Weekly Recap
President Bill Kelly
March 31, 2022
We’re back ashore from our President’s Dinner Cruise that occurred last Saturday, March 26. President-elect Tressa Williams provided a recap of the fun evening by showing photos of Rotary cruise passengers. We had serveral visitors and guests present at the meeting today, icluding a visiting Rotarian from India, who exchanged culb flags during a brief ceremony. Our guest speaker made his presentation from West Palm Beach, Florida, and enlightened our group on the rescue efforts underway for Florida’s manatee population. I concluded the meeting with a message regarding a medical leave of absence that I’ll be taking for the next several months.
Meeting Highlights
Pledge: This week our club Rotary International Director, Sandy Allen, led us in the pledge. Thanks, Sandy.
Inspiration: This week’s inspiration was led by Satish Ullal, who used the metaphor of a flashlight to shed light on the issue of renewing one’s spirit. No need to neglect an existing flashlight, Satish explained, rather choose the appropriately sized replacement battery, and renew your light. It was a simple, but effective way to motivate us today. Thanks, Satish.
Birthdays: A few folks celebrated their birthday this week. Stella Kemp advised us that Jeff purchased her a, “smarter-than-me” television as a birthday present on March 22nd. That must be a very smart television, Stella! Nick Livak celebrated a birthday on the 22nd, as did Ana Vargas Smith on March 30. Happy Birthday, everyone!
Wedding Anniversaries:
We congratulate Easy and Cathy Perez, who celebrated their 27th anniversary on March 26, and Lorenzo Rios and Norma Elena for celebrating their 43rd anniversary today. Lorenzo let us know that he’s taking Norma out for a nice dinner to celebrate this evening. Happy Anniversary!
Upcoming events:
Area 5170 District Conference, scheduled for April 22, 23, and 24 at the Blackhawk Museum and San Ramon Marriott. We are looking for volunteers to work a short 3-hour shift at the House of Friendship display booth. Meal charges for the conference are provided for by the club for our volunteers. More information is available at the conference website.
Bocce Ball evening social event at Campo di Bocce in Lost Gatos. We’ll be Dark for the lunch meeting as we attend the fun evening event on April 21, 2022.
The Sunnyvale Rotary Scramble Golf tournament will be held on April 18 at the Moffett Golf Club. This event is sponsored by Rotary District 5170.
The American Cancer Society is holding its annual Relay for Life on April 30 from 10 am to 10 pm. Tom Brown is leading the fundraising event and is looking for volunteers to help on that day. Contact Tom Brown for more information and to see how you can help.
President’s Report:
President-elect Tressa Williams provided a recap of the March 26, President’s Dinner Cruise. This event, which took over 8 months to plan, was a wonderful event for all those who attended. Tressa advised that we met our attendance goals for the event for both the cruise and for the chauffeured bus rides to and from the pier. Tressa showed images from the photo booth that was set up on the ship. If you were on the cruise and would like to access your individual photo, please go to this link , then click on our event. Make sure to enter this case-sensitive password: SCRC2022.
Club members at the meeting today acknowledged Tressa’s leadership in planning, organizing, and conducting this fun outing. Special thanks were noted for Sandy Allen for providing the Royal Coach, and for Nicola Nordmo, and her helper Jan Eric, for their help on event day.
The club viewed a CBS channel 5 news interview with International Director Harbir Bhatia, who is working with international organizations to provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid to refugees from Ukraine. Harbir is representing Rotary, and is working with United Sikhs, a UN affiliated non-profit organization that provides relief services throughout the world. Click on the adjacent photo to see the story. The club acknowledged the tremendous effort put forth by Harbir and all those helping refugees each day. We look forward to hearing from Harbir as conditions unfold in Ukraine.
The club was visited by Rotarian, Manmohan Maini, Vice President & Executive Secretary of the Rotary Club of Ambala Central, India. While Manmohan is busy visiting his daughter in Michigan and his son in San Jose, he finds time to drop by Rotary meetings to exchange flags. I was able to give him a Rotary Santa Clara flag in exchange for his club flag.
Sunnyvale Rotarian, Debbie Klein, attended the meeting to advertise the April 18th Sunnyvale Golf Tournament, to be held at Moffett Field Golf Club. This tournament is sponsored by District 5170. Click here for more details.
Bocce is Back! Our annual club social event is back on schedule after taking a couple of years away. John Bertolotti addressed the group today and advised that we’ll be meeting for dinner, drinks, and bocce on the evening of Thursday April 21. We’ll be dark for our normally scheduled lunch meeting on the 21st so that Rotarians can focus on attending this fun evening event. Contact John Bertolotti for more details.