President Tim Cahill rang the bell at 12:02 P.M. and welcomed everyone to the May 11^th meeting of the Arden Arcade Rotary Club, the best damn Rotary Club in the Arden Arcade.  He then asked Matt Ross to lead the pledge of allegiance to the flag, which he did.  At the completion of the pledge to our flag, Prez C. asked if anyone had inspiring words to share.  Bill Hambrick volunteered the following: “For the food that nourishes our bodies, for the fellowship here that feeds our souls, for all things good and beautiful with which our lives are filled, we give our thanks today. Amen”

 

 

Guest Speaker – Mr. Hugo Mata, Principal of Soluna Outreach Solutions, part of the Sac Green Team.

 

Guests – None 

 

Prez C. instructed Mike to stand up and the whole room burst out in a chorus of Happy Birthday and most of the singers were on key and in time with each other. The Prez then had the audacity to ask Mike his age.  It took Mike a couple of seconds to do the math and then announced that he was in the last year of his sixties.  The Prez then asked the birthday boy if he had anything he would like to share with the club.  After heaving a heavy sigh, Grace said “I would like to thank the club for acknowledging the auspicious occasion of his 69^th anniversary of his coming into the world.  Thank you.  It has been a pleasure.”  Mike turned to leave the room and said “it has been fun…”  The Prez informed Mike that he still had to stay for lunch.

The Prez informed Mike that this was not just his birthday but the day is shared with Irving Berlin who was born in 1888 and Salvador Dali.

 

With the subtlety of a Mac truck, Prez C. asked if we had any bell ringers… Mike?

 

 

Prez C. noted that Patrick O’Neil, who had joined the meeting via Zoom, was looking half awake and appeared to be reclining while attending the meeting.  The Prez asked him if his almost supine position and sleepy expression had anything to do with the fireside chat at Steve Turner’s house last night?  The Prez noted that most of the members have participated in Fireside chats in the past and know that there is some talking and a lot of drinking at the meetings.  He wished Patrick a speedy recovery and hoped he felt better tomorrow.  Patrick attempted to explain his appearance by blaming the problem on the camera angle with his IPad sitting in his lap.  Prez. C was not having any of that.

 

The second Fireside chat will be held at Linda Bigler’s house on May 21^st.   The third one will be at Roy Vogel’s house on June 1st.  It is a mandatory requirement for club members to attend one of these meetings.  Sign-up sheets with addresses of the locations will be available at the next meeting.

 

Prez Tim Cahill asked for a joke.  Rob Ford boldly answered the call.  He dedicated the joke in honor of Mike Grace’s birthday.  “I got invited to Mike’s cousin’s wedding.  It was kind of an unusual wedding.  Everyone there were cannibals.  Everything went well until the bride and groom got toasted.”

 

Prez C. noted that Jenny Davini reminded him that the club members needed time to visit one another, and possibly eat their lunch at the same time, so he paused the meeting to allow for member-to-member communication.  But before he did that… John Gabriel had information about the Scholarship lunch.  He noted that the scholarship luncheon is one of the most important events of the year.  The luncheon will be held this year at the Del Paso Country Club on the 15^th of June.  Every scholarship recipient will be there.  Joe Green even confirmed Isabell’s attendance.  We have a large crowd.  It is important that we have at least as many Rotarians in attendance as we have scholarship recipients.   Presently we have ten Rotarians signed up and we need at least five more.  It is important that we support these kids as they have had a tough year, especially our seniors, who have lost a lot.    Please sign up to attend.  If you would like to help with the $25 cost of the meal for the guests, please contact Jenny and let her know you would like to pay for one, two, or five lunches.

 

 

Prez C. introduced Hugo Mata, Principal of Soluna Outreach Solutions, part of the Sac Green Team.  Hugo was the 2020 Business Journal, Latino Business Leadership Award recipient.  He is the Director of media and community outreach solutions.  He graduated from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor’s degree.  And the leadership institute for ecology and economy and Leadership, Rohnert Park.  His office is located in Santa Rosa.

