Executive Director of the Jewish Community Free Clinic
Our speaker this week is the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Free Clinic (JCFC), Donna Waldman. The clinic is located on Montgomery Drive near Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa. Most of us have passed the Clinic and noticed its sign many times, but wondered what services they provide and to what patients? This week's program will answer those questions and more, and the answers will likely surprise us all. The JCFC draws on Jewish traditions of "tzedakah" (charity) and "tikkun olam" (repairing the world) to offer free health care services to anyone in need, without regard to religion. The JCFC is a volunteer-based safety net clinic committed to providing those in need with compassionate health care and community services. While there is a paid administrative staff, medical professionals donate their time to serve the clinic's patients.
Robert Nieto (Chef Buttercup) of Fleur Sauvage Chocolates!
Our Speaker for January 12, 2023 was Robert Nieto, chef and owner of Fleur Sauvage Chocolates. Robert opened Fleur Sauvage in April 2019 and moved the company into a permanent location in Windsor in 2021. He has worked for over 18 years as a professional pastry chef, chocolatier, sugar artist and baker. He was named one of the top 10 pastry chefs in America in 2016! He also regularly competes in pastry competitions and even came in 5th in the world at the 2018 Mundial des Arts Sucre international competition in Paris! Robert’s nickname is “Chef Buttercup,” which he says is derived from an earlier nickname, “Chef Butterfingers!”
Robert’s journey to the top of the pastry chef world and to a small chocolate shop in Windsor began in Texas, where his parents were farmers. Robert got his start at the Roadhouse Inn in Texas as a dishwasher. He was fascinated by watching the baker as he made rolls and breads and ended up as a baker himself at the restaurant. He loved desserts and learned much about making them from books. He attended culinary school for cooking and was offered a job as a cook at a local country club. Back in those days the Discovery Channel often featured great chefs and Robert saw pastry chefs that reminded him of his old love of pastries. He attended the World Pastry Forum for a one-week class in Las Vegas in early 2000. He got a job at Bellagio in Las Vegas and worked in other Las Vegas restaurants, but got his real break when he was hired as a pastry sous chef at Chef Thomas Keller’s (of local French Laundry fame) Bouchon Bistro. He moved to Napa County when he was promoted to Pastry Chef at Bouchon Bistro and Bouchon Bakery in Yountville.
He started work in Sonoma County in 2010 at the Michelin starred Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, staying 2 years. He then moved on to Kendall Jackson, where he worked for 13 years before starting Fleur Sauvage. During his years at Kendall Jackson, he was doing triathlons and his boss suggested that he enter into pastry competitions. He entered many competitions, including the Mundial des Arts Sucre in Paris, where he saw lots of small chocolate and pastry shops and started thinking about starting his own chocolate shop. He attended Small Business Development classes to start the process of learning how to open and operate a small business. He started his business by making custom chocolates for wineries and for sale at farmers’ markets. Robert now specializes in chocolate/wine pairings and also serves plated desserts.
Fleur Sauvage in Windsor offers an expanded selection of chocolate treats, expresso drinks, tea, hot chocolate, and small desserts. Thank you, Robert, for the fascinating view of your life from a Texas farm to pastry chef extraordinaire! We’ll see you in Windsor.
Click HERE to view Robert's presentation. It will be available for a limited time.
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!
The Rotary image above is commonly called the wheel. More precisely it is a gear: the cogged interdigitations function to engage other gears in synchronized, synergistic motion.
This mechanical metaphor aptly describes the dynamic interplay between a club's members, board and president.
Rotarians, like gears, come in a multitude of sizes, with varying skills to compliment each other and create progressive movement.
Whether in the role of a Board Director, President or Member at Large, your convergence with each other possesses a creative energy found in no other enterprise. A Win-Win attitude pervades the agenda. Evidence of this positive perspective is apparent in every year of Sunrise 36 year history.
