February 28, 2020
The Polly Klaas Foundation cannot begin to thank everyone enough for all you did to make the Crab Feed a huge success!
We raised, (including Rotary’s generous gift of $10,000) $51,160!!!
Many thanks to auctioneer, Phil Trau, for getting the crowd going! Obviously, it played a major role in the night’s success – Thank you!
The donations do not include the additional commitments of materials, or of light fixtures, or of Team Ghilotti’s increased in-kind donation, that were announced last night!
The Polly Klaas Foundation is grateful and humbled by everyone’s generosity and commitment to renovating the Theater – We have another fundraiser on March 30th at Lagunitas Brewing – which will be a completely different crowd (more details to follow). So we are going to keep this momentum going!
Once again, Thank you!
Raine Howe
This week's Editor :Doug Hecker
February 20, 2020
Our fearless leader, President Elias Husary, started off on a cheery note...
Past President John Dado recited the Pledge of Allegiance, which everyone knew quite well.
Then, Sheri Scherotter-Burwen threw us a curve-ball and sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and, regretfully, nobody joined her. President Elias promised to have the lyrics posted on the screen for the next rendition.
President Elias' demeanor began to change when he discussed the current count for Super Raffle Tickets sold....We are Woefully short of our goal, Rotarians.
SELL SUPER RAFFLE TICKETS!!!!!
There is good news...Anne Gealta reported Crab Feed attendance is near 550!!!
Rick Gorman gave his weekly update on Super Raffle Tickets, which made President Elias even more depressed...
Tom Baker was a bright spot for Raffle sales. Every year, Tom is a top performer and never fails to support our Club. In appreciation, he received a Rotary mug.
Thank you, Tom!
Cindy Thomas gave a fabulous Craft Talk. Thank you, Cindy, for sharing your history and values with us.
Alex Clark won the Raffle and left some $$ in the bag.
Gail Cardaroploi saw her shadow...
...and Michael Caruana got away very easily from the Fine Can and only had to contribute $20
Suzanne Tucker introduced our great Speaker...
Melanie Parker, Deputy Director of Sonoma County Parks.
Melanie did a great job outlining the current state of county parks, what is on the future horizon for parks in SoCo, and how we can all get involved in protecting this vital resource that serves everyone.
She was assisted by Drew Halter, Recreation Supervisor for the City of Petaluma.
Both speakers did a great highlighting the amazing resources that we have in our area and how we can improve our health and well-being by simply accessing these programs and parks.
REMEMBER ROTARIANS...SELL SUPER RAFFLE TICKETS!!!!!
This week's Editor: Ricardo Marzo
February 13, 2020
Right on time, President Elias struck the bell and convened another meeting of the Petaluma Rotary Club.
He found Mike Ambrosio hiding in the corner and called on him to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Hiding in the back of the room didn’t help either as Mike Baddeley was drafted as songleader. Mike led us in a spirited God Bless America.
Jim Symons delivered four impressive thoughts for the day:
- A goal without a plan is nothing but a wish.
- Let people know they are not alone.
- Stare hatred in the face and it will turn away.
- Find yourself by losing yourself in service to others.
Maggie Radany introduced our lone visiting Rotarian, former member Jim Becker, visiting from Hilo, Hawaii. The weather required a jacket over the aloha shirt but Jim flashed a shaka brah! to the crowd.
Suzanne Tucker introduced Diane Dragone of Cinnabar Theater who thanked our club for its support of their youth scholarship program. She also plugged their major fundraiser, Broadway Bash, February 29th at the Doubletree Hotel.
President Elias introduced his guest, a repeat visitor, Sabrina from ServPro.
Join President Elect Anne Gealta at the District Training Assembly in Santa Rosa on Saturday, April 11. It promises a day filled with great Rotary topics and interactive conversation working with other Rotarians in District 5130. Contact Anne for more information.
Chris Ranney led off a team of members working on the February 28 Crab Feed.
Maggie Radany and Anne Gealta that the event was almost sold out with some 525 tickets already sold. If you haven’t arranged your ticket/table needs you may be too late. Contact Maggie or Anne right away.
Raine Howe described the great items to be auctioned at the Crab Feed and passed on Joanne Ferris’ request for setup assistance from 9-12 Friday morning, February 28.
Rick Gorman’s message was simple. Sell those raffle tickets! Kip Herzog was the leading seller this week with 77 tickets. President Elias still has the all-time record with 82 tickets in one week.
Michael Caruana has collected 500 children’s books for shipment to Belize. Mike is getting transportation assistance from a fantastic organization, the Global Book Exchange in San Rafael.
President Elias reported that dictionary delivery to local third graders is going well. It’s not too late to volunteer for this heartwarming task.
Brandon Trammell won a bottle of wine in this week’s raffle. Next week the pot will be worth $225.
Hard at work to get her chicken badge Suzanne Tucker gave her craft talk today. She described growing up in Oklahoma, graduating from Wellesley College, and earning her master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. After stints at Bank of America and Wells Fargo she left the banking world to found One Stop Graphics, a pioneering advertising/marketing startup in San Francisco. She spends her free time traveling the world with her husband, Bill.
Catching Suzanne at the same meeting with Chris Ranney gave President Elias the opportunity to fine both of them for some raffle ticket confusion. After protesting that he wouldn’t be fined, Chris offered to pay Suzanne’s $30 fine and matched it with $30 for himself.
Doug Hecker introduced today’s program.
Andrea Pierotti , a Petaluma native and craft beer aficionado, is an attorney by day and a beer judge at night. She described the Beer Judge Certification Program and gave us a judging opportunity by serving beer samples with the requisite tasting criteria and scoresheets. She is a graduate of the Craft Beer Appreciation certificate program at Sonoma State University and started NorCalBeerLaw.com to help home-brewers and beer-related businesses navigate local laws, business and tax issues, ABC regulations, and business enterprises.
Andrea was assisted by her husband, Houston Porter. Here we learned to avoid beer in green bottles unless purchased in light-resistant packaging as shown above.
This week's Editor: Al Cattalini
February 6, 2020
President Elias called the meeting to order.
Dan Berry led the club as we sang "America"
Sherry Burwen's Thought for the Day was one of appreciation for Rotary and specifically our club. Thanks for the kind words Sherry!
Our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Max joined us this week. Dan and Shellie Berry brought him to the meeting.
President Elias introduced his guest, his wife Gina!
Past President Chris Ranney announced we are reaching capacity for the Crab Feed. Now is the time to get your final table reservations squared away with President Elect Anne Gealta and Maggie Radany.
Brian Breen reported the Super Raffle ticket sales are starting to come in. Team members should turn their tickets into their captains. There is still a long way to go toward our goal.
And now for the fine portion of our weekly meeting. President Elias was in rare form. Kathy O'Connor paid $50.
Past President Dan Libarle paid $50 celebrating his streak of attending every Superbowl in which the SF 49ers played.
Brian Breen paid $50 for
a. Sporting black leather biker gear
b. Leaving his cool bike jacket at Chad's place
c. Channeling his mid-life crises through a very impressive motorcycle
d. All of the above.
President Elias also paid $50 for his own mid life crisis purchase.....a Ferrari.
Dan Berry and Raine Howe each received their official Petaluma Rotary Chicken Badges.
Chad Fillinger's ticket was the winning one chosen during the weekly raffle.
We had a very interesting and informative program from
David Fichera & Nathan Libecap on
Digital Learning in Petaluma City Schools.
This week's Editor: Joanne Ferris