Leroy Carlenzoli is a Merit Award winner this year for his years of community service and dedication to helping others. The celebration will be on Monday, Sept 21 at the Finley Community Center, Person Auditorium, at 5:30pm. Friends and family are welcome to join us in this great honor.
RSVP is required. I will coordinate the RSVP's and send the list to the City of Santa Rosa. If you would like to attend, please let me know by August 27th.
There is no cost, and there is no mention of a meal, so assume nothing or perhaps snacks.
We are lucky to have Leroy in our club, leading by example the wonderful humanitarian work he does hour after hour, day after day. Let's make sure all of Santa Rosa knows Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotary is 100% behind this amazing person!
Eli Weinzveg grew up in Sebastopol and attended Santa Rosa High School. After graduating, he moved to Sacramento, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and teaching credentials from California State University, Sacramento. During that time, he married his wife, Nicollette, also a Sonoma County native, and the two soon returned home to Sonoma County to raise their twins in the community that shaped them.
He began his career as a teacher in the Roseland School District before moving into an administrative leadership role at Roseland Collegiate Prep, where he helped guide the school through the aftermath of the 2017 Tubbs Fire and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, he transitioned to the nonprofit sector to deepen his commitment to educational equity, joining 10,000 Degrees as Director of College Pathways. In that role, he led teams across Sonoma, Napa, and Lake Counties, expanded the organization’s reach, strengthened district partnerships, launched new professional development systems, and helped drive cross program alignment to enhance student impact.
Eli joined CTE Foundation in June 2025 as Executive Director.
Did anyone notice that Warren was missing from this weeks meeting?
That is because he was in Blue Sport Stable, Superior, CO, being inducted to the USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame!
Here is the excerpt from the ceremonies program
USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee
The Legends Showcase
Induction Ceremony 2026
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Blue Sport Stable, Superior, CO
Warren Smith
Forward · Recreational
Warren Smith
Warren Smith, USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame inductee.
At A Glance
Full Name: Warren Smith
Born: 1945
From: Vancouver, BC
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Position: Forward
Highest Level: Recreational
Category: Player/Builder
Hall of Fame Class: 2026
Grew up in Tranquille, a small town on Kamloops Lake in British Columbia, where he learned to skate on ponds and outdoor ice flooded by local firemen from a hydrant. He played shinny hockey with neighborhood kids until the pucks disappeared into snowbanks. His first organized recreational hockey came through intramural leagues at the University of British Columbia.
After moving to Santa Rosa, California in 1976, Warren was invited by Sparky Schulz to join Tuesday night hockey and has participated ever since whenever possible. He has played in all but one Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament since 1985. Beyond playing, Warren coached youth hockey for 33 years and volunteered for 10 years with the USA Hockey Pacific District Coaching Education Program, helping develop young players and coaches.
Career Highlights
Teams: University of British Columbia Intramural Hockey, Vancouver BC; Tuesday Night Hockey Group, Santa Rosa CA; Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament Teams, Santa Rosa CA
Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament — participant every year since 1985 except one
Inducted into the USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame, Class of 2026
"The camaraderie, the common connection among hockey lovers everywhere, the great exercise, Snoopy's Home Ice, and the opportunity to coach youth players while teaching them that winning does not always show up on the scoreboard."
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!
Cathy’s Torch. Her Legacy. Our Journey to End Polio.
From October 2-24, 2026, Rotary clubs throughout District 5130 will carry a community relay torch on an extraordinary journey across Northern California, uniting Rotarians, families and communities in the worldwide effort to end polio.
Beginning in Crescent City and concluding in Petaluma on World Polio Day, the torch will travel through communities across Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties.
One District. One Mission. A World Free of Polio.
Each participating Rotary club will organize a local event featuring the torch. Activities may include walks, runs, bicycle rides, community gatherings, youth participation and ceremonial handoffs from one Rotary club to the next.
Together, these events will create one continuous District-wide journey of hope, remembrance and action.
