Customarily when we meet on Wednesday morning for our Breakfast Rotary meeting at the Petroleum Club, WE recognize our Nation’s Flag and stand for our invocation as well. We do so because in Rotary we have a common bond of purposefully working together as business and professional persons to promote ethics in business and development of our community service. Our invocation and flag salute places us in the proper attitude to focus our attention to the day’s work that will be needed to accomplish our service. That is “Service Above Self”. On this day we were honored to have Mary Jo Pasek lead us with our invocation.
Nothing was mentioned about this weekend being Father’s Day, but that is fine, because “everyday” is Mother’s Day at Breakfast Rotary, and symbolizing that best was Andrew Ozanich who invited his mother, Joanne Ozanich to attend our meeting. Welcome to her and salute to you Andrew for being a son grateful to his mother.
Rotarian brother Craig Holland is ailing from complications from his last surgery folks so let’s keep Craig in our prayers. Craig is at Memorial Hospital at the time of this writing. We will keep you posted as to his progress, and furthermore, there are no visitors at this point, but when visitors are allowed please express your Get Wells and Blessings to him please.
Pat Thompson has been quietly waiting in the wings the last couple weeks because I have not heard much from him, perhaps he has not inducted any new members. Until today that is! We welcome new member Nick Simmons, any relation to Gene?, to our Breakfast Club. Nick was courted by Craig Holland, who could not attend the morning’s meeting, to join our club, and Nick has regularly been attending in spite of Craig’s absence. Now, ladies and gentlemen, that is dedication. We are actively seeking new members with the energy and passion of Nick, Bravo!
Nick is a physical therapist with Glinn and Giordano PT. He brought and introduced his wife Katie to witness his indoctrination. A little birdie commented that Nick and Katie will begin their family soon, so stay tuned for details. Nick told us that he is honored and privileged to become a member. Well Nick, we are excited about your commitment to Rotary and all the fun we will have growing in Rotary. Welcome!
Now moving along, not because of the fact that I was fined along with others at my table this morning for sitting with a bunch of brother Rotarians, but I do have some concerns about the Constitutionality of our fine. My argument - So we are fined for sitting with men? I didn’t pick them…, they just wanted to sit together, randomly. Besides, I think women in our club should exercise the discretion of not sitting with us if they don’t wanna. We don’t want to force anyone to sit and eat with us, maybe we have bad table manners, perhaps we are sitting at the wrong angle to the podium so that the glare from the windows is annoying, maybe I am annoying, whatever. What’s next, San Francisco Giant fans in the club cannot sit together? Oh yeah, President Ron Nelms would like that one! Isn’t there a gender discrimination complaint here somewhere, and I thought we all just completed training at our California workplaces for this kind of thing. Okay, I’m finished…on with the article. Someone call me a Wambulance…
That Mike O’Doherty sure knows a lot about Rotary Foundation. You would think he has been around awhile. He is the go to guy when it comes to discussing Rotary Foundation fund distribution and this morning he did just that. Mike spun it a tad by including a thorough discussion of Rotary’s pursuit of the eradication of polio. Mike taught us that Rotary’s involvement was launched internationally in 1979 through the distribution of vaccines. Mike told us that there were a number of obstacles and much fine tuning to be completed before we arrived at what we know now as Polio Plus. In effected countries, which means nearly worldwide, the Polio Plus program has reduced the incidence of polio by over 90%. There is more work to be done as Mike explains, the Gates Foundation is pledging a 2 to 1 matching contribution if Rotary can accumulate $50 million towards Polio Plus. Ah, start writing that check Bill, thank you very much.
Wednesday morning’s speaker was none other than
Carlos Baldovinos, director of the
Kern Mission. Carlos a
North Rotary member, hails from Minnesota had the privilege of serving with the Billy Graham Crusade and a number of other service organizations before taking on the responsibilities of the Mission. Well known and respected in Bakersfield, Carlos displays a true passion into reaching some of our communities less fortunate.
Carlos discusses, and I am sure on some occasions debates a sensitive topic as to our community’s homeless conditions, and causes, but arguably you cannot speak about one without the other. Yes, Carlos agrees there are a number of causes for homelessness, but where to place the estimated 2,500 Bakersfield homeless in temporary housing, and then how to re-tool them to be contributing members of our community is an elusive task. But this is where the Mission comes into play. Carlos convincingly is taking on the task of working towards a solution that involves a number of community resources and is always seeking partnerships from the community.
Serving 300 residents daily, The Mission embraces good practices in preparing new lives for men, women, and children through transitional personal management and housing programs, recovery programs, and job training. In 2020, there is a planned housing project that will be located in Oildale to assist in the cause.
Many questions followed Carlos’, presentation, and I am sure he is used to that. He informed Rotarians that State and local funding has been earmarked, such as through Measure N, for housing. Another concern was for the growing number of homeless setting up encampments along many of our thoroughfares. Carlos told us a resource to address such concerns is to call the organization FLOOD at 211. He said FLOOD consists of persons who are trained to respond to these encampments to contact the homeless one-on-one to address concerns. One big thing that FLOOD can do is provide referral sources to the homeless.
Thank You Carlos and the good works of the Mission!
Thousand Flags just keep on blowin’ in the wind, and there is a lot to tute our horn over. We recognized additional sponsors for their contributions to TF. We are so proud of our sponsors and without further Aude, let’s recognize Rotarians Karen Bonanno and her company PAS, Darin Blunt with Farm Credit West, Jeff Bell and Neal Walker. To you and all the other sponsors we are grateful to you. We could not have completed our goals without you.
Happy Spots, we have a lot, kind of like spots on a Dalmatian. Recognize Big Dog Mike O’D who is happy that his garage sale last weekend was quite successful and he thanks all who participated, and Doggie David Perkins who I am pretty sure is now 100% exempt from any fines during Cheryl Scott’s tenure. I dunno, maybe Dave is a Brown Retriever instead of a Dalmatian because he presented a beautiful framed encased family portrait of Cheryl and her family. This same photograph was the front cover of Dave’s Seven Oaks Lifestyle Magazine for the month of May. I tell ya’ that Dave knows how to work it.
Happy Parents to Cheryl Scott and Jeff Scott whose children, not together though, have graduated. Cheryl’s son from college at Cal Poly, and Jeff’s daughter, a valedictorian from Independence High is off to BYU.
Ticket number 2565, number 2565 anyone…Oh yes Mr. Ken Quarnberg there is $60 waiting for you, but wait he kicks back $20 to the Prez. This is the sort of thing that makes good for next year’s Beautiful Bakersfield Humanitarian Award. Keep up the good work Ken.
Peace and Patience Rotarians,
Frank Wooldridge 6/12/19
