September 23, 2019

GOLF ANYONE??  Aye! Aye!....as fellow Rotarians, family members and golfers responded and congregated at the Petaluma Country Club for the annual tournament to fulfill their golfing craze.

Under the umbrella of a bright blue sky, vivid sunshine and an Autumn breeze co-chairs, President elect Anne Gaelta and Rick Warner, along with a group of loyal fellow Rotarians arrived at the club Monday morning to ready the facility for the fun filled event.

Among the things to be readied for the onslaught of 44 golfers were the golf carts, registration tables, luncheon food, decorations for the evening dinner, and posters celebrating the sponsors ....to name a few.

Happily, as the nattily attired golfers began to arrive, everything was in place.

The air was full with fellowship and camaraderie as the participants enjoyed their outdoor lunch prior to teeing off.

Most of the attendees bought mulligans and access to the putting contest before taking off to the course in their assigned carts. A fun filled day was about to be realized!

Strategically located refreshment stations kept the golfers hydrated and happy as they enjoyed chasing dimpled white spheres up and down the hills.

The putting competition winnowed the contestants down to four finalists who, after all scorecards had been turned in, met on the 18^th hole.  The competition was intense and the putting superb.  Dan Berry showed his skill and won the prize.

The 19^th hole was a popular place as golfers and non-golfers alike mingled, conversed, and imbibed.  Then it was time for dinner, a great roast beef and chicken spread with all the fixings.

Finally it was time for an abbreviated Rotary meeting.  President Elias welcomed the crowd, led the Pledge of Allegiance (no Elias, you don’t sing it!) and God Bless America (sung), and decided to do some fining.

Lost and found department: Who was the intrepid golfer who actually lost his putter out on the course?  (Or, maybe threw it in exasperation?) 

The owner happily claimed it, and since he was a non-member Elias graciously waived the fine.

After thanking Anne Gealta and Rick Wagner for a job well done, President Elias stepped back so Anne and Rick could proceed with presenting awards to the golfers.

There were lots of awards but your faithful reporter did a poor job of keeping up with them.   We have some of them here and hope to hear more from the golf gods at a later date.

As we already reported, Dan Berry won the prize for putting.

Winning the prize for longest drive was Anthony Garotti with a reported drive of 652 yards (what?).

Mike Baddeley was closest to the pin on the 17^th hole; and Dan Berry was closest on the 6^th.

There were lots of “winners” in the impromptu Polio Pledge.  Eight golfers coughed up $100 apiece for not beating the winning golfer, Dan Berry, (sound familiar?).  Dan escaped paying $100 and the other eight saw their $800 tripled to $2,400 by the generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates.

A special bunch of winners are the sponsors who generously supported the event:

Gold Sponsor: Jeremy Forcier/Cross Country Mortgage

Bronze Sponsors: Anne Gealta/AG&Company Real Estate; Hansel Auto Group

19^th Hole Sponsors: Gary Buffo/Pure Luxury Transportation; Henris Roofing; Tomrose Construction

Putting Green Sponsor: Marr B. Olsen Inc.

Hole Sponsors: Dr. Clyde Schultz, DDS; Marilyn Herzog/Marilyn Can Travel; Dr. John Zimmerman; Exchange Bank; Keith Giusto Bakery Supply; Doug Hecker/Coldwell Banker; Brodie’s Tire and Brake; Rick Warner/Rick Warner Real Estate; Chris Ranney/Ranney Consulting; Capitol Electric Construction Company; Sonoma County Farm Bureau

Tee Sponsors: Tony Western/Vine Hill Builders Inc.; Alex Clark/Edward Jones; Mireille Broussard/EXP Real Estate

Cart Sponsors: Sonoma Marin Landscape; Exchange Bank

Special thanks to: Insignia branding and Zephyr Printing for the banners and signs; Judy McReynolds for the table centerpieces

Anne observed that working with Rick involved a lot of “cat food.”  That’s her pronunciation of “CTFD,MF” which was embroidered on the golf shirt she presented to Rick.  Seems the acronym stands for “Calm the f— down, m— f—.”

