It sure was great to see so many of your faces on Wednesday morning, especially a few folks that have been missing for a while (like Mountain Mary Breckenridge, Marilee Reagor, Stephanie Baker, Yuki Kobayashi-Takeuchi, and Craig Holland)! Ain’t technology grand! (Except, of course, when it’s not…but that’s a whole different story!) We even had Cheryl Rydia back for a second visit (thanks to Marlene Heise!), and we had visiting Rotarians from “far away lands” again, too.
Over the next couple of months, we’re going to take advantage of our members’ significant knowledge, and some of our programs will be presented by our own BBRC members! You may have heard that Karen Bonanno has been busy-busy answering employers’ questions about COVID-19. Next week she’ll share some of her knowledge with us as our featured speaker! On April 29th, our own Michele McClure will talk about financial relief options for local small businesses that are hurting because of the pandemic.
Along those lines, we were lucky to have Martha Samora this week share her perspective on the COVID-19 situation. As CEO of Encompass Health, Martha is part of the local healthcare team that meets weekly by telephone to strategize and address the virus’ impact on our residents. Martha did have some encouraging news, saying that projections for the virus’ potential peak impact in California and Kern County are improving, likely as a result of our efforts to physically stay away from each other. (Way to go, Bako!) She said local hospital volumes are at record lows, as facilities prepare for a possible influx of people sick with the virus. Martha recommended we look at a website with data hospitals use - COVID19.healthdata.org
Finally, let’s all come together on Saturday to rally behind The Broken YolkCafe, and our own Kathy Berry (manager of The Yolk)! If, like me, you go out to pick up food at restaurants now and then, plan to head over to The Broken Yolk on Buena Vista this Saturday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Think old-style/drive-in/eat-in-your-car/wave-at-your-friends kind of dining. Or, just pick up your food, wave hello, and head home. Check your in-box for an email with details from Sandra Parnell, the information is also copied below in the meeting notes.
We are, indeed, better together my friends. Even when we are physically apart. We will get through this—together.
For those Breakfast Rotarians who joined us via Zoom, Good Morning to you! Our members are becoming adept at a BBRC meeting with Zoom. It seems to be the new normal…at least for the time being. President Cheryl Scott is up early Wednesdays to make sure the meeting is fun and welcoming - and doing a fabulous job at it! So, if you are not joining in yet, please do. Those Breakfast Rotarians who have not jumped on the Zoom meetings can reach out to Prez Cheryl or any of the board members to learn how to participate using the Zoom link Prez Cheryl sends to you via email. We are using the same link for every meeting.
Dennis Scott and his positive outlook led us in an encouraging morning blessing. Dennis spoke of optimism and prayers for those medical staffs and first responders on the front line as they diligently work to keep us healthy and safe.
Michele McClure drew our attention to our Nation’s flag as she had attendees recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Past President Denise Haynes graced us with a solo of BJ Thomas’ song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head”. It seems the lag with our singing between our computers is too painful for some. Brave Denise mentioned that the heavenly raindrops we received Wednesday morning are raining down hope in a very crucial time in our world. We all sincerely hope that this pandemic curve is “flattened” throughout the world while the numbers of ill and those who fall to the disease are less than projected.
With the magic of technology, visiting Rotarians are not just from to Bakersfield, California anymore. Again, through the magic of Zoom we welcomed Rotarians from afar. Canadian visitors included Wally Ganner from the Rotary Club of High River, Alberta, Canada and our speaker, PDG Doug Vincent from the Rotary Club of Woodstock Ontario, Canada. New Hampshire/Vermont was ably represented by District 7870 Governor Nancy Russell who checked-in to say good morning and hear our speaker!
Honorary Breakfast RotarianYuki Kobayashi-Takeuchi made a special guest appearance on this soggy, rainy day. Come visit more often Yuki! Yuki came into our club’s lives several years ago as a Rotary International Ambassador from Japan. She had received a scholarship from Rotary to attend CSUB. JoAnne and Dale Bender volunteered to be her host parents. Yuki decided to finish schooling at CSUB, fell in love with a Bakersfield resident, married and had children. Jo Anne and Dale share the joy of being honorary grandparents.
