2024 Santa Rosa Sunrise Club Assembly
Santa Rosa Sunrise rang in the New Year with its January assembly. There was a lot of discuss and much to celebrate. President Debra kicked off the meeting with a quick game of Trivial Pursuit. Warren the winner received a delicious Rotary jar filled with goodies. Home James!
First on the agenda: Our Foundation. Shauna announced that we are one of the leading clubs in District 5130 in foundation contributions this Rotary year. Overall giving this year is over $9,000.00. Sebastopol Sunrise better watch out!
It was announced that an anonymous donation was made awarding eight of our newer members a Paul Harris Fellow. As a result of this generous donation, our club are now 100% Paul Harris Fellows. Lastly there is a second, very prestigious donor who is willing to match one for one for future contributions to the foundation.
Penny briefly went over our club's financials- we are on target with our budget, and we are doing well. A lot of the cash will be spent this year: the district, RI dues, RI convention, and debunking.
Steve Zwick discussed philanthropy and grants. He reminded the club that our money we donate needs to make an impact. The perfect example is the Living Room. We had the opportunity to watch a well-made thank you video from the Executive Director from the Living Room showing us how our money has helped their organization. The Living Room Life Center is up and running, and our club has its own room dedicated to the space.
We have a new international project organized by John Jones and Peter Hoberg. Peter educated us about Brighten Haiti. This organization installs solar panels in schools. We have partnered with other Rotarians and members of the solar industry to sponsor solar installation. On January 18th the solar panels will be installed at a school in rural Haiti to create reliable lighting, computers, and other essential resources needed to learn.
Peter informed us that the school is also raising money for an ice maker, which is a very hot commodity. The students can make ice, and then turn around and sell it.
Paul discussed his passion in eradicating plastic and his involvement with End Plastic Soup-an initiative through Rotary to eliminate plastic. The world produces 20,000 plastic bottles per second: 1.4 billion plastic bottles per day. The club watched a video that illustrated the impact of the plastic bottle. We are choking in plastic!
President Debra did a wonderful job refreshing our memories on our club accomplishments the past six months, i.e., new instruments for Elsie Allen, Club Ambassador for plastic, and 100% Paul Harris Fellows.
There is much to look forward to in 2024! The Progressive Dinner will be in March, and we have another fantastic fundraiser in the horizon.
Great job, President Debra in creating an engaging assembly that truly highlights how incredibly strong and dynamic our club it!
Click HERE to view a limited-time recording of the Club Assembly.