As the meeting concluded President Elias reminded everyone that we are dark this Thursday and that next week’s meeting (October 3) will be at the Rotary Pavilion in Luchessi Park.  It starts at noon.  See you there!

This week's Editors: Mike Ambrosio and Al Cattalini

September 19, 2019

President Elias Husary led the Pledge of Allegiance and later mentioned that the Sonoma State Rotaract Club is doing a coat drive for C.O.T.S. from 10/01/2019 - 11/01/2019. Please e-mail Elias or sonomastate.rotaract@gmail.com. 

Past President Michael Caruana chose God Bless America and asked his disciples to sing in the "Key of C"! Mike Baddeley thought the "Key of Sea" was a restaurant in Bodega Bay and asked me for directions (I told him to check in with President Elias and Raine Howe, who were both trying to find it on Elias' laptop - "sea" the picture below):

Elias looking quite puzzled as to the whereabouts of "Key of Sea". Raine wasdoing her best impersonation of 'Where's Waldo' and thinks she found it! Raine later went on to win the raffle and scored a bottle of wine!

Sherry Scherotter-Burwen delivered the 'Thought of the Day.' She mentioned a trip to Europe back in 1965 that included tanks, women with guns, spy movies, living on $5 bucks a day, etc., which led up to the climactic ending - "Happy New Year!" Did I miss something? Did former president Nistler secretly return and steal another 4 months of our lives and we're actually in the month and year of January 2020??? I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone after today's meeting!!!

We were in the Twilight Zone! This guy arrived at the back window and exited out of the top of his flying saucer! Apparently, he was using a listening device pressed against the window so he could eavesdrop on our meeting! I suppose this is why we didn't have any visiting Rotarians - we had a visitor from Outer Space! However, Onita Pellegrini brought a guest - Cindy Thomas from Petaluma Community Access.

Michael Caruana gave an update about InterAct, which needs Rotarians to attend InterAct meetings once a month to help get students engaged and involved. Please reach out to Michael if you're interested.

Ann Gelta (Anne Gealta) thanked everyone who stepped up for the golf Tournament, which is on Monday, September 23, 2019 at 11:30 am at the Petaluma Golf & Country Club (44 golfers are participating). A special thank you to Jay Palm and Ralph Sartori for cooking lunch! Anne mentioned that the sponsors have donated over $9,000 (hopefully President Elias will use some of the proceeds to purchase Spell Check add-on software to Microsoft Word! Note: Anne tried to turn the table on President Elias and fine him for misspelling her name to no avail (I heard someone in the back mention that only a past president can fine a current president - better luck next time An Gelata!!!).

Anne also mentioned that she has gotten close to Rick during the process of handling the Golf Tournament duties! Rick said she was supposed to keep that between them (wink, wink)! Rick went on (not as long as Sherry) and challenged Rick Gorman's golf team to a $100 bucks for the team that loses the golf tournament (loser pays and the money is donated to the Rotary Polio fund). The $100 donation will actually be increased to $300 due to the matching funds program.

Rick Gorman accepted Rick Warner's challenge, but wasn't impressed with the idea of Mulligans. However, after some schmoozing by Rick Warner he agreed that even though Mulligans are for Realtors each team can purchase four Mulligans (one per player). Royce Van Bebber's team and Mike Stauber's team also agreed to participate in the Challenge!

Brian Breen was all smiles as he explained why he missed last week's meeting - apparently, he attended a sub-committee meeting with past president Lee Raposa, Rick Gorman and Royce Van Bebber, which was held at the Giants game. President Elias was invited to attend, but declined due to his allegiance to Rotary. The four misfits were hopeful that since they invited President Elias he would not fine them for missing the Rotary meeting. However, President Elias thought otherwise and fined them for not answering baseball trivia correctly.

Brandon Trammell introduced this week's guest speaker, Mark Marinozzi, V.P. of Marketing for World Centric. 

Mark Marinozzi, V.P. of Marketing for World Centric, a local company that produces 100% compostable products using plant based plastics and other products that are made from renewable resources, explained that their products require less energy and water to produce and reduce pollution and waste.

