Club President, Christine Jensen, opened the meeting
by ringing the bell and welcoming everyone to her 23rd meeting of the year. It has been a good year so far... She went on to welcome everyone to
the Mighty Rotary Club of Arden Arcade.
Pledge: Tom Goode
The Prez asked Tom Goode to lead the pledge to our flag. She then asked Marisol Cabrera to provide the invocation.
The Prez led everyone in the recitation of 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?
Invocation: Marisol Cabrera
Visitors and Guests
Welcome to Rotary at Piatti's
Who could ask for a nicer welcoming crew? Out lovely Red-badgers,
Rolindia Mitchell, Rachel Hock and Marisol Cabrera
were enjoying the sun while greeting our guests and members.
YES, I know this is from last week... but it is such a nice Welcome Committee,
I had to run it again!
Visiting Rotarian - Efren Del Rio
Tom Goode introduced Efren Del Rio as a visiting Rotarian. This is Efran's second visit to our club. We did not scare him away last time so we have one more meeting to do so. Efren recently moved to our community and was formerly a member of the Gridley Rotary Club. His business and his home are now closer to Sacramento than Gridley, so it makes sense to make the move.
Guest - Jason Borg
Bill Hambrick had the pleasure of introducing Jason Borg, former Club President in 08/09. Jason moved his office to the south area which made it difficult to attend the meetings, so he left the club. The good news is, he moved his office again, on University, and Bill convinced him to take a second look at our club.
Guest Speaker - Bishop Isaac
The Prez gave a quick introduction for our guest speaker, Bishop Isaac. She is here from the Robertson Family Development Center and promised to do a complete introduction later in the meeting.
Big Al Frumkin - Bell Ringer
Big Al rang the bell in celebration of the blessings he enjoys. Not too many guys in the last two weeks that have had two strokes and be back here today. He appreciates the love that is shown him by the club and his wife.
District Governor, Steve Turner - Bell Ringer
DG Steve rang the bell for Al's happy recovery.
George Prather - Bell Ringer
George is ringing the bell to celebrate his 80th birthday on January 15th.
President Christine Jensen - Bell Ringer
Christine shared that her mom had recently passed away and they had the funeral on Friday. They held a going away party for her. The love that everyone had for her mom was amazing. She was the most amazing woman that Christine has ever known, and 100 other people agreed with her.
Bruce Stimson - Happy Bucks
Bruce was sad that Michael Caplan was not present but he knows that there are other football fans present, so he is happy to share that Notre Dame is in the National College Football Championship game. Next week he will have either happy or sad bucks. A clarification question from the crowd, only happy bucks for a win? Bruce guaranteed a bell ringer in that event.
Rob Olmstead - Happy Bucks
Rob happened to be sitting with Ben Fox discussing financial issues when he opened his phone to read the newsletter. He was surprised to see that Ben Faubion had changed his name to Ben Fox. It made him second-guess who he was talking to about wills and trusts. This comment was of course aimed at Mike Grace for getting the second name wrong. It was in fact a picture of Ben Fabion, right picture, wrong name. Speaking in his defense... Both Ben's have been AWOL for some time now and an aged mind is easily confused. Maybe, if both Bens attend at the same time the difference would become more notable and it would be "Ben-eficial" to the club to see them side by side to clear up any confusion the article may have caused.
Unfortunately, that was not the only blatant error made in the newsletter. Evidently our beloved David Ferrera's picture (as seen to the right... just in case anyone needed a reminder) was switched for the picture of the guest speaker, wrong picture, right name.
When you average it all out, the errors are offsetting and there is no penalty... and it is still second down. Grace stated that he fired the editor and the position is open. There were no takers.
Bill Hambrick thought that Mike should be fined for the error and then stepped up and paid the fine on Mike's behalf.
Bill Hambrick
Paid Mike's Fine
Ben Faubion
Closed the deal
Ben Fox
AWOL Trust Attorney
Last Week's Word -
It was not asked for.
Last week's meeting ran longer than usual so there was no Secret Word.
Rotary Youth Exchange
Bruce Stimson reported that we have two students that are looking to become exchange students, Sierra Matthews and Hough ???, both from El Camino High School. They both were at the orientation last week and both will be outstanding. One wants to be a host family. The other is struggling to find a host family. Before a connection can be made with another host country, all of the requirements for the exchange student need to be met and this includes having a host family and high school. Bruce shared that any Rotarian can be a host family and that he has hosted several students over the years. There are no requirements to have a student of your own living at home. We desperately need a host family. Friends and family can host families.
It's Dictionary Time Again!
