without jury trials. Judges sent their decisions to party regulars for ratification.
A startling fact is that 95% of the jury trials happen in the U.S. Many other countries just have trial by Judge/Judges. When in South Africa, Brian was told that judges are superior to juries. Problem is that judges can be corrupted.
Another problem: Los Angeles county, it was found that 50% of potential jurors don't show up when summoned and 19% in Sacramento County. It is a problem, too few have access to civil court and there are too few judges, and the process has been politicized.
What can we do? Support the jury system and show up when called for jury duty. Also carefully scrutinize the qualifications of judges who are running for office.
President Boatwright mentioned that "in honor of" Judge Van Camp's very informative lecture, a book has been dedicated to the Carmichael library which will bring many happy hours to their readers.
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| President Jay Boatwright, Judge Brian Van Camp, and Doug Ose |
Rotarian in Turkey
Pres. Dave at Rotary in Bodrum,
Turkey
Super Makeup!!
July 15th, 2014 - Mystery Speaker - Alan Gallaway
The second meeting of the new 2014-2015 Rotary year was called to order by President Jay Boatwright.
Vince Iosso proudly gave the "Pledge" and offered the following "Thoughts for the Day":
"We wonder why Somebody didn't do Something, then we realize we are Somebody."
"Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something"
Guests : None
Note taker: Walter Malhoski (Edited by the Bulletin Editor from Walter's notes)
Rotarians at Parade
Carmichael Rotarians win FIRST PLACE at the Carmichael Fourth of July Parade
(2014) !
Terry Sweeney, smiling, was the main instigator of the event and he shows off his Club's trophy at their July 8th Rotary Meeting.
Our prize winning float traveled down Fair Oaks Blvd from Palm to Manzanita with members waving and flags flying. It took 49 minutes. Large crowds lined the street on both sides. Our float had many roars of approval from the crowd Those who participated were Terry & Judy Sweeney, Jeff Thompson, David Thorman, and Walter Malhoski, and Jay and Vicky Boatwright.
Portugal Rotary Visitation
Rotarians from Carmichael are currently visiting at the Ilhavo Rotary Club in Portugal
PRESIDENT THORMAN'S DEMOTION, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25TH
President David Thorman's demotion consisted of a skit and PowerPoint presentation that was divided up into four "interpreters", Phil Danz, Judy Sweeney, Cai Thorman, Walter Malhoski and Jay Boatwright.
Phil gave a synopsis of David's life up until he became Rotary President.
Judy walked David around the room with a Martini and three cats.
Walter explained power negotiations that got him to be Crab Feed Chairman.
Jay extolled the accomplishments of his year as President.
Chuckles and laughter abounded and I think it was much enjoyed.
Gifts of appreciation were given to the old Board and the new quartet of Presidents was introduced and the new Board (2014-2015) members were dutifully sworn in by Past District Governor Jim Thompson. The new regime will be constituted as follows:
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Co-Presidents
Jay Boatwright (1st Q) Stan Roe (2nd Q) Vince Iosso (3rd Q) David Thorman (4th Q) |
Board 2014-15
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Service Chairs:
George Abraham - Youth Service |
Other:
Alan Gallaway - Membership
Mark Beil - Foundation
John Mangels - Finemaster
Programs - (open)
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CARMICHAEL ANNUAL BBQ
THE Annual Carmichael BBQ was held in the spacious back yard adjoining the 17th hole of the Northridge Golf Course of Don and Bonnie Wangberg's beautiful residence in Carmichael.
We were fortunate to have members of the Sacramento Breakfast Club to join us.
They are Lynette Bregante, Peggy Porter Honeyman, David Jones, Charley Rea, Cindi Unmack, Helene Malabed, Kary Moore and Ian Dixon.
Other guests are Katha Danz, Dana Newell, and Mike Schaedler and Don's daughter Jennifer. Hope I didn't miss anyone.
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| Great tri-tip was cooked by Jeff Thompson, Tony Marques, Stan Roe, and Rich Brown, many brought great side dishes, potato salad, vegetables and dinner salads. A good evening of fellowship.......and a big thank you to the Wangbergs for allowing us to use their home. |
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SHELLEY ANDREWS REPORTS ON THE CARMICHAEL LIBRARY
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Shelley Andrews is Branch Supervisor of the Carmichael Library, one of 28 branches in Sacramento Public Library. She has a long history with the library and has worked at 7 branches, small, medium, and large but readily admits that Carmichael is her personal favorite. Beginning as a part time shelver in pre-computer days, Shelley worked her way up the chain and has held just about every job there is in a branch, from shelving to checking out materials, to conducting story times to running a branch, and the infamous "other duties as needed". A native of Sacramento, she worked for 20+ years at the library, then went back to school to earn a Masters in Library Science at San Jose State University which led to her current position. In addition to managing a great staff and the library with the highest circulation in Sacramento Shelley participates in the systemwide planning of library operations.
GOLF TOURNAMENT IS A BIG SUCCESS!
The Golf Tournament was successfully accomplished on a beautiful (not too hot) summer's day.......
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| Our sponsors were amazing in their generosity, we had 136 golfers enjoying the day and although more accounting has to be done on specifics, those in the know beleive that the amount netted will be comparable to recent years or maybe better. |
GOLF CLUB ASSEMBLY - RICHARD SHIPP
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| RICH SHIPP |
Rich Shipp, Chairman of the Golf tournament took to the podium and showed what an old pro he is, not necessarily in golf, but in outlining all the needs and details to be accomplished to have a successful and profitable event. Rich said that it is going to be a fun and he is looking forward to it.
