President Christine Jensen rang the bell and welcomed club members and guests to the small, but mighty, Rotary Club of Arden Arcade. She thanked everyone for coming, we're having a fabulous year and it is not over yet.
Pledge:
Rachel Hock
The Prez asked Rachel Hock to lead the pledge to our flag. She then asked Heather Wulfert to provide the thought of the day.
The Prez then 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?
Thought of the day:
Heather Wulfert
Visitors and Guests
Mike Chahal - Guest
Emily Ballus introduced Mike Chahal, Director of Finance for Fulton El Camino RPD. Now that Mike has seen a meeting, he may be more inclined to pay the Rotary dues and membership fees for Emily...
Lydia Wytrzes - Guest (For the last time?)
Lisa Asperger once again introduced her friend and neighbor and former/future Rotarian, Lydia Wytrzes, for a fifth, and last time, as a guest. Lydia has applied for membership and has had her interview. The club board has not met to give their final blessing and submit the application to the club for discussion and potential approval. I see a red badge in her future.
Shafiullah Hotak - Guest
Rob Olmstead introduced Shafi. He is a program manager with the Lao Family Community Development Center located at 3205 Hurley Way. Shafi worked with the U.S. Marines 2006 to 2008. Shafi was lucky to survive an IED blast that killed two of his coworkers. After healing from the wounds he was transferred to Kabul and worked with the Air Force until 2014. He was issued a special visa and came to the USA. The transition to american life was not easy. He has been volunteering to help the Afghani's with community relations. He is here to learn more about the soccer program to be discussed by the guest speakers.
Luke Voight
Luke and Lydia, founders of the Capital Community Athletics (CCA) nonprofit organization are our
Guest Speakers for today to discuss how the *Worlds #1 Sport, Football/Soccer is integrating the Afghan Community in Sacramento.
Heather Ladine
The TOP 20 Sports in the World, According to the Internet
The preseeding, was/will be, a paid (Donation to the club at the March 18th meeting) advertisement by Olmstead and Associates.
Debbie Hudson - Bell Ringer X 2
Debbie is ringing the bell twice, firstly, for her grandson as he and Debbie spent Saturday working at Freedom Park in McClellan Air Force Base, with the Foothill Highlands Rotary Club. They were building a regulation Bocciball court for the community. He was out there from 8 am to 3 pm shoveling base rock and carrying timbers. He did a great job. Secondly, she finished reading Bob Mutchler's book, Iron Lung, Iron Butt. It is a great read. and she highly recommends it.
Bob Mutchler - Bell Ringer
Bob felt that the accolade just bestowed upon his book deserves a follow-up Bell Ringer.
Jenny Davini - Bell Ringer
Jenny shared that her house is being renovated and is close enough completed, in the middle section, that they hosted a party for 32 of their closest family and friends this weekend... An unnamed club member exclaimed "I didn't get invited!?" (It looks like the demotion party has just found a likely location for the party... will the outdoor kitchen be completed by June?)
Al Frumkin - Happy Bucks
Al was happy to contribute Happy Bucks because he is happy to be a member of this Rotary Club and he is happy to enjoy friendship with people in this club. One of the first friendships Lisa and He made was with Tim Cahill. Tim and his wife sat with them at their first Christmas party with our club and made them feel right at home. He is so impressed with his many skills, including that of being a playwright. Several months ago he saw one of Tim's plays and this weekend he went up to Winters and had a great prime rib dinner at the Buckhorn. The local theater there does 8, 10 minute plays, and Tim's was one of them. We are very fortunate to have such a talented person in our club.
Tim Cahill - Happy Bucks
Tim announced that he didn't pay Al enough for the preceding announcement, so he will also be a Happy Bucks contributor. He went on to say that he feels the same way as Al about this club. He often thinks about the Groucho Marx quote "I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member" but I don't feel that way about this club.
Rob Olmstead - Happy Bucks
Rob, in honor of making fun of Steve Turner, giving the nature of our speakers today, he donated Happy Bucks for the one and true sport, Football. None of that volly ball cr@%. (For all the Americans that feel the only football is the one with the ball with the pointy ends, of course, Rob was talking about soccer.)
District Governor, Steve Turner - Happy Bucks
Steve asked Rob how much he was committed to the sport. Rob paused, thought and answered $40. Steve matched his commitment. It was at this point that Rob, remembering the 4-Way Test, acknowledged that he needed to come up with an additional $20. Steve noted that as in global politics, so it is in Rotary... Trust but Verify! Only having $15 in his wallet, the remainder of his allowance from Vanessa, Rob asked if the club could trust him for the remaining $5. Al Cady does not take IOU's, so Steve offered to cover the remaining $5... just to keep Rob in the game. This is a subliminal plug for the upcoming poker tournament... we need more players!