Marlene Heise introduced visitor and guest Cheryl Rydia of Epiphany Foundation. Cheryl visited us at Breakfast Rotary just a couple of weeks ago and returned via Zoom to learn more about what our club is all about. Welcome back Cheryl!
We were able to celebrate the birthdays of Dale Bender and Mary Breckenridge. Happy Birthday Rotarians! We hadn’t seen Mary for quite a while as she is running the family farm in Corcoran. It was great to see you Mary! You are a mythical person to the new members given their assignment of meeting all members and getting signatures on their rosters. Jason Williamson is getting some recognition these days too as he celebrates his 17th Breakfast Rotary club anniversary.
**Featured Speaker**
We were honored to have PDG Doug Vincent of Ontario, Canada as our featured speaker. Doug has served Rotary locally and globally. He served on six years on the Rotary Council on Legislation. (Editor’s note: This is the group that reviews and votes on proposed changes to the legislation that governs Rotary. Wade Nomura from the Rotary Club of Carpinteria Morning is our district’s delegate to COL.)
Among his other activities with Rotary, Doug serves as a Zone 24 Rotary United Nations Representative. Little did we know that there are eleven Rotary Representatives to the United Nations. Rotary holds the highest consultative status offered to a nongovernmental organization by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, which oversees many specialized UN agencies. Rotary is making its presence known before the broad delegation of leaders representing countries throughout the world with Rotarians such as Doug.
Through the ideal of “The Power of One”, Rotarians can rest assure that one person can make a difference in the world through Rotary. Doug emphasized that the backbone of Rotary is not the top administrative leadership as it is with many worldwide organizations, it is the members and local clubs, like Breakfast Rotary. Members provide and advocate ideas that blossom “from seeds” to further the mission of Rotary. For instance, the Rotary polio eradication campaign started with one member in the Philippines. Even Rotary’s involvement with the United Nations originated from a club in Nashville.
You may ask, why is Rotary involved with the United Nations? Well, in 1945 when the UN charter was being developed, it was noted that what the United Nations wanted to accomplish in the world was already happening with Rotary. Involving Rotary in the development of the UN charter was inevitable. For coordination, organization, public awareness, accountability of the political nature of the United Nations, even to strengthen and scale-up existing programs, Rotary involvement just made sense.
On a slightly different, but related topic, Doug shared the importance of clubs paying attention to the power of matching grants. Doug told us that fundraising and your contributions to The Rotary Foundation is where “the rubber meets the road”. This year the United Nations celebrates its 75th anniversary while Rotary celebrates 75 years of shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world. There is no better time to focus on those efforts that support Rotary projects worldwide. Through a video Doug shared, there is mutual benefit to Rotary International as well as our Breakfast Rotary when we remain spirited in our financial gifts.
It was very nice to have Doug visit us to educate us upon Rotary’s connection to the United Nations. If you would like to learn more, you can reach out to Doug at DougV@DougVincent.com or www.DougVincent.com
**Announcements Announcements**
Mindy Wilmot is given out Superhero awards and Denise Haynes is getting one. Her heroics were prompted by Teresa Ramos-Alvarez asking our club to make face masks for the “back of the house” staff at Porterville’s Sierra View Medical Center. Denise stepped in and used her incredible sewing skills for mask production. As we all know hospitals want to make sure their medical staff working with patients have N-95 and surgical masks. The mask Teresa requested help the remaining staff at the hospital minimize their exposure to COVID-19 while not depleting the medical-grade masks. The first batch Denise made have made their way to Sierra Medical Center where they were immediately put to good use. Teresa reported that the delivered masks received copious praise from the hospital staff. Denise is continuing to make more masks and has requested our assistance in procuring elastic for the mask straps. The pattern Teresa supplied uses elastic to keep the masks on.
Who else out there is a Superhero?
Mindy added that she challenges Breakfast Rotarians to post their activities on social media so we can virtually share in our daily activities. We need to whatever we can to maintain a sense of normalcy, comradery, and positive spirits.
