Woodland Rotary - The Rotary Club of Woodland Website

President Dan Stroski led another well attended meeting today. He apologized for underestimating the number of members who would attend during Thanksgiving week. Jim McGibbon returned to lead us with President Dan in singing Rotary Grace.

Guests today included Susie McGibbon, introduced by her husband Jim. Mike Chandler introduced two guests: prospective new member Gina Bravo along with Tom Gregory who is visiting from Colorado .

Jim Nolan took the Recognition helm today, asking questions about Thanksgiving. Kevin Haarberg fessed up to his 67th birthday tomorrow, Nov 24 (Yankton SD). Karl Diekman will celebrate his 72nd birthday on Dec 2 (Steubenville OH). Jayne Williams gave an update on our Interact Club at Woodland High School who are busy conducting a canned food drive. Aniek Ramsey will also celebrate a birthday Dec 2 'about 20 years after Karl' (Fresno). President-elect Shawn Seyk 'rang the bell' in honor of his girls soccer team that did very well this year. Yvette Roy will celebrate a birthday 'around 60' on Nov 28 (Woodland).

Stepping up at the last minute, our own Derrek Kaff, Chief of the Woodland Police Department, gave us a program on 'sUAS (small Unmanned Aircraft Systems) (aka 'Drones') and the Future of Law Enforcement'. He gave us a first look at a drone program the Woodland Police Department expects to implement in in the community in 2022. Two YouTube videos Derrek attempted to show us during his presentation can be viewed at:

With the benefit of a nice turkey lunch, President Dan Stroski presided over a good size crowd at today's meeting.

President Dan presents the membership badge of the late Roy Holmes to Roy's daughter Marjorie Brown and son Dan Holmes who joined us today.

Mike Chandler introduced his guest today, Gina Bravo, RN, Interim Woodland Memorial Hospital President & CEO. Bob Nakken fessed up to his wedding anniversary with wife Gaye back on Oct 21 when they were both out sick with a 'mild' case of COVID. Mark Ullrich was in charge of Recognition today; happy about the SF 49ers win on Monday night, and asking veterans in the Club to tell us about their service.

Marie Galbo says the Woodland Rotary Clubs of Woodland will hold a Christmas Meeting on 4pm-6pm Friday, December 3 at the Hotel Woodland. $25 per person provides an appetizer buffet; no host beer, wine & soft drinks; and dessert. Signups and payment need to be made by the Club's November 23rd meeting. Make checks payable to 'Woodland Rotary Club'.

Veterans Don Huff Jr, Jim Taylor, Tom LaBrie and Gary Wegener told us about their military service, as did (not pictured) Steve Venables, Karl Diekman, Mark Ullrich & Dan Stroski.

Rob Beggs, Chief Engineer, Brown and Caldwell, Davis, and National Vice-chair of the Conservative Caucus of the Citizens Climate Lobby, was our guest speaker today, providing us with a presentation on 'Climate Change - Science, Solutions and Current Happenings.' Thank you to Derrek Kaff for introducing our speaker. More about the Citizens Climate Lobby and its Yolo County chapter can be seen on their websites: www.citizensclimatelobby.org and www.yoloccl.org

The Rotary Club of Woodland is accepting applications for a Community Based Project to be funded by the proceeds of our 2022 Annual Auction. The auction will take place on February 19th, 2022 at the California Agriculture History Museum in Woodland CA. If you are involved with or know a group that could benefit from this fundraiser, please fill out the Donation Request Form linked below and send to, or contact, President-elect Shawn Seyk via email at shawnseyk@yahoo.com . Completed donation forms will be accepted through December 31, 2021. Selection of the 2022 Auction beneficiary (or beneficiaries) is anticipated in early January 2022.

Long time Woodland Rotarian Roy Holmes passed away over the weekend, just short of his 96th birthday. An active and respected Club member, Roy annually offered his son Dan's beautiful photography to support the Club Auction. Roy's wife Mary Jo and daughter Marjorie frequently attended Club events including Roy's August 13, 2019 presentation about his participation in the Honor Flight #20 to Washington DC earlier in the year with his youngest son Jim. Roy also enjoyed participating in Woodland Kids Read (a United Way program supported by Rotary) in which he received thank you letters from the children he read to. Roy received his 6th Paul Harris pin in 2019 in recognition of his significant financial contributions to the Rotary Foundation.

Born & raised in Clarksburg, Roy joined the US Army Air Corp in the last years of WWII. He married Mary Jo (Leask) in 1948 and together they raised five children, who have produced five grand children and six great grandchildren. Roy worked in farming, farm management and real estate. Among many interests, Roy's primary hobby was flying radio controlled model airplanes. Mary Jo passed away in 2020 after 71 years of marriage to Roy.

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.

Our own PDG Karl Diekman was on hand October 13, 2021 in Karen, Kenya as the water storage and hand washing stations improvements in Phase One of the Kenya WASH program at the Karen C Primary School were dedicated. Karl will be speaking to the Club about his visit to Kenya at the Club's December 7th meeting.

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!!