Congratulations Samy on your first Paul Harris Fellowship!
Warm greetings at the door on this fine morning from Craig “central casting” Hollandand Jeff “back cracker” Haynes.
After some lively socializing the bell rang out at 7 AM and another fun meeting from Prez Kay took off.
Shaun Kelly seemed to be MIA, but Pat Thompson made a quick stand-in with a thoughtful invocation.
Our flag salute was led by Mr. Pete Leveroni (and new members were advised to get his signature TODAY). Always great to see the illusive Leveroni.
Neil got a good key from Mike “Zinforado” Stepanovich and we all joined in to a pleasant chorus of “America the Beautiful.” Seems John Guerard’s lovely wife Susan (and Master Chorale songstress) has been coaching him because his table walked away with the extra raffle tickets for best performance.
Ken “the quirky” Quarnberg, introduced our visiting Rotarian, Roger Ross-Smith. The story goes that Roger received an honorary PHF from BBRC. He was the inspiration and organizer of our first Pancake Breakfast many years ago. The torch was carried by Roger and Dr. Joe Nunez for many years and has recently been passed to our Community Service team Mr. & Mrs. George. Thanks for starting a great BBRC tradition Roger! We served over 240 delicious breakfasts on Saturday, April 29th and had a good time doing it.
“Do Rag Dan” Johnson, ran to Marilee’s side with a hot mic so that she could introduce her guest, Denise McCombs of Wheek's Construction Services, Inc.
We celebrated Rotary Anniversaries of Dale Bender – 24 years and Marianna Buoni for a remarkable 27 years of membership. Thanks for hangin’ in there Dale & Marianna!
The Happy Spots went like this: Pat Thompson was happy to have spent a great vacation in Costa Rica. He thought the people were super nice and the rural area they traveled through to get to the “Villa” had great scenery. Kay was rewarded with a cool bird whistle and coffee. No fine was imposed. Bribing the President really works!
Mike George thanked all the Pancake Breakfast volunteers and slipped in that Agape Mortgage was voted Best Mortgage Company in Bakersfield. Good thing the company is doing well, because it cost him $20 to brag.
Martha Samora was recognized for the article in Bakersfield Magazine on strokes.
Ron Nelms, sponsor of our newest member, Karen Bonanno, tried to make up some lame excuse about surveyor stuff as to why he missed her induction last week. He assured our Prez that he was so distraught about his absence for such an important event that he shed tears. He’s 20 bucks lighter.
Marlene Heise pointed out two ads in the Bakersfield Magazine that were done by Heise Media for clients and added another $5 to BBRC coffers.
Seems Neil Walker missed his song duty last week and failed to get a fill in. He claims he called both Marlene and Mike S, but got no response. I think we should be checking phone logs on that tall tale. That cost Mr. Walker 5 bucks.
Announcements
PE Denise Haynes is still looking for a Sergeant at Arms to assist during her year. She would also like volunteers for Beacon scribes. Sandy Magley will help write for the Beacon (our fine newsletter on most weeks). If you want to help, please give Denise a shout out.
Jeff Haynes is already putting together a great social trip for his Sister-In-Laws year at the helm. BBRC will charter a bus to transport our gang to Dodger Stadium on July 29th to watch the Dodgers crush the Giants (guess which team I root for?) Seats are going fast, so give Jeff a heads-up if you want to attend.
Thousand Flags is fast approaching. Please be sure to sign up for some duties during the 3 day event. Let’s show Bakersfield what BBRC does for its community again this year. Contact Becky Brooks or Denise. We need lots of hands to pull off this wonderful event.
Mary Breckenridge and Jackie Maxwell got a lovely nod of approval from President Kay as she presented us with Community Service pins to say thanks for the work on the San Miguel Commemorative Grove cleanup that took place on April 22nd.
Three fine BBRCers will be liaisons for our Interact High Schools at upcoming Scholarship award ceremonies. New member Teresa Ramos-Alvarez will be presenting our scholarship funds at Foothill High and liaising with the school.
Sandy Magley and Bobbie Hake will be representing us at Golden Valley and Independence High Schools.
Breakfast Rotary has been handing Scholarships to fine students at the schools where we support Interact Clubs for many years. Just another great BBRC tradition.
Our club has been awarded a District Grant to help support the RYLA and the Rafer Johnson Elementary school (home of the SEAL program) as they develop a Science and Art lab. These funds were available to us as a result of money our club contributed to The Rotary Foundation three years ago! The money really does come back to us!
Then we had a special moment as Samy Abiaoui was awarded his Paul Harris Fellow by sponsor, Greg Desme and BBRC Foundation Chair, Denise Haynes. Samy came to the US in August 23rd, 2001 from Morocco when he was 24 years old. He chose Bakersfield as his home, because his sister was already here. He learned of CSUB and their MBA program and attended that program and graduated in early 2004. He first worked part time at Taft National Bank as a clerk, then a promotion made him a Credit Analyst, Relationship Manager. He is currently regional president for Mission Bank. We are lucky to have Samy as a member and celebrate his Paul Harris Fellowship.
