Stories

Rotary Clubs throughout the region poured wine at the California State Fair.  Brian had the tough job of judging the wine before the pouring.

Here is Brian's "Now YOU Know" story of wine.

16 Backpacks stuffed with school supplies, ready to be given to those with the need.

Brent Johnson, Coordinator of Mental Health and Homeless Education for the Natomas Unified School District, brought 16 backpacks to our club today, and we filled them with school supplies. They will be provided to those students with the need in the Natomas School District. Also, the Pham Family came to our meeting to participate; they saw our announcement of the event in one of our Social Media posts and had contacted us about helping. It allowed them to participate with their 3 young daughters in a lesson on community service.

2 of the Founders of Olympus Sports Coliseum (Susan Ross and Kristine Spencer) speak to us about their dream of creating a sports complex in Natomas.

Councilmember Jeff Harris visited with us and addressed a broad range of issues the City and the Councilmember are involved in.

Jeff began with his bee hives near Capital Public Radio.  Hives are still at risk of colony collapse due to parasites and insecticides.  He moved into the issues of homelessness in Sacramento and new project developments.  The drought is having a negative impact on the City’s tree canopy.  Flood control and levies were discussed and the need for Federal action.  Questions from Rotarians ranged from specific developments, community involvement and the new parking fees downtown.  It was an excellent visit with Jeff.

Alma Luminosa Clinic is a joint project of Rotary Club of East Sacramento and the Flying Samaritans.

The Alma Luminosa clinic is located on the Los Pinos ranch in San Quintin, Baja, Mexico. San Quintin is on the Pacific Ocean (approximately 160 miles south of Tijuana). The paved landing strip is conveniently co-located on the Los Pinos ranch.

Alma Luminosa has a dental clinic 3 chairs and a medical clinic with 3 exam rooms. Vision tests and eyeglass distribution are done in the medical clinic. The clinic can provide ultrasounds and EKGs. The optimal crew is 2-3 Physicians, 2 dentists, 1-2 dental assistants, 1-2 nurses, and an optometrist or audiologist. we also need 2-3 interpreters.

We leave on Friday morning and arrive at Los Pinos in the afternoon. The hotel is a 5-10 minute drive from the Los Pinos ranch. Friday evenings dinner is frequently street tacos. The clinic is operated on Saturday. Saturday evening's dinner is typically at one of San Quintin's delicious restaurants. We depart aby 7:30AM on Sunday, arriving back at the home airport in the early afternoon.

Rotary Club of East Sacramento has been going to San Quintin since 2003.  Their first trip was to haul dental equipment down to the clinic.  In 2005 they actually started working on the building.  Work has included roof repairs/replacement; adding electrical capacity; improving plumbing and lighting; building cabinets for storage; building partitions to separate exam rooms. 

The number of people who go down varies from about 5-10.  They are in San Quintin from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Ms. Jahnel has been traveling the world since 2006 - pursuing life as an act of living art. In 2011, she completed her first book about her journey, entitled "My Year of Beds" – during which, she became the first woman to circle the world alone in her car.

That car - a 2005 Renault Kangoo (dubbed the "Wishmobile") - completed its journey in 2007… at which time it was transformed from an ordinary vehicle into a global artwork entitled “One planet One people” by virtue of the hundreds of inscriptions scrawled onto its shiny silver surface by well-wishing people from around the world.

Deanna Santana - Senior Public Education Coordinator at Sierra Donor Services speaks to our club. She tells her very personal story of how her family suffered a personal loss in 2011 and how it saved or changed the lives of 5 strangers.

Dr. Bill Wittich speaks to our club about energizing our club and attracting new members

Ray Ward speaks to us about how Rotary has affected his family, specifically the opportunities that were presented to his daughter Alyssa and the lessons of Leadership, Public Speaking, and Personal Growth.

To view the a video of Joy Sponseller playing her Harp. Click Here

Rotarian Kerry Volker and Julie of Stanford Settlement "guarding " the corn before lunch on the last day of the Kid's Camp at McKindley Park. Kerry Volker and Dave Veden cooking the corn and hot dogs

Our Guest Speaker Judge Larry Brown speaking on Prison Realignment and its effect on the local prison system. Very interesting and informative. He invited us to tour his courtroom and the other projects he is involved with

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We held a Skype session with our RYE students (inbound - Luisa - and outbound - Lauren) in Columbia at our meeting this morning; Luisa's Father ended up joining the call to thank Rotary for the opportunity that Luisa was given. 

Today's meeting featured Dr. Bill Wittich. His goal was to help the club identify its strengths and opportunities.

After some lively discussion, we found our club has many more strengths than opportunities. At the end of the meeting it seemed that our major objective should be to focus more on membership so we can increase the great community service that we provide the Natomas area.

For our first meeting of the new Rotary year, the District Rotary Growth Team members Ray Ward and Ruth Burgess joined us and explained a programs which is designed to help a club grow their membership.

Over the next six months Bill Wittich, Ray and Ruth will take turns attending meetings and a looking at opportunities that will help us expand our membership.

We are excited to have them here to help us. 

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Natomas! 

Rotary International is the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 34000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self.