President Robert Olmstead IIIwelcomed everyone to the best damn Rotary Club in Arden Arcade. The pledge was led by a very worthy Rotarian and Handsome Al gave the invocation.
Secret Word
The Prez asked for the Secret Word from two weeks ago. Bruce Stimson claimed that he told the Prez the answer to that question at last week’s Scholarship meeting and thought he should have been awarded the honor then. However, as he was the first to raise his hand, he was given the opportunity to answer the question admirably and he knew the word was "admirable." For this he was given the option of receiving a prize between a sleeve of golf balls and something else. He took something else. You will have to ask him what it was.
Introduction of Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Sidney Smith, District Governor Elect - 2023-24
Rotary Club of Elk Grove
Sidney was a collegiate athlete and has a communication studies degree. After college, he relocated to Northern California. Sidney spent nearly two decades in the transportation industry with United Parcel Service.
Since 2001, Sidney has been a minister working for a local church. His first staff meeting was Tuesday September 11, 2001. In 2002 Sidney became a Rotarian.
Bob Mutchler
Bob has been visiting our club for the past few months and has an application in for membership. Bob has an outstanding history of Rotary involvement and has almost single-handedly raised enormous amounts of money to help fight polio through the Rotary Polio Plus program.
Announcements and Other Fun Stuff
Rotary Youth Exchange Counselor Needed
Bruce Stimson announced that we have a female youth exchange student from El Camino High School. Because of this, we now have need for a female Youth Exchange Counselor. Bruce is not allowed to counsel female students and is need of one of the club's female members to step up and help out. Lisa Keller graciously volunteered her services. She will start communicating with the student on a regular basis.
Rotary District Conference News
District Governor Elect 2024-25, Steve Turner, was pleased to announce that our club received the Bronze Award for Memberships and Vocational Services. He handed to the award to the Prez before announcing that our club made an impact as the number one donating club for ShelterBox in the district. There was a little bit of a fight for that honor as Point West Rotary, at the last minute, added in cash to their donation in an effort to seize the top spot. Steve was not having any of that so he added in some cash. Then Point West added in some more cash. We added in more cash and Point West ran out of money but we didn't as we are Arden Arcade. We bested them by $1 to earn the top spot with a donation of $5,251.
Fireside Chats
The fireside chats have been going well there is only one more chat left and it will be held on May 23rd at 6:00 pm. The host is Linda Bigler. Her address is:
4110 Norris Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95821
All members are required to attend one of the chats and this is the last one. These chats provide the information necessary to help Richard plan his year as well as his meetings.
Scholarship Lunch
John Gabriel was pleased with the turnout for the Scholarship Lunch. As usual, it was encouraging to hear from the students and catch up on their scholastic activities as well as their community service endeavors. Linda Bigler noted that the sound system left a bit to be desired as she and others had a hard time hearing a few of the students.
Bell Ringers
Happy Bucks
Sad Bucks
Matt Ross, Bell Ringer
Matt expressed his remorse for not being at the scholarship lunch as he was tending to his very own scholarship student, his daughter. He was away, driving her back from Colorado State college. He took the opportunity to drive her back over three days. It was the best three days he could have with her. They covered six states. They could have made it home sooner but they visited Vegas along the way. Gas is a lot cheaper outside the state of California.
Christine Jensen, Happy Bucks
Christine was very Happy to share that her brother is doing well after being involved in an off-road vehicle accident. He broke six ribs and ended up with a concussion. The doctors are not sure about the lack of use of his left arm and leg but... at least he is alive. The moral of the story is, when you are in your 50's and a grandpa, you are not supposed to be driving Sand Mountain at night.
Big Al Frumkin, Happy Bucks
Big Al was donating Happy Bucks because he is so happy to be a part of this club. Some of the club members are not aware that he taught high school for nine years. During that period of time he attended many scholarship presentations. This club is such a quality club developing a scholarship program that starts at the eighth grade and follows the student through high school graduation. It is a great program and he is very proud to be a member of this club.
Handsome Al Cady, Happy Bucks
Handsome Al reported that most of the members of our club are unaware we have a naming committee. Said naming committee has changed his name from Handsome Al to... Dapper Al. (Editor's note: I had to make doubly sure the spelling of dapper was correct, as to not confuse it with an article of baby's clothing.) The secret word is "dapper."
