Our featured speaker this week was Norma Dunn, Deputy Director of the Mission Community Services Corporation (MCSC) Women’s Business Center here in Bakersfield, who proved that “Women’s” may be in the name, but helping all entrepreneurs is the game. She walked us through how the Center offers no-cost consulting, classes, and access to capital, backed by a squad of nearly 30 business consultants—many bilingual—ready to tackle everything from marketing and HR to financials and procurement.​

Norma also pulled back the curtain on an impressive lineup of partners, including CDFIs, the Golden State APEX Accelerator, and the U.S. Commercial Service, all working together to open more doors for local businesses. Programs range from procurement and export training to workforce transition support for displaced oil and gas workers, plus start-up cohorts offered in both English and Spanish for entrepreneurs at every stage.​

One of the big “wow” moments was hearing how the Center has grown from under $50,000 in initial funding to nearly $1.8 million today, fueled by federal, state, and local grants. Norma rounded things out with success stories—childcare providers expanding, trucking companies growing their fleets, and even clients becoming consultants themselves—showing just how much impact the Center is having on Kern County’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
 

Happy Spots were in full swing this week as Cheryl Scott beamed sharing that her son Zachary is officially off the market after a Christmastime engagement. Tom Burke celebrated that his son turned a layoff into a level-up, landing an even better job with even better pay.​

     

Out in the wild, Ron Nelms and Tony Castiglione took the quads for a spin, where Ron tested gravity by rolling his brand-new ride and living to tell the tale. Tony was so thrilled Ron survived that he promptly donated $1,500 toward the purchase of a defibrillator for Ron’s favorite charity—apparently the going rate for not witnessing a heart attack.​

Travel drama made an appearance as Jaque Alexander recounted being delayed four hours coming home from Six Flags Magic Mountain when an SCE gas leak shut down the freeway. Marlene Heise was simply happy to be back at Rotary after completing an impressive seven moves in five years, proving that if frequent moving were a sport, she’d already be in the hall of fame.​

 

Meanwhile, Kay Pitts was happy to trade all that chaos for comfort, enjoying a river cruise to Memphis and New Orleans, reminding everyone that some Rotarians prefer rolling rivers to rolling quads.

 

      

  

Right after Happy Spots, the room turned into a friendly “overachiever court” as President Jackie pulled up Maya’s Facebook and Instagram pages, showcasing a dizzying array of accomplishments that left everyone wondering how she finds the hours in a day. Thoroughly impressed, Jackie promptly fined her $25 for setting the bar so high, whereupon Ken Quarnberg stood up and good-naturedly fined himself $25 for being, in his words, an underachiever by comparison.

   

We were pleased to welcome one guest this week — John Sabovich, guest of Donna Schwartz. Although we had no birthdays or wedding anniversaries to celebrate, we recognized several important club milestones. Scooter Tangeman and Anne Galvez each marked their second year in Rotary, and we extended belated recognition to Dennis Scott, whose service anniversary occurred while the club was “dark” over the holidays. Dennis is our only remaining Charter Member, now celebrating an incredible 43 years with Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary. When asked what has kept him involved all these years, Dennis simply shared, “It’s the people” — a sentiment that truly captures the spirit of our club.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, our indefatigable membership director Temo Lopez inducted a new member today, once again proving that costumes are now officially his thing by showing up in full Santa gear to make up for our two dark weeks in December. Sandra Kessler took the festive spectacle completely in stride, as did her sponsor Jacque Alexander, and shared that she knew she wanted to become a Rotarian from her very first visit—red suit, white beard and all.

 

     

 

Jennifer Henry reminded us that our first social of the year will be Thursday 1/15/2026 at Hungry Hunter.  Please RSVP to the email that was sent out if you can attend.

BBRC will also be holding our annual Pancake Breakfast on 1/24/2026 between 6AM and 12PM.  Please sign up for a shift to help out.

Sandra Parnell is still collecting Foundation Pledge Forms, if you haven’t turned yours in she will collect them from you. 

The meeting wrapped up with our 50/50 drawing, where David Perkins walked away $61 richer and with full bragging rights until next week.

 

 

Looking ahead, next week’s program will feature Jason Cater, City of Bakersfield Economic and Community Development Manager.