The Prez asked Jason Borg to lead the pledge to our flag.
The Prez led the club in reciting the 4-Way Test:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
She then asked Al Cady to provide the thought of the day.
Thought of the day:
Al Cady
Visitors and Guests
Guest - Lydia Wytrzes
Lisa Asperger introduced her friend and neighbor and former Rotarian, Lydia Wytrzes. President Jensen became very excited at the prospect of another Recycled Rotarian joining our ranks. This could become a thing... Environmentally-Friendly, Rotarian-Club-of-the-Year, for recycling past Rotarians and repurposing them for good works in the community. This could be a new district award... if we only knew a person in a high position within our district...
April Johnson
Today's Guest Speakers
Amber Sosa
District Governor, Steve Turner - Bell Ringer
Steve wanted to reiterate the fact that Past Rotary International President, Rick King, has passed away. He was a a member of the Rotary Club of Fremon tCA. and was one of the greatest President Rotary has had. During his term, over 100,000 Rotarians worldwide were added to Rotary. One of his named Lieutenants is our very own Al Frumkin. The bell was rung in honor of Rick King and the lasting impact he had on Rotary.
Al Frumkin wanted to add that current Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick, was a speaker at an event to honor Rick King, and he expected her to do a magic trick. He was disappointed that she did no such trick, but was pleased to learn how her saying "The Magic of Rotary" came to be. While on a mission to Africa, to bring clean water into a small village, she was in a home demonstrating the filter that would clean up the water. She poured in a dirty glass of water and it came out clean and she gave it to the first of three kids present. She did it again and gave the clean water to the second child. The third child asked Stephanie if she could do that magic trick one more time. That is where the magic of Rotary was defined.
Tim Cahill - Happy Bucks
Tim was happy to share that while they were at Cottage School handing out the dictionaries, for reasons unknown, Bill Hambrick starts getting animated and started singing "We Will, We Will, Rock You"... the kids all joined in and the room was rocking, "It was better than the Super Bowl halftime show" noted Tim. Bill and the third graders are forming their own band and should be ready for next year's Super Bowl performance... it will undoubtedly be better than this year's.
Al Frumkin - Happy and Grateful Bucks
Al was happy and grateful that so many of the club members hare reached out to Lisa to express concern and support. She is doing better than Al had expected. Two weeks ago Al had talked to Lisa about grief counseling. Little did he know, that he too would need grief counseling... the Chiefs did not win.
Emily Ballus - Happy Bucks
Emily was happy to invite everyone to attend a Unity Fair sponsored by County Supervisor Desmond, on Saturday, May 17th, to bring the Afghan and Arden Arcade Communities together. More information to follow.
Bill Hambrick - Happy Bucks
Bill was very happy to report that the car that died on him on October 20, 2024 has a new engine and is resurrected, stronger than ever, is now back bringing him joy once again. He is giving a small donation to the club in light of the fact that he is now officially broke.
Derrick Ewing - Happy/Sad Bucks
Derrick is offering up happy and sad buck in light of the devastating fires in Southern California, Altadena specifically. Derrick was raised in Altadena and his family has lost everything. The happy side is that they are all safe and that Rotary helped many people in need in the area. The inspiring thing was that the community came together to provide food, water and living supplies. Derreck started out with a truck to take needed supplies to the area. He soon needed a larger truck and then an additional trailer. He is thankful for the support shown his family and community.
Carroll Cook - Happy Bucks
Carroll noted that he was not able to make last week's meeting. However, because of the Rotary Bulletin, Carroll felt like he had attended the meeting as he got caught up on all the things that are going on in the club. He appreciates the information, pictures and all the news.
Bob Mutchler - Apology/Thank-you Bucks
Bob, being an upstanding Rotarian and a man of his word, felt it necessary to apologize to Bruce Stimson for bailing on him last week at the speech contest. He also wanted to extend a big thank you to Al Frumkin for stepping in on his behalf. His donation of folding money to the club, as payment for his absence, will help him sleep much better tonight. Note to Bob, if you are still having trouble sleeping, we accept credit cards.
Heather Wulfert - Happy Bucks
Heather wanted to donate happy bucks last week but couldn't. She wanted to let everyone know that she attended the rugby game at ARC last week and had some of the delicious sandwiches provided by Joe Green. While she didn't really understand what was going on during the Rugby game, she enjoyed it immensely, and may be hooked. She also reported that she had a great time at the sticker party, it was a lot of fun and a lot of food and wine. Editor's note: The recording was a bit muffled at this point, but it sounded like the party was the final straw and she needed to go back to the gym or AA. It was hard to hear.