With so many recognitions and special folks here today, photographer, Marlene, had a difficult time keeping up with her important photo snapping duties.
And after all that . . . . our speaker, Rebecca Baker, was introduced by Leslie VoVilla.
Rebecca is a Bakersfield resident, mother of two and employed by Harvard Risk Management.
Rebecca gave us a lively, eye opening presentation about Identity Thief. The first shocker for me was when she asked who in the club had been targets of Identity Thief, easily half the club raised their hands. WOW!
A few scary facts:
1. Identity theft affects over 10 million victims each year.
2. It has been the number one complaint to FTC for fifteen consecutive years. With 90,000 cases of ID theft are reported each day
3. Revenue from ID theft is more than made in drug trafficking.
4. Losses to businesses are in the hundreds of billions.
5. 500,000 dead people open bank accounts annually.
6. The average theft is $92,893, because only thefts of $100,000 or more can be prosecuted. These are smart thieves.
Rebecca stressed that we are our best monitoring service. Keep a close eye on your accounts. She recommends you write your passwords on a piece of paper and hide them somewhere you feel is safe and that you change them every two months. Take pictures of the contents of your wallet – you’ll need that information if it is stolen.
There are 247 companies that offer protection from Identity Thief. The four most common types of plans are: Monitoring, Reimbursement, Fraud Alert and Restoration Plans. Rebecca recommends if you are shopping that a Restoration plan select one that is the most comprehensive.
After this serious discussion on evil lurking around us, Rebecca softened the blow by raffling off a box of fudge. Will Duerksen won the sweet treat. I offered to taste test it for him (you can’t be too careful these days), but he decided to take the risk. Did you learn nothing from Rebecca’s great talk today Will?
The morning wrap-up included two raffle prizes. John Guerard picked the mystery gift card and Martha Samora walked away with new Rotary bracelets. One hundred Paul Harris Fellow points went to the lucky Dr. Joe. Remember folks you must be present to win!
Dear Prez Kay wasn’t feeling pithy today, so no quote. But she reminded us to “Take an opportunity today to serve humanity.”
Note from Editor Kay: Sgt at Arms Dan Johnson requested that his views on the new Rotary International (RI) Code of Policies with respect to guns. With Dan's permission these musings have been edited a bit for clarity and to make ensure they weren't rated any higher than PG.
For the record, RI would respond that there is nothing in the Policies that prohibit gun ownership.
This new RI Policy regarding armaments is insane and belongs to the rear side of equines. I am very disappointed in these people and their politically minded agenda. Strange how they want to honor veterans who died for our freedom, using guns, but spit in their faces and anyone else who exercises their rights as an American citizen to own a weapon, protect themselves or associate with people who do. These people don't know any more about gun rights than they do about creating children!
If this is an indication of the mindset and leadership calling the shots at Rotary, I QUIT! YES I am a right-wing conservative; my dad was a cop for 32 years.
The RI Board doesn’t have a clue about the real world and the predators in it. Everybody should keep their political agenda to themselves and not try to influence a community service group. It is uninformed people like these why our state has gone to Hell! What’s next?
Obviously, I am very disappointed Rotary International and that they did this without gathering the pulse of the membership at large.
Our flag salute was led by Mr. Pete Leveroni (and new members were advised to get his signature TODAY). Always great to see the illusive Leveroni.
The torch was carried by Roger and Dr. Joe Nunez for many years and has recently been passed to our Community Service team Mr. & Mrs. George. Thanks for starting a great BBRC tradition Roger! We served over 240 delicious breakfasts on Saturday, April 29th and had a good time doing it.
“Do Rag Dan” Johnson, ran to Marilee’s side with a hot mic so that she could introduce her guest, Denise McCombs of Wheek's Construction Services, Inc.
Mary Breckenridge and Jackie Maxwell got a lovely nod of approval from President Kay as she presented us with Community Service pins to say thanks for the work on the San Miguel Commemorative Grove cleanup that took place on April 22nd.
Then we had a special moment as Samy Abiaoui was awarded his Paul Harris Fellow by sponsor, Greg Desme and BBRC Foundation Chair, Denise Haynes. Samy came to the US in August 23rd, 2001 from Morocco when he was 24 years old. He chose Bakersfield as his home, because his sister was already here. He learned of CSUB and their MBA program and attended that program and graduated in early 2004. He first worked part time at Taft National Bank as a clerk, then a promotion made him a Credit Analyst, Relationship Manager. He is currently regional president for Mission Bank. We are lucky to have Samy as a member and celebrate his Paul Harris Fellowship. 
Rebecca is a Bakersfield resident, mother of two and employed by Harvard Risk Management. 
