Invocation: Justin Salters
Flag Salute: Andrea Hansen
Song: President Joe Hay led a festive acapella rendition of “Deck the Halls”
Greeter: Mike McCoy
Roving Mic: Juan Bustamente
Your Editor:
Justin Salters Justin Salters is the President of Hey Salty, a communications firm he founded in 2020. The firm specializes in partnering with mission-driven organizations, companies and agencies to achieve communications breakthroughs. Justin is also the Interim Executive Director of
B3K Prosperity. More importantly, though, he’s married to Emily and has three young children: daughters Pierce (5) and Ivy (3) and son Kip (6 months). He’s been a member of the Rotary Club of Bakersfield since Sep. 2021.
Guests
Ed Taylor, friend of… wait for it… Juan Bustamante
No visiting Rotarians today
Good News and Announcements
Ben Laverty noted that Shannon Labare’s birthday (Jan. 5) was not recognized during Club Announcements
Ed Paine shared that his wife Maria retired from Jim Burke Ford after nearly 27 years of service with the company. We also learned there’s a video of President Joe and other senior leaders from JBF singing, “
How do you solve a problem like Maria?” somewhere on the cloud. We’ll file that under: “Things for Demotion”
Steve Sanders continued the kudos for Jim Burke Ford, sharing that the Dream Center, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, is able to partner with Jim Burke Ford to give two cars each year to deserving students.
Amy Travis shared she will be hosting a 15-year-old South Korean exchange student next semester.
Jeff Johnson stole a little of President Joe’s thunder to congratulate his team of bell ringers for taking the top spot during this year’s Salvation Army Bell Ringing a few weeks ago.
Picking up where Jeff Johnson left off, President Joe shared that our club raised more than $9,200 for the local Salvation Army this year.
A very festively dressed Sheryl Barbich reminded us this Thursday was Winter Solstice which means the days start getting longer tomorrow
President Joe gave a special thanks to Steve Sanders, our bartenders and all who volunteered to make a great Christmas Party happen last week at CALM
President Joe also recognized Jason Cater for a FRONT PAGE PHOTO earlier this week from an event during which the City of Bakersfield received a whopping $22.1 million from the State of California through its Transformative Climate Communities grant program
New Member:
President Joe welcome our newest Rotarian to the Club: Mira Patel, owner of Dry Bar Bakersfield and Six23 Media
Program Notes
Dave Donaldson, CEO of CityServe Bakersfield and Cherese Grell discuss with president Joe the embarrassing tech used at Downtown Rotary.
Dave has invested his life in inspiring, equipping, and resourcing leaders in more than one hundred countries to bring aid and opportunity to millions of under-resourced people. As the former national director for Operation Blessing and co-founder of Convoy of Hope, Dave forged global partnerships with churches, organizations, and businesses to mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide.
Dave opened by sharing a little from his personal story. When he was just a 9-year old boy, his dad was tragically killed by a drunk driver and his mom was left seriously injured. During that moment of vulnerability, a family stepped up to take in Dave and his three siblings, greeting him with the words, “Welcome! You are with family, and this is now your home.”
The word, “with,” has been the driving force in the work that Dave has done throughout his career. It also serves as the foundation for CityServe. CityServe works with local churches in Bakersfield, across the U.S., and throughout the world to equip pastors to help families in need move from dependency to sustainability.
CityServe’s programs are organized around three pillars: Goods-In-Kind, Compassion Initiatives, and their National Grant Center. Over the last five years, CityServe has distributed $1.5 billion in good-in-kind to families in need through churches and nonprofit organizations. CityServe’s ten Compassion Initiatives draw inspiration from the Bible and offer services to support the most vulnerable members of society. The National Grant Center helps connect local churches with funding opportunities and has helped bring more than $300 million to its partners.
Dave was joined by Cherese Grell, for an update on the Elevate Apartments development CityServe is currently constructing in downtown Bakersfield. The development will include 126 transitional housing units, including thirty-six units set aside for young adults who have aged out of the state’s foster care system. The development pairs transitional housing with intensive case management and wraparound services to help resident participants achieve self-sufficiency and obtain permanent housing within eighteen months. Elevate is currently being assembled using prefabricated modules, with a goal of having residents occupy the development in Mid Q2 2024.
Dave returned to share about other projects CityServe has taken on. Leveraging its global infrastructure and distributed network of local church partners, CityServe is able to mobilize quickly whenever a crisis strikes. Recently, that’s included getting boots on the ground after the Maui wildfires, providing support and generators in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and working on the ground in Israel to provide aid to displaced persons including both Israelis and Palestinians.
Dave ended by encouraging us to consider how we could create hope in the world by sharing a verse from the Bible: “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
As a reminder, we’ll be DARK for the next 2 weeks. See you all in 2024!
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