Volunteers will show up at Ancil Hoffman at 9:30 a.m. and will bring lots of ice chests.
Then, at 11:00 a.m., registration will start, there will be a BBQ lunch in back of the club house, and a putting contest. Some of the Sacramento King Ladies will be there to sell raffle tickets. Many in our Club are handling different facets of the event. Stan Roe will get the sodas, Vicky Boatwright (through her company) Budweiser will provide different brands of beer. Rich Brown and the ever present Jay Sedlak will oversee other aspects. Many other members are also involved. There will be golf prizes and raffle prizes that the participants will win during the day and then big raffle prizes at the dinner so SAVE YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS. Buy plenty and often. In addition to raffle prizes provided by doners, $1500 to $1700 was spent at the pro-shop to provide prizes at dinner which will start at 6 p.m. The Shotgun (a scramble) will start at 1 p.m., Rich says they are expecting 130 participants, so it should be a comfortable and not overly crowded event. A big thanks go to Pacific Coast for their large donation to the event, and to Easter Seals.
At 7:30, clean up will begin, so it would be helpful for members to stay after dinner - it should not take long but many hands make short work. Our Club should be proud of all, golfers and volunteer worker bees.
CLIMBING MT. KILIMANJARO - STEVE BENDER & MAGGIE BENDER JOHNSON
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| Maggie and Steve |
Both Steve (father) and Maggie Bender Johnson (daughter) have impressive curriculum vitaes but came to our Club just to relate their story of how and why they climbed Mr. Kilamanjaro. It was something that they had talked about doing for years - so it was on their "bucket list" so to speak. Actually Steve went to La Sierra High School (a long time ago) and back packed around Ancil Hoffman. The impetus happened when Steve's sister (Maggie's aunt) died of cancer and the trip was meant to honor her life and also to raise funds to fight cancer. They started with the planning a couple of years in advance and started conditioning, getting VISAs, vaccinations etc. Unfortunately, there are no Mountains in California that are higher than 15,000
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| Reaching the Summit |
feet (Mt. Kilamanjaro is 20,000 feet and Africa's highest mountain) so that they couldn't mimic actual condition they were going to face. They called their adventure "Climb over Cancer". Steve and Maggie brought us through their climb with slides and each day of their nine day trip starting from their flight, from San Francisco to Tanzania, through reaching the summit on day 9 at 19,341 feet. They had another climber who went with them, a lady pediatrician, Peggy Wong who became indispensable when Maggie had some altitude related sickness along the way. They took the longest route (the most successful route). They went 50 miles overall and had 13 porters who carried big loads, while the 3 climbers had loads of about 20 pounds. They talked about all the different ecological zones they encountered along the way. They kept a hypobaric tent (I guess for oxygen) and their own commode.
Both Steve and Maggie seemed to speak as if it was not a great ordeal, and, in fact, next year they are going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro again! They raised $18,000 for Leukemia also - they are to be congratulated.
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| Pres. David, Maggie & Steve |
President Thorman thanked both Steve and
Maggie for an inpiring and educational
presentation and impressed upon them
that we shall donate a book to the
Carmichael Library in their honor......
THREE YEAR PLAN - BILL WITTICH
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| BILL WITTICH |
President Thorman said that Bill Wittich needs no introduction to our Club. He has been working with us on a Refire three year plan in which we have put our wishes or dreams to paper. Now we are one year into our project and Bill is here to help us assess how we are doing. We have achieved some things and have not done so well with others.
Bill said that the Club has put forth our dreams but now, after one year, it needs to do some correction. We need a "Mission Statement" that will help the Club to get where it needs to be.
He handed out a "Vision statement" and a "Mission Statement" from the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale. Also a "Strategic Goal" statement from the Roseville Club was offered to our Club. The "Mission Statement" answers the questions "Who are you?, Why do you exist? and Who do you serve?
The strategic goals should be shared by everyone in the Club, measurable, time specific and acheivable. This year we will go to our goals - realistically.
Bill then spoke to the increasing membership issue that seems problematic for our Club and many others. He said that Clubs should look towards diversity. If your Club becomes more diverse, it will reach out to more people and bring in more members. If you bring in more women, for instance, they will bring in more women to the Club.
Bill says that in his experience, he often asks people to Rotary and gets turned down about 10-1. If think about it, if you were selling something and you made a sale 1 in 10, you would probably be happy with your result. So don't be afraid to ask people to Rotary or get dismayed if you get turned down.
So our next step will be to write specific objectives for the Club and Bill will sit down with us and help us with our goals.
President Thorman thanked Bill, again for his presentation and allowing the Club to use the Refire program. He mentioned that, in his honor, we will donate a book to the Carmichael Library.
District 5180 Conference, May 2-4
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| Your representatives at the District Conference enjoyed the ambiance, friendship, information, inspiration of the meeting and had a good partying time also. We also got some awards as you can see above, Gold in Membership and Public Relations and Silver in Administration. Those attending were Dave Thorman and Dana Newell, Jay and Vicky Boatwright, Stan and Nan Roe, and Walter Malhoski |
Program - April 29th - Rotary Youth Exchange
Jay Boatwright introduced a person who has become our good friend since she visited us a few weeks ago and told us about the Fair Oaks Mystery Bus Trip. Now she is back (with a few guests) to talk about the Rotary Youth Exchange program and their (Fair Oaks Rotary Club) participation.
