Woodland Rotary - The Rotary Club of Woodland Website

As usual the 'back table' of Gary Bunch, Carl Rodegerdts and Aniek Pflager greeted us with their smiles today. We had a good crowd on hand.

Immediate Past President Tabb Randolph enjoyed wearing flip-flops and shorts in Kona, Hawaii last week. Club Polio Plus Warrior Gary Wirth gave us an update on Rotary's efforts to eradicate polio throughout the world and highlighted the 19 Club members who have joined the Polio Plus Society. We were delighted to see Dena Lawrence return after a long absence due to health issues including morning sickness from her pregnancy. She's happy both she and her expectant child are healthy.

With President Dan Stroski serving as Recognition Chair today and asking questions about his favorite topic, taxes, Peter Holmes and Steve Venables learned that Will Rogers authored the quote above.

Paul Hillegas, Investigator, Yolo County District Attorney's office, was our guest speaker today, giving us a program on the efforts to combat workers compensation fraud locally.

President Dan Stroski opened another meeting of the Club with the assistance of Nick Roncoroni and David Pinto in handling the visual technology.

It was announced that Mike Chandler, who last week won the $500 raffle pot, has since donated that amount to the Woodland Rotary Endowment. Barbara Sonin told us about her experience in becoming a Club member. Gary Bunch's 35 years of working with Meals on Wheels was highlighted.

When told the word 'Senate' comes from the Latin, 'Senex', Yvette Roy discovered it meant 'a place of old men'. 'Just like the Rotary Club', smiled Yvette. Clyde Brooker took the lead on Recognition today. President-elect Shawn Seyk announced the Club's 2022 Dinner Auction has been rescheduled to Saturday, April 23, at the California Agricultural Museum.

Raychel Kubby Adler and Denise Rose, were our guest speakers today, appearing virtually on Zoom. They gave us a program on Thriving Pink, a non-profit organization based in Davis providing support to breast cancer survivors throughout Yolo County.

Jasmina Belledin, President Dan's former youth exchange student from Germany who is currently visiting the Stroskis, met with members of the Woodland High School Interact Club on January 12th and gave them a presentation about the youth exchange program. Our Interact Club mentors Jayne Williams and Gary Wegener also attended.

We’re in November 2021 and we have wonderful news to report on a few important points. The Wild Polio virus has still only struck two individuals during the year. One each in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with both of those recorded in the first month of the year. We are defeating this terrible disease and need to keep our vigilance and immunization in high gear for the near future. Nineteen (19) members of the Woodland Noon Rotary club have committed to the fight against Polio by becoming members of the Polio Plus Society, with 2 more members in the process of joining. We have had our first two women members join our group and look forward to recognizing at least 5 new Society members at a meeting in the near future.

As our Club Polio Warrior, I encourage all Woodland Rotary members to give strong consideration to joining the Society before the end of 2021 by donating $100 to the cause and committing to the future until Polio is declared defeated. This is easily done by giving a check to Tom Schwarzgruber in the name of Polio Plus and filling out a very simple form. You get credit for a write-off donation to the Foundation, credit for Paul Harris Foundation, credit for fighting a terrible disease, and satisfaction of knowing you are helping our Club increase our Society Membership numbers. Thank you for your consideration.

The Rotary Club of Woodland has been participating in the Kenya WASH project since October ’20 to improve water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at two schools in Karen, Kenya (Africa). This is a Rotary Global Grant effort sponsored by the Rotary Club of Karen. The project is a coordinated effort to make needed improvements at the Karen C Primary School, serving 1300 students, 50 teachers (established in 1958), and the adjacent Karen C Girls Secondary (high school) school (established in 2011) with enrollment of 600 students. Phase One of the project, which installed two large capacity water tanks and hand washing stations for students, was completed in August ’21 at a cost of $40,000. Our Club contributed $5,000 toward Phase One.

Photos from Phase One of the project can be viewed in our Photo Gallery.

Kenya is located on the east coast of Africa. Karen, Kenya is a suburb of Kenya’s capitol city Nairobi. Photos below show children from both Karen schools.

Sanitation conditions at the Karen C schools today are terrible, and would be considered unacceptable for any similar facilities in the United States. As photos below show, pit latrines are in use.

Phase Two is ready to start and club support is needed to move forward. Club Kenya WASH Chair Blair Voelz indicates Phase Two seeks to build a new, modern facility at the primary school with flush toilets, fix up the existing bathroom at the secondary school, and install a septic system serving both schools. These improvements will be a major step forward in sanitation for the children and staff of both schools.

The budget for Phase Two is $80,000. Funding would again come largely from a Rotary Global Grant and a District 5160 match. Our Club, as international sponsor, will need to raise $15,000. The RC of Karen is expected to raise the same amount.

Photos shown below show facilities similar to the ones we wish to build. They were built for another WASH Project in Nairobi.

Club President Dan Stroski reports contributions from the Club and/or the Woodland Endowment for Phase Two have not yet been determined. However, he indicates interested members may now make personal contributions toward Phase Two themselves. Any amount you can donate will go a long way to reaching the Club’s $15K responsibility for the project.

Members wishing to make a donation toward Phase Two of the Kenya WASH project can do so by check made out to ‘Woodland Rotary Endowment’ with a note indicating ‘Kenya WASH Phase Two’. The check should be mailed to P.O. Box 31 Woodland CA 95776 c/o Assistant Club Treasurer Tom Schwarzgruber. Or, contributions can be made via PayPal or your credit card on the Club’s website.

President Dan Stroski announced a $2500 award from the George Berrettoni Scholarship has been made to Ethan Horowitz of Woodland CA. George Berretoni was a long time Woodland Rotarian, a past Club President, and was very active in the Boy Scouts of America. This scholarship was established in 2018 in George's honor following his passing. This is the first award of the Berretoni Scholarship.

Ethan Horowitz, an Eagle Scout himself from Troup 464, graduated from the Da Vinci Charter Academy with a 3.5 cumulative GPA. Ethan plans to attend Colorado State University in the fall where he will seek a degree in mechanical engineering. Ethan was on hand at the Club's July 20th meeting to receive the award from President-elect Shawn Seyk.

President Dan said "Rotary always wants to contribute to both our community and other various international projects; all with the intent of helping to make this world a better place to live." It is anticipated that future Berrettoni Scholarship awards will be made annually.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS, DONORS, PRESIDENT-ELECT DAN STROSKI AND HIS COMMITTEE!!