Sale of Opportunity Drawing tickets by Anthony Clark.
Scribe by Marti Correa de Garcia
Photographer by Cathy Calabro
VISTING ROTARIANS: Rollin Gartzke, President of Rotary Club of Goleta Noontime and owner of 805 Pool Table Services. Marna Coday, Rotary Member of Carpinteria Morning Club.
POTENTIAL ROTARIANS: Justin Pealman, invited by President Jim Lisi. Roberto Najera, returning to Club. Adriana Vasquez, potential Club Service candidate.
VISITORS: Mary Garza, spouse of Rotary member Blas Garza. Frank McGeoy, partner and guest of Rotary Club member Amy Bankoff.
Allison Quijano, Principal of Adams Elementary School.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
President Jim Lisi asked you to mark your calendars, Club meetings:
Board of Directors Meeting, Wednesday, November 5, 2025 – 12:00 PM – Rusty’s Pizza, Calle Real Center (Turnpike & Hollister Ave.)
Membership Meeting, Wednesday, November 12, 2025 – 12:00 PM – Mulligan’s Café. Guest Speaker, John Roger Battisone, History of Santa Barbara & Sambo's.
Membership Meeting, Wednesday, November 19, 2025 – 12:00 PM – Mulligan’s Café. Club Assembly, Membership, TRF, Annual Meeting & Elections.
Holiday Party & Dinner, Wednesday, December 3, 2025 – 5:30 PM – University Club. Silent Auction, please bring a gift for auction (worth $50 or more).
AWARDS PRESENTED TO CLUB MEMBERS
Blas Garza was presented with a 30-year Service Award.
Gil Garcia was presented with a 40-year Service Award. Congratulations to both!
NOMINATION COMMITTEE UP-DATE
Cathy Calabro, Nomination Chair announced the 2027-28 President-Nominee is Joe Lanza. 2026-27 President-Elect is Tim Hardy.
FOUNDATION CHAIR
UP-DATE
John Holehouse, Chair of Club Foundation announced that Friday is Rotary International World Polio Plus. World Polio Day is a time for Rotary members, public health advocates, and all who want a world free from polio to come together, recognize our progress. The Gates Foundation matches every donation.
MEGA BUCKS
Guy de Mangeon pledged a Mega Buck in honor of Roberto Najera returning as a club member.
Cathy Calabro pledged a Mega Buck for the November 15-16 Santa Barbara Symphony – Mozart Requiem at the Granada Theater. Cathy will be singing with the choir, if you want to attend she can get 20% off . Log-in to: https://ticketing.granadasb.org/overview/20382Go to the promo code to receive 20% off.
Jim Lisi pledged a Mega Buck for recently presenting his published paper at the ISBA-NEBB Valuation conference.
OPPORTUNITY DRAWING
Congratulations to the winner of The Berry Man Inc. fruit basket, Steve Young, who generously gave it to our Guest Speaker, Robert Curtis. Guy de Mangeon had the winning ticket for the second opportunity drawing . . . unfortunately he did not pick the right marble.
SPOTLIGHT
Allison Quijano, Principal of Adams Elementary School
Allison has worked in the Santa Barbara Unified School District since 2019 as the Secondary English instructional support specialist at the district office. She has taken leadership roles in several district-wide initiatives, including ethnic studies, universal access, professional learning, and the development of the master plan for Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs).
She is honored and proud to become the principal of Adams, “feeling incredibly fortunate to be able to build on the foundation of a trusting, collaborative, and joyful school that the current Adams administration, staff and families have built.” Past Principal Kelly Fresh has been a wonderful mentor to her.
Previously, Quijano worked as an instructional coach in Arizona, and taught high school English in Denver, Colorado. She is the mother of former and current Adams Tigers, and her husband is a practicing doctor in Santa Barbara.
Her passion for building strong, collaborative school communities is committed to fostering student success from an early age. She is grateful for the long lasting partnership of Rotary with Adams School.
Robert A. Curtis is the current managing partner of Foley Bezek Behle & Curits, LLP. Robert earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA and his J.D from Pepperdine University School of Law. Robert is admitted to the State Bar of California and is also admitted to practice in the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Southern, and Northern Districts of California, the Western District of Michigan, and before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
He has been with the firm for 26 years and practices in the areas of complex business litigation, mass torts, lender liability, class actions, wildfire litigation, and real estate litigation. He, in conjunction with other partners at the firm, has litigated cases which have resulted in over $1.15 billion in settlements and verdicts against some of the biggest companies in the country. Among his settlements are multi-million dollar successes against Southern California Edison, East West Bank, Shell Oil, Verizon Wireless, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Airways, and Bank of the West.
In 2019, Robert settled a 5-year long real estate partnership dispute for $109,000,000 and a class action against U.S. Airways for $9,850,000.
Also in 2019, Robert was appointed by the Superior Court in Los Angeles to the leadership team for the litigation involving another utility-started fire, the Woolsey Fire. In the Woolsey Fire, the firm represented over 1200 individual plaintiffs and obtained settlements in excess of $429,000,000 for the victims of the Woolsey Fire.
Santa Barbara Sunrise is hosting Rotary Youth exchange student Lisa Shimada from Japan. The plan is to have three families host the exchange student. The next family after Thanksgiving to Easter and the last family will finish off the school year. HELP is needed with hosting Lisa. For more information and details please call Scott Burns (805-448-8110). You don’t have to be a Rotarian, if you have a friend have them contact Scott. Just a note, Lisa is extremely allergic to cats and cannot stay with a family that has a cat. She is a Junior and attends Santa Barbara High School. Rotary SB Sunrise thanks you for your consideration.
UP-COMING EVENTS
NOV. 01, 2025 - GROUP 8 - RISE AGAINST HUNGER SERVICE PROJECT - Goleta Community Center 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