Marinozzi explained that World Centric donates 25% of their profits to grassroots community projects around the world. These projects provide basic needs and economic development opportunities for communities experiencing extreme poverty, while benefically impacting the environment. "We hope to not only provide assistance but help create systems change at the root of the issues."

This week's Editor: Doug Hecker

September 12, 2019

President ELIAS HUSARY opened our regular luncheon meeting to a sparse crowd at precisely 12:30.

He immediately had JUDI ALLEWELT lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

ALEX CLARK then led us in song (Rambler/Gambler and God Bless America), followed by the Prez channeling his inner JOHN DADO to deliver the Thought for the Day!  The customary handshakes, hugs and busses amongst the members ensued.  We had one visiting Rotarian (Paula Johns from the Petaluma Valley Rotary Club), who introduced herself and our shared Exchange Student, Max Stoevelaar (from the Netherlands).

MIKE STAUBER and Paula then jointly announced the upcoming Blues Buster event for the incoming Youth Exchange Students and made an appeal for volunteers for the dinner scheduled on Sept. 18, and for drivers to get them to and from their SF tour the following day (Sept. 19)- please call Mike if you can help out.

JUDI ALLEWELT reminded us of the monthly SCARC meeting on September 26 at the Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club- call Judi if you would like to attend. 

RICK WARNER, after giving a big shout-out to his  Co-Chair, President-Elect ANNE GEALTA, gave us an update on the Club’s upcoming annual golf tournament- if you want to play and/or sponsor please sign up as soon as possible.

Next, the Prez reported on the upcoming Miracle League Day festivities last weekend, and reminded us of the Down Syndrome Association of North Bay fundraiser to be held there on September 28.  He went on to inform us that the planned corn maze club field trip event scheduled for Oct. 3 has been cancelled.  Instead, our field trip will be at the Miracle League site on that date to tour the field and enjoy a great lunch.  The Prez conclude the announcement portion of the meeting by letting us know that the Fund-a-Teen in Need program is now on our Club website and has been presented to the local junior high and high school administration.

Realizing that the meeting was unnaturally quiet, the Prez astutely noted that BRIAN BREEN and his merry band of mischief makers (RICK GORMAN, LEE RAPOZA and ROYCE VAN BEBBER) were MIA, so he called Brian and surprise, surprise, he and his fellow Rotary cohorts were at the Giants’ game, conducting an ad hoc “sub-committee” meeting according to group spokesman Gorman - the Prez promised big fines for all when they get back!

Refusing to let his fine frustration build up to critical mass, the Prez called upon RAINE HOWE to explain her version of an “emergency” that would justify her telephone ringing at the last meeting, and her hasty exit therefrom... 

. . . apparently, a call from a good samaritan (fellow Rotarian MICHAEL AVERY) letting her know that her little dog being lost and wandering around the Country Club parking lot fits the bill. A happy ending for Raine and her dog, but the unmoved Prez (clearly, a cat lover) fined her $50 nonetheless!

Speaking of lost, I’m sure that the Prez’ missing microphone attendant (the usually reliable KATHY O’CONNOR) greatly exacerbated his feeble fine condition, and that there will be a spirited fine spree at our next meeting- stay tuned!

Ticket #857 proved a winner for SVEINN SIGURDSSON, who then pulled the brown rock to claim all the cash ($100), which he generously donated to the Polio Plus matching funds program! Thanks, Sveinn! 

Yours truly (MICHAEL BADDELEY) then introduced our speaker, JEFF MAYNE, who gave us a very thorough presentation on funding the regular dredging of the Petaluma River without any governmental financial assistance. He fielded a volley of great questions, and received a nice bottle of wine for a program well received.

Whereupon, the Prez summarily adjourned the meeting and wished a wonderful weekend to all.

This week's Editor: Mike Baddeley

September 5, 2019

We’re sorry, but today’s photos have vanished.

President Elias Husary called the meeting to order and Alex Clark led all in the Pledge of Allegiance.  

Past President Clark Rosen, visiting from Colorado was our songleader for the day.

Chris Elzi presented the Thought for the Day with a tale and Quote from Abraham Lincoln.  It involved an outhouse so for the sake of everyone, we'll leave it at that.