Richard Goore, Happy Bucks
Richard is pleased to promote the Western Region Track and Field trials to be held May 24th through the 27th. His happy bucks are because his son has qualified for the pole vaulting event. He is in the top 48 of the western half of the U.S. He presently jumps 17' 2" but hopes to jump 18'. He will be participating at 6:30 p.m. on the 24th.
Bruce Stimson, Happy Bucks
Bruce in Happy because Lisa Keller volunteered and kept him from having to twist arms to get someone to volunteer to be the female Rotary Youth Exchange counselor. Way to go Lisa, filled a position and earned the club some money in the process.
Linda Bigler, Happy Bucks
Linda was happy to hear that she is not the only person that has an older brother that does crazy things. Her brother participated in the Baja 1,500. He left Cabo on a dirt bike, driving on dirt roads. On day three a tree branch came between him and his bike, ending him up in the hospital. He is better now and is able to fly... that must have been some accident but what an outcome... he can now fly. It's a miracle... wait... oh, he is a pilot... never mind.
She went on to thank Big Al for helping one of her clients feel welcome at a recent event that he attended. Her client reported that he made her feel so welcome. Linda also encouraged him to get his knee replacement as she had hers done and is now ready to go out dancing. She also went out an purchased a paddle board so... look out world, Linda's back!
Jenny Davini, Happy Bucks
Jenny is happy because she is going on vacation for the next two weeks. The club needs to find someone to fill her position while she is off galivanting.
Announcements and Other Fun Stuff
Foundation Donation, Update
Matt reminded the club that he is trying to close out all the Rotary International Donations by the end of the month. "Our ultimate goal is to reach the $1,000,000 mark by the time Steve Turner is District Governor." We are close to hitting that mark, about $20,000, providing we maintain our current level of giving. He also noted that we would like to be an EREY club. This means that Every Rotarian Every Year donates at least $50 for that year. Matt
explained that he does not usually mention the $50 provision as most members contribute much more than that and he would hate to diminish the donations by lowering the bar to $50.
Matt learned from last year the perils of offering the club a matching donation program, funded by his personal account, without placing a cap on the match. Matt is a quick study and announced there will be a $500 cap to the amount of funds he will match. He repeated this provision several times but it didn't appear to dampen the spirits of the donors as several $50 donations and $500 were offered up. Big Al donated $500 on behalf of Lisa Keller to bring her up to a Paul Harris Fellow level. Bob Mutchler donated $1,000, provided it be earmarked for Polio Plus. Matt respectfully reiterated that the cap was for a cumulative total of $500, not $500 per individual donation... he has a daughter in college after all.
Because the donations were so impressive, Dapper Al decided to kick in $500 towards the match and Matt kicked in a little bit more the the $500 to bring the total donations for the day to $4,210. This is money that comes back to our community in a lot of ways. We are working on a district grant right now that will help out the Empowerment Park special needs park project being built in Arden Arcade. There have been many other projects like the Rotary transportation van, Encina High computer room and other school projects and the food closet. ShelterBox is also a recipient that helps us as problems in other parts of the world effects everyone. Your dollars are going to great causes.
Guest Speaker, Kirsten Dubray
Regional Director of Philalnthropy
American River College
The Prez introduced Kirsten Dubray, without obtaining a biography from her. He decided to wing it noting that she is highly capable, a steward of the community, active in the community and is the Regional Director of Philanthropy for the American River College. The club offers a scholarship program that directly benefits students at ARC.
Kirsten shared that she has been in her position for the last 23 years. She is pleased to have two of this year's scholarship recipients with her today to speak to the club.
She was here with a couple of scholarship recipients right before the pandemic shut things down. She is pleased to be here in person and not on Zoom. She oversees the scholarship program as well as one-time gifts, major giving, planned giving, private resource giving for new major buildings. They have a way of encouraging and acknowledging major donors and that is the "President's Circle." Donors of $1,000 or more are invited to attend a couple of events each year. They offered up a Top Chefs competition involving their highly acclaimed culinary program. Linda Bigler noted that she attended and her team won in the desert competition.
