District Governor Kurt Raffetto
Kurt Raffetto joined the Rotary Club, Placerville, in January 2014. He was sponsored by his father, Dano, who has been a Rotarian for 60 years. He quickly took the leadership role in this club including serving as President for three terms, in 2018 to 2021. This was followed immediately by the role of an area governor from 2021 to 2025. As club president, Kurt was the driving force behind a project with the City of Placerville, improving ADA access to the seating area in a local park. He also worked with his club and surrounding clubs to raise $100,000 for the Rotary Club of Paradise, following the deadly campfire in 2018. Kurt has filled roles for the district, including being on the Disaster Response Committee, District Service Chair, and the District Leadership Cadre. He is a Paul Harris Society member and Polio plus society member. Kurt served in the United States Air Force for 23 years where he flew Casey 135 R and C 13EH aircraft as a copilot. Kurt participated in seven operations around the globe.
Kurt was born and raised in Placerville, and is a fifth generation resident in El Dorado County. He returned to Placerville after his Air Force career. He and his father manage commercial property in Placerville, and have a small walnut orchard in the Apple Hill area that starts harvesting next week. Kurt and his wife Paulie have two sons, one who graduated recently from Cal Poly Humboldt, and the other attending UC Santa Barbara. He's also a member of the Knights of Columbus, American Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Apparently he thought he had too much spare time in his hands, so he took on the role of district governor, and now travels all over Northern California and Nevada, to clubs such as ours.
Kurt started with recognizing club members for outstanding service from recommendations from the club president. The first is the Quiet Rotarian Award (those recipients are not always quiet he notes). They take care of a lot of work in the background. Lori Breyer is a 26 year Rotarian, having joined in July of 2000. She is a past president of the Rotary Club of Arcata, California, and joined the Rotary Club of Minden in July 2023. She is a Paul Harris fellow, plus eight. Lori has served in a number of roles in this club. including, but not limited to, Foundation Board, Treasurer, public image co chair, and book pillow program coordinator. She's also instrumental in the success of our recent Octoberfest. From President Pat: “As with any club, there always seems to be a small core group of people who make up the driving force that comes up with ideas and gets things done. Lori is certainly a member of that core group, but she always seems to be working in an undercover mode. She's always here, there and everywhere, helping out, making suggestions, taking on new tasks, and getting things done. Many times, I've received emails from her with spreadsheets, lists, and other organizational insights on projects I'm working on. Most remarkably, she does all of this while rarely being asked, and never seeks out accolades or attention. Her behind the scenes, modus operandi, is what makes Lori, the Rotary Club of Minden the Quiet Rotarian for 26-27”.
Pat then continued to honor the High Flyer award to Bob Connor. “Bob is a 20 year Rotarian, having joined the club in October, 2006. As a Rotarian, Bob has served as club President, seven years as Area Governor, a Foundation Board member, a member of the club Board of Directors, an RYE coordinator, as well as our current club Treasurer. Bob is also a Paul Harris fellow plus three, a rotary standing member, and a rotary benefactor. Bob epitomizes Service above Self. Bob has been immensely helpful to me as a new club president, navigating the ins and outs of Rotary. Bob's a fountain of Rotary knowledge. If you have a Rotary question, he knows the answer or knows where to find it. As a plus, particularly for me, he always answers phone calls, texts, and emails. Bob has been described as stoic or reserved, or perhaps a few other adjectives. But that's not always the case. One thing many people don't know about Bob is that he is absolutely hilarious at times, with some of his off the cuff comments and his email replies. Many times, I'm laughing like a fool, reading some of the stuff that he sent me. In recognition of all that Bob has done for Rotary through the years, he is our club's recipient of the District Governor's High Flyer Award. Congratulations, Bob.”
