|
March 8, 2018
It
was a sunny spring Thursday when President
Chris Ranney called together the Rotary Club of
Petaluma at the Petaluma Golf and Country Club. The Prez again
reminded us that our club was chartered March 30, 1923, and this month
we will be “95 years young.” He welcomed members and guests and noted
how proud he is to be our club’s president.
President Chris then
welcomed Past
President Ralph Sartori to the meeting (a rare sighting
to be sure) and asked him to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. President Chris then
called on Brian
Breen to lead in song and by the semi-in-tune sounds of
our club song and God
Bless America, this reporter was wishing for a visit from
famed club warblers Barney
Fauss and Herb
Bundesen.
President Chris called on Danny Fish for
the Thought for the Day. Danny
reminded us he’s “big on Disneyland” so chose a few quotes from Walt
Disney, a Rotarian in Palm Springs, who noted, it’s “fun to do the
impossible” and Danny
sees Rotarians as the type of people that make the impossible
happen.
President Chris invited
everyone to get started on friendship greetings. We had no
Visiting Rotarians.
Rotarians
with Guests self-announced and included Danny Fish who introduced his
lovely wife Debbie and the day’s speaker, Jessica Power, Fire Marshall
with the City of Petaluma.
President Chris called
our attention to thank you letters on each table from 3rd
grade dictionary recipients, who in their own delightful way expressed
bright appreciation for their new treasures made possible by our
club. Along that same vein, Past President Ralph Sartori read
a thank you letter from his daughter, and St. Vincent’s teacher, for
the Dictionary Project and what it means to students and teachers
alike. Proud Papa Ralph
showed his gratitude for having such an amazing daughter by donating $100
to the Dictionary Project in honor of Marlene Freetly.
President Chris called on Maureen Rudder
who shared the good news that last Saturday she became grandmother to
two tiny new grandbabies born in San Francisco and now doing well in
the Santa Rosa NICU. Congrats, Maureen!
President Chris noted the
passing of David Allen (Doc) Sisler (1927-2018) and ask for a moment of
silence in honor of a great Rotarian and friend to the community.
Judy Allewelt let us know
that Doug Hecker’s dad passed away and gave us the details on the
memorial service.
President Chris called on Michael Caruana
who led this year’s wildly successful Crab Feed. Seems Michael
was visiting a “sick friend” on the ski slopes of Utah last week when
he might otherwise have been thanking all those who helped make this
year’s event such a success. He noted that over 85 volunteers
helped in many ways, and then called out special thanks to: Joanne Ferris, Judi
McReynolds, Tony Wester, Charlie Stewart, Chris Albertson, Bano
Cummings, Renee Hayes, Maureen Rudder, Ricardo Marzo, Chris Ranney,
Michael Nistler, Brandon Trammel, Rick Warner, Larry Jonas and Tawny
Tesconi. And when that was done, President Chris double
thanked Michael
for stepping up early on to chair the Crab Feed and congratulated Jane Saldaña-Talley
on winning this year’s Super Raffle Grand Prize. What an amazing
club we are!
President Chris reminded us
that the Super Raffle team winners will be going to McEvoy Ranch soon
to bask in their collective success.
Joanne Ferris gave an
update on the upcoming SCARC dinner hosted by our club on Thursday,
March 29. This event replaces the meeting for that day. The
speaker for the evening should be entertaining on the topic of “How to
Get Millennials to Give a @#*!” Sign up with Gail Cardaropoli
now!
Bill Groverman talked up the
April 6th Farmers and Merchants Night; this year dedicated
in honor of Don Ramantici. All you can eat stew and potlenta for
$25. Bill
is still collecting raffle prizes (he needs about 15) to give out that
night. All attendees receive a raffle ticket at the door and
prize winners are always delighted by whatever they win.
President Chris reminded us
of the April 7th District Training Assembly at the Finley
Center in Santa Rosa.
Here’s
a good Rotary riddle: What does 130 + 14 + 3 + 4 + 16,500 get
you? Answer: The ‘greening’ of our beautiful community by
way of a Tri-Club Tree Planting Project, that’s what! President Chris briefed
us on this amazing effort he hatched with group of us club members (one
of the reason’s he’s been selected as Petaluma Citizen of the Year, in
this reporter’s humble opinion!). It involves planting 130 trees
in 14 parks by 3 clubs over 4 days in April and May using $16,500 in
District grant funds. President
Chris is looking for site leaders and volunteers for
Thursday, April 12 and Saturday, April 14; Thursday, April 19 and
Saturday, April 21; Thursday, May 3 and Saturday, May 5; and Thursday,
May 10 and Friday, May 11. Site leads will meet for training with
the City of Petaluma staff of one hour on the Thursday before the
Friday or Saturday planting day. The City will dig all the holes
(whew…that’s a relief!) and we plant the trees designated for the
park. Each planting workday starts and 10:00 am and food and
refreshments will be provided.
President Elect Michael Nistler gave a brief
update on his attendance at the recent PET (Presidents Elect Training),
wherein he was one of 450 PE’s. He claims that as a result he’s
“now dangerous” and we certainly agree! :-) As an expression of
his gratitude for all that training, Michael gave $50 for a bottle of
wine and $85 toward his Paul Harris Award.
President Chris checked in
with Judi
McReynold’s (last week’s raffle winner).
Apparently, Judi was so excited by having won, she “lost” her NBW (nice
bottle of wine). Judi
expressed her gratitude to those honest Rotarians who found and rescued
her abandoned NBW by donation $50 toward her Paul Harris Award.
President Chris reminded
everyone that next week’s speaker is Janet Martinez, JD, PhD, Senior
Lecturer at Stanford who will speak on the topic of Conflict
Resolution.
President Chris called out
the week’s raffle and the winner was Steve Powell, who got one of the
many blue rocks and won himself a NBW…we sure hope he remembered to
take it with him!
Danny Fish introduced our program
speaker, Jessica Power, Fire Marshall for the City of Petaluma.
Jessica (aka “Probie’s Mom”), standing next to a picture of her and
Probie (aka Jessica’s canine fire prevention training partner), is a
Chico State grad (much to the delight of President Chris)
and has been on the job for about 7 months, after serving a similar
assignment in Tiburon. She heads up the Fire Prevention Bureau
for the city; an agency designed to “protect citizens and
firefighters.” Her unit and a team of fire inspectors handles
plan review, fire code inspections and enforcement, weed
abatement/defensible space, and offers public education on disaster
preparedness. Very timely information. Thanks, Jessica!
President Chris then ended
the meeting by thanking all involved with making this a great meeting,
and reminded us we’ve got lots of events coming up, so stay informed!
This
week's Editor: Jane Saldaña-Talley
|