Next week’s meeting will feature our own Karen Bonanno who will discuss current application of rules and regulations pertaining to employees in the workplace due to COVID-19.
Sandra Parnell and Michele McClure have been busy again looking for fun stuff for Breakfast Rotarians to participate in together. To that end, they have planned our first “Anti- Social Social”. Catchy phrase huh! We are going to get a great lunch and support Kathy Berry of Broken Yolk.
As you know, Broken Yolk under Kathy’s direction has been selling food baskets since the outbreak of the social distancing mandate. The backstory is that Kathy heard from her produce suppliers that they had product they couldn’t sell due to reduced demand by restaurants. She also knew people needed good, fresh produce and dairy. She decided to see if Broken Yolk could bring it all together. The restaurant just breaks even on the cost for the food boxes.
To display our gratitude for Broken Yolk’s community spirit, Sandra and Michele have planned a special lunch for us between 11am and 1pm this Saturday (April 11.) It will be an order and take-out (in Scotland it is called a Take-Away) with a special wrap menu. Here's the information hot off the internet from Sandra
This Saturday, April 11, let's all have Broken Yolk on Buena Vista and White Lane for lunch.
Here's how it will work -- We have three lunch options to choose from. Pick up time will be from 11 AM to 1 PM. Your "to go" lunch will be ready and waiting for you at the hostess counter at Broken Yolk . Pop inside, pay, and pick it up. Take it home or eat in your car in the parking lot and make sure to wave to your fellow Rotarians. Please RSVP to Sandra (respond to this email) no later than Friday evening with your food choice. Pick from one of the three wraps AND pick a salad:
Southwest Chicken Wrap
Buffalo Chicken Wrap
OR Turkey Wrap
AND
potato salad
or side salad.
Let's show Kathy some love! I'll see everyone Saturday (from the safety of my car).
Thank you, ladies, for your organization, and to Kathy for your hard work. We are looking forward to one of your Buffalo wraps! (Editor’s note again – I picked up my box this morning from Broken Yolk with a breakfast order. There is a roll of toilet paper in the boxes now along with veggies, fruit, beans, rice, eggs, butter, and milk! It is just like Christmas opening the box to see what is there.)
A program begun by Rotary is employing thousands of health workers to address the Covid-19 pandemic. The program is the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) which includes Rotary’s PolioPlus program. From the earliest days of polio eradication in the Philippines, the generosity and advocacy of Rotarians and our partners has nearly stopped polio, stopped Ebola from becoming an epidemic in Nigeria and now responds to Covid-19.
Over the next four to six months the polio program is offering its tools, workforce and extensive surveillance network to support countries as they respond. Globally, the polio surveillance network is being trained on Covid case detection, contact tracing, laboratory testing and data management. GPEI is deploying its coordination mechanisms such as emergency operations centers and sharing physical assets like vehicles, computers and mobile phones to combat the pandemic. In Nigeria, an extensive network of polio communication assets including 20,000 volunteer community mobilizers are working across the country to promote handwashing to reduce transmission. In Pakistan, polio staff have sensitized more than 6,000 health workers on Covid-19 and repurposed a helpline originally used for polio related calls to also address Covid questions. The polio surveillance team in Angola is training health care staff on case management of Covid-19. Polio staff in Benin are developing a pandemic preparedness plan for that country. Each day we hear of more deployments of polio staff to address Covid issues in additional countries.
So what about polio itself? The Polio Oversight Board made the hard decision to pause house to house vaccinations knowing that this may lead to an increase in polio cases. Polio surveillance will continue while also supporting Covid surveillance. The GPEI is working to ensure that once it is safe to do so, countries can be supported to rapidly resume polio immunization campaigns. We will have a message in every country that vaccines, including the polio vaccine, stop viruses from attacking children and adults. We must seize the moment to let every village understand that the polio vaccine saves lives.