Bill Hambrick shared that 650 dictionaries have been delivered. The sticker party is set for January 30th at the Olmstead homestead. A signup sheet was passed around. You will not want to miss the social event of the year when everyone gets together to lick and stick the labels to the very nice dictionaries. The time and address will follow.
Off-site Lunch at Catina Pedregal
Tom Goode shared that we have an off-site lunch scheduled for January 28th at Catina Pedregal, 185 Placerville Road, Folsom. This is the sister restaurant of Cannon where we have been on a couple of occasions. The owner, Clay Nuttings, will be our guest speaker. They are closing the restaurant for us for that day. There is no additional charge for club members in good standing. This is not a bring-a-friend-for-free day. Visiting Rotarians and guests will be charged $50. If the Editor doesn't recognize you, you may have to file a new membership application, go by an assumed name and or picture or pay $50. Catina Pedregal is the lovechild of Cannon and Nixtaco, both restaurants are Michelin award winners. The secret word is lovechild. The Rotary Club of Folsom will be offered a few spots so you will not want to delay in signing up for a spot. This would be a great lunch to invite a guest to... for $50. The Prez noted that we have be our guest, free lunch cards that are a great way to invite prospective members to visit our club., this is not one of those lunches. You can get these cards from the Prez.
2025 Poker Tournament
Tom Goode also shared that we have our annual poker tournament coming up on March 22nd. This is the 14th tournament. We have made over 1 million dollars over the past 13 tournaments. This has been a big success ever since the first tournament and we look forward to the 14th being even better. All of the premier sponsorship categories have been sold for this year's poker tournament. Republic Services has come in as a sponsor this year. We can always use table sponsors and there are still tables to be sponsored. A big thank you to all our committee members that are investing both time and money for this event. The number one thing we need to do now is get butts in the seats. Everyone is asked to invite one or two friends. We will have entertainment for those that are not playing poker, spectators and those that get knocked out of the tournament early will have the opportunity to play blackjack. You play with drink tickets and you can win more drink tickets. Drink tickets can be traded in for raffle tickets for a chance to win a wine barrel filled with quality, premier spirits. Go to the new and improved website for tickets and sponsorships.
Debbie Hudson - Paul Harris Fellow
Debbie Hudson was presented her first Paul Harris Fellow pin and Certificate.
District AED Grant
The Prez shared that we are looking for a few people to go to Davis to help with the health screening. She is going to send an email with the particulars to everyone. You are encouraged to attend to either help or just check it out to see how it is done. She and Matt went to Folsom last year to learn and it was a great use of time.
Chris Figeuroa's Induction
Induction Interview
Induction
Governor's Pin
District Governor Steve Turner had the privilege of inducting Chris Figeuroa. He did things a bit differently than they had been done in the past. He did however attempt to provide the humor of the past inductions with a Heidi Fleiss joke that was not quite delivered the same way that George Prather has done, and so, it was not received quite as well... on top of that, many of the members are too young to know who she is and why the joke should be funny, when told correctly. I believe this part of the induction ceremony has finally been put to rest.
Steve had an opportunity to delve into Chris' background on Rookies night to drink, New Year's Eve. Steve determined that Chris has the same general character as most of the club members and will fit in well. Steve is interviewing Chris in an attempt to let the club to know a little more about him.
DG Steve: Give me three adjectives that describe you?
Chris: Giving, energetic and friendly
DG Steve: Tell us about your family?
Chris: I was born in Carmichael, Ca., raised in Lake of the Pines, Grass Valley, went to Nevada Union High School, grew up in a nursery (plant type, not little kids crawling around type, so he knows plants,) his parents had five sons. "I was the oldest of five sons and when I was five it was five brothers." They all went to Nevada Union High School as athletes. Two of his brothers won the Jim Brown award for football. He was their #1 golfer. He attended Sierra College and Sac State. He started his landscape career as a golf pro but soon realized he had to work for a living... so he went into the landscaping business. His specialty is landscape maintenance. He has two brothers in design and two brothers in construction. His nature is to help and he enjoys helping people with their plant selection and placement.
DG Steve: What else are you passionate about?
Chris: Waterfalls. I have a beautiful one at my house. I have three kids. The oldest is 33- and 21-year-old sons and an 18-year-old daughter. He loves them all equally and like them all differently.
DG Steve: What is a typical weekend for you?
Chris: He likes to go golfing on Saturdays and relax and hang around the house on Sundays.
DG Steve: Any practical jokes you would like to tell us about?
Chris: He likes to joke with everyone but no practical jokes, he did do some petty theft when he was a kid...
DG Steve: Moving on quickly, what are your goals for yourself in Rotary?
