Woodland Rotary - The Rotary Club of Woodland Website

On a hot day, President Shawn Seyk presided over a smaller than usual crowd at today's meeting. Apparently many folks are away on vacation, or trying to find cooler temperatures. President Shawn reminded us the Yolo County Fair is slated for this week, for the first time in three years. He also announced the three Woodland Rotary Clubs have agreed to hold a join social 'Oktoberfest' event at Blue Note Brewery in Woodland from 5pm-8pm on Wednesday, September 21.

Jim McGibbon 'rang the bell' for his 82nd birthday on June 24, for lots of family visits and wife Susie baking many goodies over the past several weeks, and for progressing well after successful surgery in late June to replace a heart valve. Nick Roncorini enjoyed family time on the Santa Cruz coast recently, but is enduring the heat of the Valley as he had to return home. Clyde Brooker was in charge of today's Recognition with questions about what you did on your 21st birthday, or after your high school graduation.

Mike Russell turned a ripe 38 years old on August 5th (Ellington MO). Mark Ullrich reported he and Tony Delevati and their wives enjoyed a nice stay and good golf at the vacation home of Tabb and Nancy Randolph in Truckee over the weekend, a package they purchased from our Dinner Auction. Eric Sharp just returned from a sucessful fishing trip in British Columbia.

Mary Kimble, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Land-Based Learning, along with Sridharan 'Sri' Sethurathnam, Ph.D., Director of the California Farm Academy at the Center, were our guest speakers today giving us a look at the efforts by the Center for Land-Based Learning to support the local farming community and their Mobile Farmers Market program.

Eric Zane, Fire Chief, City of Woodland, was installed as a new member of the Club on April 26, 2022 by President Dan Stroski and Membership Chair David Pinto. At our request, Eric provided us the following bio. If you haven't already done so, take a moment to introduce yourself to Eric when you meet and welcome him to the Club.

Eric is the 5th generation Woodlander, graduating from Woodland High School in 1997. Soon after graduation, Eric attended the Butte College Fire Academy and began his fire service career with Cal-Fire in Butte County. While working as a firefighter, Eric obtained his Associates Degree in Fire Science and transferred to CSU-Chico where he graduated with a Bachelors in Public Administration. Upon graduation, Eric was hired by the City of Folsom Fire Department, as a firefighter.

In 2005, Eric saw an opportunity to work for the Woodland Fire Department, was hired by, then Fire Chief Carl Diekman (Rotarian). Eric served in the rank of Firefighter, Engineer, Captain, and Battalion Chief before his appointment to Fire Chief in 2020. Eric is proud of that fact that he is the first home-grown fire chief the City has had in over 100 years.

Eric and his wife Jennifer have two boys, Carter, and Trevor. When not working or attending the boys sporting events, Eric and his family enjoy fly fishing.

Youth, or New Generations, is one of Rotary's areas of focus. Camp Royal is an annual leadership development program by District 5160 where individual clubs sponsor ($950 per camper) 130 high school juniors to attend a 6 day, 5 night summer camp just prior to starting their senior year. This year the District 5160 Camp Royal took place in late July at Grizzly Creek Ranch Camp outside of Portola CA. The camp program is run by Lain Hensley and Odyssey Teams. Unable to find a local student, our Club sponsored Andrew King, a student at Durham High School in Durham CA to attend. Andrew attended a recent Club meeting to thank the Club and to give us a report on what he did and learned at camp. Our own Gary Wegener is a member of the District's Camp Royal Committee.

Gary Wegener introduced Andrew King, a senior at Durham High School in Durham CA who was sponsored by our Club to attend the 2022 Camp Royal near Portola last month. Andrew gave a brief presentation on what he did and learned at the Camp.

Visiting Rotarian Carol Furtado (Goleta CA) joined us today. Program Chair Lori Ross is looking for more club members to volunteer as speakers for future meetings. Please contact Lori if you can help. Dan Stroski is looking for 5 volunteers to help with the next Document Shredding event with the Yolo County DA's office from 9am-1pm on Wed, Sep 28 at the Woodland Senior Center on East Street. Contant Dan if you can help. Dick Hoppin was happy to announce the recent birth of his latest great granddaughter 'Navy', which brings the total number of members in his immediate family to 23. Congratulations Dick & Muffy!