Jay re
ported the Maggie has been married for 10 years to the love of her life, Joe. They have 2 children and 3 grandchildren that they love to spend time with. She has been in Fair Oaks Rotary for almost 14 years. She is a Paul Harris x 3. She has been on the Fair Oaks board of directors for almost 9 years as the club service chair. She has been on the District board for RYE for 2 years, there, she found her Rotary passion. Her Rotary Classification in "Medical Billing".
Maggie then proceeded to give a very nice PowerPoint slide show of the RYE students, their activities and fun trips around the bay area and elsewhere. She said that this year the District has 12 inbound students from various countries, Italy, France, Japan, and others. And there are 12 outbound to various countries. The RYE program has been going on since 1929. Below is the District's schedule:
The students spend a 10-11 months with 2-3 host families. They are great kids, respectful and fun. The Fair Oaks Club would like our Clubs help - which can done in various ways, for instance, commit to co-hosting with Fair Oaks inbound or outbound student. This year the inbound will be from Bolivia and the outbound is Japan. Commit to finding one host family who will host the student for 2-3 months or contribute to 5 months worth of allowance to the student.
More specifically Fair Oaks is looking for a family who will host a student going to Del Campo High School from November to December of 2014.
NANCY MILTON - CONFLICT RESOLUTION
 Nancy Milton was introduced by Jay Boatwright.He said that Nancy has been a mediator since 1991 and has over 400 hours of conflict resolution training. She has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1994. Prior to attending McGeorge Law School, she was a paralegal for 15 years. In her private practice, Progress Mediation, she works with couples and families in the areas of divorce and elder mediation and also offers mediation services to businesses and organizations. She has mediated conflicts for numerous court programs, a state agency, and UC Davis.
She is the Vice Chair of the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce and Membership Chair with the Rotary Club of Laguna Sunrise. Nancy hails from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has two daughters and a 13 yr old son. She has been a Rotarian for 3 and 1/2 years. Nancy opened her remarks by asking if any in the audience has had a conflict in the last few weeks? few days? few hours? Most all raised their hands. She said that's normal but conflicts and organizational conflicts adversely effect club morale - don't ignore it!
There are different legal methods to solve conflicts. One method is litigation, but in so doing it takes away the power of the participants and leaves it in the hands of the law, judges etc. Another method, more formal is arbitration in which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group by mutual consent or statutory provision. The parties hire experts to make decisions. It can be either binding or non-binding.
The benefits of mediation are that the process teaches communication skills, it keeps the groups focused, it encourages them to work together, and clarifies issues and clarity beats conflict. Her "top tips" for organizations are: Be clear and consistent, Don't ignore conflict, consider everyone's needs and concerns. Invest energy when times are tough and explain your feelings. Skills needed for the process: Be slow to anger, point out mistakes in others indirectly, look for the common ground, if you are wrong - admit it (admit your own poor decisions and mend fences). Nancy said that people run from conflict, but it can be a positive thing and change things for the better.
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Nancy's
In Honor of our Lecturers, a book is donated to the Carmichael Library
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EACH ROTARY MEETING, A BOOK IS DONATED IN BEHALF OF OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER TO THE CARMICHAEL LIBRARY. (LEFT) IS A LETTER FROM THE CARMICHAEL LIBRARY REGARDING A BOOK DONATION: "THE RISE OF SUPERMAN" THIS BOOK WILL GIVE MANY HOURS OF ENJOYMENT TO LIBRARY READERS...... |
CARMICHAEL CHAMBER MIXER
It was a gala evening at the
Main Event Restaurant at Ancil Hoffman.
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The food was delicious, especially the sliders and the people from the Chamber Next President David Thorman spoke about Rotary, the Rotary Club of Carmichael, it's history and achievements. Rotary is an international organization that started in 1905 and now has 1.2M members in over 35,000 clubs in over 200-countries.
We are proud to be part of the Carmichael community and to be partnering with |
represented much of the best of the businesses from our local community.
HAPPY THOUGHTS/BELL RINGERS
There were no bell ringers today but there were significant birthdays for the month of April:Bill Baxter, Phil Danz, Alan Gallaway and Tony Marques A hearty "Happy Birthday" was sung to them by the assemblage. Also there were some significant Club Anniversaries: Bill Munsterman - 4-1-'80 - 34 years! and Jim Thompson - 4-23-'57 - 57 years! The spirit of happiness and good thoughts spilled over to bringing in $87 to the Club's coffers.... |
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CREDIT CARD FRAUD - STAN SOOHOO, RIVER CITY BANK
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Stan SooHoo
RIVER CITY BANK rivercitybank.com
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Physical bank robberies are down. Why go to a bank and maybe get shot or something? It is much better and easier nowadays (from the thief's perspective) to do cyber fraud. That is what Stan SooHoo, Senior Vice President and Regional Administrator of River City Bank said as he started his bank's PowerPoint's slide presentation. Stan stepped to the plate at the last minute and subbed for our original speaker Jamie Fawcett for the evening. |
Program: PAUL HARRIS AWARD'S NIGHT
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| Coach Joe Potulny & Pres. Thorman |
Joe Potulny went to Jesuit High School a long time ago and has never left, except for college, and a short time pursuing other careers that he really did not want to do. He has spent the last 25 years as a (famous) Baseball Coach and teacher at Jesuit.
