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March 28,
2019
A
rather unusual, raucous and large crowd gathered at Rotary today - it
appeared to be record attendance (the President said there were
millions of people that showed up for today's inauguration, I meant to
say meeting).
Along
with the strange weather, Kip Herzog mistakenly referred to Rick Warner
as me, Doug Hecker. Rick wasn't too sure who should've been more
offended, me or him! Kip was overheard mentioning "darn realtors
all look the same!"
Royce
Van Bebber led our club with the Pledge of Allegiance.
John
Zimmerman was feeling like Kenny Rogers and belted out the lyrics for
the club song as the rest of us sang background (I've noticed that some
are finally getting the lyrics correct towards the end of the club song
"will", not "do" - you should be proud of
yourselves, you're making progress people!
John
Dado chose God Bless America (Democracy really does work, thanks for
the choices Prez!).
President
Nistler once again handled the 'Thought of the Day' and this week only
had three thoughts (my suggestion that any additional thought over
three would be the catalyst for Stewardship equaling $50 per additional
thought must have thwarted his lust for carrying on!).
Side
Note: Anne Gealta must still be traumatized from having to lead a song
last week and was M.I.A.
The
Prez gave an update on Heidi Kuhn regarding her story that recently
appeared in the Rotarian Magazine regarding her continued effort to
remove landmines from around the world. 'Mines to Vines' is one of the
programs that clears landmines and plants vineyards through the Roots
of Peace organization (www.rootsofpeace.org).
Keep up the great, humanitarian work Heidi!
Shari
Ranney mentioned that she will be speaking next week (let's support her
and have a large attendance next week!).
Bill
Groverman gave an update regarding the Farmer's & Merchant's dinner
(Elias is paying for all of the alcohol and he said "It's the
least I can do!"). The dinner is set to take place at the Herzog Hall on Friday, April 5, 2019 from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm.
Groverman is expecting 200 - 220 people to attend and said there will
be a free raffle (over 20 items will be raffled-off and anyone can feel
free to donate an item for the raffle). The cost is $25 per person.
Our very own Jay Palm and Ralph Sartori will be cooking and Tony
Western will be handling drinks at the Husary sponsored
open bar.
Chris Ranney gave an update regarding the Miracle League Field and
mentioned volunteers are needed for opening day on
Sunday, April 14 from noon - 3:00 pm. Some of the volunteer duties
include being a "buddy" for kids with disabilities. Rotary
will be doing a BBQ (hot dogs, chips, soda). Rotary Interact Club will
also be there to volunteer and help with the day's festivities. Ranney
also mentioned that "even if you're not volunteering please come
out and enjoy the event."
Congratulations to Kip and Marilyn Herzog on their 54th wedding
anniversary! Hopefully Kip will not confuse Marilyn with someone else
("darn wives all look the same!").
President Nistler called upon Larry Jonas for Stewardship. Jonas
recently travelled to Santiago, Chile, Brazil and other locations in
South America and he donated $50 to Rotary. (If you ever have a chance
to watch Oliver Stone's documentary film 'South of the Border' I highly
recommend it).
Steve Powell has missed a few meetings due to surgery and thanked
Judy Allewelt for her home in Tahoe and he contributed to Stewardship
on Judy's behalf.
Mike
Ambrosio entertained us with stories about his recent trip to Florida
to attend Florida Spring Training for his 9th year and he donated some
of his baseball gambling winnings to the tune of $50 towards
Stewardship (Pete Rose would be proud!).
Sally
"I don't know your last name because you're not on the Rotary
website and no picture of you was taken today" won the raffle and
walked away with a bottle of wine!
Royce
Van Bebber introduced our guest speaker, local Petaluma sculpture
artist and Burning Man aficionado, David Best.
David
Best is an incredible local talent and his art includes decorating
cars, building wooden buses and 30 foot long cars, designing temples
for Burning Man and more. His works are part of the collaborative
effort of 100 - 150 people that help his designs come to life. "It
takes over 100 people to build my temples and my wife, Maggie, cooks
for the people who help to build the structures that I design." He
was very thankful for Van Bebber Brothers for years of supplying steel
and fabrication efforts for his countless projects, which are
worldwide. His daughter drove one of his creations, a 30 foot long car,
from Petaluma to Nevada when she was 17 years-old. He has also designed
many temples for Burning Man as a tribute to people who have taken
their own lives, "I build stuff that hopefully enables someone to
let go of something bad that has happened to them or someone they
know." Most of the material he uses is recycled, "I used a
lot of scrap wood from a toy maker in Rohnert Park that made dinosaur
puzzles out of wood." Ironically, Brian Breen worked for that
company in the past. "I also get scraps from Mesa Boogie in
Petaluma." He once made a temple constructed from paper and
discarded cardboard carpet rolls "I get scraps from dumpsters to
help build my art projects." He said that the paper temple that he
designed and built for Burning Man didn't do to well in the weather,
"the weather took its toll so we celebrated with a bottle of
sake." Best is very proud of our town and loves to serve our
community, "I don't want anyone to be a stranger to me." He
built a temple in Ireland and was told that due to the location nobody
would show up. "Once the temple was built, over 70,000 people
showed up within a week." For more information and incredible
images go to: www.davidbesttemples.org
This
week's Editor: Doug Hecker
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President
Nistler opened the meeting with a warm and welcome greeting: "I am, I am
your president Sam, today there will be no green eggs and ham!" He
continued, "However, there is pork on the menu so fill your bellies and
enjoy today's venue!" Just kidding - he made no mention of the above and
did not speak like Dr. Suess!
Brett
Shinn led our club with the Pledge of Allegiance. 
Elias
Husary kicked-off the club song. A curious question regarding the club song:
near the end of the song the lyrics state "I'm a fellow you seldom will
see" however, it never fails that our members sing the lyrics as "I'm
a fellow you seldom do see" (it's will, not do). Hmmm, I wonder what the
Freudian slip here is???
Peggy
Rogers, a visiting Rotarian from Sebastopol, chose America the Beautiful as the
song of the day. She was feeling rather patriotic and sported an American flag
horn hat!
Royce
Van Bebber gave an update on the Rotary Dictionary 3rd Grade Program. The
program donates $300,000 worth of dictionaries nationwide to schools. 26
schools in Petaluma receive dictionaries ($11,000 from Petaluma Rotary Club and
$5,000 from Valley and Sunshine Rotary Clubs).
A
very proud Onita Pellegrini introduced new Rotarian Alex Clark.
Joanne
Ferris, sporting a new do, won a bottle of McEvoy Ranch wine. The prez was all
smiles even though a chicken was coming in hot and headed straight for his
jugular!
Joanne
Ferris spoke about her recent vacation and paid $50 towards stewardship for her
husband, Mike. She mentioned something about Tazmania and drinking, and more
drinking, and then finishing up with drinking! President Nistler tried to
squeeze an extra $50 bucks from Mike Ferris, who denied his coup d'état!
Nistler mentioned that he was in possession of Rick Warner's checkbook and
since he was M.I.A. and didn't show up to the meeting blank checks were had by
all! That'll teach you for not showing up Rick (you just paid stewardship for
every member who was present for the remainder of 2019!).
