With us last week were Past District Governor Ricardo Loretta and Palm Desert Rotary President-Elect Carol Winston. The pair told us about Palm Desert Rotary’s Angels of Service program. Six months ago, Palm Desert Rotarians noticed how many people were in need because of the pandemic and they decided to do something about it. At their virtual meetings, they collect Happy Dollars to provide food items to four local non-profits to use in their food distribution programs. The goal each week is to collect $200 and committee members then visit our local Albertson’s and shop for non-perishable food items. The purchased food is then delivered on a rotating basis to the four non-profits selected by the club.

With us last week was Palm Desert City Council member Sabby Jonathan. Sabby provided us with an excellent update on our city’s comprehensive response to COVID-19. Thanks to healthy financial reserves, the city can afford to offer financial help to many of our small businesses and the hospitality industry. The city has a wide variety of help available….everything from “Open For Business” banners to forgivable loans of up to $25,000. Sabby tells us the pandemic is causing Palm Desert’s first-ever budget deficit. Development activity in the city continues despite COVID-19. Sabby touched on the ongoing efforts to obtain a local university, the San Pablo beautification project, senior housing projects and several commercial projects ready to begin construction.

Last week we heard a wonderful message from Bruce Stahlman of Littleton, Colorado. Bruce is Chief Financial Officer of ARC Thrift Stores, a Colorado non-profit with 1,500 employees and $100 million in annual revenue. Bruce told us about his and wife Kelly’s twin sons. Both had severe cerebral palsy and needed round-the-clock care until their deaths in 2014 and 2015. Bruce was then diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery in 2018. “First and always, it’s about gratitude,” according to Bruce. Rather than looking at the twins and cancer as calamities, Bruce chooses to see them as blessings and draws energy from the experiences to share a positive real life story that resonates with people across all of life’s situations. Stories like this are definitely worth spending an hour online on Wednesday mornings. Join us!

With us last week was Diane Vines, a CSUSB nursing instructor who coordinates the Street Medicine Project. This project is a partnership between the school’s nursing department, UC Riverside School of Medicine, Desert Regional Medical Center, Well in the Desert and Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine. Project participants bring heath care to the valley’s homeless population. Diane invited two of her students to join her in the presentation and we learned the program provides valuable training to students since their usual clinical teaching sites (hospitals and nursing homes) are unavailable to them because of the pandemic. Not a single COVID-19 case has been detected in the valley’s homeless population so far, according to Diane.

With us last week was Tony Marchese, co-owner of Trio Restaurant and co-founder of CV Harvest Box. At the beginning of the pandemic, Tony and Mark Tadros, an east valley grower, saw a need to provide Coachella Valley residents with fresh produce delivered directly to their homes. Their plan would also help growers who normally served local restaurants by provided them with a new sales outlet. CV Harvest Box now supplies weekly produce boxes as well as a number of “add ons” to nearly 300 customers. Available add ons change frequently but some of the current products include mushrooms, apples, berries, pasta, cookies, coffee and olive oil. Harvest boxes are delivered on Fridays and customers can choose to order once or to subscribe to weekly, by-weekly or monthly deliveries. Harvest boxes start at just $35. Tony provided Rotarians with a promo code for a $5 discount on a delivery. Simply go to the Harvest Box website, www.cvharvestbox.com and enter promo code “Rotary” when you place your order.

With us last week was Mike Rosenkrantz, board president of Palms To Pines Parasports. Joining Mike were board members Mike Porter and Jerry Alcorn. Palms To Pines Parasports is a new organization seeking to provide sports and social opportunities to people with disabilities. There are very few activities currently in the Coachella Valley and this group plans to change that. Any sport can be adopted for the disabled and they are currently providing wheel chair basketball and cycling. Many more activities are in the works. According to Mike, there are currently no adaptive sports programs offered in Riverside so his group is also offering programs there. They plan to actively reach out to disabled veterans as well. Our club will be working with Palm Springs Parasports to come up with possible future volunteer and community service opportunities so stay tuned!