Club Years 2001 – 2010

2011-2012, Renee Campbell

2011

Theme: Reach Within to Embrace Humanity

“Reach within to Embrace Humanity” was the Rotary International theme for the year and ours was “Tell Your Story; Tell Our Story.” It was the year of “Why?” We explored the idea that people identify with why we do what we do. We tried to put that into practice by sharing our Rotary stories and motivation; with each other, in attracting new members, and in doing our fundraising.

Our Program Committee brought a stellar year of speakers and music to us. Current local hot topics to international guests, they made weekly meetings something we looked forward to.

Club Service kept meetings running smoothly, brought fun fellowship events, and welcomed twenty new high caliber members. We revamped our Rotogram, brought new technology to our Tuesday emails, started a Facebook page, and explored website options. The Art Fair Elephant Ears booth remains one of our favorite fellowship events, and we had great participation in the Golf Tournament and Dictionary Distribution.

One of the highlights of the year was our Fall Social and Fundraiser for the Salem Rotary Foundation at Hallie Ford Museum, viewing Renaissance Drawings from the Italian Maggiori collection and enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres.

We had a record year for Tree of Joy giving, and raised $7,900 for the Salvation Army Kettle in December. Our White Elephant Auction raised almost $900, which was donated to our Salem Rotary Foundation. The annual Food Drive kicked off with a great event including other participating clubs, and raised $87,000 and 90,000 pounds of food.

Our major Good Works project provided start-up funds to launch H2°, a Habitat for Humanity vocational program that puts at-risk high school students to work on build sites learning construction and life skills. With our fundraising and a grant from our Foundation, we provided over $38,000 for transportation, incentives, promotion, and instruction. The effort culminated with a great Celebration at Willamette Valley Vineyards. The Good Works Committee also chose over $10,000 in small grant projects that were funded from the proceeds from the Salem Rotary Foundation.

New Generations continues to flourish with strong Youth Exchange and Short Term Exchange Programs. Tony Decker spent her year in Argentina, while Mariana Valdivia, from Peru, shared a delightful year with us.

Rotaract completed a vision session, led fall and spring service projects, and provided leadership in both the regional Baseball Night and the Golf Tournament. We had eighteen incredible students of the month and three Rotary Youth Leadership Award recipients.

On the International Service front, we exceeded our club goal of $20,000 for the Rotary Foundation. We received the International Change-maker Award and became a charter Peace Builder Club. We hosted a Friendship Exchange from India, and sent members to Israel.

Our World Community Service Committee pooled our $10,700 with funds from other clubs and District matching grants to leverage over $35,000 for nine projects in eight countries including wells and sanitation facilities in Haiti, pediatric heart surgeries in Bangalore India, books, ambulances, charcoal brick presses, and more.

This kind of service can only be accomplished by members who understand the value of their service and are committed to the motto of “Service above Self.”

Gold Star Report No 20

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2012-2013, John Shirley

2012

Theme: Peace Through Service

This year’s theme was Peace Through Service. Peace starts from within, grows, and radiates outward to the community and ultimately the world. Our weekly meetings provide a haven of peace in an often rancorous world, and our myriad of service projects improve lives in Salem and the world beyond. Multiply that by the thousands of Rotary clubs out there, and one starts to realize Rotary’s significance in bringing about peace around the world.

This was the second year for our Peace Builder committee, and through it our club helped to sponsor 2 pairs of students from Cyprus, representing both sides of the divided country, who came to the US to learn about each other and how to help bridge the conflicts that divide them. Our club also sponsored its first candidate for a Peace Fellow Scholarship.

Locally, we continued our long-standing programs of community service, including the Food Drive, Tree of Joy, Salvation Army Bell ringing, grants to local non-profit causes, and dictionaries for every 4th grader in the school district. We rolled up our sleeves and got dirty, building trails for the Adaptive Riding Institute. Our major GoodWorks project was a $28,000 grant to purchase medical equipment and fund comfort and safety upgrades for Liberty House.

Internationally, with the help of other Rotary clubs and matching funds from Rotary International, we completed our water well project in Haiti. We also completed our heart surgery project for children in India, and helped other clubs with their projects around the world.