The tradition of having his baseball team help out at charity events first happened when the idea came, that the students needed to do some Christian service, and the freshman started to wait tables at events for free, and later for tips. Later the volunteers were juniors and seniors and that worked out well. The crab feed dynamic was good, and the tips have helped out enormously, by helping to buy extra things, like second uniforms and equipment.
Now you might have noticed that Jesuit is building a new chapel near the corner of Fair Oaks and Jacob. It is now under construction. Jesuit High School is located at 1200 Jacob Lane in Carmichael.
Joe showed us an interesting film about the construction of the original Jesuit High School in 1962. It was built on 44 original acres. Back then there wasn't much but hop kilns in the area. It opened on September 1, 1963. It started with around 100 students, had it's first graduating class in 1967, and now has about 1000 students, all boys.
Joe said that the students can be all religions - the have students who are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and with this diversity there develops a great camaraderie for all the boys. The boys get great grades and are diligent good kids. The School reinforces how to treat people fairly - a dimension that is missing in many places now-a-days. 98% go on to college.
Joe said he is spoiled to be where he is, in such a great job!
Answering a question Joe said that some of the talented baseball players that Jesuit has produced are Jerry Nielson, Mike Rose, J.P. Howell, and one who just signed with the Dodgers, Lars Anderson.
ALAN GALLAWAY - MYSTERY GUEST SPEAKER - TRAVEL TIPS
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We were unfortunate tonight because our scheduled speaker, Shelly Andrews, Librarian, was ill with the flu, and could not make the meeting. We were fortunate because we had a "mystery speaker" in the wings who volunteered to step forward and fill the void. So we didn't learn about books or libraries, but we did get a few practical tips from Alan Gallaway about what he has learned in his extensive travels.. |
| Mystery Speaker Alan Gallaway |
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CARMICHAEL ROTARY GOLF TOURNAMENT - FRIDAY, JUNE 6TH, 2014
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Jay Sedlak with Acting Pres. Vince Iosso looking on |
Right now, a start of a very important annual event is beginning-OUR GOLF TOURNAMENT! Jay Sedlack - co-tournament Chairman announced that the golf fund-raiser (benefits to Easter Seals) will occur on Friday, June 6th, 2014. Jay asked who in our Club would like to participate in the Tournament. Slots will fill up fast-so let Jay know if want to join in as soon as possible! |
Program - Doug Haaland
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Don Haaland |
Terry Sweeney (acting program's director) introduced our speaker for the day, Don Haaland. He said that Don had served in the Air Force and was involved with NORAD. He has participated as a staff member for legislators for over 27 years. He has served in both the Senate and Assembly as legislative director, principle assistant and twice as Chief of Staff. Don also has the distinction of being the first one to buy a ticket to our recent Crabfeed! |
RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) student Matt Zavoral
Vicky Boatwright introduced our guest speaker who had attended RYLA camp this last year representing our Club. She said that Matt Zavoral is a Del Campo High School senior, hoping to attend Stanford or Brigham Young University in the future. Matt is an Eagle Scout, the Editor-in-Chief of the Del Campo Roar Newspaper, and the Director of Marketing for Kids Helping Kids Sacramento, a local nonprofit organization. However, he spends a majority of his time playing Varsity volleyball and basketball for Del Campo High School and his club teams, trying to get a spot on college rosters. He hopes to make as big of an impact as he can in his community now, as he will be leaving to serve a two-year, LDS (Mormon) Mission in the fall of this year.
Matt started by thanking all of us for inviting him to speak and began a very interesting slide show chronicling his experiences at the Camp, going day by day. On the first day, Monday, they traveled to Portola where the Camp is situated and he saw the cabins, bathrooms and showers. Monday was a day of orientation and it started at 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday there were workshops, square/line dancing, and they got their own personalized T-shirts. His read "I am the Conqueror" on it (see picture, left).
They took tests - what they called "Energenetics" in which a profile of each student emerged, showing "types of thinking", conceptual, analytical, social. Matt found he was balanced in all three types of thinking, most are dominant in one type.
On Wednesday they played mind games - Olympics, Matt said it was lots of fun. Thursday there was a "ropes" course over the "Wall" a 12 ft wall that was a metaphor for "the wall in your life". Everyone helped each other to overcome obstacles and become "superheros". On Friday there were making bikes for kids. There were 96 campers and they did "board breaking", breaking a board with your hands. And something like hearing the worst in yourself and coming to terms with what holds you back.
On Saturday, Matt got his graduation certificate and wrote on backs of other students, things to remember. Matt said that he has kept friendships with his camp mates and what he has learned is respect for yourself and others - who I am, How I think, How to work effectively in a group - that different people can blend together. And most of all CONFIDENCE. Matt told us the story of how he went to a dance, after his experience of the Camp and got 11 phone numbers and 3 notes on his car from young ladies!
President Thorman thanked Matt for his outstanding presentation and told him that, in honor of his visit to our Club, we would be donating a book to the Carmichael Library.
Matt Zavoral (left)
President Dave Thorman (right)
Editor's Note: Matt is an exceptional young man who came to our Club alone, but socialized effortlessly with us old guys and ladies. He gave a well planned out Power Point lecture with humor.
Many of us can only wish that we could have had that amount of confidence at his age...
