Spoke Editor Profile

Ashley Vorhees is the Executive Director for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Kern County. A native to Kern County, Ashley graduated from Cal State, Bakersfield where she earned her BA in Communications. Go Runners! She is inspired daily by her two children, Grace and Noah. In her free time, Ashley likes to take up a good novel, golf and travel.

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Greeter: Juan Bustamante + his partner in crime for this junior Friday, Carlos Navarro

Invocation: Ken Beurmann who reminded us all to keep God first & love our neighbors

Song: Guitar masters, Jake Shimabukuro and 13 year-old, Saxon Weiss, who played the most beautiful rendition of our National Anthem paired with a little blues. Thank you, Rick Kreiser, for this memorable performance!

Roving Mic: Steve Rodrigue who did a great job hustling the mic

Guests:

• Jose Lopez with Kern County Veteran Services Department (Steve Sanders)
• Christina Springstead with Springstead Solutions (Jim Damian)
• Kenny Spratt with Talentbase (Georgia Petropolis)
• Steve Taylor with KUZZ (Aaron Falk)
• Carlos Navarro with Watson Realty (Juan Bustamante)
• Melanie Rosenlieb (Jay Rosenlieb’s lovely wife)

Good News & Announcements:

• Joe Hay hosted a Chamber event last night at the dealership and took the opportunity to unveil their newest endeavor out at the automall—a dealership catered to the Hispanic market. Congrats to Jim Burke Ford!
• Jorge Barrientos shared some shocking DUI statistics with the group and praised 118 individuals who made the safe choice to take a sponsored Lyft ride home from Village Fest. He also notified fellow Rotarians of the MADD walk taking place this Saturday at The Park at Riverwalk.
• Sheryl Barbich announced that last Thursday, the John Brock Awards ceremony was held and the honoree this year was Angelo Mazzei. She gave props to fellow Rotarians Janelle Capra, Patrick Collins, and Jim Damian for all their work on the event. Way to go, everyone!

Program:

Jeff Guiterrez started off the program with a short clip from Full Metal Jacket, where his use of AI was actually successful and funny, making a handful of Rotarians chuckle.

In honor of 9/11, Aaron Falk came to the stage and welcomed today’s speakers, Jose Lopez, Steve Taylor, and Kenny Spratt, all Army Veterans—thank you, gentlemen, for your service to our country! The program started with Steve Taylor sharing his life story since entering the service back when he was 18, sans braces. He shared about his two tours in Baghdad, earning his degree in Criminal Justice, and enduring too many heart attacks at too young of an age. Since then, he’s taken up a career in radio advertising. After two minutes and a need to pivot, Jose Lopez came to the podium and introduced himself to the group, along with an overview of his time in service to our country. He runs the Kern County Veterans Services Department here in Kern County and talked about the need to care for our veterans after they served our country. He then called Kenny Spratt to the stage, where Kenny shared about his career in the Army and how much that impacted his life as he served his brotherhood and his country with pride. A very touching moment he shared with our club that had many of us with watery eyes. The three servicemen then joined together on stage for a Q&A. Rotarians asked questions that evoked raw emotion, but also gained a deeper understanding of our community’s need to better support our Veterans. Overall, a great way to salute Patriot Day—a day of commemoration to those who lost their lives to the terrorist attacks in 2001.

For ways to support our Veterans right here in Kern County, Rotarians can visit this county resource to learn more: Non-Profit and Other Agencies | Kern County, CA.