Our international Youth Exchange program continues to flourish, helping to increase world understanding and build the foundations of future peace. This year we hosted two delightful exchange students — Ditte Larsen from Denmark and Mateus Bianchi from Brazil. Our club also hosted two friendship exchange groups of adult Rotarians, one from Israel and the other from Argentina.

To fund all of these efforts we raised a lot of money! Our contribution to The Rotary Foundation, the international arm of Rotary, was almost $32,000. We raised $87,000 (and 18,800 pounds of food) for the Food Drive, $8,925 for the Tree of Joy, and $5,600 for the Salvation Army. Our major GoodWorks fundraiser netted almost $52,000. And through a combination of a record year for Bellringers, a successful Fall Social, and personal donations, our own Salem Rotary Foundation surpassed the halfway mark on its way towards accumulating $1 million by the year 2020.

These numbers are all the more impressive considering that our club dropped to just 159 members at the beginning of the Rotary year. During the course of the year, however, we added 26 strong and vibrant new members, and lost only a few along the way to bring our total to 176 at year’s end.

Our communications grew stronger this year, with a weekly eBlast that is continually improving, and a brand new website that helps club members keep track of what’s going on and tells the world who we are and what we do.

The fellowship committee came up with new ways to get us together outside the confines of the weekly meetings, keeping us laughing and engaged with each other.

We continue to be a club that gets things done, in a way that is fun and inspiring. And because of what we do in our club, in our community, and around the world, we bring about Peace Through Service.

Gold Star Report No 21

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2013-2014, Thomas P. Golden

2013

Theme: Engage Rotary, Change Lives

The Rotary theme for 2013- 2014 was “Engage Rotary – Change Lives” and the Rotary Club of Salem did just that in big ways. We had members involved in the District level as the two Assistant District Governor’s for our area (Jim Booth and Renee Campbell), Youth Exchange positions, and the leadership for the District Conference in Salem (Linda Wooters and Ken Van Osdol). Many of our members also stepped up to make sure this was one of the most successful District Conferences ever. Moreover, to top it off at the District level, our club received an award for introducing more new members to Rotary than any other club in the entire District. That’s right, the entire District.

Our own projects in Salem, and internationally rounded out the year. Everything from blood drives, the dictionary project, Tree for Joy, fellowship events, having riders in the inaugural PoliPlus Bicycle ride put on by the Keizer Rotary Club, and celebrating the 25th Rotary Food Drive. Those are just some of the examples of what we did in the Salem area.

Internationally, we had inbound student Yusuke Nagaoka from Iyo, Japan, and outbound we had Alicia Munoz to India. We have been able to follow Alicia’s time thru a blog on our eBlast site. The International Service Committee was busy again working with various projects and were successful with clean water projects in Haiti. We provided funds for a Shelter Box, a truly amazing group of people, ready to go at a moment’s notice, to provide shelter for people in a crisis. Our Peace Builder Committee under the leadership of Val Keever brought us the Cypress Friendship Program. This is a program where Rotary is building peace one student and one family at a time. Very exciting.

In the fall, the Good Works Committee, under the leadership of Bruce Anderson, selected the Center of Hope & Safety as the recipient of our fundraiser. Committee members also felt that another project was worthy, this one a hands on project. The idea was no fundraising, but a time to share with each other as we become engaged to make change. St. Francis Shelter has an opportunity for us to do just that and Christian Bryant and Don Lulay are working to get this accomplished.

Our Good Works Fundraising and Celebration, under Lauren Jones, took on the task of accomplishing our goal for the fundraiser. In good old Rotary fashion, with the assistance of our charitable heart of our club, Salem Rotary Foundation, and the collaboration of the Center of Hope & Safety, we were able to help secure $ 60,000.00 for the Center of Hope & Safety and $ 40,000.00 for our own charitable works.

We missed the Elephant Ear booth at the Salem Art Fair this year. It all started in 1988 as a hot dog booth. Elephant ears arrived in 1989 and we had to borrow an electric French fryer from a Vancouver Rotary Club to start the journey. It was a good run as fundraiser and then as a fellowship event. However, with all good things, there is a time for change.

You as the Rotary Club of Salem certainly got things done. As one of our speakers said, dream big and never give in. We had big dreams and it is not just the end of a Rotary year, but the beginning of stories of how lives were changed as we, you, engaged Rotary.