World Service Committee Co-Chair Shari Ranney expressed gratitude to the members who worked at the August 5 Tri-Club "For the Children" benefit at Brewsters.  Total proceeds from the great night of Rotary and community fellowship were $7,759.00. Our club's share for Rotary Global Projects was $2,501.

Youth Exchange Chair Mike Stauber announced the Blues Buster trip for inbound youth exchange students is scheduled for October 18 - 20 in Petaluma.  Our club is responsible for preparing a barbecue dinner for the kids on Friday night.  Please let Mike know if you can help.  There is also a need for bringing kids Saturday morning to the Larkspur Ferry and picking them up that evening.

Golf Tournament Committee Co-chairs Anne Gealta and Rick Warner updated announcements for the tournament on Monday, September 23.  Here are the important details:

• We have 10 foursomes to date and we could use at least 4 more.
• Online registration is still open but please note it will be closing the week before.  You can certainly call or email Anne and pay with a check after that.
• You can pay for dinner tickets online as well
• We have all sorts of sponsor options available and we hope members will support the event at a level that makes sense for their business.

Club Secretary Gail Cardaropoli reminded everyone the next SCARC dinner will be September 26 at the Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club.  The price is $55 per person and you can let Gail know by September 19 to make reservations.

President Elias announced the August Rotarian of the Month....Mike Ferris.  As the treasurer of the club, Mike spends many hours each week sending reports and updates  to everyone  We are grateful for all his hard work.  His spouse neglected to send a current headship of Mike so Elias was able to search the web for a close match. 

A very well-deserved tribute to John Zimmerman, DVM appeared in a recent issue of UC Davis' alumni magazine journal recognizing John's continued involvement with the university.  John wisely paid his fine schedule in advance for the year and received a round of applause!

Past President Joanne Ferris was asked why she did not attend the very fun Boozy

Bocce night for members at the home of Elias and Gina Husary.  Joanne's explanation about a tiny rock becoming lodged next to her car's router led to the subject of a recent parking lot collision with Past President Tawny Tesconi.  Tawny countered that Joanne was actually pulling out of her space in the wrong direction.  They disclosed that the altercation occurred as they were leaving a debunking planning meeting for Past President Michael Nistler.  Perhaps the event discussion distracted them a little too much.  Fines were levied against both Joanne and Tawny.  Joanne's fine was increased since she forgot to provide a photo of husband Mike for Rotarian of the Month.

Doug Hecker took a well-deserved vacation.  He was trying to give a report to the club but President Elias had to step in and correct member Brian Breen who was on his phone.....call Elias.

Brian, standing to respond to President Elias' inquiry, replied he was acting on behalf of Past President Mike Baddeley.  Mike, sitting, stated that he had asked to make an announcement to the club.  Since President Elias was well into the fining portion of the meeting and had not called on Mike for the announcement, Mike questioned if there was even an agenda to follow.

After Brian paid a $10 fine for using his phone to call the president during a meeting, Mike made his announcement:  He is actively seeking feedback on two past club events:

1. The All-Day Breakfast, established by Past President Gene Benedetti in the 1950's.  Was there interest in reviving this event where all members work shifts and invite friends, co-workers, clients, neighbors and families to a community breakfast.  Perhaps for half a day instead of all day?
2. The Friendship Feast was started by Past President Kip Herzog during his year.  Originally is was several dinners hosted in homes of members where 6-12 other members and their partners enjoyed a nice meal.  Last year, there was a large group cocktail party for members.  Is there an interest in one over another of these options?

Eventually, Doug was able to give a report on his vacation.  He and his family enjoyed hiking, fishing, quad riding along with general rest and relaxation.  He pulled a $10 bill, four crumpled $1's and four quarters from his pocket to pay his fine.  Looks like he used all his spending cash on vacation fun!

Chris Elzi was the lucky raffle winner this week.  He took home a bottle of red!

Suzanne Tucker introduced the program speaker for the day.

Diane Dragone, Executive Theater of Cinnabar Arts Corporation talked about the wide range of performing arts programs for youth and previewed the upcoming season at Cinnabar Theater.

This week's Editor: Joanne Ferris