PINS and BADGES
The Prez asked the club members to self-fine for not wearing pins and or badges. All of the members that found themselves out of compliance cheerfully contributed dollars to the cup as a way of supporting the goals and decorum of the club in keeping with the 4-way test.
Dictionary Deliveries
Bill noted that the dictionary deliveries have been wonderful with great club support, for which he was very thankful. The last delivery of 71 dictionaries to Aspire is on Wednesday, Feb. 12th at 11:00 am. Those in attendance are encouraged to practice "We Will Rock You" prior to the event. Bill thanked Rob Olmstead for hosting the party, it was great and only a few people suffered short term injuries to backs from carrying heavy boxes of books and a couple of sore tongues from sticker paper cuts.
Tim Cahill announced that February is Arden Arcade Rotary's month to perform light maintenance at the house. Fifteen years ago seven clubs came together to build and operate the Rotary House. The house is used to house family members of children undergoing treatment at UC Davis Medical Center, at no cost to the family. The Rotary clubs share in the expense and maintenance of the house. Club member come together to perform needed maintenance to the exterior and interior when there is a change in occupants. This Saturday at 9:00, Rotarians are asked to participate in the exterior maintenance of the facility. It will take less than two hours to do the work. Come and enjoy working for a good cause along side your fellow Rotarians. Editor's Note: while this opportunity has already passed, there will soon be a work opportunity to get the house ready for the next occupants. Tim will let us know when.
A's Home Game Ticket Opportunity
Richard, take-me-out-to-the-ball-game, Goore, announced that he is not money-bags but... he bought season tickets to the A's games. These are not your average, run-of-the-mill seats... no! ... these are the Solon Club season tickets that include all the food and drink you could ever want, parking and a private masseuse. The secret word is masseuse. These seats are being offered to club members at face value, $200 each, seat plus a $20 per ticket surcharge that goes to our club. This is the perfect gift for the baseball fanatic in your family. A once in a lifetime opportunity to see your favorite team play the A's in Sacramento. Just think of all the money you will save not having to fly to New York to see
the Mets. Contact Richard for more information. ... this just in... the masseuse is not included in the standard ticket offering, you need to ask for the masseuse ticket package upgrade for an additional $300 per ticket surcharge.
AED Ribbon Cutting at Eastern Oak Park
Matt was pleased to announce again that we will be conducting a ribbon cutting ceremony for the first AED installation of the R.I. Grant on Friday, February 21 at 6:30 in the morning at Eastern Oaks Park. This is being done in an effort to entice news stations to send TV reporters to cover the event at a time when there are few competing newsworthy events. DG Turner swears he will be there at 6:00 am with donuts and coffee for everyone. Rotarians are needed to be taught he new hands only CPR method. Linda Bigler has declined to be the CPR dummy as she had a better offer on that day with her ski patrol... probably not as their CPR dummy... so... the position is open.
Charter Night - February 21, 2025
Prez Jensen encouraged everyone to come to Charter Night on February 21st at Del Paso Country Club. She thank Big Al for his work at making Charter night a great event. The dinner options are Prime Rib, Salmon and Risotto. This is our 70th anniversary. It is a big deal. People from other clubs will be in attendance. Speaker will be speaking lofty words of praise and appreciation. The Keynote Speaker will be the Past Rotary International Director, Kevin Boyd. He will be speaking on Rotary, 70 years Past and Present. Our very own District Governor will be there with his challenge coin... Club members attend at no cost and guests attend at market rate.
2025 Poker Tournament
Tom Goode put a flyer on all the tables as a reminder that we are having a poker tournament on March 22nd at Niello BMW. Tell your enemies and invite your friends. This is our major fundraiser and it is an all-hands-on-deck event. Members are either playing in the tournament or working in the tournament. We have done a great job selling sponsorships. We now have to concentrate on getting butts in the seats and their names on the list. If you are a sponsor or was instrumental in securing a sponsor, it is important to have the names of the players in as soon as possible to ensure we have a good player turnout. Have them go to the website: AllInforArdenArcade.com.
President Jensen called Heather Wulfert to the front of the room.
The Prez shared that we have had a fabulous year with our new members and Heather is one of them. Heather has jumped in to help the club with both feet.She has done a great job and is now worthy of receiving her Blue Badge. Congratulations Heather. Thank you for jumping right in and hitting the ground running.
