PRESIDENT KEVIN SMITH-FAGAN (Executive Director of Fairytale Town) rang the Rotary bell with his gavel to call to order the first Sacramento Rotary Club of December 2020! PRESIDENT KEVIN mentioned that this meeting just so happens to fall on Giving Tuesday, a day where we encourage Rotarians and other community members alike to donate to causes that matter to us. What better day to be acknowledging the achievements of our club’s foundation, he stated.
ALLISON CAGLEY (Sergeant in Arms) (Executive Director of Friends of Sacramento Arts), asked any guests to please announce themselves. JAMES BELLEFEUILLE introduced himself as a first timer and prospective club member!
PRESIDENT KEVIN recruited JAMES to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. PRESIDENT KEVIN then asked JAMES to share a little information about himself. JAMES is an entrepreneur who originally relocated from Minneapolis and just recently moved to Sacramento with his wife after living in Los Angeles as well as Oakland.Throughout his life he has been involved in Rotary and other service clubs.
The gavel was passed to our honorable Chair of the Day and Sacramento Rotary Foundation President, RICK DAVIS. RICK presented our Sacramento Foundation Board of Trustees to properly introduce our 2020-2021 Board of Trustees and then offered a brief overview of the agenda for Foundation Day.
CLICK HERE to view RICK DAVIS’ PowerPoint Presentation
TED WHITE (President of Sacramento Delta Property Management) doubled up today as our meeting sponsor and presenter for the thought for the day. TED dedicated his reading to the Rotary Club, as he often finds himself deeply moved by the universal generosity that he constantly sees from everyone in our Club! He then spoke about the Jordan River in Israel, which feeds both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is beautiful and alive while the Dead Sea is barren and lifeless. The difference? The Sea of Galilee takes water from the Jordan River, and then it gives water back to the same river and other streams. On the other hand, the water in the Dead Sea goes nowhere. The Dead Sea keeps all the water it gets from the Jordan River to itself. TED stated the moral of the story is in receiving and then giving back that life and hope are sustained. TED closed with a quote by Winston Churchill:
"We make a living by what we get, but what make a life by what we give.”
CLICK HERE to hear TED WHITE’S entire thought for the day
MIKE GILLIGAN presented Rotary’s investment portfolio. Rotary’s asset allocations come largely from 3 focal points:
- Small and large-cap stocks: 37%
- Fixed income: 30%
- International market: 25%
CLICK HERE to view MIKE GILLIGAN’S accompanying PowerPoint
MIKE then discussed the key issues that, in support of local and international projects, are held close to the heart of both the Rotary International Foundation and the Sacramento Rotary Club Foundation.
Long ago, Rotary International established 6 focus areas in the name of fostering constructive international relationships:
- Promote peace
- Fight disease
- Provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
- Save women and children
- Support education
- Grow local economies
Additionally, the Sacramento Rotary Club has 4 principle functions that guide us in all our expeditions:
- Receive funds generated by our Club and to distribute funds for charitable purposes
- Receive gifts, bequests and other funds to become a part of the endowment fund
- Implement prudent investment and distribution policies which generate income
- Inform members regarding the Foundation, its mission and its operation
By continually achieving our 4 main functions, we are able to maintain a local and international presence. Internationally, the Rotary Foundation supports efforts to provide clean drinking water to villages and underserved communities in Africa and Asia, with the Rotary International Foundation providing matching funds. Locally, we focus on supporting the youth and education in the Sacramento region.
Before going over the 2019-2020 Annual Report, BOB DALY (Financial Advisor of Financial Network Wealth Advisors) gave a Happy Birthday shoutout to MIKE GILLIGAN. While putting up the Annual Report, BOB DALY gave thanks to TINA REYNOLDS (President of Uptown Studios, Inc.) and her staff for putting together the report design and layout. Among other highlights, throughout the2019 and 2020 years, Rotary gave $227,403 back to the community and volunteered 900 hours with Loaves & Fishes alone. Way to go, Rotarians! Our Young Professionals Group played a heavy part in volunteer work this year – our hat’s off to you! Another big accomplishment came in February 2020 of this year at the annual Winter Festival, which raised a whopping $25,809 for Sierra Forever Families.
JAMIE FURLONG (Securitized Real Estate Specialist of Bangerter Financial Services) presented two major fundraisers, the 2019 Sacramento Century Challenge and the 2020 Golf 4 Kids, which she accompanied with a lovely voice-over slideshow The 6th Annual Sacramento Century functioned as a riding festival at Capitol Mall and generated $105,000 (yes, really!) for the Sacramento Children’s Home’s Crisis Nursery Program. As we all know, moving into 2020 presented its own set of challenges (we’re talking to you, Coronavirus!) but even a pandemic couldn’t stop the our Rotary Club. The 97th Annual Golf 4 Kids is currently estimated to have raised $38,000 for multiple local agencies serving physically impaired children. We hope to see all fellow Rotarians attendance for the next Golf 4 Kids event coming May 2021. Collectively, these two fundraisers demonstrated the Rotary motto within our local community: “Service above Self.”
CLICK HERE to view JAMIE FURLONG’S PowerPoint presentation
RICK DAVIS helped us see the bigger picture while sharing his presentation reviewing our impacts on international philanthropy in 2019-2020, which was in no shortage of accomplishments . RICK took a moment to acknowledge our International Community Service Committee members from the 2019-2020 year. He then discussed our global efforts which included bringing clean drinking water to 29,000 people in Guatemala, 40,000 people in Ethiopia, and other projects in Jamaica and Pakistan. During the last 20 years Rotary’s contributions have improved the lives of tens of thousands of people on four continents! In this 2019-2020 year Rotary donated over $40,000 alone to overseas projects, and the results of these projects is saving lives; in fact, an estimated 1,000+ children and babies were saved per project! Clean water is ultimately of the utmost importance out of all our focus areas for global projects.