Gold Star Report No 22

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2014-2015, Barry Nelson

Barrigan W. Nelson
Theme: Light Up Rotary

The Rotary International theme this year was “Light Up Rotary,” a phase coming from the thought that is it better to light one candle than to sit and curse the darkness. Our club shone a light in our community again this year, brightening the way for many, and shining a light on Rotary in the process.

We continued our long tradition of blood drives, support for our annual city-wide Food Drive, and our holiday giving to the Tree of Joy. Our Salvation Army Kettle drives were as strong as ever.

We sent another two participants to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), allowing them to gain confidence in their leadership skills and become the leaders of tomorrow. We recognized truly outstanding students from North Salem and South Salem High Schools, and distributed more than 4,000 dictionaries to area 4th graders. Our Literacy Committee went well beyond dictionaries to distribute thousands of children’s books by various means. In youth exchange, we sent Ally Peterson to Mexico, hosted Andres Klingler from Argentina, and shared the hosting of Claire Devousin from France with the Creekside club.

Our weekly e-newsletter kept members and friends up to date, and a major project over the course of the year was updating our website, www.RotaryClubOfSalem.com to bring updated branding and a sleeker look and interface. We’ve begun to explore a collaboration with CCTV to televise some of our fabulous programs, which continue to be a weekly highlight of membership.

The fundraiser raised just short of $59,000, $23,000 of which was dedicated to our major Good Works project, HOME Youth and Resource Center’s Youth Empowerment Program (YEP). This program is for homeless and disadvantaged teens who make a commitment to continue their education and make positive contributions to the community. By supporting youth in this program, we sent a powerful message that there are people who care about them and their future.

In addition to our major Good Works project, we also provided $10,000 in small grants to area nonprofits. The remainder of the funds were distributed among our club’s committees for our broader charitable causes.

Having had a good year financially, we began to think about the year 2020, when our club will be celebrating its 100th year. In hopes that we will undertake a larger than normal community project in recognition of our centennial, we earmarked $15,000 as seed funding for such a project.

As a club, we get things done. We are forever changing lives.

Gold Star Report No 23

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2015-2016, Mary Way

Mary med low resDSC_5305
Theme: Be a Gift to the World

Rotary International’s President, Ravi Ravindran, set the theme “Be a Gift to the World” for this Rotary year. Our Club had a great year making meaningful contributions in our local community and in the world.

Our Food Drive, holiday giving to the Tree of Joy and the Salvation Army, and blood drives were as strong as ever. Again this year we sent two aspiring young leaders to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp. We lined up host families to welcome pairs of teenagers from the divided nation of Cyprus. We sponsored a Rotaract Club, and maintained ties with an Interact Club at South Salem High School. We welcomed exchange student Nishka Ajmera from India, and followed the progress of Emani Price in Slovakia.  Leah Borden was our short term student in Japan during June.

The Salem Area Trail Alliance (SATA) was selected as our major Good Works project. With the $30,000 awarded, they proposed to build a pump track for bicycles in Geer Park within city limits.  We loved the idea of kids being able to get outdoors and play in their own neighborhood, testing their skills on a hilly bike track. Near the end of the year, we had a ceremonial presentation of the big check to SATA that was enthusiastically attended and featured on our Facebook page and website.

The Board of Salem Rotary Foundation made available $28,000 for the Club’s charitable projects around Salem. The Good Works Committee, led by Bruce Anderson, awarded $12,000 to nine worthy recipients for small grants and scholarships. These projects included an industrial-grade kitchen appliance at a homeless shelter; scholarships for would-be soccer athletes; and prescription medicine for low income patients. We continued to fund the Duval scholarship for a student at Chemeketa Community College.

As the year closed, the Board dedicated a second $15,000 seed funding for a major project in celebration of our Club’s 100th year in 2020.

Gold Star Report No 24

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2016-2017, Steve Ickes

Theme: Rotary Serving Humanity

The Rotary Club of Salem had another stellar year.  Funds were raised to support our projects and committee activities. Our major Good Works recipient was St. Francis Shelter. Funds were used to build a new playground. St. Francis Shelter provides temporary housing for families with children with the purpose of moving them from crisis of homelessness into stable, safe and long term housing. The playground replaces an old, inadequate plastic play structure. Children now have a new, safe place to play outside. Funds raised also supported the work of several club committees and expenses related to our exchange student.