Al Cady - Happy Bucks
Al is happy to be have gone to PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) this last weekend and yell at DG Turner and Matt Ross. It was a great weekend.
United For Good Pins
Matt Ross enjoyed PETS and came back with a bag full of "United For Good" pins. Matt donated $20 to cover all of the members that may have had to pay a fine for not wearing their Rotary pin and gave everyone a United for Good pin, the new theme for the next year.
The Speaker Calendar is full... for the moment
Matt encouraged everyone to attend the Fireside Chats as he really wants to know what the club is doing well and what we should change. Your guidance is important as this (Prez Christine) act is going to be very hard to follow. She is killing it this year. Matt wanted his first chat to be on April 1st, either he is the fool or the club is. Tony Paulson will be hosting on Tuesday, April 1, Linda Bigler on Thursday, April 24, and Rob Olmstead on Wednesday, April 30. Please sign up for the date that works best for your schedule... they all start at 6:00 PM and all will have alcohol, so that should not be your deciding factors.
Type caption here
Club Runner...
So easy, even the newsletter editor can navigate it.
Rolundia is bound and determined to have 100% of the club members proficient and utilizing the app for all things Rotary. To this end she put together slides with arrows and comments designed to demystify the oft-disperraged app, usually by someone with an old flip phone. The first thing she had the members do was to open the ClubRunner app and click on the website. She said, if you see a picture of DG Turner, you have the wrong app and you need to delete and reload it... it seemed like a very harsh way to treat the DG but he seemed to be okay with it so... Your login is "FirstName.LastName" and whatever
your password is... For those of you that have long-forgotten your password, please contact the Prez and she will laugh at you, and then give you your password. Rolundia then proceeded to take us through the benefits of the app and the ways it can be used to immediately improve one's life in ways previously unimagined.
Rolundia enthusiastically explained the options of the app. Informing us that we will soon ignore the first portion of the presentation and use the shortcuts... but she felt we all needed to know everything about the app to provide us with an appreciation for the complexities and wonderfulness, which is the ClubRunner app. One must appreciate the length at which Rolundia went to attempt to bring a room full of older Rotarians around to using the app, creating a PowerPoint and dissecting the app into manageable bites, as she spoonfed the information to the reluctant (Secret word is reluctant) audience as one does with pureed peas to an eight-month-old baby.
She noted that similar to men, the app is not perfect by any means, but it does have some useful components (Okay, she didn't exactly say that, but something similar.) Please note the very creative use of the pointer using the index finger at the end of a telescoping rod, as well as the 3 main categories of the app. Please pay close attention to the information indexes with the red smiley faces as they are the most helpful ones.
Make sure you check you personal information. Some of you have pictures that are sideways, some are missing information or have incorrect information. Home addresses are important, especially if you are hosting events. This information is only available to club members.
The following slides say it all!
Category 3: My District - Useful Tabs
You can search by first name or by last name. You can place the call by clicking on the phone Icon or text him by clicking on the text icon.
Once you have the member you are searching for, with the click of the "Add Contact" button,
the information is automatically added to your phone directory.
When you click on Event it will give you the event information, including date time and the address for the event. Last minute event information changes need to be given to Rolundia so she can update the information.
Rolundia is available for private and group tutorial lessons for those that really want to be apart of the in-crowd, but are technologically befuddled.
This slide is dedicated to the "Late" Ben Fox
Better Late Than Never!
Welcome Ben!
AED Event this Thursday
Matt Ross announced that he needs 5 to 6 Rotarians to accompany him to the Mira Loma AED unveiling between 9:00 am and 11:05 am. They will be demonstrating how to use the AED and then how to perform the hands-only CPR.
2025 Poker Tournament Volunteer Sheets
Tom Goode reminded everyone we still need players. He singled out all the sponsors to emphasize the importance of getting their list of players in as soon as possible. The event is only 2 weeks away on March 22nd at Niello BMW.
Bob Mutchler
He read the newsletter!
Broom
He won beer!
American River College Rugby
Joe announced that the American River Rugby team went undefeated this year. They played SF State and beat them 99 to 0). University Nevada Reno chose to forfeit their game after seeing how SF was demolished. ARR are ranked 3rd in the nation. Joe was encouraging the members to participate in their spaghetti feed this Saturday night for $25 a person... yes the event is over and you missed it if you were hoping to go, however, donations are being accepted by Joe on behalf of the team. They are worthy of support for their amazing year and doing it on a shoestring budget.