Another award went to John Breylinger, who began his Rotary journey on October 2, 1975 - 51 years ago. John was a charter member of the Escondido West Rotary Club. In 1993, John and his wife, Judy, moved up to Lake Tahoe, and John joined the Tahoe Douglas Rotary Club. He remained with that club until 2018, when he and Judy moved down to the Carson Valley, and John became a member of the Minden Rotary Club. Over the years, John served as a club board member at various times and oversaw the completion of quite a number of projects. A particular note, while with Escandido West, he was instrumental in that club adopting an orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico. John and Judy are both committed helpers with the local Project Santa Claus gift distribution during Christmas season each year. John is also a Paul Harris Fellow Plus five. In recognition of 50 years of Service above Self, John is the recipient of the Rotary Club of Menden's first Rotary Legacy Award. “Your work to create lasting impact has helped to make the world a better place for all. We appreciate everything you do for Rotary and your spirit of service above self”, shared President Pat Garahan. Then District Governor Kurt awarded a District plate and a pin to John in recognition of 50 years.
One more award was given out by President Pat - the Rotary Cheerleader Award for Sam Steele - “in recognition of eternal optimism and positive attitude in support of Rotary International, District 5190, Area 9, and the Rotary Club of Minden. We appreciate everything you do for Rotary and the spirit of service above self”. As a side note, it is a fact that Sam was actually a cheerleader in high school - pictures to be shared another week.
DG Kurt then turned his attention to the Rotary Foundation. “So,you guys are a very generous club to the foundation. You're almost at $250,000 donated to the foundation as a club over the course of your history and I'll bet you make it this year.” Individually, DG Kurt presented a couple of Paul Harris awards. The first was for a Paul Harris plus three, and that award went to President Pat. The second generous donor recognized was June DeTurk for a Paul Harris plus eight. He reminded the club that some of these dollars end up going around the world to do projects, whether it's nursing schools and hospitals in Africa, whether it's water projects in South America, orphanages, and Ensenada. And nearly half of that money comes back to our district (47.5%) to use for our local projects through the district grant program.
DG Kurt then shared his Nevada connection. The State song “Home Means Nevada” was written by a woman by the name of Bertha Raffetto. And she was married to Fiore Raffetto who may be related but definitely came from the same small town in Unyo, Italy as DG Kurt came from. A reminder to attend the district conference, May 14th to 16th, at Incline Village was made with a club leadership assembly for board members on the Friday before at the University of Nevada, Tahoe campus.Then on Saturday, at the campus,the district speech and music contest will be held. Registration is open for the District Conference (see this LINK).
So what can the district, our zone and Rotary International do to help out our clubs? We have about 100 people from across our district clubs that help out on the district committees. Bob Conner was on a few of them for a number of years and currently Sam Steele is the Area Governor. The biggest committee is the Foundation committee “not only do we look at collecting, as we discussed, but also our grant program so we can give that money back out”. He shared that there might be a second opening for district grants - another $3,000 to give out to clubs in good standing (taxes filed, dues paid, etc). If clubs get everybody to Every Rotary Every Year (everybody gives $25 every year), and the per capita is $100 per person, then clubs get an extra $750 for a project and that doesn't have to be matched. There is also a large district membership committee. They look at meeting alternatives as not everybody can attend a weekly lunch meeting. Breakfast clubs, dinner clubs, satellite clubs are popular alternatives. For a long time, we have had 1.2 million members. With the 125th anniversary coming up in 2030, the goal is to have 1.25 million members in Rotary and 125,000 Rotoractors. He noted that our club has done well with recruiting new members. Public image is also a big deal. Rotary clubs should be using the new branding that was adopted a few years ago for the Rotary logo, documents and advertising. There are also district committees involved in service - RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Academy) and RYE (Rotary Youth Exchange).
Finally, DG Kurt described Rotary Zones. “Our district is one of 30 districts in zones 26 and 27. You always hear them paired together, we're technically in zone 27…the 2 zones go from Montana, down through Texas, a little bit of Texas, all the way out to the West Coast. including Hawaii and up to a little bit of British Columbia. The zones have a whole nother level of support for us… our current zone director is our very own Wynn Spiller, past district governor…and Wynn is one of 17 directors …around the world”. He also shared that there's an expert hub on the zone website that can be used to search such things as successful projects or fundraisers done by other clubs in our zone. Finally, he talked about making sure every Rotarian has a “My Rotary” login at www.rotary.org so they can access all of the resources on that site (rotary basics, learning center, membership, personal profile and branding information).
