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COMING EVENTS

With only a month remaining in his term President MICHAEL CARUANA reminded us that he is still President and began the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

CLARK ROSEN led the crowd in the club song and “God Bless America”.

SHERRY BURWEN offered a Thought for the Day about tradition and family, including our Rotary Club of Petaluma in her definition of family.

PAUL LOUNIBOS introduced visiting Rotarians Charlie Stewart from Long Beach and Juli Lederhaus from Salem, Massachusetts.

MARLENE FREETLY introduced her special guest, granddaughter Kelsey.

TONY WESTERN followed up on a previous announcement about a potential project to produce revenue for the club: beer service at the Sonoma County Fair. Participation by enough of our members would mean individual commitment to only a minimal number of shifts and substantial benefits in the form of sale proceeds plus tips. TONY asked us to watch for information about scheduling and required training.

Visiting Rotarian Juli Lederhaus introduced herself as the new general manager of the Hotel Petaluma, where she will be directing a major effort to create something special out of a familiar downtown landmark. Juli and her husband are looking forward to moving to Petaluma from Salem, Massachusetts.

Looking ahead beyond the summer, GREG O’BRIEN put out an invitation for members to join the golf tournament committee. The tournament will be on Monday, September 14, and there is plenty to do before then to make the event a success. Anyone interested in helping out should give GREG a call.

CHRIS RANNEY reminded us that President MICHAEL’S debunking will be on Saturday, June 27 at the Petaluma Golf & Country Club, with cocktails served starting at 6:00 and dinner at 6:45. Anyone needing directions to the event should contact his or her physician without delay.

The most interesting announcement was made by GAIL CARDAROPOLI, who told us of the SCARC meeting that would begin in only another 5 hours at the General’s Daughter restaurant in Sonoma — and that it was too late to make a reservation. So there.

President MICHAEL presented a Rotary mug to CLARK ROSEN as belated thanks for participating with daughter Sarah in a musical interlude at a March club meeting.

LEE REPOSA, now District Chair of RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), announced that the annual RYLA camp week will be June 15 — 19, with our barbeque for the teen participants on Wednesday, June 17. Volunteers to work on that special event should contact LEE as soon as possible.

Sounding only slightly wounded, LEE REPOSA rose again to point out that other members had received a special pin for bringing in a new member, while he had been give only a bag containing no pin at all, in spite of the fact that he had brought two new members to the club. President MICHAEL apologized for leaving LEE “holding the bag” and promised to have a “double-sized” pin to present next month.

DAVE BARBIERI confessed to missing last week’s meeting because of a too-good-to-pass-up invitation to a Giants-Dodgers game. He paid not only a fine for his own transgression but also for JIM BECKER, who had extended the invitation. Absentee STEVE POWELL may still be in trouble for being part of that same non-sanctioned outing.

JIM SYMONDS was fined for being the father of an outstanding daughter, who is returning from 2 years of service in Namibia providing health education and training. Her visit home will be for only 30 days, after which she will return for one more year of service in Namibia. And we all get to meet her when she appears as the speaker at our June 11 meeting.

BILL GROVERMAN, a fine humanitarian, noted that a deserving . . .

. . . JAY PALM was not honored in traditional fashion with a birthday cake and a place at a birthday table.

Len Mygatt also celebrated a May birthday.

President MICHAEL atoned for his oversight by fining himself $25 and recognizing the club’s May birthday celebrants.

Our raffle winner was KATHY O’CONNOR, whose blue rock was exchanged for red wine.

President MICHAEL introduced guest speaker Dick Herman, founder of 101 MFG. Dick gave an excellent presentation on the importance of manufacturing to our economy, the changing demand for skills, and the opportunities for interesting and rewarding careers for young people in the manufacturing sector.

This week's Editor: Clark Rosen

COMING EVENTS

We were welcomed to the Rotary Club of Petaluma weekly meeting at the beautiful Petaluma Golf and Country Club by our PRESIDENT, MICHAEL CARUANA.

We all joined THE PREZ in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by LEE REPOSA changing things up and leading us in song, “America the Beautiful”.

WHIT HALL gave the Thought for the Day on the upcoming Memorial Day and reflecting on all those who have served and gave their lives for our country.

This was followed by our usual hugs and handshakes.

PAST PRESIDENT JOANNE FERRIS announced the visiting Rotarians.

SHERRY BURWEN introduced her guests, her husband and grandson.

MIKE STAUBER introduced his guest and our speaker, exchange student, Allegra Coscioni

PRESIDENT MICHAEL called upon PAST PRESIDENT CLARK ROSEN and thanked him for bringing in the most new members for his term.

The PREZ then announced that this was the final meeting for DAVID SOLO. DAVID is moving on to the East Bay to lead the Special Olympics. He will be greatly missed by all our club members and friends.

PAST PRESIDENT LEE BEAN reminded everyone to submit any grant requests for the Foundation.

As a board member for our incoming PRESIDENT ELECT GARY BRODIE, TONY WESTERN discussed a fundraising idea to serve beer at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

CHRIS RANNEY announced the Program Committee will be meeting June 4th to discuss the upcoming year’s list of programs. Everyone is welcome to join.

