It Was a Cold and Stormy Night...

Who doesn't enjoy a good ol' birthday party with cake and ice cream and everything?  This reporter, for one, enjoyed the festivities immensely and was observed by a few actually smiling from time to time.  Enough suspense; let's get on with it.  We met Saturday night at City Hall to celebrate 58 years of service to our community and we had some special guests too.  President Sean banged on the gavel (if he had actually had one...) more or less on time and we opened with the Pledge but this reporter doesn't recall the song.   Nevertheless, we all sat down and then had to stand up again and  introduce the various guests that were scattered amongst the crowd.   The delicious dinner was prepared as usual by Chefs Dave and Jan. 

 

 

At the bottom of this newsletter you can see pictures of our distinguished guests.  President Sean had planned a pretty full evening, so we skipped a few of the usual events: the weekly drawing and the Sarge (whew...), but the first presentation was none other than our Cordova High Interact Club, giving us a very complete picture via Powerpoint of their Club and its activities.  In doing so, four members of the Club accompanied Interact Adviser Conrade Mayer to the dinner (in spite of Conrade's restraining order.... hmmm...)  A very engaging presentation, it was clear to everyone in the room that Interact at Cordova has a high energy group and some very strong leadership.  Well done.

 

 

 

The next presentation was due to be Rotaract, but the audiovisual system turned balky and so while it was being repaired, Rotary Community Corps chief Sherry Briggs got up and gave us an update on the comings and goings of our Community Corps group.  This group of approximately 30 volunteers goes out into the community at various community events and provides translational services to those whose English is still a work in progress and the Corps has made its presence felt in such venues as the  food basket program, the Christmas tree lighting, iFest, etc.  We couldn't be prouder of this group of non-Rotarian volunteers who freely give their time to improve their community.

 

 

No stranger to our Club, Sondra Wildman, president of the Sac State Rotaract Club , accompanied by two fellow members, then gave us an update on their activities, only interrupted once by a very untimely comment by a Rotarian who doesn't have the common sense to keep his mouth shut when he has the chance...  Although the Rotarians in the room get regular updates on Rotaract from Sondra, I suspect that most of our other guests had no idea the quality of the leadership and the effort that Rotaract puts into our community.  Again a very enlightening presentation well delivered. 

 

 

Well, just as were were about to begin saying our goodbyes, President Sean surprised everyone by asking PDG Clarence Parkins to the front of the room to give us a brief oral history of our Rotary Club.  Most of us know that Clarence never met a microphone he didn't like and so he proceeded to enlighten us all on the beginnings of Rotary back in Chicago in 1905 and then spent 5 minutes summarizing each year of Rotary history leading up to today.  Actually, if you've ever heard Clarence talk about Rotary and his Club, you know that he is one of the most committed Rotarians you'll ever meet and his talk was very well received in spite of the late hour.

 

 

That just about wrapped things up when President Sean announced ha had one more item to cover.  In following the lead of President Trump, President Twilla has signed an executive order naming our very own Club Secretary, Tracy McLinn, as the Club Paul Harris Fellow for 2017.  Although Tracy was not in attendance, she received a rousing round of applause for what she has brought to the Rancho Cordova Rotary Club.  This was one very well-deserved award.

 

 

With that, President Sean thanked everyone, particularly our guests, for coming and  released us all on our own recognizance.  A fun meeting; we should do them ore often.