December 19, 2024
President-elect, Shari Ranney, called the meeting to order (where's Waldo-Ricardo Marzo???).
Ugly Christmas Sweaters were on display for all to enjoy!
John Grimes was called upon to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Doug "Christopher" Cross performed holiday music for all to enjoy!
Mike Ambrosio handled the 'Thought for the Day' and let us know that his two grandsons will be playing in college football bowl games over the holidays. He then attempted to tell some Bad Grandpa holiday jokes with puns intended!
Dan Berry's guest, Kevin McDonnell, Petaluma Mayor, was happy to join our meeting and mentioned that he's the Zamboni driver at the Petaluma Ice Skating Rink. Mike Caruana's wife, Diane was also a guest in attendance.
Former member, Steve Powell, was John Zimmerman's guest and he presented a Paul Harris award to John's late wife, Anne.
Janice Cader Thompson, Petaluma city council member, joined our meeting as a guest of Cindy Thomas.
Brian Breen gave an update about the Annual Crab Feed and Tom Baker Super Raffle. Brian thanked Cindy Thomas for spending hours setting up the link to register for the crab feed on our website. The goal is for each member to sell at least 12 Super Raffle tickets and Brian has a great script that is proven to sell a lot of tickets. Please get your tickets to sell from Brian or former president John Gorman. Please read the Super Raffle script below and feel free to use it:
As you know, I'm a Rotarian
in the Petaluma Rotary Club. Each year, we conduct our biggest fundraising
event, The Annual Tom Baker Super Raffle.
The proceeds go towards all the good deeds that Rotary does for our community.
These include supporting other non-profits, maintaining parks and
playgrounds, providing dictionaries to every third-grade student, hosting youth
leadership programs, providing holiday gifts to underprivileged children, and
so much more.
That leads me to why I'm emailing you. Would you like to help support the
Petaluma Rotary Club and the community by purchasing a raffle ticket? Consider
it a donation, and who knows, you may win.
If you are interested, here's how it works. The tickets are $30 each, which I
understand may sound a bit expensive; however, the grand prize is significant:
$8,000 CASH!!! Plus, five additional cash prizes, as you will see on the
raffle tickets.
Just email me back with the number of tickets you would like, and I will mail
them to you. Once you receive them, fill out the stubs, include your cash or
check (written to the "Rotary Club of Petaluma") and
mail them back to me. The last day for entry is February 20, 2025 (the
raffle will take place at the Annual Rotary Crab Feed on Friday, February 21,
2025).
Also, I know everyone likes a deal, so I'll make you one. If you feel generous
and want 4 tickets, it'll only cost $100, and I'll cover the other $20. Oh, and
if you win, I promise you don't have to share the prize with me.
Whether you choose to participate
or not, thanks for reading, and thank you for being a great client!
Past President, Elias "Blue Car" Husary, gave an update regarding the $50 Christmas gift cards from Target, which were delivered during the storm to 186 kids at 10 local schools. An additional 15 gift cards were delivered to other local families in need. Elias thanked Judi Allewelt for all of her help!
Joanne Ferris won the raffle and a bag of coffee!
Jan Grimes introduced our guest speaker, Damon Connelly, California State Assembly Member.
Our guest speaker, Damon Connelly, California State Assembly Member, gave an update regarding the 13 bills that were passed and signed by the Governor. Connelly was a former SMART Train board member and gave an update on the SMART Train. Notice the 'Rotary Halo' around Connelly's head!
Shari Ranney thanked Damon for visiting.
Today's Editor: Doug Hecker
December 12, 2024
President RICARDO MARZO began the meeting with some cheering holiday music, some at least from the Petaluma Educational Foundation's (sponsored by Rotary) production of the classic, A Christmas Carol.
Modesty forbids today's editor mentioning the brilliance of the Thought for the Day.
(Though the speaker does look like someone with a slight intestinal complaint in this photo.)
President RICARDO then made several announcements.
First off, that the Rotary International Peace Conference would be held "right in our back yard" in January. (I believe it will be held at the Double Tree Inn in Rohnert Park, 01/26/25, but check the listings.
Next a shout out to the Program Committee, especially with regard to the great job they did inorganizing he Christmas Party.
ROYCE VAN BEBBER gave us an update on the forthcoming Crab Feef, set for 02/21/25. The price will be the same as last year's price, which can't be said for many things.
RICK GORMAN gave us information about the upcoming Super Raffle (our club's largest fundraiser) and reminded us of BRIAN BREEN'S "corny but highly effective" letter for selling tickets. (Those words were used originally by BRIAN.)
LEE REPOSA let us know that Boy Scout Troop 8 (affilaiated with us) is selling Christmas treees at Pronzini's old place near the Fairgrounds.
RICK MOSSI provided us with some useful information about the activity of the Rotary Foundation, particularly its plans to expand our presence in local charity work. The Foundation can be accessed on our web site. If you have any ideas for the Foundation to help fund, please let the Foundation know directly --please send a cover note with your suggested good cause, explaining the cause and why we may want to fund it.
ELIAS HUSARY was awarded a bottle of wine as Rotarian of the Month.
BANO CUMMONGS was the lucky winner of the Raffle...another bottle of wine.
BRANDON TRAMMELL introduced our guest speaker, MARBARA McCHESNEY (Windsor Rotary) who gace us a talk about the plastics crisis. The talk itself was informative, terrifying, and ultimately hopeful, since it offered all of us courses of action to take, whether individually or as part of humanity, to solve that terrible poblem.
With that, PRESIDENT RICARDO thanked our speaker and the meeting was dismissed.
Today's editor: Chris Elzi
December 4, 2024
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Today’s Editor: Michael Caruana