"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So, let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we'll change the world"
On September 22, 2025, Bellflower Rotary Club gave out $50 gift cards to 100 families for kids to buy school supplies. Parents drove by to pick up the gift cards.
Immediate Past District Governor Albert visited our club on September 11 and presented the Rotary International Club of Excellence Award for 2024-2025. We also celebrated Linda and Rene birthday.
Rotary meeting on Thursday, May 8, Karla from Senator Bob Archuleta office awarded us with a proclamation for our club 100 years celebration. Satellite Club of Glendale Noon and Bellflower Rotary Club are very happy three families from the Altadena wildfire were able to join us. District 5280 Chief of Staff Glenn Gomez welcome two of our newest members into the Paul Harris Family.
Today, February 26, Rotary International President Elect Mario Cesar Martins De Camargo visited our Bellflower Rotary Club. It was a great honor to have the RI President Elect Mario, Governor Albert, PDG Makiko, PDG David Moyers, Bellflower Councilmen and Princess Allie Morse to visit us in celebrating our Club of Excellent Award. He gave us the opportunity to unite with district 5320 Rotarians in this special luncheon. We all joined together in unity, love, fellowship and empowerment in doing good for the world. The unity of the Rotary Club of Altedena, Bellflower, Burbank Sunrise, Burbank Noon, Carson Gardena Dominguez, Downey, El Segundo, Glendale Noon, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Lakewood, Long beach, Palos Verde Sunset, Paramount, San Pedro, Thai Town, and Westchester all joined together to unite for good.
President Elect Lauren Yokomizo and I attended the Southwest President Elect Training last weekend. We both enjoyed the hospitality night and enjoyed the fellowship in our district 5280.
The City of Bellflower celebrated the outgoing mayor's ceremony today. Thank you to Mayor Dan Koops for the wonderful service and love he gave to the community. Congratulations to his great accomplishments.
The Bellflower Rotary Club completed another vision to learn at the Bellflower High School. We prescreened 2015 students at the school. The vision to learn mobile unit will be back to re-exam over 676 students.
Today we completed the prescreening at Intensive Learning Center Elementary School. We screened 656 students and 138 will be re-examined by the mobile unit. Thank You Vision To Learn for doing all this wonderful work with the Bellflower Rotary Club for the Bellflower Unified School District.
The Rotarians attend the Bellflower Joint Service Club Luncheon on Thursday, October 10, 2024. We had a great lunch and great fellowship. Lauren Yokomizo presented the scroll certificate to President Kim Barnette. There were several Bellflower Service Clubs attended, incluing Rotary Club, Lion Club, Women's Club, Soroptimist Club, Kiwanis Club, etc.
Kristi, Olivia, Ryan, Sheila and I attended the City of Bellflower State of the City Luncheon today. We are so proud of our Bellflower Mayor Dan Koops.
Our best Mayor in town with his leadership team have accomplished and improved the city of Bellflower this year. In addition, there are still many more wonderful projects coming to Bellflower City. He shared on the screen several projects completed this year, including keeping our crime rate down. Below is some information on the successful projects and future plan for the city of Bellflower. Great Job Mayor Dan Koops!
We completed the prescreening process at Washington Elementary School in Bellflower. Total of 613 students and 204 students need to be re-examined by the mobile unit next week.
Lauren Yokomizo and I attended the President-Elect Meet & Greet meeting today at Governor Elect Alex Parajon home. It was a great meeting at a beautiful location.
We completed our first vision to learn project today at Frank Woodruff Elementary. We examined 460 students this morning and 70 students fail the vision exam and 76 with glasses need further examination. We will distribute the glasses once Vision To Learn completed the final detail examination with the mobile unit at the end of the month.
The Rotary Club of Bellflower provided $50 Walmart gift cards to 100 students for the Back To School Project. Thank you to Caring Connections for providing us with the families from the Bellflower Unified School District. Thank you to all the Rotarians, Case Workers and Managers that assisted us today in giving out the gift cards. Below are some photos from today's project.
September 12 meeting: Alla Kutz from BMO spoke about Corporate Trustee. She provided great information about creating a trustee and assigning corporate as trustee. In addition, Lauren presented the board members with certificate for the year 2023-2024.
District 5280 picnic party at Seaside Lagoon on Saturday, August 24, was a success. Many unique cardboard boats entered the contest. Congratulations to Downey Club for winning 1st Place.
Rotary Meeting on August 22 was very informative on the service provided by Bank of Montreal. Wilo Caprio shared many great programs with good interest rate for the customers.
