At our Tuesday February 4th breakfast meeting we met Ms. Zaya White, who is running for "Sweetheart of the Mountains" at this year's Plumas-Sierra County Fair. Zaya is a star basketball player for the Loyalton Lady Grizzlies. Fun Fact: Zaya's Grandmother won this honor in the 1940's!! We wish Zaya good luck 
After a delightful presentation by Zaya, Kenny Smith introduced his "Surprise Guest", Scott Faas. Scott spoke about the outdoor music concert business and how this might help our area. Scott and Kenny are especially excited about the potential to keep this kind of activity going locally now that the very successful High Sierra Music Festival has been cancelled for this coming year. Scott provided some interesting and exciting info. on the possibilities for bringing this kind of event to the Sierra Valley. Since that time, the folks that put on "High Sierra" have managed to pay for their permits this year, but Scott and Kenny are still working hard to get something going locally.
On February 11th the Board met. The club's finances are in great shape. We have expended all of the grant monies received from the Rotary Foundation by purchasing all of the materials and supplies for the planter boxes and the three new picnic tables for the CRC playground.
The membership committee reported out that activities are ongoing. The committee is very active and meeting monthly. Their next meeting is scheduled for March 9th at 5:30 PM in the Clubhouse. Everyone is welcome to attend. (Remember: it's a great way to make up!)
On February 18th, we inducted our newest member! Terri Cooper is bringing lots of energy with her as she joins our Rotary Team. Terri is a native Californian who earned her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from San Diego State University in 1973. She moved here from Avila Beach in 2003 to be with her daughter and grandchildren. In Avila Beach Terri designed and built custom homes. She loves to hike and kayak here locally. She discovered our club at last year’s Fly-in Pancake Breakfast, where her grandson Owen won the scenic flight in our raffle. She’s been banging on the door ever since! Be sure to give Terri a big Portola Welcome when you meet her. We also met two candidates for District 1 Plumas County Supervisor at the meeting: Dwight Ceresola, and Bill Powers.
Terri Cooper, our newest member is flanked by President Matt and her sponsor Sam
Dwight Ceresola introduced himself at the February 18th meeting.
Bill Powers presents the club with some of the things he's been up to.
On February 20th the Executive Leadership Team (President and President's Elect) met at Matt and Elizabeth's house to discuss planning for next year including club committee goals. In addition considerable time was spent discussing how to manage smaller requests for funding support in a fair and timely manner. The group decided to develop a "mini grant" process that will be done quarterly. Applications for grants (up to $500) will be accepted, evaluated and awarded on a merit basis . Criteria for evaluating grants is currently being finalized. This program will be called the "Annual Mini-Assistance Grants" program and will be funded for a total of $4,000 next year.
On February 23rd a Team consisting of President Matt, Elizabeth, Danny, Kirk, Kim and Sam spent about two and a half hours setting up the 3 new picnic tables that were purchased with our Rotary Foundation District Grant at CRC. It was a lot of fun! Stay tuned for more opportunities to work together with your fellow members to make our community and our world a better place.
President Matt, Danny, Kim, Kirk and Sam unpack one of the picnic tables at CRC. (Photo Elizabeth Cruse)
Kim does some "home dentistry" on Danny during a break in the action at CRC. (Photo Elizabeth Cruse)
The happy crew celebrates finishing up the job at CRC. Everyone was ready to go inside and warm up! (Photo: Elizabeth)
On February 24th, the annual Area 2 Rotary Foundation Dinner was held. The Quincy Club hosted the event at the Mineral Building in the Fairgrounds, and the speaker was Bob Deering, Past District Governor 2012-13 from District 5180. Bob gave a moving presentation on a Foundation Global Grant that he has been working on to combat human trafficking in the Sacramento Area. It was very rewarding to see how our little corner of the world is being supported with finances from clubs from around the globe through our Rotary foundation. In addition, District Governor Randy VanTassell and Governor Elect Roberta Picket presented an award to our club for our outstanding support of the effort to eradicate polio. Last year we raised over $1,500 to go towards this effort!
There was a great turnout for the Area 2 Foundation Dinner. Be sure and come next year if you missed it!
On February 27th we will be celebrating eighty two years as a Rotary Club. We were chartered on February 16th, 1938. The Rotary Club of Quincy was our sponsoring club. The celebration will be a chili cook-off at the clubhouse at 5:30. There will be plenty of food and refreshments, with a $10.00 charge to cover costs. See you all there!
On February 28th CRC will be joining in the Dr. Seuss "Read Across America" day celebration. Our club will be reading and then handing out books to all the kindergartners. Call Toni Carl to sign up and participate in this fun and rewarding day of teaching our children to love reading.
Yes, The Rotary Club of Portola has been busy!! And there's more great stuff to come ... see you next month!