Ben Fox
Luke Voight
Heather Ladine
Rob Olmstead introduced Luke and Heather blaming Ben Fox for getting him involved with Capital Community Athletics. He noted that it was just a short three years ago that CCA received some funding from our club and now they are back to update us with a progress report. Rob invited Shafi Hotak from the Lao Family community Development Center to connect with Luke and Heather as their program to provide soccer to the Afghani children in our community. Rob then handed over the introduction to the late, Ben Fox.
Ben announced that he is a be-late-ed Bell Ringer because he was so excited to be a part of this club and to have Rob come out and see what was going on with CCA and decide that the club needed to get involved. Luke and his wife Heather have a heart for the youth in the community. It started out as just going to the park and kicking a soccer ball around and it has grown into a soccer league with over 200 Afghani children. There are at least 150 children on a waiting list to join. Soccer is an inexpensive sport for the children to play so it has a low barrier for participation. Luke and Heather will be sharing more about their program. Ben noted that they need coaches and more funds.
Heather started off by thanking the club for the opportunity to be here. She started the presentation with two short videos to set the stage for their talk. The first video provides an overview of the refugee crisis and the second tells about the origin of CCA and how it is responding the the refugee crisis in some small way . Both can be viewed at https://www.capitalcommunityathletics.com/
Luke shared that he and Heather had lived in Africa for a while and found that soccer was an easy way to connect with the local youth. Soccer is world-wide and a universal language unlike other co-called sports... He shared that the CCA program started out as a simple gesture to bridge the gap between cultures by his wife and himself and the refugee community. It all started out with kicking the ball around in a local park.
Luke shared that he was invited to the home of an Afghan family and there was more food than he could eat. He felt like he had been transported to another country. This all started with soccer in the park. The family had seven kids and the boys and the father did the lion's share of the talking. They were on the CCA soccer team sharing how much they loved the coaches, their teams and how they felt at home. Just before they left, Miriam, the oldest daughter, stated that there was so much for the boys but nothing for the girls. Luke knew he was treading on thin ice and was concerned about providing an answer. He knew that the girls loved to play sports, they were just not allowed to do so by their parents. To his surprise, Miriam asked the bold question in front of her father. Luke asked her father what he thought about the girls playing soccer. The father said we trust you people. You love our children. You have done something beautiful with the boys. As long as the girls are not wearing those tiny shorts they could respectfully play soccer with the other girls. The look on Miriam's face expressed freedom and joy for the opportunity to play. Miriam managed to share the opportunity with her friends and on the first day of practice 14 young girls showed up in 104 degree weather. Nothing was going to stop them from playing soccer, not even the tall grass from the unmowed field. The girls soccer program started that day.
Heather shared that they now have two girls teams. They are excited about how the girls program is growing. They have been able to hire a girls program director.
Tragically, Miriam passed away two years ago due to bone cancer. However, she left a legacy. Every year during the indoor winter season they have the Miriam Cup tournament. The cup has the names of the winners on it. This cup is kept in the middle of their office as a reminder of the fact that there are hundreds of children living and dying without hope.
Ahmad grew up wanting to play soccer but it was too dangerous in Afghanistan. His family moved to Pakistan and he still could not play because of the police giving them a hard time. After moving to the U.S. he still could not play because of costs and no room on the team. He was on a waiting list.
Thanks to donations Ahmad is now off the sideline and on a team.
They want to help even more children be able to participate in CCA. They have about 200 kids across 10 teams. They have 150 kids on a waiting list. There are more than they can handle. They are trying to spread the word that they need more coaches and more funds to make that happen. With the boy it is an, if you build it, they will come. The girls need to be encouraged and sought after to join. You need to get to know their family before they will consider allowing the girls to play.
They want to continue to break down barriers that are preventing these young people from participating in youth sports. We take this for granted for our own children. Most of these kids are from very underprivileged families and would not be able to play without this program. CCA is attempting to provide opportunities for the children that can't afford to play soccer in the established leagues, and have a league of their own. Their coaches provide compassionate instruction and make differences in the lives of these children.
They are looking to expand their program to offer soccer to the younger children and expand the Boys Academy. With over 50,000 Afghanis in the area, the need is great. Luke and Heather thanked the club for giving them a chance to talk with the club. The Preza thanked him for the informative conversation. The cup was passed around for instant donations to CCA.
Please consider attending to help support our District Governor
District Assembly
District Governor Turner announced that this year's District Assembly is taking place on Saturday morning on March 29th in Lincoln. It is a one day training on all things Rotary. There will be food in the morning and lunch at noon. The District's final speech contest will take place in the morning. You can register for it online, for free.
President Jensen rang the bell, ending the meeting at about 1:00 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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