August 2, 2024 - The Rotary Club of Bellflower, Downey, Lynwood and Paramount joined together to welcome our District Governor Albert Hernandez, Chief of Staffs Maye Stacy and Glenn Gomez, Senior Assistant Governor Margie Hernandez, Assistant Governor Sheri Repp and Michael Carbuto. Our District Governor Albert Hernandez inducted 7 new members today and shared his goal for the year. All four club Presidents shared their signature projects for the year. The presidents also recognized some of their special inspiring members. Congratulations to all the winners of the centerpieces, wine, and gift card. A big congratulations to Rica Viola for winning the big grand price of the 50/50 cash. Thank you Rica for sharing the winning money with our club, which in turn was a wonderful gift to Governor Albert Hernandez for the Rotary Foundation. Thank you Rotarians for a successful event today!
We celebrate Rogelio birthday at the Bellflower Rotary Meeting on Thursday, July 25. We enjoyed all the information Chief Dao shared with us on fire information and fire tips.
Bellflower Rotary celebrated the year end accomplishments on June 27 at Lunasia Dim Sum House in Cerritos
Our celebration at Lunasia was wonderful and we had 12 course meal. Governor Makiko Nakasone presented the club of excellence banner to President Connie and the bellflower rotary club. The president presented the year end gift to the board members & Jose and thanking them for their hard work and service for the year. Jon Matson and Doug Easer both awarded the Rotarians of the Year. President Connie also awarded Howard Davis with a certificate for the most Loyal Rotarian.
District 5280 meet with Rotary Club of Kofu in Japan. Six Governors exchange banner with the president. Bellflower Rotary Club also exchange banner with the Kofu Rotary Club.
June 13, 2024 Club Meeting, I shared with the members on the rotary meeting in Japan. We had about 70 Rotarians attended the rotary meeting with the Rotary Club of Marina City and Rotary Club of Kofu in Japan. I shared the banner exchange with their clubs. Also we had scholarship recipients from Bellflower High School and Mayfair High School at our meeting on Thursday receiving their scholarship check. Each student received a scholarship of $1000. In addition, we received the club of excellence award.
The Bellflower Rotary is very happy to welcome our three newest members (Kristi Wry, Olivia Helwani and Archimendes) to our rotary family. Thank you Governor Makiko Nakasone for inducting them to our club on Thursday, May 9.
WOW. This year our Rotary District 5280 Conference was amazing. We have Rotarians and Governors from Japan and Ecuador attended our district conference this year. This is the first Rotary District International Conference. Congratulations to our outstanding Governor Makiko Nakasone for a successful year. In addition to all that, our Bellflower Rotary Club received the Club of Excellence Award this year. Great Job Bellflower Rotarians!! You did it!
Today, Linda Nesst, Rogelio Rabaner and I attended the City of Bellflower's 28th Annual Bravo Award. This is the Bellflower Acts of Valor and Outstanding Service to honor the first responders and community heroes performing extraordinary acts of heroism and outstanding service in supporting the public safety in Bellflower.
Congratulations to Michael Drayer, probation officer of Los Angeles County probation Department, on winning the Distinguished Service Award. Congratulations to Mason Duffy, Saul Ruiz and Austin Weisenburger from the Deputy of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on winning the Valor Award. Congratulations to Brock Harmon (Captain of the Los Angeles County Fire Department) and Nathaniel Solorio (Firefighter Specialist of the Los Angeles County Fire Department), Jason Jones (Firefighter of the Los Angeles County Fire Department) and John Machin (Firefighter of the Los Angeles County Fire Department) on winning the Outstanding Service Award. Congratulations to Ron Vande Vegte, Detective of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, on wining the Distinguished Service Award. Congratulations to Lawrence Cervantes, Deputy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, on winning the Outstanding Service Award. Congratulations to Mina Roufael and Jada Williams from Mayfair High School on winning the Student Essay Winners Award.
Today is the district 5280 Pageant of Art Contest for Art, Dance, Speech, Music. I attended the vocal and instrument music competition. Bellflower Rotary sponsor Erin Tardibuono for the vocal music competition. She came in All3rd place for vocal. She
was extremely good.
All Vocal Music Contestants
1st Place Vocal Winner
2nd Place Vocal Music Winner
3rd Place Vocal Winner
Honorary Winner
All Instrumental Contestants
1st Place Instrument music
2nd Place Instrument Music
3rd Place Instrument Winner
Honorary Instrument Muic Winner
Bellflower Rotary Sponsor Erin
Congratulation to all contestant. They s are very talented and they all are considered 1st place winner just by attending the pageant of art. I am so proud of Erin Tardibuono for taking 3rd place.