LET'S GET TO KNOW THEM - CHAPTER lll
LET’S GET TO KNOW THEM
CHAPTER III
Meet Steve Ehnke, cook extraordinaire for “The Main Event” and for the Carmichael Rotary Club Tuesday night meetings. With the teamwork of Steve, Jason, William, Jim, and Graham, our palates are definitely pleased.
It all started for Steve at age 8 in his mother’s kitchen where he got his hands in the making of dishes for the family. “Always wanted to be a cook!” he says and did just that. He started as a dishwasher in a small restaurant at the age of 17. From there he went to Round Table Pizza; on to El Dorado Hills Strings where he worked as line cook and moved up to Kitchen Manager. From there on to the Sacramento Brewery.
Steve explained to me the stress in this type of work. The competition runs very strong with those who are serious, and the hours are really tough…sixty hour weeks and more. This would explain why at this point he decided to take a 3 year hiatus. A do-nothing time he called it. Then the money ran out as it always does.
Being hard at this point to get back into the work force, he decided to go back to school and studied for a year at Le Cordon Bleu here in Sacramento. When the course was completed, he was hired at the Ambience here in Carmichael.
After leaving the Ambience, within 3 days he was hired at the Main Event. That was 3 years ago. Steve pointed out how all the stress vanished and they all work together like family…as a matter of fact, he called them his family.
He loves the idea that he can plan our meals using the skills he has learned along the way and the opportunity to use his imagination planning our meals. He truly enjoys being out of the lime-lite in the kitchen where he is most comfortable.
For fun and relaxation he enjoys an occasional round of golf with friends and definitely his video games. I invited him to spend a little bit of his spare time with us as a guest some time. Nice guy!
Don’t forget to tell Steve how much you enjoy his meals. He doesn’t ask it, but definitely deserves it.
Reporter for the Nugget: Judy Sweeney
Club Runner Meeting, February 18th.
Bulletin Editor Phil Danz, Secretary and Webmaster Walter Malhoski, and Vicky Boatwright, Treasurer-Elect, attended an evening workshop on ClubRunner topics on February 18th, 2014. Among the subjects that were presented, was ClubRunner's ability to keep track of payments and performing billing.
Also there were many questions, about the production of the bulletin, that were discussed. It was good to network with other bulletin editors and treasurers. We all felt that it was a useful and productive meeting.
February 18th, DOUBLE TROUBLE - Thorman & Vince Iosso
I can only assume that probably our Vocational Director, Stan Roe, introduced Architect David Thorman to the Assemblage. I do have notes, from David that are below, only very slightly modified.
Architecture/David Thorman
February 18, 2014
"Architecture ("builder, carpenter, mason") is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings and other physical structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements. i.e. “Master Builder” “Computer architecture”.
Examples: Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Roe, Frank Gehry, Le Corbusier, and I.M. Pei
Architecture has to do with planning, designing, and constructing form, space, and ambiance to reflect functional, technical, social, environmental, and aesthetic considerations. It requires the creative manipulation and coordination of materials and technology. Architecture also encompasses the pragmatic aspects of realizing buildings and structures, including scheduling, cost estimation, and construction administration.
Documentation produced by architects, typically drawings, plans and technical specifications, defines the structure and/or behavior of a building or other kind of system that is to be or has been constructed.
Recent decades have seen the rise of specializations within the profession. Many architects and architectural firms focus on certain project types (for example, health care, retail, public housing, event management), technological expertise or project delivery methods. Some architects specialize as building code, sustainable design, technical writing, historic preservation, accessibility, and other forms of specialist consultants.
Many architects elect to move into corporate facilities planning, project management, construction management, program management, interior design or other related fields.
Education/Professional: Professional degree is a five or six year program with normal basic courses, design, structures (engineering), specifications, interior design,and landscape design. There is a three year apprenticeship. There is a tough licensure. The American Institute of Architects is the professional organization.
Personal: My track was away from design into management.
Dad was a Renaissance architect in El Paso (1914-1964): architect, furniture builder, artist , and contractor.
I Started in traditional architecture, small firms, then larger;( one man firm, 20 man firm, 3,000 man full service firm) (architecture/engineering/planning/construction management/program management).
My Career evolved from traditional architecture to project management, business development and executive management.
Projects: I have worked mostly on school, community college and university projects across the country and in the Middle East, Turkey and Mexico. Also worked on federal/state/county/municipal projects as well as some hotels and commercial projects nationally.
Most of the work was from Houston. I came to California in 1994 to head up Kitchell’s office in Sacramento. In California I was the program manager for the New Prison Program, and several school districts (including Berkeley, San Jose, Sacramento, Monterrey Bay,and Santa Cruz.
My Largest program managed was Dade County (Miami) $1.5B.
The last five years before retiring in 2010, I was as the State Architect of California. My work involved managing a staff of 350 architects, engineers and support staff, reviewing plans and construction for the 1,000 school districts of California, overseeing access compliance and sustainability. I also worked with the Building Standards Commission on updates to the California Building and Administrative codes.
How can we doubt that President Thorman, after running all those big projects, would not be capable of running our little Rotary Club. No wonder he signed on for another year as President.