The Story Behind Cathy’s Torch
The community relay torch honors the memory of Catherine “Cathy” Ritter and the spirit of service she embodied. In 1984, Cathy participated in a community fundraising torch relay through South Lake Tahoe, where local residents gathered along Highway 50 to cheer on the participants.
Cathy was the daughter of longtime Rotarian Bob Rogers, a polio survivor and member of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol. Her story, together with her father’s experience with polio, gives this District-wide relay special meaning.
Cathy passed away in 2025 following a courageous journey with metastatic breast cancer. As the community relay torch travels from place to place, District 5130 honors Cathy’s life, Bob’s polio story and Rotary’s enduring promise to help create a polio-free world.
The World Polio Torch Relay will begin in Crescent City on October 2 and conclude in Petaluma on October 24, World Polio Day. Follow District 5130 for route updates, local events and opportunities to participate or support Rotary’s polio eradication efforts.
The planned route includes:
Crescent City
Arcata and McKinleyville
Eureka
Ferndale
Fortuna
Garberville
Fort Bragg
Mendocino
Gualala
Willits
Ukiah
Lakeport
Calistoga
St. Helena
Napa
Cloverdale
Healdsburg
Windsor
Santa Rosa
Sebastopol
Sonoma
Rohnert Park
Petaluma
Find an Event Near You
Community members are invited to attend local Torch Relay events, walk alongside Rotarians, participate in community activities and help spread the message that the world can—and must—end polio.
Each participating Rotary club will share its event time, location and participation information through its website and social media pages.
Support the Campaign
Members of the public can support the World Polio Torch Relay through an approved Raise for Rotary fundraising page established by a participating Rotary club.
Each club will provide its own donation button or fundraising link on its website, social media pages and local event materials. Donations made through these approved club campaigns will benefit PolioPlus through The Rotary Foundation and will be credited to the participating club.
Why Ending Polio Matters
For more than 35 years, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have worked to protect children around the world from this devastating disease.
Extraordinary progress has been made, but polio anywhere remains a threat to children everywhere. Continued vaccination, public awareness and financial support are essential until transmission of the virus has been stopped worldwide.
The World Polio Torch Relay represents the determination of Rotary members and communities across District 5130 to finish the work of ending polio.
Follow and Share the Journey
Follow Rotary District 5130 and participating Rotary clubs on social media for photographs, videos and event announcements from communities along the route.
Share the journey using:
#EndPolioNow
#WorldPolioDay
#TorchRelay
#RotaryDistrict5130
Questions?
For information about a local relay event, please contact the participating Rotary club directly.
For general information about the District-wide World Polio Torch Relay, please contact:
World Polio Torch Relay Chair: Renee McKenna
District 5130 Public Image Chair: Marguerite “Maggie” Padovani
The Rotary Club of Logan, Ohio, uses funds from its annual pancake breakfast to support youth in their community
by Rose Shilling
31 Jul 2026
An elementary school-aged girl hops out of her family car outside a county fairgrounds building in this Appalachian foothills town to find out the cost to eat at the pancake breakfast inside. $8.
She asks the people out front if the fundraiser accepts cards. Without hesitation, Rotarian Sherry Kilbarger says she has extra tickets to give away and invites the girl and her family inside for the all-you-can-eat pancakes. Plus sausage links and OJ. A woman walking out of the building into the spring sunshine overhears the exchange and hands Kilbarger two more tickets to share.
Looking out for the kids in this small town is a top motivation for members of the Rotary Club of Logan, Ohio. Nestled among rolling hills, the area is popular with visitors for its miles of hiking trails that wind through gorges with waterfalls, awe-inspiring rock formations like a natural bridge of stone, and dazzling fall leaves. The club provides bikes to local kids at Christmas and holds a popular fishing day each spring when the state’s nature officials stock Rose Lake with trout. “Because we are a small club, the things that we do are community-minded,” Kilbarger says. “We want our youth to have opportunities.”