We completed our successful shoe shopping project on Saturday, March 16 at Sketchers in Norwalk. Thank you to all Rotarians, Friends and Case workers for their dedication and hard work in choosing the perfect shoe for each kid. What a wonderful project to express our love for the children. Every kid walked out with a big smile holding their new shoe.
Thai Curry Grand Opening on Tuesday, March 19. It was a great ribbon cutting celebration event. Paramount City Mayor and other dignitaries welcome the grand unveiling of Thai Curry to their city.
Valentine's is a special day for the senior at Villa Del Sol. Rotarians bring this special holiday to them with a gift of collectible Spritz Kingsley, Spritz Queenie and Spritz Cherrie. What a beautiful day to cheer the senior with a smile.
Bellflower Rotary gave out 100 gift cards for the Back to School Projects. Students are able to buy school supplies and clothing as they return back to school.
Our Target School Shopping Spree was 'different' this year.
With Rotarians, Caring Connections Members, and Friends, we were able to adapt and morph our Back To School Shopping into another great event for our local kids in the Bellflower Unified School District.
100 kids got $50 gift cards to shop at Target for School Clothes and Supplies.
A joy for us to help buy Backpacks and School Supplies again this year.
As we move forward in these trying times, what we say and do today may not be accurate or relevant tomorrow. That said, we do know that our kids do need school supplies and a place to keep them.
When Michelle Navaro of the Bellflower Volunteer Center called us to ask us to help again this year with this wonderful project for our famlies and kids we jumped at the opportunity. Our club voted to give $500 and several members added another $500 in matching funds to give a total of $1000 to help this year.
We won't get to guide the kids through the center to pick their own bag and supplies due to Covid-19. The loaded bags will be handed out to pre-registered familes/kids in a drive through.
We were able to finish our Rotary Year with a wonderful Grocery Gift Card Project.
With the challenges presented to us all this year, we needed to look for a creative way to help our community. So...we partnered with the SHRIJI MANDIR & CULTURAL CENTER Food/Drink giving event. Caring Connections of Bellflower
selected families who were in need of assistance. We purchased 105 gift grocery cards in the amount of $50.00 from Superior Grocers in Bellflower. We were able to give those cards with bags of pantry food items as well as cases of drinks to those families. We also handed out bags with 2020 Census information and forms (so important to bring funds into our communities).
OH, I almost to mention two important side stories!
This young man came down from Pico Rivera just to volunteer for this event.
He just loves to volunteer and knows another member of Caring Connections who, by-the-way, are off for the summer and are not being paid. As I was talking with him, he related that he lives in a small house with eleven others. Their were two gift cards left over so we shared one with him as well as groceries to take back home. A small tear conveyed how unexpectedly happy that made him.
For the other card, I called Maria (The Mother we helped with our Christmas Project) to get a ride down to receive the other card and groceries.
This was just the greatest icing melting on our very warm hearts.
This year's Back To School Shopping Event at Kmart was another
Rotary Club of Bellflower sponsored refueling day.
On September 14th, The Rotary Club of Bellflower treated 50 kids to a shopping spree at the Kmart located on Bellflower Blvd. in Long Beach.
Caring Connections Case Workers identified children that would most benefit from our help. Bethel Reformed Church provided the bus and driver to transport the kids to and from the event.
Our members, along with some of our Bellflower High School Interactors, and Caring Connections Case Workers, guided those children to pick out cloths, shoes, and supplies with the $100 gift cards we provided to each one.
Then the kids got drinks and snacks before heading back with their treasures.
It was a GREAT Event with everyone coming away a little warm and fuzzy (or in some cases a little smooth).
On Saturday, February 2nd, was the Payless Shoe Event.
Forty nine kids were chosen by Caring Connections and bused to the store by Encounter Church. Nine Rotarians, Rog Rabanera, Bob Frohn, Connie Hui, Jean Seruntine, Tracy McSparren, Doug Easer, Jon Matson, Didi & Dave Davis, helped each child find a pair of shoes and a package of socks. After picking out their shoes, the kids were treated with fancy doughnuts, milk/orange juice, and fun songs by Caring Connections folks before boarding the bus. As always this was a busy and fun event. The kids were so appreciative.
January 12TH was the Rotary Club of Bellflower's Showtime Cabaret held at the Pomona Valley Mining Company. There was a silent auction and later, after supper a live auction.