Chris: He would like to get to know every single person here, shake everyone's hand, learn about Rotary, and volunteer his time.
It was at this point that DG Steve presented to Chris the Governors Pon... the pin will get you in... get you into any meeting around the world. He suggested Chris find a millennial to help him install an app that will help him find meetings around the world to attend.
District Governor, Steve Turner, then welcomed the newest world-wide member to Rotary, Chris Figeuroa. He then asked the club members to come forth to help Chris realize one of his goals, to shake the hand of all of the club members.
Prez Jenkins introduced Bishop Isaac as the guest speaker and Jacquelyn Kendricks arrived a few minutes into the presentation to provide additional information. Bishop graduated from Sac State in Child Development with a 4.0 GPA. She is the mentor and student coordinator for the Robertson Family Development Center, RFDC. Bishop has been with RFDC for seven years and has been promoted to doing outreach for the center as well as working with the youth.
Bishop
Isaac
Jacquelyn Kendricks
They approach their participants as Family. She played a video of one of their participants, Penny Brown, who wrote a moving story about family for her debutant ball. In the video she explored the question of who and what is a family. It can be many things but includes inclusion, structure and trust.
RFDC approaches their mission in a fluid, accommodating way. They adjust their programs to meet the changing needs of their community members. Their academic programs serve Kindergarten through 12 grade students. They service the entire spectrum of nationalities in the community.
Their two main areas of interest are Education and Family support. She brought brochures that provided a more complete picture of their programs. It was at this point that Jacquelyn Kendricks joined the meeting. Their after-school care program provides homework assistance and enrichment programs. The recreational enrichment programs are valued by the students as they have already spent a lot of time studying in school and need a mental and physical break. During the summer they spend more time on literacy and reading books that reflect characters that they can relate to and be interested in.
Family support involves helping the students cope with life and the things they don't feel they can talk to their parents and or siblings about. They create a safe environment for students to share with other students of the staff members. They also offer tutoring opportunities to help the students with specific classes and education in general.
Family Support Services portion of the presentation was delivered by Jacquelyn Kendricks. This program comes alongside the education program to help both the student and the family. Children can only thrive is the family is thriving. We can give the student help and materials and tutors but at the end of the day they go back home and have to fit into the family dynamics. The family needs to learn the same things the child is. There are several programs that strive to do that. The Black Child Legacy Program is in partnership with the Sacramento County Department of Health. It is designed to close the gap in African American child death in four target areas: Prenatal care, Infant sleep death, Child abuse and neglect, and third-party homicide. They work with many outside partners in many areas that impact each of these focus areas. Another important program is the African American Healing. This program focuses on mental health and healing for families struggling with grief and loss, addiction, mental illness. This also includes yoga, Pilates and other programs that can ease mental stress. There is also emergency financial aid available for some cases. They also work with the Department of Health and Education as a comfortable and safe place for their clients to meet and take advantage of their programs like blood pressure checks, diabetes counseling and connections to doctors and other medical providers. Their clients come from partnerships with other agencies as well as the five school districts they work with. They are not in the San Juan Unified School District but would love to be involved with their schools. They presently ae serving about 450 people throughout their programs. They are funded through grants and contracts with other agencies.
The families are reached through the programs for their children. Over time, a level of trust is developed and that allows them to take the programs into the family. Success is measured in a variety of ways. School attendance is a major benchmark and getting children to want to go to school is necessary, before they can worry about the grades. About 70% of the children come from single family homes.
The RFDC Cultivates Legacy as shown in the above video and strives to develop the feeling of family and community to help provide goals and standards for the students. The students and the leaders help each other in life issues. The intergenerational leadership is crucial to the program and the community. Culture is a big part of the program that makes the kids want to be there every day. Our program invests in the youth of today to give them an opportunity to improve their lives and be great in this world.
We can always use volunteers to help with reading programs. We also need mentors and community members that can share life experiences with the students. Guest speakers are needed too. Having members from the broader community come and share their experiences and give the students an expanded view of what may be possible for them is a valuable gift.
The Prez thanked both Bishop and Jacquelyn for the informative and inspiring presentation.
Emergency Fire Support
Prez Jensen informed the club that an emergency online board meeting was held in response to a request for all clubs to help the two districts in the fire-devastated area of L.A. Our board voted to send $1,000 to each district. Some clubs in our area are sending supplies down in vans and trucks. We don't have the manpower, but we do have money in the discretionary fund.
Finale
The Prez welcomed our newest member, Chris Figeuroa and thanked everyone for attending. She then encouraged everyone to go share the magic of Rotary, ringing the bell and closing the meeting at 1:06 pm.
Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,
Mike Grace
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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