Looking out for local kids is a motivator for the Rotary Club of Logan, including (from left) Damon Kuhn, Chad Grow, Sherry Kilbarger, Andrew McGhee, and Jim Robinson.
Image credit: Maddie McGarvey
The Logan club expects to earn about $3,000 from the pancake breakfast, its largest fundraiser, which has been gathering neighbors over syrup drizzles for more than 50 years. Club members make the most of every dollar, accomplishing as much as they can for the community, where the percentage of people living in poverty is well over twice the national rate.
One club project provides duffle bags filled with a blanket, toiletries, socks, and underwear for children going into foster care or young people staying in group homes. The club also awards stipends to young people who are joining the workforce, learning a trade, or starting a two-year educational program. Those funds for work clothes, tools, personal protective equipment, or other basics are in addition to college scholarships the club distributes. And for the town’s high school, the club contributed $20,000 toward an indoor sports facility, digging into its reserves from decades past when the pancake breakfast and an arts fair brought in more money.
Given how well they organize their projects, it’s apparent that these Rotarians are dynamos at working with local leaders and drumming up sponsors and donations to stretch the good that $3,000 in flapjack profits can do. Jim Robinson, a City Council member who has organized the pancake breakfast for a decade, has hawking tickets to the people who can afford them down to a science. He encourages those who have a conflict with the date (or who want to avoid the carbs) to give the tickets away — or he jokes that they can eat the paper tickets themselves, as long as they donate $16, the price for two. Many people round up and hand over a twenty.
These Rotarians also work their connections to recruit sponsorships for the annual fishing day, Get Hooked on Rotary; those sponsors include Walmart, a canoe livery, and a local boot manufacturer. The sponsors’ support supplements the club’s $500 contribution, which is matched by $500 from Rotary District 6690, allowing the group to give away T-shirts, more than 100 fishing poles, four bicycles, canoe trips, and toys.
Early on, when members learned that many of the kids, about 150 this year, were arriving at the lake without breakfast, they started serving grilled hot dogs and chips, says member Damon Kuhn. He came up with the idea for the event, now in its 18th year, when he joined Rotary and wanted to do something for the town’s children. One time, when a girl caught a 7-pound bass, he got it mounted for her.
Kuhn is president of Valor Retreat, a recreational site under development near Logan that will take advantage of the tranquil Hocking Hills to provide a free retreat for military veterans who are recovering from their service or have post-traumatic stress disorder. The Logan club has partnered on fundraisers with the retreat as it builds accessible cabins and pursues plans to bring in horses for equine therapy.
Robinson says that the club is also working with the chamber of commerce to try to promote Rotary membership to young business owners. He talks with people who are curious about Rotary and some of its areas of focus — from providing clean water to supporting education — as well as Rotary’s role in the push to end polio. And Kilbarger adds that the group is discussing whether to start a satellite club or a group that would emphasize social gatherings more than traditional weekly meetings over lunch.
Brendan Johnson, a member in his 20s, says that he’s ready to try to recruit more members, and he is also considering restarting river and highway cleanups the group used to organize. But he, too, is in the club “especially to help the kids — get them Christmas gifts with our bike drive,” he says. Currently a sausage links server, Johnson also expects to someday take over planning the breakfast.
Because raising funds isn’t the breakfast’s only purpose, Robinson says that the club is intent on keeping the meal affordable. He enjoys seeing so many residents sharing a meal face-to-face, chatting, and catching up with the neighbors they bump into. “Society is becoming less and less interactive,” he says. “People don’t even go out to eat anymore.”
But here, as tables fill and the pancake makers work more quickly, Kuhn, who for years has mixed buckets of batter, shares his secret for tasty cakes — adding vanilla. It works: People line up to grab a second stack of the pancakes with the potential to provide children in Logan a little help or simply some happy memories.
This story originally appeared in the August 2026 issue of Rotary magazine.
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Finley Community Center, Person Auditorium
Warren Smith