Planning for our 100th anniversary began in earnest. The board approved and the club supported the idea of building an amphitheater in Salem’s Riverfront Park. The planning committee was formed and strategies developed for the advance work necessary to assess the level of support within the community. The goal is to have it built and dedicated in the spring of 2020.
Planning continued for our inaugural Triathlon. We agreed to co-sponsor the event with the South Salem Rotary Club. We hired the help of a sports sponsoring business to lay the initial groundwork for the October 1, 2017 event.

We inducted new members, and saw the lowest attrition in five years. Members distributed dictionaries, donated gifts for the tree of giving, rang the bell for the Salvation Army and raised funds for Marion Polk Food Share.

Gold Star Report No 24

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2017-2018, Bruce Anderson

Bruce E. Anderson Image result for rotary making a difference
Theme: Rotary: Making a Difference

Our theme this year was “Rotary: Making a Difference.” And indeed we did . . . starting with RI President Ian Riseley’s challenge to plant one tree for each Rotarian – around 1.2 million. Well, Rotarians blew right past that!
For our Club, Jayne Downing organized our tree planting and distributed about 200 smaller trees for club members to plant!

There were huge happenings and honors for our Club this past year:
Host Club for District Governor. Renee Campbell served with great distinction and terrific leadership being an encouragement to all. And a huge shout-out to her husband, Ron!

Hosting the District 5100 Conference. Thanks to Governor Renee and Co-Chairs Mary Way and Tammy Dennee, we had a stellar, engaging program with tremendous speakers. And an army of Rotarian volunteers did an amazing job!

Launching our Centennial Project: Gerry Frank | Rotary Amphitheater. Over the next three years, we’ll focus a large part of our Good Works fundraising towards this project to build a cover and stage at Riverfront Park as we turn 100 in 2020. Thanks to Barry Nelson and Ken Van Osdol for leading the charge on this major effort!

Rotary Triathlon. Led by Past President John Shirley and others, we launched this new event with a Duathlon (biking, running) and other shorter runs. This laid the groundwork for a tremendous annual fitness-oriented Rotary event – “Rotary Multi-Sport RiverFest.”

Good Works Auction. Led by Tammy Dennee, Jenn Columbus, and Chane Griggs, we realized great success raising over $110,000! A great team effort with terrific volunteers on this key club event!

The Salem Rotary Foundation continues to be an amazing partner with tremendous support for our Club’s key projects. We distributed $10,000 in Small Grants to nine local non-profits to address needs for children, provide basic supplies to help people exit homelessness, and help persons with mental health challenges. Under exceptional financial stewardship and generous financial contributions, SRF has nearly reached their goal of a $1 million fund!

Our Club showed “Making a Difference” in many ways: Blood Drives, Dictionary Project, Tree of Joy, Salvation Army bellringing, Food Drive, Hands-On projects, exceptional Vocational tours, and fantastic (and delicious) Fellowships. We maintained efforts on Peace: monthly Peace Moments, installation of Peace Poles, and the Cyprus Friendship Exchange bringing Cypriot youths to Salem to help build peace.

We hosted a delightful Inbound Exchange Student, Chio Lopez, from Chile who attended South Salem High. We co-sponsored Outbound Student Salma Galvin, McMinnville, to Belgium. We were also blessed to have outstanding Students of the Month. Thanks to Ryan Collier, North Principal Sara LeRoy, and South Principal Lara Tiffin.

We also had three stellar meetings that spotlighted our school district’s awesome music program! Thanks, Karl Raschkes, for pulling those together!

What an amazing Rotary year seeing Salem Rotarians stepping up to get things done. And with the fun, fellowship, fundraising, and friend raising we experienced this year, we truly saw “Rotary: Making a Difference.”

Gold Star Report No 25

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2018-2019, Rus McCracken

 
Theme: Be the Inspiration

One of the greater attributes of the Rotary Club of Salem, is that of a self-directed, motivated, and caring group working together as friends to make a positive impact in and beyond our community. The outcome of that effort fits the Rotary International theme for 2018—2019 “Be the Inspiration”. Inspiring others through the actions of our club in turn inspires Rotarians to do more, and that was certainly the case for the Rotary Club of Salem in 2018-2019.