DENNIS SMITH (V.P./Asset Manager - Office & Property Director of Tsakopoulos Management Company, LLC) presented a great summary of Rotary’s local giving through community grants during the last fiscal year. 14 applications were received for community grants. After virtual interviews and meetings with applicants, the Foundation granted an overarching sum of $18,500 to six different organizations that all make their own unique impacts on our local community. Based on reports received by the six grant recipients, we can see how they used the grant money to continue making a difference:
- City Year: Received $3,000 which directly supported AmeriCorps members serving within the Sacramento City Unified School District at schools that struggle with achieving high academic student performance.
- CollegeTrack: Received $2,500 that went towards scholarship funds for low-income Sacramento families with high school seniors and college students in need of financial support to continue their education.
- FairyTale Town’s Adventure Playground: Received $5,000 that funded operational costs of child playground services such as summer camps, Dirty Kids Obstacle Race Camp, and general drop-in activities.
- The LGBT Community Center’s Housing Program: Received $1,500 in support of various community engagement activities over summer, such as virtual “pop-up” events and in-person discussion groups.
- St. John’s Program: Received a total of $6,000 which primarily served to cover food costs for formerly homeless women and their children during the pandemic crisis. Leftover funds were used towards the original, pre-pandemic requests such as CRP training/renewal courses for employees and new area rugs for the childcare center.
- Volunteers of America: Received $4,000 that directly funded 2 VOA formerly homeless foster youth selected as recipients of the 2020-2021 VOA Dare-to-Dream educational scholarship.
RICK DAVIS honored the 13 Legacy Circle Immortals who have made bequests to support the Club’s work in perpetuity and further help us greatly in sustaining our mission of service. Collectively, over 500 years of service is represented through the 13 Legacy Circle Immortals. RICK congratulated the 43 outstanding members to have achieved their Eddie Mulligans this year (representing $43,000 in support!)
CLICK HERE to view Rotary’s list of the 13 Legacy Circle Immortals
PRESIDENT KEVIN thanked RICK DAVIS and the rest of our Rotary team for their wonderfully moving presentations. He acknowledged that as he was looking at the faces of all our Eddie Mulligan Fellows, he was specifically struck by DR. DON BROWN, who passed away in July 2020. PRESIDENT KEVIN announced that DR. DON will be added to the Legacy Circle Immortals in time for next years’ Foundation Day. He admitted that it was DR. DON he was thinking of during TED WHITE’S phenomenal comparison of the two seas. PRESIDENT KEVIN thanked all Sacramento Rotarians for the perpetual generosity, giving, and philanthropy that gives us the ability to make such a substantial impact on not just our own local community, but internationally as well. Each one of you is a superstar!
Moving into end-of-the-meeting announcements, RUTH TESAR (CEO of Northern California PET Imaging Center) briefly took the floor to express her gratitude for Rotarians’ support as she recently recuperated from COVID-19, and asked us all to follow health guidance and stay safe! On a more positive note, she was overjoyed to announce the birth of her 2nd grandchild this year! She donated $250 in honor of her newborn grandchildren. Congratulations on the full recovery from COVID and the births of your healthy grandkids, RUTH! We are happy to have you here and thank you for your donation!
contribution. He asked JOHN SWENTOWSKY (Owner of Swentowsky Photography) how his recruitment process is going, regarding finding bell ringers for the Salvation Army Christmas caroling. JOHN stated that he had two open shifts available for bell ringers, in addition to Loaves & Fishes on New Year’s Eve at lunchtime. Please contact JOHN SWENTOWSKY if you would like to offer your service.
DENNIS SMITH donated $998 to complete his next Eddie Mulligan! Thank you for the generosity DENNIS, in addition to your inspiring presentation!
PAUL KEEFER (Executive Director of Pacific Charter Institute) felt thankful that all his kids are home and healthy, and his oldest just recently secured a job for the time-being. In honor of that, PAUL donated $100. Thank you for the donation PAUL! We hope your oldest enjoys the new job!
ROBERT MCLEAN donated $250 to his Eddie Mulligan and another $250 to his Paul Harris. Thank you, ROBERT, for being extra generous on Giving Tuesday!
CHRISTIE HOLDEREGGER (V.P. Chief Development Officer of Volunteers of America) kindly chipped in $100 for her Eddie Mulligan! We greatly appreciate the kind donation, CHRISTIE!
PRESIDENT KEVIN announced that there will be a pinewood derby race at the District annual meeting next May, where contestants will compete to win the title of the best pinewood derby car. PRESIDENT KEVIN wants to blow the competition out of the water! If anyone knows anything about pinewood derby cars or engineering, we hope to hear from you! Look out for some announcements regarding the construction of our own pinewood derby car –we’re in it to win it!
ALLISON CAGLEY bursted forth with energy as she reflected on our upcoming meeting. Tune in at the same time, same place for our Annual Meeting! Come meet our 2022-2023 President-elect and hear from guest speaker and talented Broadway performer , JAMES SNYDER. You may know JAMES SNYDER from hits such as Beauty and the Beach, South Pacific, Million Dollar Quartet, and much more. Make sure to make your calendars as this will be a week you won’t want to miss!