Exciting, challenging, at times perplexing, but never boring, this engagement of club, communities local and abroad draws deeply on our desire to connect and serve. Ask any club leader for an example of fulfillment. Polio Plus, SRKSEP, Interact, The Living Room, Sabalos, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Forget Me Not Farm, Choices, Laguna de Santa Rosa, Steele Lane School: Some relationships are ongoing, others in transition, some complete and some incubating.
We all are leaders. We like progressive change. Our vocations are not our only venue for our skills and interest. After all, more than a few of us are retired or on our second or third career. In Rotary we find new opportunities to advance better communities and develop sustainable goodwill and friendships. Club leadership is our chance to extend and leverage what we do best for an agreed upon period. Now is the time if you have yet to assume a new leadership role to curiously consider what your sweet spots of service are, where they have been or where they may be ~ ~(in addition to your breakfast binets and quick breads).
This message is brought to you by your 2024-2025 Nominating Committee. The committee is an automatic transmission for leadership succession composed of the last 5 Past Presidents. Our mandate is to present a slate of candidates to the Club in December, including President-Elect Nominee to serve two years hence. Directors terms are two years, Offices of Secretary and Treasurer are typically three. Director terms are staggered to provider continuity/overlap of board knowledge. Your Nominating Committee currently includes Jack Strange, ,Jennifer Adams, Paul O Rear, Marty Behr and Rich Randolph, chair.
We are all in this remarkable club together. Fly your flag, help sail our ship.
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
I was brought up in a “mixed marriage” family…my mother, from Mount Vernon N.Y., was liberal with an open mind and heart and loved to dance to rock music... Dad, from western Pennsylvania on the periphery of Amish country, not so much, he did his “dancing” rounding up bad guys in the city. (S.F.P.D.)
As a youth, the dinner table was set for seven, the Girard’s and four young men from around the world attending university or the City College of San Francisco. We had a spacious home located conveniently between the two meccas of higher learning. So, my early, formative years were spent with four big brothers, who along with my mother, dug music, especially Rock music.
I learned to appreciate the nuances of the genre as well as the power to move people. One must admit that listening to music can be a spiritual experience. My entrance into broadcasting began in 1966 whilst still attending high school in Mendocino County. I’ve kept my “foot” in it ever since. Currently a member of community radio, I continue to appreciate the power of not only the medium, but that of the musical variety from which we must choose. KOWS FM host a cornucopia of programs to suit every taste.
This Sunday’s featured artist are one of the most influential in the early ‘70’s, solidifying the 33 1/3 LP as the preferred medium for entertainment. Their fourth studio release remains one if the highest selling albums of all time, 34 million copies sold worldwide! This quartet consisting of seasoned musicians from the British Isles gained a reputation for debauchery and excessive behavior, which is such an unnecessary byproduct of the music industry.
Tune into the show, either live or from the archives to hear the band that has over 300 million units sold worldwide, numerous number one hits, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and considered as influential in the seventies as the Beatles were in the sixties.
(Hint: the leader of this group was once a member of the band Eric Clapton left on the day that “For Your Love” was released.)
First it was "Fines". And when that was thought to be "negative" it became "recognitions" and after that "High Five". But Jack has announced a new twist for these moments, designed to fit every celebration as well as sorrowful news. And it does not have to be a "High Five". "Happy Dollars" and "Sad Dollars" can be whatever you want them to be. Or whatever you feel is appropriate.
Happy Dollars
Merle is looking verklempt here as her twin grandsons, Logan and John, were recognized as twin Paul Harris Fellows.
President Jack is proud of his Interact Club students for getting involved with helping raise funds for the Program of Scale - Global Grant to help Zambia combat the number one killing disease, Malaria. Jack's Interact Club of St. Isabella has partnered up with the lead Rotary Club of Federal Way in Washington (outside of Seattle) and may be the only Interact Club participating.