Pay Back to Rancho Cordova Rotary Crab Feed, Feb 25, 2014
If, perhaps, you are feeling "guilty" for not volunteering to help the Rancho Cordova Rotary Club on the occasion of their Crab Feed last Saturday night at St. John Vianney's Church Hall (in order to return the favor of having them help us with our Crab Feed) - DON'T because eight gifted and hard working people - your peers - did show up and handled their tasks easily....
It can not be stated any better than Walter Malhoski's assessment below:
"If I counted everyone; here is listing of the 
"Rancho Helpers". Jeff T. at the stove; Vince I and Walt M at the Ceasars salad & Pasta; Phil D. at Salads and cheezer for salads and pasta; Stan R., Jay S,. A. Felix. as "crabbers" and D. Moffett as a "crabber" and "bar tender". Sorry if any person or job description was overlooked. Corrections and amplifications in future bulletins. Many thanks to all for a job well done!"
Ranch Cordova put on a very nice Crab Feed with about 470 people who attended.
Edric Cane, Ph.D., author and educator
Dictionary Project
On January 15th, the Rotary Club Chairperson for our Annual Dictionary Project, Jeff Thompson and his committee consisting of Jay Sedlak, Stan and Nan Roe, Tom Thompson, Dave Thorman and John Mangels delivered one hundred and ninety (190) new glossy Dictionaries to grateful 3rd graders at Detering and Carmichael Elementary Schools. These high quality dictionaries consist of 912 pages, fully illustrated, and published by Simon and Shuster, entitled “Dictionary for Children, 4th Revised Edition (2004)".
Jeff Thompson (photo on left) is the founder of the project for the Carmichael Club. He once was a student at Detering Elementary and struggled mightily with his spelling. Seven year’s ago, Jeff became enthused about the project because he could see that having these dictionaries, at this time in a child’s life, could markedly improve his or her chances of doing better at school and in life.
Dave Thorman, President of our Club stated: "It was extremely positive and moving for us! The kids loved the dictionaries, particularly when they found out they could keep them forever! I have learned that some kids have no books at home, so the dictionary becomes their first book. I did give a little speech in each classroom and the response was very positive from everyone. At the end of my speech I asked them to look up a word..."teacher", which they did, and started to learn how to use the dictionary."
Over the years, our Club has found that these dictionaries are not only used by the students, but also by their parents and siblings and so benefit the whole family. Each student is always thrilled to have their own book and gets to place their name on it’s inside cover.
Crab Feed - A Big Success!
Slowly, over the course of a year, the Crab Feed Project took shape, but not without some difficulties. Just a few months before the event, a new leader needed to take charge, so Walter Malhoski reluctantly stepped up as Chairperson of the event.
Walter’s enthusiasm, along with the physical capital of the Club (new words for people power), members who, long experienced with Crab Feeds, and endowed with skills deeply imbedded, some 32 members and with a dozen or so “friends of Rotary” worked tirelessly, not only in the planning and selling of tickets, but also in the execution of the project.
And the execution had to be there because it was a sell-out with upwards of 375 people at the La Sierra Community Center in Carmichael. On the day of the Crab Feed, February 1, 2014, many worked from noon to 10:30 at night at any job that was needed to help things to go smoothly.
At the podium a great DJ, the Sundance Kid, Blaine Davis, spun music, danced and frolicked the night away as Ed Bunting, along with help from
Eric Steward, oversaw the auction, both live and silent, of the various items graciously donated to the Club. Vicky Boatwright (with others) ran the “Dessert Auction” and numerous others of us helped with the set-up, running the ticket sales, wine, bar and tear-down of the bar, tables etc.
In the kitchen, Jeff Thompson, a food professional, oversaw the heating and making of the soup (clam chowder), the salad (mm-good), and the pasta (rigatoni) which was immersed in a secret sauce, whose recipe had been handed down from Tony Marques’ Portuguese grandmother. The crab also was excellent and with, of course, wonderful desserts.
We must give thanks to the boy and girl scouts, who helped with the set up of the tables in the afternoon, and, in the evening, the Jesuit High School Baseball team (Coached by the famous Joe Potulny) who served the food, cheerfully sold an abundance of raffle tickets, and helped with the break down and final cleaning.
Last but not least, we are grateful for those Rancho Cordova Rotarians who helped in the kitchen and in other areas.
AND FINALLY to all those Rotarians who sold so many tickets to the event.
This endeavor, the Crab Feed, involved the whole Club completely. I’m sure, we took in a very good profit that will be used to fund our numerous charities.
As you can see from the photos dispersed through this story and below, it was a great night and a fun time.
President David Thorman (right)
with Chairperson Walter Malhoski (left)
CRAB FEED ASSEMBLY
President Thorman immediately turned the microphone over to Crab Feed Chair Walter Malhoski. Under Walter's tutorship, the evening was spent detailing all aspects of putting on the Crab Feed, Each of the Chairs gave reports. The good news was that the Event has been sold to capacity - sold out. This brought a few problems with some over-sold tickets. As of the publishing of this Bulletin, most of the problems have been resolved. Phil Danz mentioned that his wife Katha's Soroptimist Club is having a Crab Feed at St. Ignatius Church on Friday, February 7th and have some extra tickets available - so they would be happy to take our overage. Some of these tickets have already been transferred.
As of the meeting some 6 "Live Auction Items had been offered and nearly 20 Raffle Prizes, along with 12 Silent Auction prizes. Your Bulletin Editor is looking forward to winning the Grand Prize of a 60", Smart TV, 3D by Samsung and bidding on the Weber gas barbecue.