January 12th; the Cabaret was held at the Pomona Mining Company restaurant on a hill high over the Pomona Valley. Didi & Dave Davis, Dr. Howard Davis, Ken & Caroline Hall, Connie Hui, Steve Litzinger, Linda Nesst, Pravin & Knutika Pranav, Dr. Rog & Cindy Rabanera, Jean Seruntine, Marlys Severson, Kathy Stewart, Joe & Rozangela Vasquez, Doug & Lorraine Wilson, Jennifer & Jose Beech, Jon Matson, Jean Michael with her Daughter - Marsha, and guests attended. It is always a fun event for about 100 people. .
The Show Time Cabaret group put on a wonderful show of Broadway songs which we all enjoyed. Actually it was nice to hear songs we knew and could understand the words. One singer asked Steve & Ken to climb on stage and help with a song.
They were troupers. Another singer asked Jean to the stage to help with a Tom Jones song.
Still another sang to Jean Michael & Cindy Rabanera.
Although it rained in the morning, the sun came out so we all enjoyed a beautiful
view of the snow capped mountains and Pomona Valley.
January 17th Connie Hui, Dr. Rog & Cindy Rabanera were at Ramona Elementary School giving kids their 'Free' glasses.
VTL returns every two years to schools that we have already tested to screen new students. They had an optometrist there to make adjustments to the frames as we help fit the 24 children with their brand new 'FREE' glasses. Last fall several Rotarians:- Mike Lundgren, Linda Nesst, Connie Hui, Doug Easer, Rog & Cindy Rabanera were at this school to screen for eyesight problems of these new students. We were there in connection with Vision To Learn & Caring Connections. The students were so nice, polite, and well behaved. They appreciated the glasses. We know they will have a better chance to succeed now.
Some of our $6000.00 Scholarship Fund is distributed to Vocational and the rest to College-bound Students. Some were the first in their families to go on to higher education. They spoke eloquently of their paths to get this far in their lives. Meeting their proud parents confirmed to us again how important family support is. We were so proud to help them on their way to achieving their personal dreams!
Below is the breakdown of their names and information:
2017 Scholarships
Cerritos College Foundation $1000.00 (another $1000.00 will be disbursed at second semester)
Alyssa Coo, Mayfair H. S., associate degree in nursing
Rajiv Lingam, Mayfair H.S., business, plans to transfer to 4-year school
Jessica Trujillo California State University Fullerton $1000.00
Bellflower High School, Kinesiology
Stephanie Mendoza California State University Long Beach $1000.00
Bellflower High School, neonatal nurse, future doctor
Ndiya Usim Regents of the University of California (San Diego) $1000.00
Our Bellflower High School Interact Charter Celebration.
Our District Governor Greg O'Brien and Senior Assistant Governor of Youth Service were on hand to induct our new club. We pinned the members and officers present and presented them with all the items they needed to show off their new "Vibrant" Club. With so many strong members already attracting new and enthusiast young leaders, the outlook for our new club is very bright. I know we will all come out strong in their support. President Lia is already a force to be reckoned with.
More than 375 participants and volunteers helped our District raise over $5,000 for PolioPlus. There were more than 75 Interactors and Rotaractors including five from our new club.
We had tons of fun, food, and great entertainment.
What a wonderful trip we experienced in The Yucatãn.
We were welcomed to Merida by District 4200.
District 4195 partnered with us to make this wonderful International Humanitarian Trip to Merida, Mexico possible.
There were over 100 Rotarians from District 5280 making a difference once again. Among the many service projects, our Rotarians planted over 600 trees, rehabilitated a rural elementary school, volunteered at a diabetes clinic, provided medical and dental supplies, provided musical instruments to an after school program, provided kitchen appliances and supplies to a special needs school, and so much more. Watch the video to see how Rotary is making a difference.
Our district is so unique in putting these wonderful trips together. You really need to experience the heart and mind expansion. Check with your doctor to see if they are strong enough to join us in Columbia next February. Ha, ha....
That's right, Rotary Club of Bellflower partnering with Vision To Learn distributed 83 more pairs of free glasses to students of Bellflower Middle/High School. Making this the eighth school in BUSD that we have served. Now almost 700 kids that were in need of eye correction aid have it! We intend to come back in 24 months to repeat this wonderful project. "Rotary and Vision To Learn, Giving Kids A Chance To Learn"!
Today, Linda Nesst, Rogelio Rabaner and I attended the City of Bellflower's 28th Annual Bravo Award. This is the Bellflower Acts of Valor and Outstanding Service to honor the first responders and community heroes performing extraordinary acts of heroism and outstanding service in supporting the public safety in Bellflower. 
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