Driving up to the Pet Club early this Wednesday MAY have been even more nerve-wracking than on the morning of our first meeting! But I had a great time, and I hope you had fun, too!
It’s going to be a great year for programs (thanks to Pete Leveroni’s hard work) and this week was the perfect kick off! Deb Johnson from the California Veterans Assistance Foundation told us all about the Kern County Veterans Village, a neighborhood of tiny homes which will be built thanks, in part, to donations from BBRC and our sister clubs in Kern County. Twelve units will provide permanent housing for local homeless veterans. BBRC’s Foundation is donating $5,400 in Foundation funds and District-match dollars to help cover the cost of the project’s community center building (at a total of approximately $28,000)! Ground-breaking is planned for this fall.
So many fines…so little time! Sorry (not sorry) if I hit the fines a little hard this week, but after a fine-free initial meeting, I had some making up to do! By the way, there were a lot of BBRCers in my slide show in the CMS section (Coffer Management System), but some will have to wait until our next meeting…on July 31. (By the way, we’re DARK next week!) Ken Quarnberg ignored my “I like red wine” hint and brought a can of bug spray and a citronella candle. All’s well…he also offered up $25, so it’s cool! Bree Goodmon, however, gave me an adorable desk-top sign from Denver. (Ken, take some lessons here!) Remember, it’s always a good day to rat out your fellow Rotarian (all hot tips are appreciated)!
We have a lot of activities coming up to allow for “connections” during-and beyond-the 7:00 am hour. Our first social will be on Tuesday, July 23 at Sorella’s…don’t miss it! Mark your calendar for August 7, when District Governor Savi Bhim visits our club, and the next evening we’ll have dinner with Savi and the other Bako clubs (location TBD). Then on August 17, we have the club Saturday Social at the Nethercutt Museum. And it’s not too early to register for the District Conference, set for Saturday, October 12 at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez.
Hope to see you at Sorella’s on July 23!
Cheryl
Ken may learn someday - she wants red wine as tributes.
See you on the 23rd for dinner or 24th for meeting!
Apparently, it is not unusual for Rotary regalia to disappear when new officers take over. The $64,000 Question is NOT where is President Cheryl Scott’s gavel (it was MIA), but where did Sgt-At-Arms Andrew Ozanich find a spare one?! Very interesting, indeed. In his invocation, Dale Bender reminded us to “follow the Rotary Way.” Hopefully this was not lost on the gavel bandit.
July 20 marks the 50th anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. In honor of this momentous occasion, our song was the adorable children’s ditty, “I See the Moon (and the Moon Sees Me).”
While there were no wedding anniversaries to celebrate (what, no one got married in the heat of mid-July??), there were two club anniversaries: Kay Pitts (19 years) and Greg Desme (14 years). Happy Birthday to Andrew Ozanich, Sandra Quigley, and Nick Simmons.
Deb Johnson, CEO/President of California Veterans Assistance Foundation (CVAF) paid us a visit. Deb spent 9 years, 9 months in the Wisconsin Army Guard and served in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Thank you for your service! We were then presented with some very sobering numbers:
37, 878 – the number of veterans that are homeless on any given night
1.4 million – the number of veterans considered “at risk” of homelessness
10,836 – the number of homeless veterans counted in California during the 2018 PIT Survey
29 – the percentage of the country’s homeless veteran population in the state of California
While CVAF offers many programs to local veterans, the most anticipated is Veteran Village, a permanent supportive housing project consisting of a dozen 400 sq. ft. homes and a Rotary-sponsored community building. We also discovered that Bree Goodmon’s company, Flooring America by Casa Moore, will be doing the floors for the project! CVAF hopes to break ground on Veteran Village in the fall. For more information about CVAF, view their website at www.cavaf.org
President Cheryl, continuing with her theme of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” surprised Ron Nelms, Denise Haynes, and Kay Pitts with shiny new Past President badges. “Um, what about me?” uttered Queen Jackie Maxwell. While Ron was hoping to get rid of extra pacifiers, Cheryl deemed it worthy of a little whine. No worries; a new badge will be ordered posthaste.
Welcome back to Sandra Quigley who had a short leave of absence. Sandra is now serving as Vocational Service Director. She would like to bring back Vocational Moments, so if she asks you to give a short talk on what you do, say Yes!
This week’s Rotary Connection Moment was brought to us by the letter A, as in Athena Collup. The lovely Athena shared how the connections made in Rotary have assisted her in her new role as President of the Bakersfield Association of Realtors.
Announcements
Club Service – Saturday, August 17 at Nethercutt Museum and Collection (Sylmar). The tour is FREE, but cost of transportation TBA. Sign up on ClubRunner.
Ridgecrest Earthquake Relief efforts are being conducted through China Lake Rotary. See the District site for details. https://www.rotarydistrict5240.org/
For more Upcoming Events see below
Finally, to relieve the sting of fines and recognitions, we were introduced to the Coffer Management System or CMS. (Did anyone else notice that these are our president’s initials?) And who was the first? Ken Quarnberg who was super excited about his trip to Crater Lake and gifted our president with a citronella candle and bug spray. The gifts can only go up from here!
We are dark next week! Enjoy those few extra moments of sleep.