Vicky Boatwright reported that she was hoping for about 40 desserts for the dessert auction and now have about 23. Please see if you can bring more dessert items.
The "barrel of wine" did not quite look full enough to impress the public - so we could use some more wine. Please bring it to the event and more beer.
It seemed to me that everyone knew their stations and assignments - now we just have to show up and work hard to make this the best Crab Feed ever!
Carmichael Rotary gears up for annual crab feed- Arden Carmichael Times
Windsor Care Center of El Camino - Dan Skillman
Acting Programs director Terry Sweeney introduced our speaker Dan Skillman who is Chief Administrator of the Windsor Care Center of El Camino.Terry said that Dan had been in long term care for 10 years, and received his MBA degree from the University of Colorado.
Dan said that the facility, Windsor, has been around for a long time in Carmichael and used to be called the Fontainblu Care Center.
He said that they have 178 beds and take long care and short care patients. He said that they do many therapies there, with an elegant in-house restaurant, house keeping with a large staff and nursing with 3 shifts every day.
At Windsor, they have access to in-house physicians and their goal is to keep patients from having to go back to the hospital and if possible, to be able to go back home.
They have visiting specialists such as podiatrists, internists, urologists, etc. The goal is to provide
continuing care, from the hospital to their stay at Windsor and to provide monitoring of the patient after he/she goes home. They are very up to date with computers that monitor patients, electronic systems and 160 Kiosks in their facility that facilitate "state of the art" care. Thinking about "long term care" can be a complicated business, and insurance plans can be difficult to understand. Dan mentioned that he and his staff would be happy to answer any questions about the services that are provided, types of insurance available, in order for the patient and their family to make good informed decisions regarding future need. The Windsor Care Center of El Camino is located at 2540 Carmichael Way, Carmichael, 95608. Their Website is: www.WindorCares.com. To schedule an appointment, please call (916) 482-0465.
Kathleen Adams, who is Director of Marketing at Windsor, passed out some from "hand sanitizers" and then Acting President Vince Iosso, thanked Dan for his very informative presentation and informed him that in honor of his lecture, the Club is donating a book to the Carmichael library.
The King's game - January 7, 2014
It was a beautiful night at the Sleep Train Arena and our first Rotary get together of the new year, 2014. The stock market was up near 16,500, the Forty Niners had just beaten Green Bay, 23 to 20, and guess what? The Kings defeated the mighty Portland Trail Blazers, 123 to 119.
Along with the great fellowship of the evening, life could not be any better!
Christmas Boxes for the Needy
Chamber Meeting - December 17th, 2013
It was a spec
ial Carmichael Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting - special for our Club because we had to opportunity to exhibit with our "Crab Feed Flyers", donation letters, and our NEW informational Brochure. Those Carmichael Rotarians who attended were: Judy and Terry Sweeney, Phil Danz, Walter Malhoski, John Mangels, and Jay Sedlak.
There were over one hundred people there, they introduced about six new members some who has just started businesses in the Carmichael area.
We manned the exhibit with verve, and made many new contacts, and sold eight "Crab Feed" tickets with promises from some others to buy more.
Each of the exhibitors were invited to give a 1 and 1/2 minute speech about their business or organization. Judy did a great job with her speech.
Judy and Terry Sweeney at the exhibit It is featured below:
"Hi: I am a proud member of the Rotary Club of Carmichael.
Every year our club participates in a number of projects for people in need in this very community that we all share. Every December we provide nearly a week's worth of food-sand a big turkey for Christmas Dinner to 100 families within the San J an School District.
Every October we feed over 500 Special Olympic athletes and coaches during the Northern California tournament.
As students graduate from high school each spring we provide thousands of dollars in scholarships.
Every June we generate over $25,000 for Easter Seals through our golf tournament at Ancil Hoffman. The list goes on and on.
HOW DO WE DO THAT?
Our biggest fundraiser of the year is corning up and this one event generates nearly 75 of our necessary funding. We want your help to make this year's Crabfeed the best ever! On Saturday, February 1, 2014, we will hold our annual Crab Feed and Fundraiser at the La Sierra Community Center. Please help make this event the most successful ever!
Here's how you can help.
1. Sponsor the event. ..
2.Advertise in our program and reach over 375 members of our community ...
3.Donate an auction, raffle, or dessert item ...
4. Buy tickets ....
If you haven't already, Pick up your form at our table which will explain how you can take part and help us help our community.
Merry Christmas to all"
Crab Feed Flyer
Christmas Party - December 10th
The Christmas Party, hosted by the gracious Walter and Patti Malhoski was a great success, a lot of fun and wonderful food and drinks were provided to all. The guests were there in abundant numbers - over 40. The home was beautiful, spacious and interesting. Interesting works of art on the walls and interesting "antique" furniture.
Crab Feed Donation Letter
HAPPY THOUGHTS /FINES/BELLRINGERS
There was one Birthday and one Club Anniversary celebrated today. Bill Munsterman (Birthday on 12/12) and Stan Roe (Club Anniversary, 12/31/1995, 18 years!)