Sad Dollars
Randy Seelye attended from his hospital bed in Truckee. He broke a bone in his hip after getting tripped-up by a snow boarder while disembarking a chair lift at Northstar-at-Tahoe. He is grateful for the care he is receiving and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.
Do you have Happy or Sad Dollars to share? There is no need to wait until the meeting. Send them to the editor.
1. Two boxers are in a match scheduled for 12 rounds. (Pure boxing only - no kicking, UFC takedowns, or anything else). One of the boxers gets knocked out after only six rounds, yet no man throws a punch. How is this possible?
2. In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995, that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?
Send your answers to the editor. Brownie points and answers will appear in next week's bulletin.
Answers from last week:
1. What makes this number unique -- 8,549,176,320?
A) It contains each number, zero through nine, in alphabetical order.
2. Put a coin into an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck. How can you remove the coin without removing the cork or breaking the bottle?
A) Push the cork down into the bottle. Then shake the coin out.
Charity walks are a staple of Rotary fundraising, but the Rotary Club of Silves stepped up the effort. Its members tackled a 75-mile portion of the Way of St. James (the Caminho de Santiago in Portuguese) during a six-day journey along the route from Valença, Portugal, to the grand Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The club used social media for fundraising and sharing dispatches from the route as seven Rotarians and three of their friends set off on 23 September. By the end of the trek, the group had raised about $14,000 to help fund a sensory room and garden for children with autism or Down syndrome at the Silves Sul school in Armação de Pêra. The schoolchildren tracked the pilgrims’ progress online. They also gave the walkers toys for “constant encouragement” and to serve as school mascots they could cheer for, says Pam Winn, one of the walkers.
Kosovo
The Rotary Club of Peja dedicated a 9/11 memorial, dubbed “Memory and Friendship,” in the city on the 21st anniversary of the attacks. The club, its members, local businesses, and individuals offered financial and in-kind contributions valued at more than $30,000 for the project. “But the real value of the memorial is immeasurable,” says Club President Arbër Asllani. “Searching for such memorials globally, we found that none of them is in southeast Europe.” The idea was first suggested by Nehat Devolli, a club member and businessman. The centerpiece — a steel beam from the ruins of the twin towers donated by the New York City Fire Department — was a must, according to Asllani. “New York City is almost 7,400 kilometers away from Peja,” Asllani said in his address at the dedication ceremony, “but on that particular day, Sept. 11, it felt closer because tragedy unites people.”
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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Charity walks are a staple of Rotary fundraising, but the Rotary Club of Silves stepped up the effort. Its members tackled a 75-mile portion of the Way of St. James (the Caminho de Santiago in Portuguese) during a six-day journey along the route from Valença, Portugal, to the grand Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The club used social media for fundraising and sharing dispatches from the route as seven Rotarians and three of their friends set off on 23 September. By the end of the trek, the group had raised about $14,000 to help fund a sensory room and garden for children with autism or Down syndrome at the Silves Sul school in Armação de Pêra. The schoolchildren tracked the pilgrims’ progress online. They also gave the walkers toys for “constant encouragement” and to serve as school mascots they could cheer for, says Pam Winn, one of the walkers.
The Rotary Club of Peja dedicated a 9/11 memorial, dubbed “Memory and Friendship,” in the city on the 21st anniversary of the attacks. The club, its members, local businesses, and individuals offered financial and in-kind contributions valued at more than $30,000 for the project. “But the real value of the memorial is immeasurable,” says Club President Arbër Asllani. “Searching for such memorials globally, we found that none of them is in southeast Europe.” The idea was first suggested by Nehat Devolli, a club member and businessman. The centerpiece — a steel beam from the ruins of the twin towers donated by the New York City Fire Department — was a must, according to Asllani. “New York City is almost 7,400 kilometers away from Peja,” Asllani said in his address at the dedication ceremony, “but on that particular day, Sept. 11, it felt closer because tragedy unites people.”