For over 40 years, Rotarians have never wavered in fulfilling our commitment to the children of the world to end polio. Today, in contributing to PolioPlus we are also addressing this evil Covid-19 pandemic. The goals this year for contributions to PolioPlus have not changed. The opportunity to do good in the world has only increased. If you or your club have not given to PolioPlus lately, today is the day to do so. All funds donated are matched 2 to 1 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. If your District has underutilized District Designated Funds, any allocation is matched 6 to 1 by the Rotary Foundation World Fund and the Gates Foundation. And if you want to know more about how Rotary and the GPEI are addressing Covid-19 while not losing focus on eradicating polio, see
The following is the story of the partnership of Rotary and the United Nations to which our speaker, Doug Vincent, referred.
Rotary Roots Run Deep at the United Nations
Back in the 1930's a Rotarian from Nashville TN, USA, had the idea of developing "International Institutes of Understanding" to advance one of Rotary's causes: To promote International Understanding and World Peace.
The concept grew to cities in Texas and spread across the globe. It was a great success which was embraced by many Senior World Leaders, putting Rotary on the map.
Very early, Rotary was at the grass roots of discussions and input to develop the United Nations concept. Prior to the 1945 San Francisco charter event, there were other exploratory meetings, which included Rotarians. During that time, Rotary published the “Dumbarton Oaks” meeting notes, to share and solicit input from clubs and members around the world. This provided input for the 1945 charter discussions.
At the 1940 RI Convention in Havana, Cuba the "Respect for human rights" was discussed, which led to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Rotary also planted seeds for the creation of UNESCO, through discussions at our 1942 RI Convention in London, UK.
When US President Roosevelt and UK's Winston Churchill had the idea of convening meetings to establish the UN, they wanted Rotary involved. They recognized that through the successful International Institutes and other Rotary events, we were already doing much of what the intended UN purpose might be.
There were 11 official Rotary International delegates who rotated into the 3 chairs, allocated to Rotary at the sessions. In addition, several other Rotarians acted as delegates from their respective countries.
Overall, a total of 49 Rotarians participated in 1945 at the San Francisco UN Charter meetings where the organization was officially formed. Some say it was actually 50 Rotarians, but apparently one country had not passed the necessary legislation in time to have their delegate be considered official.
In addition, it was a Rotarian from South Africa who wrote the first draft of the UN Charter. There is a statue erected in a city park there, in his honour. Filipinos are proud that Rotarian PRIVP Carlos P Romulo, was the second President of the UN General Assembly.
For these reasons, the UN Charter and our Rotary Goals & Objectives are very similar in meaning. Three Rotarians in New York even played a key role in locating and negotiating the land deal to establish the UN headquarters there.
After the 1945 meetings, Rotary International published another document, titled “From Here On” which contained UN Charter content as well as annotations and questions. The purpose was to encourage people to use this resource as a roadmap and pathway to Rotary service and peace. Contact the author at: DougV@DougVincent.com for a copy of the document.
This article is not the complete story, but it is a summary as I know it. It explains why Rotary and the United Nations share a strong, deep-rooted partnership, working together to promote international understanding, global health, peace and harmony.
Thus, in this 2020 Rotary year, RI President Mark Maloney and Rotary International will focus with pride on the 75th Anniversary of our United Nations founding contribution. Rotary’s work will continue through our six areas of focus and TRF programs, closely aligned to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
By: PDG Douglas Vincent, Z24 (UNAC) Rotary UN Representative (with input from: RIDE Peter Kyle, PDG Joe Laureni & Mark Cashin) PDG Doug Vincent, D7080, ON Canada
Dear BBRC Friends,
Fallin’ on my Head”. It seems the lag with our singing between our computers is too painful for some. Brave Denise mentioned that the heavenly raindrops we received Wednesday morning are raining down hope in a very crucial time in our world. We all sincerely hope that this pandemic curve is “flattened” throughout the world while the numbers of ill and those who fall to the disease are less than projected.
Back in the 1930's a Rotarian from Nashville TN, USA, had the idea of developing "International Institutes of Understanding" to advance one of Rotary's causes: To promote International Understanding and World Peace. 
