Sacramento Rotarians enjoyed yet another innovative Zoom meeting on Tuesday, May 19. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect and see each other’s faces during the pandemic stay-at-home order!
President Jim Leet (Boutin Jones) opened the meeting by greeting members and announcing that Dr. David Randal Hessl of the U.C. Davis Mind Institute had a family emergency and would reschedule for another time. This disappointment provided additional time for Major Wild of the Salvation Army’s presentation.
Jamie Furlong (Bangerter Financial Services) shared the Thought for the Day with a story from the book The Art of Possibility by Benjamin and Rosamund Stone Zander. The story was about a young Taiwanese boy seeking to understand labels and self-worth. The moral of the story was that labels are human inventions and that we all have the ability to “invent something ourselves that brightens our lives and the lives of others.” A very fitting message for these times!
President Jim then continued the meeting by leading us in a group Pledge of Allegiance.
Next, our meeting sponsor, Chris Ann Bachtel, donated her time to Salvation Army Del Oro Divisional Commander and Rotarian Major Ivan Wild. Chris Ann, a Salvation Army Board Member, noted that this week is National Salvation Army Week, making it a perfect time to reflect on the incredible outreach services provided by this outstanding organization for our most vulnerable populations.
Major Wild shared that the Del Oro Division has been serving communities in Northern California and Northern Nevada for 135 years - starting their work in the building that now houses the Firehouse Restaurant.
The Major described the Salvation Army as an “Army of Good” whose mission is to “meet human needs without discrimination,” including providing food, shelter, recovery and spiritual guidance in our communities. During this time of massive unemployment, their services are needed more than ever. Indeed, the Salvation Army food bank has experienced a dramatic increase in need, serving 10,000 area residents just in the month of April, as compared to 1500 families last April. Major Wild reported that 60 percent of the food bank clients this spring were availing themselves of the food bank services for the very first time.
With increased need comes a need for additional resources and the COVID crisis has made fundraising a challenge as the organizations regular in-person fundraising events were cancelled. However, the charity organization made due by holding 12-hour Facebook live fundraising sessions on the Big Day of Giving on May 7th. The sessions were a great opportunity for the Salvation Army to highlight their many programs designed to get people off the streets and provide them with the services they so desperately need.
Major Wild then shared a very informative video narrated by Kitty O’Neal that highlighted the great work and successes of our area Salvation Army, including that 65 percent of their clients go on to find permanent housing and nearly 100 percent go on to find permanent employment. The link to the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI_w2bgko0w&t=5s
We send out our thanks to Major Wild for the amazing and critical work he and his colleagues at the Del Oro Division of the Salvation Army continue to provide for our community.
And speaking of helping those in need, President Jim Leet noted that on the Big Day of Giving our local communities raised more than $12 million for charities in our area. It’s so wonderful that we are surrounded by such generous people!
Following Major Wild’s presentation, President Jim announced a time of fellowship through Zoom breakout sessions. In LaToya Wong’s very capable hands, meeting attendees were virtually broken up into small groups so we could visit and also discuss how we were getting on during this time of crisis. Group discussions were lively and interesting and included:
- Concern for small business and that people that are hungry.
- Concern about the safety of grandparents interacting with grandchildren.
- The need to be innovative as, we as a club and as a community, work toward more connection but with safe social distancing.
- The hope that RCS fundraising events and services would be able to go forward, including the international clean water program of which the Rotary Club of Sacramento is a leader among all other Rotary Clubs (kudos!).
- And importantly, how team work is key and will remain so as we work together to improve our community under any and all circumstances.
President Jim closed the meeting by inviting us back next week when Lindsay Burch from the B Street Theatre is our speaker. The B Street Theatre is 501(c)3 non-profit theater founded by actor Timothy Busfield in 1986. The B Street Theatre’s name is a reminder of its humble beginnings on B Street by the railroad tracks. Actors would stop in mid-sentence as a train passed. B Street recently moved into its modern venue at The Sofia – only to be closed by the pandemic. More information on the B Street Theatre can be found at the following link: https://bstreettheatre.org/.
Human connection is now more important than ever and we hope you’ll join us!