LINK TO VIRTUAL MEETING INFORMATION

Our guest speaker for December 7, 2023, was Becky Enos, the Executive Director of Save our Students Community Counseling. Becky is a Santa Rosa native and graduate of Santa Rosa High School. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin. She also studied special education and non-profit administration at Penn State and the University of San Francisco. She is the single parent of a teenage daughter and has worked in non-profit sector most of her life. The original SOS was started with the help of 5 local rotary clubs a number of years ago. Since those days, SOS has morphed into a counseling service serving students in schools throughout Sonoma County.

SOS’s Mission Statement is to “Provide healing throughout Sonoma County as a training agency that delivers collaborative, compassionate and accessible care.” SOS provides access to counseling services regardless of financial status. SOS employs 27 pre-licensed social workers in 3 main programs. These pre-licensed workers are either in their final year of a master’s degree program or are working on their hourly requirement before they can become fully licenses. SOS delivers its services through 3 main programs: the Clinic Program, Team Success, and Juvenile Justice. The Clinic Program follows a traditional private practice model, with an office downtown. Its counselors work in individual, couple, group, and family counseling. Team Success is a derivative of the County’s older program called Project Success. When the County closed this program due to budget cuts, the therapists continued as “Team Success.” It serves students at Cotati-Rohnert Park, Cloverdale, and Windsor. The therapists actually work on these campuses.

Juvenile Justice serves Rohnert Park, Windsor, Healdsburg, and Cloverdale. SOS places therapists at school sites working in collaboration with the Police Dept. These youth come via referrals from the school or through the PD. This is a 10-week program in which students meet weekly with a therapist, who tries to address the student’s behavior issues.

SOS provides critical mental health services to students throughout Sonoma County. It also trains the next generation of mental health therapists. However, SOS faces significant financial obstacles. The pandemic transformed SOS by providing larger than usual grants and donations, but this funding has dwindled, leaving SOS programs vulnerable to cutbacks. SOS is a training agency for mental health therapists and makes a makes a heavy financial investment into each therapist. Once they obtain their licenses these therapists often leave to start work in their own or other programs. Also, the programs have lots of non-billable hours worked by interns and students, who can’t bill for their services. It is actively seeking ways to manage its programs to meet the current financial stresses. SOS is now reaching out to community leaders, including Rotary clubs, to reactive its historical partnerships as part of an effort to revitalize its donation and grant funding.

Thank you, Becky, for all of your work on behalf of the youth of Sonoma County. We look forward to again being an important part of SOS’s mission.

Click HERE to view a limited time recording of Becky Enos' presentation.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!

Thank you to everyone who attended the fabulous holiday party yesterday.  Everything from the delicious appetizers, the ambience of the room, the members and spouses who attended, the festive decorations, and the amazing, delicious desserts was spectacular.

A special thank you to the following for making this such a great holiday party (forgive me if I miss anyone)

Stacy for organizing this, the decorations, ordering and picking up the appetizers, set up and clean up;

Cindy for assisting Stacy with set up and other things she needed.

Jeri Leasher for assisting with set up.

Katherine and Randy for set up.

Ken Petro for set up.

MJ & Linda for set up and the wonderful holiday music.

Steve Herron for assisting with ABC license and bringing and pouring the wine.

Mary Banks for the delicious desserts (especially the rum balls).

Steve Worthen and Georgia for cleanup.

Mary and Peter Banks for cleanup.

Whoever else assisted with the set up and cleanup.

And Warren Smith for the awesome photography!

I always say it takes a village to throw an amazing event and this is no exception.  I always say I'm so proud to be a part of this Club and serving as your President.

I hope to see you at this Thursday's meeting.  If not, have a joyous and wonderful holiday and I'll see you in the new year!

Yours in Rotary,

Debra L. Robertson, 2023-2024 President

President Debra Robertson with President Elect Cindy Gillespie

When inspiration strikes, you have to just go with it — no matter how unexpected the circumstances. Few knew that better than Robert B. Sherman, who, along with his brother Richard, made up one of the best-known songwriting duos in Hollywood history. In addition to The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, and other Disney classics, they collaborated on 1964’s Mary Poppins — including the song “A Spoonful of Sugar,” which was inspired by the polio vaccine. This was recounted by Robert’s son Jeffrey, who in late 2020 shared his story of receiving the vaccine as a child. When asked whether it hurt, Jeffrey told his father, “They put it on a sugar cube and you just ate it. He stared at me, then went to the phone and called my uncle Dick.”

Robert recalled the incident similarly: “I realized at the moment that I had the spark of a winning song,” he wrote in his autobiography Moose: Chapters From My Life. “I couldn’t sleep all night. The lyric mulled around in my mind. The next day, at work, I showed up half an hour earlier than usual so that I could pop the idea on my brother.” Created by virologist Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine (originally administered as a shot) was released in 1955, after which Salk was hailed as a miracle worker and refused to patent it. An oral vaccine, the type Jeffrey Sherman received, was developed later by biomedical scientist Albert Sabin. Within 25 years, the polio vaccine eliminated transmission of the disease in the United States.

Thank you for all the love, support, friendship and understanding during these past few years with Jim's Alzheimer's journey.  He loved the club for its mission and the amazing people.

Contrary to my fears, Jim is mostly adapting to being a resident at Primrose after attending their Day program for a year. However, we still need to stick to the story that I’m ill and he needs to “help” me by staying there since he truly believes that the dementia diagnosis is bogus.  So the staff is capitalizing on his desire for “Service Above Self” as his way to adjust to residential care.

Leslie and I have been seeing him for the past 2 weeks.  However, they still wish us to keep visitations only with family until he is more settled.  I’ll keep you updated about possibilities for hikes and Rotary work projects after the New Year.

With utmost gratitude,

Melinda