Actions, focused on the 2018-2019 club theme of Friendship and Impact, were truly inspiring. Our 18 Hands On projects contributed over 500 hours of volunteer work by our members. Our annual small grants program once again disbursed $10,000. Our literacy committee disbursed $3,800 in literacy grants. The club participated in purchasing and distributing over 4,000 dictionaries to all 4th graders in the Salem-Keizer area. We donated children’s books to those in need within our community. Our membership purchased Christmas gifts for distribution to the
State Hospital and through the Tree of Lights program. We continued our long-standing blood donation program. Club members participated in the Salvation Army bell ringing, something this club has done for over 90 years.

These were just a few inspiring activities, there were more. Our club continues to be an inspiration in our support of youth, both locally and internationally. The ongoing involvement in the exchange student program sent Brenda Hernandez to Japan and brought Stefan Hosio from Finland. Three music programs were hosted with participation from Battle Creek Elementary, South Salem High School and Sprague High School. Our sponsorship of Salem North and South High Schools included Students of the Month and a May program run entirely by the schools teaming together. The club sponsors an Interact club at South Salem High that was quite active this year. We sponsored three young adults to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards [RYLA].

Larger, more complex projects were also taken on by the motivated and skilled membership of our club. The annual Multi-Sport Riverfest cosponsored with South Salem Rotary continues to grow. The club rewrote and ratified a new Constitution, Bylaws and Procedures document. A long-range Visioning Session was held, and the foundation laid for more effective club strategic planning. And the work continued on the club’s 100th anniversary legacy gift to our community: The Gerry Frank | Salem Rotary Amphitheater in Salem’s Riverfront Park. Many key milestones were achieved with this multimillion-dollar project including final site selection, ratification into Salem’s Master Park Plan, general contractor selection, design refinement, and significant fundraising results.

As mentioned, the club had a 2018-2019 theme of Friendship and Impact. The above demonstrates significant impact. Building strong friendships is just as important and the club initiated many efforts to ease the challenges that come from a club of our size, for opportunities to get to know each other. The new member orientation plan was revamped. The traditional plan of transitioning from a new member red badge to blue badge was redesigned. Offering more opportunities for interaction at informal functions was emphasized, with more Hands-On Projects, Vocational Tours, and Social Drop Ins.

Befitting the definition of Rotary by Joseph Kovarik of Cottage Grove, MN, the Rotary Club of Salem is a club that Improves People’s Lives Locally and Globally Through Service to which we added Building Friendships along the Way.

Gold Star Report No 25

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2019-2020, Tammy Dennee

 
Theme: Rotary Connects the World

As I reflect on my year as Club President I am filled with a great degree of pride and appreciation for every club member who stepped forward to offer support with their time, talent and treasures.  The year was a spectacular success with fundraising, increased membership and meaningful programs.

When I began my term of service, we had not one inkling that we would begin in a robust fashion, host a record-breaking Good Works Fundraising event and welcome so many new members when the pandemic brought our personal interactions to a halt.  The leadership pivoted, the Club members rallied and we transitioned within three weeks to an on-line format.  The virtual interactions felt very strange at first, but as the final three months of my term continued, we adjusted and leaned in to the opportunity to use technology to our advantage.  We intentionally reached out to club members to ensure they stayed connected.

I am proud to have served as our Club’s President and am in awe of the generosity of our Club members.  The Rotary Club of Salem is filled with amazing community leaders whom I cherish as dear friends.  It was an honor to serve!

Gold Star Report No 28

 

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2020-2021, Sue Bloom

 
Theme: Rotary Opens Opportunities

I am grateful for:

Our Board of Directors and Committees. They are creative. We are a club that gets things done-and we did!

We have 9 new members in this Rotary year-joining during COVID.

Community service projects, students of the month, amazing programs every week, firesides-via zoom of course, international service grants, and our small grants. Much of our work looked different, but we continue to make things happen for our community. Congratulations to you all!

Our big fundraising event and large grant funding. Stay tuned for updates.

Chane Griggs for jumping in mid-year as PE, and David Deckelmann as PEN.

Our board flexing so many zoom meetings!