Heather
Red-badge
Wulfert
Heather
Why-am-I-up-here
Wulfert
Heather
Blue-badge
Wulfert
Heather Wolfert - Better-Late-Than-Never Bell Ringer
Heather decided to ring the bell in honor of how she was encouraged to get involved when she first joined the club. She was given a couple of unsolicited suggestions about what she should do with the club... they turned out to be perfect... and she is now very grateful.
Please send speaker ideas to Rob Olmstead and/or the Prez.
There is an unconfirmed report, maybe a rumor, possibly a mistruth, that Rob will buy drinks at Charter Night for people that provide him names and phone numbers of potential, bonafide speakers. The rumors continue as there was no public refutation of said rumors during the February 11th meeting.
Type caption here
April Johnson, Communications Director for agingUP
April Johnson introduced herself as the cofounder of agingUP. Amber Sosa, junior coordinator for agingUP passed out information sheets about the company. She asked us to think about an adult that had a major influence on you when you were younger. Hopefully we can all think of someone. For a lot of us it is family, parents extended family members. For some it could be a coach, neighbor, pastor. Unfortunately, there are some children that do not have these people in their lives. People that made them feel safe, heard, loved. These are people that are in foster care. Foster kids have few, if any, stable adult figures in their lives. Their adult caretakers are being paid to do so and are not necessarily invested in the child's life. This can lead to problems as they transition to adulthood.
50% of the young people they serve end up facing these problems and challenges.
Reducing and reversing this problem is exactly why the company was started.
agingUP is a Sacramento based nonprofit serving 13 to 22 year 0ld youth who have experienced foster care. The majority of their kids are in foster care but some are in adoption and need help with the repercussions of being in foster care. Safe, stable relationships are necessary for people to be successful adults.
They recruit and train their adult volunteers to be mentors in their program.
All the mentors are trained to be trauma informed. They are trained to work with the child and focus on what their ambitions are. They follow the best practices in mentoring as designed and established by Big Brothers and Big Sisters. These practices have been added to to address the special needs of foster youth. They are serving their youth in a way they want to be served.
The minimum commitment is one year and they meet with their youth at leas for eight hours, twice a month. Their goal is to take the individual up through age 24. Developing life skills that are normally established in a family setting are important. Developing a budget and shopping skills are things that are learned from caring adults. agingUP teaches the mentors how to share these skill with their individual.
They encourage having fun with their youth.
Star and Kristin have been together in the program for about six years. Star was sixteen when she joined the program. She was very shy and had lived half her life in foster care. Kristin was in a stage in her life where her kids were grown and on their own and she was looking for a way to give back. Kristin was matched with Star and she found it difficult to connect with her until one day when she invited Star to see where she worked. Star was introduced to a modern office and was intrigued to see what that kind of job might look like. That was the point at which they started to connect. The pandemic hit a couple of months later. Kristin went out of her way to connect as best she could over facetime. On 2022, based upon encouragement from Kristen, Star got her GED. In 2022 Star invited Kristin and April to celebrate her 22nd birthday and graduating from the agingUP program. She is now a leader in their program. She is doing
speaking events, which is big for a shy person. She has been living independently for the last four years. She is a poster child for the program. When asked about Kristin, Star said "I love her so much. I can't imagine what my life would be without her."
You can contact April at april@agingup.org or by phone, 916.265.4032 ext. 2. agingUP is a
nonprofit and they are only sustainable by donations from the community. Their annual
budget is just under $300,000. They presently have 37 youth in the program and have a goal of helping 100 a year. They are training a handful of mentors at this time.
District Conference
The conference is April 12th and everyone is encouraged to register for the great day of training and information. He expressed his gratitude to all of the members that have been working hard to make the event a success, especially Al Frumkin and Chris Lewis. Participants are encouraged to fly in early Saturday morning in time to attend the Disneyland training institute followed by the conference. They are encouraged to spend the night and then enjoy Disneyland the next day. Everyone is encouraged to register and attend because it will be a great event and you will be glad you did.
Rolundia Mitchell
February 11th Word -
Kittens
She won one of these
President Jensen rang the bell, ending the meeting at about 1:05 PM, extoling all members to share the magic of Rotary.
Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,
Mike Grace
Reporter, Photographer and Editor
Hellen Weight
Ombudsman and Content Supervisor
DISCLAIMER - Some of the information provided in some of the articles, and possibly included in some of the "quotes" from club members, may have been a fabrication of a demented mind. It is up to you to determine fact from fiction. Individuals objecting to all or any part herein, are encouraged to go to Hellen Weight to lodge a formal complaint.
Club Information
Service Above Self
Tuesdays at 12:00 PM
Piatti
571 Pavilions Lane
Arden-Arcade, CA 95825 United States of America
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