The End of a Journey, by President Cindy Gillespie
On Thursday, June 19, 2025, Santa Rosa Sunrise hosted a very special speaker, Club President, Cindy Gillespie! Cindy recapped her eventful year as president, summarized our accomplishments, and thanked the membership and specific members for their contributions. As Cindy said, this meeting was the end of her presidential journey, a journey in which she experienced her own personal growth. Cindy noted that she has grown comfortable in the position, learned to ask for help from members, and even told some pretty good jokes! This year’s Rotary theme was “the Magic of Rotary,” and Cindy told us that this year has indeed been a magical year for her.
Going into this year Cindy’s action plan was to help Sunrise increase: our impact in the community; our reach by, for example, increasing the number of new members and visitors; our members’ engagement; and our adaptability. We exceeded many of the goals Cindy set for the club. For example, we beat our goal of having 75% or members participating in at least one project and knocked our goal of one service project per month “out of the park.” We increased our impact by adjusting our “giving” strategy to favor smaller, less well-funded charities (example: we now focus on F.I.S.H (an independent, all volunteer food pantry) instead of the better funded Food Bank). We also gave $51,000 to 22 different organizations! Cindy also called upon her many years in human resources, in which she specialized in helping employees enjoy their work, to help increase member engagement and fellowship. She wanted to have fun meetings, so she added lots of photos, member recognitions, and member communications at our meetings. Having a new venue at Chops helped as well, especially because we financially help Chops, an organization dedicated to youngsters, by having meetings there (special thanks to Peter Hoberg for his hard work getting us to Chops). We had an active club events and fellowships year, with a beer night, garden party, multiple dinners, the raffle dinner, and the successful SCARC meeting. Our speakers and weekly bulletin were great throughout the year.
We continued our active support of youth in the community. Our Interact Club at Elsie Allen logged 400 hours of community service! We gave out 7 scholarships for Elsie student, as well as 2 new scholarships for Roseland Prep students, plus the annual Deshields scholarship. We helped 2 kids go to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards)! We also grew our membership with 2 very accomplished and service-oriented new members, Bonnie Landers and Richard Ziegler. We are also working on new strategies to help increase membership, including a new logo developed by Peter Hoberg and his niece, and upping our Facebook efforts. Our 2025 annual raffle netted $55,000, which will help us find and fund more organizations that address food insecurity.
One very nice surprise was the district awards we received for Club Service, Vocational Service, and even a Governor’s Special Recognition award. Cindy rounded out the meeting by thanking some of the key members who do so much for the club, including: Peter Hoberg (for just about everything, including meeting tech); Max Bridges (banners and meeting set-up every week); Stacy Drucker-Andress and Peter Treleaven (food and kitchen every week); Warren Smith (meeting and projects photos); Katharine Anderson (lining up “volunteers” for the weekly thoughts, greeters, and pledge leaders, etc.); and all of our greeters, thinkers, and pledgers.
Thank you, Cindy, for all of your hard work, dedication, and skill in helping Sunrise prosper and improve this year! You did a fantastic job! Next up, Lori Rodrigues!
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!
At Hans Fahden Vineyards on a mountain, in a volcanic lava cave extending to a shaded patio, dozens of Jim's former Hewlett Packard/Agilent colleagues, Bouverie Docents and Sunrise Rotarians gathered in supporting Melinda and family and celebrating Jim's perpetual curiosity/joie d vivre,
Jim and Melinda's daughter Kristen composed a multi-media slide show accenting the scope of Jim's varied passions. Here his high gear for hiking.
Jim's curiosity gained momentum with his book club discussions.
The lights at the end of this tunnel are the wonderful memories Jim helped us create and inspires us to generate more.
Posted by Rich Randolph, Arthur Chaney, Max Childs
Building Goodwill & Better Friendship
What brings you here? I was about to ask you the same!
Jim Gray, left and Max Childs found their paths crossing past Sunday. Max coming to pick up Betsy and Rich Randolph and carpool to Jim Moir's Celebration of Life. Jim, hosting the annual BMOSC annual BBQ, this year at his Atletico Soccer Club venue.
As the ribs and sausage came off the grills, newly found friends migrated to the salads and such to deepen the nourishment of new acquaintance.
BMOSC, 100 Black Men of Sonoma County, founded in1990 to improve the lives of African American youth through mentoring, education, health and well-being.
Sunrise Rotarian Arthur Chaney is the current President of the Sonoma County Chapter. What were Betsy and Rich doing there? Rich was recently accepted as an Associate Member.
Opening the gate, Sunrise volunteer driver Steve Zwick will change vehicles and head down Stony Point to Target in Rohnert Park.
Early Tuesday morning the warehouse is relatively quiet. Some of the 200 bags of assorted food are assembled but more inventory is on the way.
At Target Rohnert Park inventory specialist Tammy has prepared stock for Steve Zwick to transfer and return to the F.I.S.H. warehouse.
Here some very edible mushrooms are on the way to a salad, pasta or omelette. Donated Food items, all "inn date" are quickly turned around to clients at the Sebastopol Road distribution site.
Steve's run is done! 20 miles and as many full boxes from mushrooms to baby bottles, protein powder and eggs are awaiting fulfillment in the kitchens and diets of less food insecure people.
A Girl Guide offered to mow the lawn for a poor old man who lived in her village. When she arrived at his house, the man was so grateful he invited her in for a cup of tea and a cookie. As she ate her cookie, the girl noticed a shiny substance coating her plate. When the old man saw her staring at it, he said, “Sorry, dear, it’s as clean as cold water could get it.” When she’d finished mowing the lawn the old man invited her in again for a sandwich. This time, she noticed, not only was there a shiny substance, it also had hard patches of dried egg on it. “I’m so sorry,” the old man said again. “It’s as clean as cold water could get it.” The girl smiled politely and finished her sandwich. When she went to leave, an old dog, that had been asleep on its bed, stood up and blocked the doorway, its teeth bared as it growled at her. The man waved his walking stick at the dog. Then he shouted, “Cold Water … get back in your basket!”
The Rotary Club of Taipei combined its members’ interest in the environment with team building during a daylong outing to the Alibang Eco Farm. “Participants attended informative lectures, explored the wetlands and surrounding forest, and engaged in activities such as harvesting and cooking herbs. We also had the opportunity to taste tea made from ingredients sourced from the wetlands,” says club member Nancy Chen Baldwin. “This day in nature was not just an educational experience but a journey that activated all five senses.” The October excursion was organized as a prelude to future volunteering at the biodiverse farm, which harbors the endangered Taipei frog.
This story originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary projects make a difference in communities around the world.
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The Rotary Club of Taipei combined its members’ interest in the environment with team building during a daylong outing to the Alibang Eco Farm. “Participants attended informative lectures, explored the wetlands and surrounding forest, and engaged in activities such as harvesting and cooking herbs. We also had the opportunity to taste tea made from ingredients sourced from the wetlands,” says club member Nancy Chen Baldwin. “This day in nature was not just an educational experience but a journey that activated all five senses.” The October excursion was organized as a prelude to future volunteering at the biodiverse farm, which harbors the endangered Taipei frog.