Clyde Brooker, originally from Southern California, was sad at the passing of long-time LA Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Jim Nolan was in charge of Recognition today, asking questions about the Yolo County Fair. Yvette Roy is looking for a couple of volunteers to join the Club's Membership Committee. Yvette is also interested in signing up Rotary members, families and friends to attend a Rotary Bus Trip on Sunday, Oct 2 to attend the SF Giants-Arizona Diamondbacks 1:05pm game at Oracle Park. Contact Yvette ASAP to reserve your spots. Details are still being determined, but we need a headcount quickly. Eric Sharp was happy his granddaughter was recently name the starting midfielder for the Multnomah University soccer team.

Woodland Police Officers Omar Flores and Stephanie Wilson were our guest speakers today, giving us a program on their roles as School Resource Officers in local schools, as well as about the Police Activities League (PAL). Thank you to Derrek Kaff for arranging for and introducing these fine officers to join us today.

We are delighted to announce Rotary Club of Woodland member Dena Lawrence gave birth to Micah Aisling Lawrence (8lbs, 3oz; 20") at 8:54am Tuesday, July 19, 2022. Mother & daughter are doing well. Dena says Aisling is pronounced 'Ashling' and is Irish meaning vision or dream.

After considering other options, President Shawn Seyk and Secretary Aniek Pflager report the Club will hold its next Senior BBQ in May 2023 at Rotary Park.

We are sad to learn of the passing of Marc Faye on June 15, 2022. Marc, a Paul Harris Fellow, was a member of the Club for over 63 years, maintaining 100% attendance, and served as the Club's President in 1976-77. Our thoughts are with Gerda Faye and the family.

Mark Pemberton, S.E. and Principal Engineer/CEO of Pemberton Engineering Inc. of Woodland was installed as a new member of the Club on June 14, 2022 by President Dan Stroski and sponsor Steve Venables. At our request, Mark provided us the following bio. If you haven't already done so, take a moment to introduce yourself to Mark when you meet and welcome him to the Club.

Mark Pemberton was born in Monterey, California in 1969. Mark graduated high school in Ojai, California in 1987. During his years in high school he enjoyed creating artwork of all types including painting, drawing, and sculpting. Mark has always excelled in mathematics which drew him towards his engineering studies at California State University at Chico, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Mark received his Professional Engineering license in 1998 while working at a small engineering firm (Mike Smith Engineering) in Lodi. He subsequently received his Structural Engineering title in 2003 while working at a much larger firm (Lionakus Beaumont) in Sacramento.

Mark started his own engineering firm in Davis as a sole proprietorship in 2003 providing engineering services for commercial and residential projects throughout the Sacramento Valley. His company, Pemberton Engineering, was incorporated in 2020.

Mark enjoys building things at his home in Wild Wings, snowboarding, listening to punk rock music, and watching science related documentaries about the universe. He also enjoys spending time in Kauai each year where he hopes to someday retire. Mark met his wife Jessica shortly before graduating college and fell in love immediately. They were engaged within two weeks and have been happily married now for 28 years. Mark and Jessica have four sons: Tim, Basil, Darrel, and Dan.

Mark and Jessica purchased a building in Woodland that was originally built in 1893 as a pair of small homes, which were joined and repurposed as a commercial building in 1973. This building has since been extensively remodeled and is now the new home of Pemberton Engineering. Mark Pemberton enjoys being close to downtown Woodland and looks forward to helping its people and improving the community.

Shawn Seyk reports the Woodland Rotary Endowment Scholarships for 2022 have been awarded to co-valedictorians Paulina Garcia and Guadalupe Cordova of Woodland High School who ended with identical grade point averages. The Endowment Board elected to honor each student with a full scholarship. We know Paulina plans to attend UC Berkeley in the Fall.

The scholarship at Pioneer High School went to valedictorian Oscar Cooper Stern. We understand Oscar plans to attend UCLA in the Fall.

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

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

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.

As of February 24, 2022, Blair reports 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) have donated $10,850 toward the Phase Two project. We also have $500 from Luna Vista Rotary, and verbal commitments of $500 each from the Davis Sunrise and Winters Rotary clubs.

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.