President Anne Gealta led with grace and dignity at the helm of the Rotary Club of Petaluma in 2020-2021. She was celebrated in "royal" fashion in June for her dedication and great humor during a pandemic.
Members of the club gathered at the home of Elias and Gina Husary for a wonderful evening of Rotary fellowship and fun. As usual, the club "debunks" the outgoing president in some form of comedic fashion. Since Anne preferred the title of "Queen Anne" over "President Anne" all year, a court of ladies in waiting, a few baudy wenches, a town cryer and a loyal knight provided the entertainment.
After a very relaxing cocktail hour poolside at the estate of Sir ELIAS HUSARY (he of the landed gentry class) to kick-off a festive Debunking of Queen ANNE GEALTA, our illustrious President for the challenging 2020/21 Rotary year, Queen Anne opened the meeting at the appointed hour (6:00pm), and immediately had DAN LIBARLE lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Dan did such a good job with the Pledge, that he also led us in song (God Bless America), which is much better live than the Zoom version!
Next, Queen Anne introduced her special guests, including her children, who joined us for the festivities, and then directed all of us in a very queen-like manner through the buffet line for dinner (catered by Sonoma Preferred). After dinner, albeit quiet reluctantly, Queen Anne then handed the microphone over to yours truly (MIKE BADDELEY) to commence the debunking entertainment, in his royal robe, Benjamin Franklin glasses and powdered wig, no less!
After a few jokes and some heartfelt sentiments for Queen Anne, the MC called upon Dame JUDY MCREYNOLDS, who after a few pointed barbs aimed the Queen’s way, spotted the town crier, MICHAEL AMBROSIO, who set the stage for the crowd and introduced the Queen’s Court, which consisted of some ladies in waiting, a chambermaid or two and a couple of wenches (JOANNE FERRIS, RAINE HOWE, KATHY O’CONNOR, ONITA PELLIGRINI, MAGGIE RADNEY, SHARI RANNEY and TAWNY TESCONI), all of whom shared their bawdy, raunchy sides as they “found” numerous ribald items in Queen Ann’s royal purse, none of which a proper lady would ever leave home with!! Fortunately, the Queen’s knight in shining armor (or some cheap costume rendition thereof), who looked an awful lot like Sir BRANDON TRAMMELL, rode in to the Queen’s rescue and defended her honor.
Queen Anne recovered well enough to make her way back to the podium, whereupon the MC, after thanking the entire Debunking Committee (chaired by Sir CHRIS RANNEY), presented Queen Anne with a Rotary plaque and a club gift (a gift basket filled with goodies fit for a queen).
Queen Anne then resumed the meeting and gave her final thanks to her Board, her committee chairs, our caterers and “whoever invented Zoom”!! She then summoned the incoming President, Sir RICK GORMAN, to the podium so that Rick could pin her with the Past President pin and she could pin him with the active President pin. She then dutifully turned the meeting over to new President Rick, gavel, bell and all!
President Rick thanked Queen Anne for all of her work, leadership and dedication to the Club, and then introduced his incoming board. He followed up with some general comments about his upcoming year as President (first official meeting is July 8th at the Petaluma Golf and Country Club), and then recognized our President Designee, ROYCE VAN BEBBER, who will be our Club’s 100th President. The new Prez then grabbed the gavel and banged the bell to close the meeting… and invited everyone to continue to enjoy themselves at the open bar!!