Meeting was held online via Zoom and called to order at 12:30pm by Andrew Stearns. Russ Klein led the pledge of allegiance.
Guests:
Russ Klein and Mike’s friend, Tom
Inspiration:
Suzanne inspired us all to stop and smell the flowers.
Announcements:
Fire news:
Marty Fishman is still evacuated. His house is safe. Dave Hubbard talked about the headway the firefighters have made. He is under an evacuation warning. Judy is also in an evacuation warning. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church is accepting donations and volunteers. More info to come.
Updates:
Thanks to this week’s St Lukes volunteers: Grady, Carol, Meghan, & Dan.
Interact Club at Leigh High School is doing a fundraiser tonight 8/25 at Camden/Union Chipotle for Determined 2 Develop to build water projects for Malawi schools. See the flier on our website, facebook, or instagram.
Mark your calendars - First Thursday is 9/3 at 5:30 at Campo di Bocce!
Inaugural Rotary Book Club on 9/30. First book is by Rotarian Katie Rooney. Info on website.
Next week’s fun challenge: Set your Zoom avatar as your baby/childhood picture for our club meeting on 9/1! (Barry Cheskin got us started today with a picture of his adorable toddler self as his background).
Daniel Snyder said 33 people pledged their weekly rotary lunch money to RotaryClub giving us a total $390/week so far. He invites more of us to do so. You can still sign up for $5 or $20 per week, the amount you would have spent coming to Rotary in person.
Amy announced that Africa was just declared polio free! Woot woot!
Member news:
Patti helped out Sarita by installing Nicholas’ loaner portable air conditioner so she could survive the heat! Thanks Patti and Nicholas! It’s great to see Rotarians look out for each other.
Suzanne’s twin grandkids had their bar mitzvah and she got to participate via Zoom. Congratulations!
Paul updated us on his grandbaby’s big milestone.
Mike completed a race last weekend.
Guest Speaker
Avis introduced Kate Cowan and Michelle McCormick with Girl Scouts of Northern California, here to give us an update on how our contributions over the years have been spent.
Girl Scouts Norcal serves over 38,000 girl scouts with 11 council-owned camps and programs.
Top 4 things girls like from programs: trying new things, learning to be independent, challenging themselves, and problem solving without adult guidance.
They gave a huge thank you to Rotary and other orgs for our support to help generations of girls.
How our funds over the past years have helped:
Skylark Ranch facility - They built cabins with canvas windows and bunk beds to upgrade from platform tents. Girls are there for long periods of time for residence camp so it’s great to have more comfortable sleeping arrangements. They also built storage cabinets to protect supplies from critters, installed new campfire rings for easier outdoor cooking, and built a ropes course to challenge the girls to push themselves and take risks with girls on the ground cheering them on. Funds pay for both equipment and regular safety inspections.
Hidden Falls - They installed new campfire rings and some bathroom (BIFFY) replacements, renovated the rustic kitchen, rebuilt the director’s cabin, and worked on much needed road repairs.
Fire update:
Hidden Falls is in the Soquel area, safe from fires
Skylark is in the fire zone near Pescadero. They know there has been fire damage but won’t really know until it’s safe to go assess.
We are proud to support Girl Scouts Norcal.
Over the last 13 years we have contributed over $27 to this great organization.
We are all hoping the fire damage at Skylark is minimal and we are all looking forward to when Covid allows young Girl Scouts to once again gather together out in the fresh air!
Andrew closed with a quote from Mother Theresa at 1:27.