Woodland Rotary - The Rotary Club of Woodland Website

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Rotary Theme 2022-23

Jennifer Jones, 2022-23 Rotary International President

Suzanne Bragdon, 2022-23 Governor, Rotary District 5160

What is Rotary?

We improve people's lives, locally and globally, through service.

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Worth a look: 2 minute video showing where we've come from

and what we do.

January 17th Meeting

The trio of Jim McGibbon, Dan Stroski and Steve Venables got Rotary Grace going at a spirited pace today. We had a good crowd thanks to a program that attracted several guests.

Dan Stroski introduced his guest, prospective new Club member Rob Beggs. Tony Delevati introduced his guest & wife, Margie.Steve Venables introduced his guests, wife Lydia and their neighbor Bonita Agnew.

Kevin Haarberg led Recognition today. Following thankful time, Kevin asked, with the weather drying out, what plans people had for their upcoming travel. Les Engelmann will travel to Bellingham WA in May. Tabb Randolph says he’ll be in New York's Yankee Stadium for Opening Day against the SF Giants, and also plans to be in Scottsdale AZ for Spring training next month. Clyde Brooker has no immediate plans to travel, and wants the current uncertainty in the travel business to settle down before he goes someplace.

Marie Galbo and Nikki Hamilton are heading to Maui on February 1^st, because Marie won the Grand Raffle Prize at the Club’s 2022 Dinner Auction.Jeff Burger says he is looking forward to going fishing in Alaska in July with his girlfriend Melissa. Mark Ullrich was happy about the SF 49ers victory in the wildcard playoff game.

Our guest speaker today was Craig McNamara, owner of Sierra Orchards, an organic walnut producer outside of Winters in Solano County. Craig is also the youngest child and only son of Robert McNamara who served as Defense Secretary for Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and was generally considered the architect of the Vietnam War. Craig wrote a book ‘Because Our Fathers Lied’ published last May on Craig coming to grips with his father's legacy. He gave us a presentation on that subject. Thanks to Jim Nolan for arranging and introducing this excellent program.

January 10th Meeting

President Shawn Seyk presented Chuck Moore with his 6^th Paul Harris Fellowship pin today in recognition of Chuck’s significant financial contributions to the Rotary Foundation.

Mark Ullrich took the Recognition reigns today. He enjoyed the Celebration of Life held last Friday for Gary Wirth. Mark then volunteered to take the role of Polio Plus Warrior for the Club, a position Gary had held for several years until his passing. President-elect Karl Diekman gave an update on preparations underway for the Club's 2023 Dinner Auction fundraiser coming up in April. Peter Holmes celebrated his 63^rd birthday on January 6(Fresno). In honor of Gary Wirth who had also shared a birthday on the same day, Peter ‘rang the bell’ for Rotary’s Polio Plus.Jayne Williams introduced her guest, Rob Beggs who is apparently ready now to become a member of the Club.

Eric Sharp ‘rang the bell’ for his granddaughter who is a freshman at Multnomah University in Portland OR. She is on the varsity soccer team and is carrying a 4.0 GPA. Jim Nolan encouraged members and guests to attend next week’s program speaker, Craig McNamara, who is a Winters farmer (Sierra Orchards) and the author of a new book, ‘Because our Fathers Lied’, about his father, Robert McNamara, who was President Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense and architect of the Vietnam War. Kevin Haarberg ‘rang the bell’ for his South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team who won the NCAA I-AA championship over North Dakota State last Sunday in Frisco TX, a game which Kevin and wife Lorie enjoyed attending in person. Blair Voelz is very excited; his toes are getting wet! He ‘rang the bell’ for all the rainfall we are getting.

Our guest speaker today was Lynnette Irlmeier, Executive Director of Empower Yolo, who provided us a program on Empower Yolo's services and recent highlights. Thanks to Program Coordinator Lori Ross who arranged for and introduced this interesting program.

WHS Interact Club Spreads Cheer!

The Woodland High School's Interact Club, sponsored by our Club, have been active making Halloween treats for WHS teachers, muffins for local homeless folks at Thanksgiving, making cards and wrapping baked goods to hand out, wishing Woodland businesses Happy Holidays, and serving as Santa's Ninja Elves at the Woodland Christmas Tree Lighting. Thanks to Jayne Williams for her work with these young people!

Rest In Peace - Gary Wirth

1939-2022

Long time Club member Gary Wirth passed away at his home November 23, 2022 with family by his side. Gary, a Paul Harris Fellow, served as the Club's President in 1987-88 and was the current Club Polio Plus 'Warrior'. Nicknamed 'the Kahuna', Gary was a good friend to many of us. Our thoughts are with his daughter Carrie, his son Court, and their family.

VIEW GARY WIRTH OBITUARY

Kenya WASH Phase Two

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.

Our Club's Kenya WASH Chair Blair Voelz reports Phase Two of the project is moving foward. Phase Two seeks to build a new, modern 1700sf bathroom for faculty, boys and girls at the Karen C Elementary School. These improvements will be a major step forward in sanitation for the children and staff of both schools.

The Phase Two Rotary grant total budget is $76,190 which includes $27,835 raised from our Club, other local Rotary clubs, and the Karen Kenya Rotary Club; $27,600 in District 5160 matching grant funds; and $20,755 from the Rotary Foundation World Fund. These funds have been deposited in a Nairobi bank account specifically set up for this project. The project is currently out for bid. Construction is scheduled to begin in 4-6 weeks and will take 6-8 weeks to build. Phase Two should be complete by Summer 2023.

Our Club's contribution to Phase Two totals $12,685, which includes $10,850 in personal donations from Club members (Brooker, Chandler, Delevati, Diekman, Engelmann, Faye, Galbo, Haarberg, Hodges, Huff III, LaBrie, Lawrence, Maltese, Martinez, Moore, Nakken, Pettit, Pinto, Randolph, Roy, Schwarzgruber, Sonin, Stroski, Ullrich, Voelz, Wegener, Williams, and Wirth). We also have $500 each from Luna Vista Rotary, Davis Sunrise Rotary and Winters Rotary.

VIEW APPROVED DRAWINGS OF WASHROOM

TO BE BUILT IN PHASE TWO

Photos shown below show facilities similar to the ones to be built in Phase Two. They were built for another WASH Project in Nairobi.

2022 Woodland Rotary

Dinner Auction

Under the leadership of President-elect Shawn Seyk, we enjoyed a very successful 2022 Dinner Auction on Saturday, April 23 at the California Agricultural Museum raising funds for

Woodland Girls Fastpitch Softball. We had 226 paid guests attending.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

2022 Dinner Auction

SPONSORS

SILVER ($1,000)

SB Voelz Farming - Blair & Jan Voelz

Matchbook Wine Co - John& Lane Giguerre

Wilkinson International - Terry Wilkinson

Edward Jones - Jen Ward, Craig Miyamoto, Mike Russell, Brian Dwyer & Kevin Haarberg

Van Beurden Insurance Services - Aniek Pflager

Wraith, Scarlett & Randolph Insurance Services, Inc - Tabb Randolph

Yolo Federal Credit Union - Jenee Rawlings