 

Hugo noted that his company has been working on recycling, conservation and pollution prevention for almost 21 years.  All of the programs they provide are bilingual, English and Spanish.  This is very important in light of the large increase in the Latino population since 2010.  When Hugo came to the United States, he was 16 years old and was able to go to high school in Sonoma County.  Before he graduated, he was awarded a scholarship from Rotary in Sonoma County.  He appreciated the Rotary support. 

His company works with 21 counties in California.  Sacramento County is one of the most diverse counties in the country.  Spanish is a large percentage of the outreach that they do.  He is going to be sharing the programs they have here in Sacramento County.   The most important program targets contamination of 25% to 30% of the water we consume.  It is at this point that he started his PowerPoint presentation.  Hugo led the group through a list of items and asked us to determine if they should be recycled or thrown away.

Recycling saves a lot of resources and money.  The more you recycle the smaller the garbage can you need and that will save you money.  You need to clean your recyclables.  Rinse out your cans and bottles before recycling them.   Put lids back on the water bottles before recycling them as the caps are too small to get recycled on their own.  Cardboard, like pizza boxes that are soiled with food, need to go into the compost bin.  Never put hazardous waste or electronic waste in the garbage.  They can be recycled at specific locations for the type of waste it is.  Toxic materials, such as cleaning supplies, are in almost every room of your house.  E-waste such as computers, batteries, phone, all need to be handled properly. 

 

Used motor oil especially need to be handled properly.   25% to 30% of the used motor oil is not being handled properly and is contaminating our water.  Some of this is because of poorly maintained cars that leak oil.  Other losses are from people that change their own oil and they do not recycle the oil properly.   One gallon of used motor oil can contaminate one million gallons of water, enough for 50 people for an entire year.  One single oil change can cause a lot of damage.  Do not throw used motor oil away or pour it down storm drains or in holes in the ground thinking that it will disappear.   The only way to properly dispose of motor oil is to take it to 1 of the 150 recycling centers here in Sacramento.  You can also set your use oil out at the curb for pick-up with your trash.  Call the county and they will provide containers for the oil and the filter.  There are also 4 hazardous waste facilities that will take the oil.  

There is an app that can be used in Sacramento County, Sacgreenteam.app.  This app will guide you to the different places that you can use to recycle your materials.  You can also visit Sacgreenteam.com to get more information about the program.  Recycling is free, they will never charge you for that service. 

 

Question: John Gabriel – What is the best form of processing recycling, throw all the recyclables in one can and pay people to sort it or have the end user sort the materials?

Answer: Hugo Mata – They have found that there is greater contamination of the materials when they are all thrown in together, so separation by the user is best.  That produces higher quality recyclables that can then be sold for higher prices.

 

Question: Lisa Asperger – Where does the recycled materials go after it leaves you?

Answer: Hugo Mata – It goes to the recycling sorting plant.  The materials are placed on a conveyor belt and people sort the materials by type of materials.  Sacramento County offers tours of the recycling facilities.

 

Question: Prez Cahill – Noted that local businesses can help with your recycling needs.

Answer: Hugo Mata – Yes, the businesses that sell batteries and motor oil are recycling locations.  The transfer stations will take all your liquids.  There are some limits as to quantities. Check with the county first if you have large amounts that need to be recycled.

 

Observation: Steve Turner – The transfer stations have shelves of free household cleaning supplies available for anyone to take.  You can drop off some things you do not need and take some things you do need.  His daughter chastised him for taking more from the dump than they took to it.

 

Prez Cahill informed Hugo that $25 will be donated to Polio Plus, the effort to stamp out polio.

 

Prez Cahill left us with a quote from Dr. Seuss: “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”

 

There was one last thing that needed to be done before the close of the meeting and that was the presentation of a birthday desert to the birthday boy.  Mike wanted to know if he had to cut the 3” by 3” desert into 16 pieces.  He was told that it was all for him and he need not divide it. He did appear to have some trouble blowing out the one candle that was inserted in the desert but, in the end, he mustered up enough breath to accomplish the task.

 

Prez Tom Cahill rang the bell at 12:53 P.M. closing the meeting.

Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,

Mike Grace