As his term unwinds, PRESIDENT MICHAEL was being kind and decided to pass on the weekly fines.

TIM MORAN won the raffle and a nice bottle of wine.

MIKE STAUBER again introduced our speaker and exchange student from Salerno, Italy, Allegra Coscioni. She did a great job talking about her experiences here in the States and answered many questions from members.

PRESIDENT MICHAEL wished everyone a great day.

This week's Editor: Brian Breen

COMING EVENTS

The forecast called for showers but there was a hearty downpour as PRESIDENT MICHAEL called the meeting to order.

BARNEY FAUSS led everyone in the club song followed by God Bless America.

RENéE HAYES stepped up with short notice to offer the Thought For The Day: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Theodore Roosevelt.

There were no visiting Rotarians or Rotarians with guests at the meeting.

JOANNE FERRIS announced there will be a social for all three Petaluma Rotary Clubs to meet our visitors from India who are part of the District Friendship Exchange. The social will be on Friday, May 22 at Joanne’s house, 28 Oxford Court, Petaluma from 6 – 8 pm. Everyone is welcome to bring along a guest.

The debunking of MICHAEL CARUANA will be Saturday, June 27 at 6 pm at the Petaluma Golf and Country Club. Invitations will be mailed soon.

SHAHARAZAD HAMIDI received kudos because she won the cash from the raffle last week and donated it to Nepal relief.

CLARK ROSEN received kudos for sponsoring proposed new member Todd Mendoza.

GAIL CARDAROPOLI announced the SCARC dinner on May 28 will be at the General’s Daughter in Sonoma from 6 – 9 pm. If you plan to attend, please notify Gail ASAP.

PRESIDENT MICHAEL announced Manufacturing Job Camp, a summer boot camp, will be June 15 – July 24 at Petaluma High School. Please refer interested students to www.CalMachinist.com/summer.html.

SHERRY BURWEN happily paid a $25 fine in honor of her grandson, Jordan Smith. He was a walk on member of the University of Arizona football team and he hopes to be invited back next year.

BANO CUMMINGS paid $100 because she visited her 3 year old grandson for his birthday. Her son lives in Nicaragua and operates a B & B on the beach for surfers.

JEFF ELLIS and RICARDO MARZO each paid a fine. The rain ruined Jeff’s golf plans and forced Ricardo to drop Jeff off at the door.

WHIT HALL thanked everyone from the club who attended last week’s meeting at McKinley school. Special thanks to the members who barbecued and provided lunch.

JIM BECKER announced the world service committee contributed $2,000 of club funds to ShelterBox for the Nepal earthquake. He reminded the club we have two recent projects in Nepal. One project provided dictionaries to 9th and 10th grade students. The other funded 250 goats for women in Nepal.

Greg O’Brien won the raffle and goes home with a bottle of wine.

JOANNE introduced our program speaker: . . .

. . . Nora Thompson of Matrix Parent Network & Resource Center.

Closing words from our PRESIDENT: “Never throw dirt at your neighbor, doing so makes you lose ground.”

This week's Editor: Joanne Ferris

COMING EVENTS

Changing things up, this week’s club meeting was held at McKinley Elementary School.

It was a beautiful but windy day. Our delicious lunch was prepared and served by team REPOSA. A big thanks went out to JAY PALM and DANNY FISH for the prime rib, RICK GORMAN, LEE REPOSA, and Gina Husary for the side dishes, and ELIAS HUSARY for his professional “water bottle drying” skills.

The 5th grade kids made their rounds to the tables to introduce themselves and thank the Rotarians for their support.

We were then welcomed by our PRESIDENT, MICHAEL CARUANA who introduced Principal Matt Harris.

We all joined the student body president in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The 4th grade class energetically sang us “This Land is Your Land” & “Gold Fever”.

Principal Matt gave us an informative update on the progress McKinley School has made over the last three years and where it plans to be in the future. He thanked many leading Rotarians, WHIT HALL, PAST PRESIDENT CLARK ROSEN, and PAST DISTRICT GOVERNOR AND PRESIDENT ED FULLERTON.

He introduced the 5th grade teacher, Mr. D-Z who explained the Science Olympics program and the Aviation Club. Rotarians were then entertained by some science and aviation competitions between the kids and fellow Rotarians.

The first competition was called the “naked egg drop” where each team gets an allotted number of paper and tape to construct a structure to prevent a falling egg from cracking.

The competition was between the top 2 student builders versus PRESIDENT ELECT GARY BRODIE.

GARY arrived with 2 pre-constructed structures that he claimed were professionally engineered.

ELIAS HUSARY was our judge and meticulously inspected the eggs after the drop for any cracks. He either gave a thumbs up for no cracks (and the crowd goes wild) or down for cracks (and the crowd sighs).

They both went over the 6’ high drop and ended up tying before breaking the eggs.

ED FULLERTON introduced the next round of competition, Aviation.

It was the top paper airplane builder kid versus PRESIDENT MICHAEL.

The competition included airplane designs for distance, acrobatics, and endurance. PRESIDENT MICHAEL lost all 3 contests with his single mediocre design.

Still wallowing in defeat, the PREZ wished everyone a wonderful rest of the week.

This week's Editor: Brian Breen