Meeting Recap - March 01, 2016

Posted by Kevin-Smith Fagon 
on Mar 03, 2016
 
   
 
Calling the meeting to order, President David Cohen saluted the day’s sponsor of the wine reception, Alan Markis, thanked the day’s musical director Kevin Williams (KVIE) along with A/V director JD Dannenfelser (JD Enterprises), and recognized greeters Steve Johanson (Johanson & Associates) and Jim Phillips.  
 
Rick Davis presented a Thought for the Day, on the value of a teacher.
 
Meeting sponsor April Butcher (Sacramento Public Library Foundation) described the library's “Read to Win 2016” initiative, a summer reading program serving tens of thousands of Sacramento kids. Summer reading is critical to student success, April reported, and the program aspires one day to serve 90,000 students.
 
The club welcomed new member Frank Quin (Ephraim Ventures), a private lender who was sponsored by Diane Schachterle (American Civil Rights Institute) and John McIntyre (Mercy Foundation)
 
Past President Wes Yee (Yee Dental Care) presented a surprised Bruce Hester (Colliers International) as the club's newest Sacramento Rotary Fellow.
 
The Club Announcements reflected a vibrant club! They included:
  • Service day at the Food Bank on March 19 (Diane Schachterle).
  • Our club's RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) effort, which is seeking rising high school seniors as candidates for a one-week youth leadership training camp this summer Linda Geery (Gilbert Associates), and Past President Fred Teichert (Teichert Foundation).
  • Club skeet shooting is slated for the first Saturday every month and in March, if you bring a military veteran as your guest, Mike Bullington (Pacific Advisors) will pay her or his fees! (Mike Bullington)
  • A Fireside gathering March 10 at the home of Rita Gibson (Rita Gibson Insurance & Investment Services), featuring Tom Bacon’s (Bacon Commercial Real Estate) famous chili (Tom Bacon)
  • The annual ski trip on March 16, once again a great deal at $110, including transportation to Squaw Valley, the lift ticket and lunch (Norm Marshall) (Headwaters Construction).
  • A Yosemite snowshoe hike on March 12 featuring an easy ranger-led walk to Badger Pass (Jim Phillips)
  • Blood donations were encouraged by Jon Snyder (Snyder Commercial Real Estate) and new convert Randy Friedman (United States Navy) who recently made his first blood donation!
  • Past President Wes Yee reported back on his participation in a Rotary medical mission trip to Jamaica and all the good that was accomplished.
  • Volunteer needs for the club's Pony Express Marathon were outlined by PEM co-chair Bob Daly (Financial Network Wealth Advisors) who announced the event proceeds have already surpassed $115,000.
Chair of the Day Dee Hartzog introduced the day’s featured speaker, Nik Howard of Teach for America. Nik presented an overview of the tremendous population growth projected for the Sacramento-Bakersfield region, and the related need to improve dramatically the educational outcomes for the region’s students, in particular disadvantaged kids. Locally, 73 percent of Sacramento City Unified students finish third grade unable to read at grade level, and most of them will never be able to recover from that deficit. Teach for America recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-performing schools, and TFA’s local impact has grown to 50 teachers in 23 schools serving 5,500 kids. Up next for Nik is expansion beyond Sacramento and Stockton into Fresno and Bakersfield.
Next week’s meeting will feature Felicia Marcus of the California Water Resources Control Board.
 
Stay tuned!