Salem Rotary Foundation continuing their important work alongside the Club.

Barry, Ken & the Amphitheater task force! This will be a spectacular facility for our community and a true honor to Gerry Frank, who means so much to many of us.

Jessica and Pam who ensured I had my act together every week.

One of my biggest hesitations of being President was that I’d have to miss our meetings once month. Every past president I spoke to while I was considering this position told me-we’re here to make you successful-and they did just that! To all the past presidents who helped me by chairing a meeting in my once-a-month absence-Rus, Tom, Dawn, Tammy, John, Bruce, Ron, Ellen, Larry and his grandson.

Professionally, this has been the most enriching, challenging, growth-filled year. I couldn’t even fathom what I was in for. With COVID flipping my organization’s business model upside down into how we could safely serve youth as well as how we generate revenue to provide those vital services, to advocating on behalf of other Oregon Boys and Girls Clubs at the capital, to launching our Epping Homestead campaign and build, some days I don’t know which way is up.

I’m grateful for all of you for the grace you’ve given me over this last year. Board meeting nights I was frequently coming ‘in hot’ from another meeting and regularly had tech issues. Folks would freeze on my screen so I didn’t know who had their hands raised to speak. Chane quickly became my ZOOM eyes.

On an especially challenging workday I forgot the pledge of Allegiance halfway thru-and a little voice (think Marilyn) gave me the gift of ‘and to the republic…’

When I watched the recording of Dawn’s meeting when she said ‘now I know why Sue is always looking down during the meeting-she’s tracking in chat!’

So, it’s been a privilege and honor to serve you all-thank you!

Gold Star Report No 29

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2021-2022, Chane Griggs

 
Theme: Serve to Change Lives

Wow – What a year!

I think every president probably says this for different reasons. For me, it was a chance to see that our club is remarkable in their ability to continue to operate so well, to generate engagement and to make an impact in our community.
Following Past Presidents Tammy and Sue’s COVID years, this year has been another one of transition because of COVID. The board decided to meet, for the foreseeable future, here at the Willamette Heritage Center.

We decided to have a hybrid format to ensure we can engage and retain our members and possibly recruit new members more attracted to a club that is flexible in their meeting format. Raymond has aptly enabled our club to utilize Zoom and I always look forward to seeing him when I arrive at our meetings.

In the declining months of COVID – our GoodWorks event saw a smaller number of physically present attendees, but we continued to benefit from the support of members who could not be with us. And we were thrilled to have Bill Meier attend!!

Well, with all that support we met our goal of $100K thanks to Cyndi Leinnassar and her fabulous committee. As a result, the club was able to award $60K to our GoodWorks recipient – the Gilbert House Childrens Museum. Congratulations, Alicia Bays.

Of course, our small grants and literacy grants were awarded. Thank you Jenn Columbus and Adam Kohler for your leadership.

Our club continues its amazing international work with so much of that credit given to Howard Baumann and Marilyn Schuster.

And we don’t just raise and grant money. Our hands-on work has resumed and led by Adam and Justin Tyler. I look forward to seeing what projects are in the works.

Oh, and there was that project down at Riverfront Park. The one that was the result of five years of planning, fundraising and construction. The Gerry Frank Salem Rotary Amphitheater is a remarkable iconic piece of Salem’s downtown, and we have Barry and Ken to thank for that work.

As you can see, our Club is the club that gets things done.

We have two remarkable board members who will be terming out this year. Kelly White, Club operations, has always appreciated a good pair of Rotary socks. And Robbin Kerner who was a superstar in agreeing to stay on an additional year as Membership Director.
But we are excited to have Tricia Frizzel – aka goat breeder – and Lauren Gutierrez stepping onto the Board.
In conclusion, I want to share a personal story. On the day following a very disappointing election night, the best thing that could have happened – other than winning – was to come to Rotary the next day and be surrounded by an always accepting and caring group of friends.

For me, Rotary has been, and will continue to be, a time in my week to appreciate you all – and of course to resume my noon knitting.

I want to thank my husband for all of his unwavering support. If ever a person had a true north – I have that with Jim.

I’m handing the podium over to a man who needs no coffee. David is going to be a wonderful president and I count myself fortunate to have built a great relationship with my friend David over this past year.

Gold Star Report No 30

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