Welcome Our Newest Members

Since our agenda this week did not allow for our traditional introductions of new members, for your convenience, we are remedying that in part by including some of that information in The Pulse.

Our first new member welcomed to the club is Captain Edward Kay, United States Marine Corps.  Ed currently serves as the Executive Officer of Recruiting Station Sacramento, which covers the majority of Marine Corps Recruiting Operations in the Central California Valley and Northwestern Nevada.    Prior to his current assignment, Ed served as a Rifle Platoon Commander and Company Executive Officer while stationed stateside and overseas during two tours in Afghanistan.

Ed easily joins us in our proud Rotary tradition of Service Above Self.  He is heavily involved as member in California Marine Families, a non-profit group independent of the US Marine Corps. They conduct care package drives for troops overseas, as well as offering moral and social support for moms and dads whose sons and daughters enlist in the Marine Corps.   Another project close to his heart includes the Wounded Warrior Project.

Ed graduated from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina with his B.A. in International Relations. He quickly distinguished himself in his military career and is the recipient of the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal Second Award.

Despite being a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ed is no stranger to our part of the country.  Although he lives in El Dorado Hills, his work takes him as far south as Visalia and north to Redding.   In between his work and charitable endeavors, he is also enrolled at Drexel University LeBow College of Business as a graduate student in their Master of Business Administration program.

Our second new member, Valerie Piotrowski, returns to our club after a brief break in membership, during which she and her husband, Jon, successfully launched a new business venture. That venture is Elements Massage Folsom, a top-rated spa exclusively for therapeutic massage that offers nine serene massage rooms.  Their certified massage therapist team boasts a myriad of modalities, including deep tissue, Swedish, sports, prenatal, oncologic and trigger point.  Opened in June 2012, Elements Folsom proudly holds perfect ratings on Yelp and other websites rating customer service, product quality and environment. 

For those of you who don’t know Valerie from her membership during 2005-2012, she has had a varied and incredible career.  As a graduate of USC, she returned to hometown Sacramento to work in the Deukmejian and  Wilson gubernatorial administrations. In fact, she was confirmed by the Senate at age 25 to become the youngest deputy director in CA State government history.

Many of us got to know Valerie during her decade at Comstock’s Business Magazine, where photography for the monthly social pages was one of her many tasks.  Following Comstock’s, she worked for the Salvation Army and recruited women to its Auxiliary to help make the organization’s annual “Helping Handbags” event one the region’s most popular and successful fundraisers, and it has since been adopted by Salvation Army’s nationwide.

Valerie is also a committed volunteer and has served on many boards of directors. As an animal lover, she is perhaps proudest of her work at the SPCA where she helped to spearhead the effort to raise $3M for the new shelter.

Rotary is fortunate to have both of these creative, energetic, and skilled leaders in our club. Please welcome Ed Kay and Valerie Reynoso Piotrowski to the Rotary Club of Sacramento.