Then there were a bunch of others who had various happy thoughts: John Mangels, Eric Steward, Bill Baxter, Vince Iosso, and even Chyloe Steward. Each put in a few bucks, it was a blur, but all seem happy.
| BELL RINGERS |
| BILL BAXTER |
JAY BOATWRIGHT |
ED BUNTING |
PHIL DANZ |
ALAN GALLOWAY |
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| VINCE IOSSO |
JANE IPSEN |
DUANE LABAR |
WALT MALHOSKI |
RICH PLATH |
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| STAN ROE |
JUDY SWEENEY |
JEFF THOMPSON |
JIM THOMPSON |
DAVID THORMAN |
|
| DON WANGBERG |
RICHARD SHIPP |
VICK BORGMAN |
VICKY BOATWRIGHT |
||
A "Bell Ringer" is one who has donated $100.00 to our Club projects.
Special Olympics - Saturday, October 19th, 2013
We started at 9 a.m. and the lunch bags were assembled, each with a bag of potato chips, some juice, rice crispies, condiments,apple sauce, water and a hot dog. Eventually 575 of them were produced, feeding approximately 500 "Special Olympics" participants, teachers, monitors, and other staff.
We worked in the "multipurpose" room on the sprawling campus of Sierra Gardens Park, located in Roseville. Our hot dogs were cooked (boiled) in two heavy caldrons just outside the room (on the left) and they were served on a small patio off the right side of the building.
(below left), The hot dogs being cooked, put in buns and (below right) the lunch bags assembled. We had some 16 volunteers who worked about three hours doing things: cooking, wrapping, assembling, etc.
When they came for lunch, it was a great pleasure to serve them their luncheon bags and to see their happiness. 
Jeff Thompson, Karen and Bill Munsterman with Trophy received from the Special Olympics to the Carmichael Rotary Club.
The Trophy is inscribed: "Special Olympics of Northern California" - " In appreciation of your continued support of the Special Olympics Northern California Sacramento Soccer Regional Competition" and inscribed is the Special Olympians Oath: "LET ME WIN, BUT IF I CANNOT WIN, LET ME BE BRAVE IN THE ATTEMPT"
Peace Night at the Movies
From: Lynette Andersen [mailto:landersen@lawtml.com]
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 11:44 AM
Subject: Rotary District 5180 Peace Night at the Movies
The inaugural Peace Night at the Movies was a huge success! And we’re looking forward to many more “peace movies” to come. After delicious small plates and wine at Mama Kim’s, we walked just across the alley for a private showing of “The Way” at the intimate Blue Box Theater.
Rotarians, family, and friends are invited to join us every month. Admission to the movie is FREE, but space is extremely limited (only 35). To reserve your spot, you must RSVP to landersen@lawtml.com
We meet at Mama Kim’s Restaurant (1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815) for “$5 small plates” and wine (Mama Kim’s opens at 5:30 p.m.), then take a very short stroll to the theater (right across the alley). The movie will begin around 6:30 p.m. After the movie, we reconvene at Mama Kim’s for discussion, more small plates (the $5 dessert menu) and drinks.
Join us next month (we will be presenting one “peace” movie every month) for “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930 version) on November 14, in honor of Veterans Day. Based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel of the same name, it is considered a realistic and harrowing account of warfare in World War I. The film is described in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It was the first movie to win the Academy Awards for both Outstanding Production and Best Director. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiObc2XmVqw&sns=em
December’s movie will be “Joyeux Noel”, date yet to be determined. In December, 1914, World War I was well under way. On Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in “No Man's Land” to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRrr-CDXijs&sns=em
Remember, if you’d like to join us, you must RSVP to landersen@lawtml.com
Lynette Andersen
Rotary District 5180 Peace Chair
Telephone: (916) 925-2787
Cell: (916) 600-9753
July 4th parade
Our patriotic Carmichael Rotarians manned the Float in double digit temperatures with enthusiasm and verve, whilst, thanks to Dennis Moffett's apple laptop, and speakers, we projected loud jazz music into the people that lined Fair Oaks Blvd by the hundreds and hundreds. We danced and jiggled our informational signs, showing off to the cheering crowds! Those who participated are in the photo below:
Pres. David, Toby, Dennis, Eric & Tony, Chyloe, and Cidney, Jason, Phil, Jacob, Terry, Walter, Vicky, Judy, P.P. Jay
Float party
On July 2nd, about10-15 members and friends we persuaded by Terry Sweeney to meet at Jim Thompson's house to decorate a long black trailer and make it into a superb Rotary float for the upcoming July 4th extravaganza in Carmichael. With the sustenance of pizza and beer, and about two hours of work, we were able to complete the float. Thanks to all who participated.
Pics of some of the "workers"!
Happy 4th of July!
Our Club's History
The Rotary Club of Carmichael was founded way back in 1948. In the many years since, the Club has accomplished many humanitarian projects, perhaps too many to mention in this space. Right now, we are proud of the over $1,000,000 dollars that has been contributed over the last 20 years to Easter Seals through our annual golf tournament. 
We also put on a Crab Feed in January-February that is very popular in our area and increasingly is attended by more and more people. The proceeds from this fund-raiser goes exclusively to many good works in the area.
Some of our charity projects are providing support for the Effie Yeaw preserve by providing benches and selling food and drinks, and helping out at some of their events.
;
We also help sponsor and provide food for special olympics events.
We provide Dictionaries to young students and some scholarships.
We also participate in a Rotary Speech Contest that allows the winner to have a chance at going to the District Contest and win $1000.
Along with Rotary International projects such as Polio Plus (which is eradicating polio world wide). We are a gregarious group of local business men and women who have enjoyed the fun of fellowship while doing good in the world.