Los Rios Community College District has four colleges: American River, Consumnes River, Sacramento City (the oldest one) and Folsom Lake College (the newest one.) Collectively they enroll 60,000 students, down from 80,000 but the numbers are heading back up. They are the largest institution of higher learning in the region. 75% of the students are low income or live below the poverty line. 27% of the students are first in the family to attend college. The student body is highly diverse and serve the needs of many populations. Their Veteran's Resource program is top in the state. Assembly Member Kevin McCarty just earmarked funds to help expand that program. They have programs that serve former foster youth, disabled students, and international students. They have a new program aimed at helping formerly incarcerated students or family members effected by that situation.
Community Colleges enroll over 2/3 of the state’s undergraduates. The students qualify for direct financial aid. The days of free or low-cost education are gone. There persists the "Myth of affordability." The present cost to attend a community college is $46 per unit. The cost to attend a community college is over $15,000 per year. The cost to attend a State University is about $11,000 and even less, about $9,000 for a U.C. college. This is because the community college students do not qualify for Cal Grant aid.
They have an online scholarship application program. Their faculty review the applications and make recommendations for the awards based upon the donor's intent. 864 applicants applied for multiple scholarships. The faculty reviewed over 5,000 applications. $192,000 in scholarships were distributed for 220 awards. She noted that since their school is just finishing up finals and looking at graduations it would be preferable for their students to attend one of these meetings in June or July next year. The Prez noted that and assured Kirsten we would be pleased to honor her request.
Kirsten thanked the club for all the support and effort put into providing the scholarships. She let Steve Turner know that she was able to meet the club's request to fund a local student from El Camino High School. They did not get an Encina High applicant.
Kirsten introduced Kristy Shearer as the next speaker.
Kristy Shearer thanked the club for giving her the opportunity to share her story. She is a single parent with three children. She is a part-time manager at the Dollar Tree store. She is a full-time student at ARC, majoring in sociology. Her passions are early childhood development and social work. She is also interning at Kevin McCarty’s office. So, you can see she has a very busy life. She will be transferring to a four-year college after she graduates next spring. She is grateful for the $1,000 scholarship as it lightens her load and that makes a big difference.
Brian Barr thanked the club for the lunch and the opportunity to share his story. He grew up in Foresthill, CA and graduated from Placer High School in 2003. He now lives in Yuba City with his wife and three kids. The scholarship helps cover the cost of his commute to school. He joined the Navy as a machinist. He was medically retired after serving about seventeen years in 2021. He started at ARC in the spring of 2022 and will be getting an associate degree in welding technology. He will graduate this fall and transition to the career and technical education certificate program. That program allows the
student to utilize real life experience credits towards the technical certificate. His goal is to be a high school shop teacher. He enjoyed the time in the Navy when he was an instructor for the machinist school in Great Lakes, Illinois. That is where he fell in love with teaching. He thanked the club for all we do and for the scholarship.
Speakers, Kirsten Dubray, Kristy Shearer and Brian Barr, American River College
Kirsten shared that ARC will be having a new college president coming from Sacramento State and she has experience with fundraising. She also offered to provide help with scheduling speakers from their faculty for our lunch program, and the Prez jumped right on that offer.
Kirsten shared the college is building a new facility that will house mortuary services. When it is completed, it will provide funeral services for the local homeless population in cooperation with Sacramento County. Most of their students are there for technical degrees and do not want to go on to a four-year institution. However, they do have a program with guaranteed placement at U. C. Davis for some qualifying students.
Upcoming Events
Lunch Meetings
May 23rd, 2023: Interim Fire Chief Dan Haverty, Sacramento Metro Fire District
May 30th, 2023: Kevin Fat, CEO, Fat Family Restaurants
Fireside Chats
May 23rd, 2023: FIRESIDE CHAT for Richard Goore-6pm, @ Linda Bigler's home
4110 Norris Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821
Secret Word
Bruce Stimson interrupted the Prez's closing comments to ask about last week's Secret Word. Bruce had his eye on the remaining prize, the sleeve of golf balls. The Prez was going to sneak in the Secret Word right before closing, but Bruce stole his thunder. So, the Prez asked for the Secret Word and somehow missed Bruce and saw John Gabriel who knew the word was "overachiever." So, John got the balls and Bruce left without his.
Please note: The Golf Committeee is looking for new members to help plan the first fund raiser of Richard Goore's year as Prez. Evidently, you don't need to know how to golf as most committee members don't know either.
President Robert Olmstead III thanked everyone for coming and rang the club bell closing the meeting some time after 1:00 pm.
Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,
Mike Grace
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