Meeting Minutes
May 13, 2021
President Alex Robertson brought our evening Zoom meeting to order at 5:00 pm and led us in reciting the 4 Way Test.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Dick Norfolk who told us that the words to the Star-Spangled Banner were written by Francis Scott Key while observing the bombardment of Ft. McHenry in September 1814 during the Battle of Baltimore.
Mike Stelman inspired us with the words of a diverse group of men and women from Eugene, OR. They relate to providing comfort to others, overcoming our differences, and coming together to solve our problems.
John O’Neill welcomed our many student guests and Joel Doss sang them our welcome song. They thought it was the best welcome song they had heard probably ever.
Membership Chair and President-nominee Alan Turner encouraged us to look for new members and told student attendees that they could join Rotaract at their respective colleges.
Reporting on the Family of Rotary, Arilla St. Laurent welcomed back Jim Sommer, who said he is glad to be home. His mobility is improving, and he has a great attitude about his recovery. He appreciated the cards and phone calls.
Arilla then put on her Deputy Finemaster hat and showed a picture of 3 Rotarian couples in the paper:
They were hard to see on Zoom, but here is the original picture superimposed. They are (L-R) Gary Saks, Patty and Mike Fuqua, Didi Saks and Barb and Charley Crew. Arilla also showed a picture of Judy Lutticken’s son Bob, an Abraxas High School teacher who is a finalist in the “Live with Kelly and Ryan” 2021 Top Teacher Search competition. He won $7000 for his school.
John O’Neill collected Happy Bucks from several folks; see the list in Treasurer Pat Chaffee’s summary email. One of those donations was from Resa Coopat to recognize a video released by the Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation. Both Mike Stelman and your scribe are in it; see it here: Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation Video
President Alex thanked today’s volunteers: Zoom setup by Mike Fuqua, newsletter posting by Bill Angus and these words by your scribe, Dave Brooks.
Mike Fuqua described a program to provide help to India, which is suffering greatly now due to Covid-19. The program is described in detail on the club’s website here: https://rbrotary.org/Stories/rancho-bernardo-rotary-club-answers-call-for-help-from-indian-group and the GoFundMe site Mike established for donations is here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/covid19-support-kits-for-india?member=10519589&utm
Alex then turned the meeting over to Gary Saks who welcomed everyone to our Annual Scholarship Award program. He said that the club has approved a record $14,500 in scholarships this year to 11 students from RB and Del Norte High Schools. There are 2 types of scholarships, one based on academic merit and one for special education students. Gary is the co-chair of the Scholarship committee and the other members are co-chair Terry Heck, Maguy Feghali, Cathy Glover and Dick Norfolk.
Each student was introduced and spoke about their college and career plans. Terry started the introductions with two recipients from RB High School:
Amy Kavi
Dick Norfolk then introduced two recipients from Del Norte High School:
Jacob Todd Linsday Wright
Cathy Glover introduced another recipient from RB High School:
Andrew Schmitz
Jose Torres and Mason Tsang of Del Norte High School were not able to attend.
Maguy then introduced our Special Education Scholarship recipients. There are 3 from Rancho Bernardo High School:
Jonah Jung Rosalia Myers
Gavin Strate
And one from Del Norte High School:
Adam Talampas
Gary then reminded us of one element of the Rotary Code of Conduct:
“Use my professional skills through Rotary to mentor young people, help those with special needs, and improve people’s quality of life in my community and in the world.”
Gary said those are good words to live by and we are doing that with our Scholarship Program.
Gary thanked the counselors for their help in making the scholarship process happen. The counselor at Del Norte HS is Kathy Marron and at RBHS it is Matt Hunt. He also thanked the case managers for their help in selecting the Special Needs students. They are Christine Mikolosko from Del Norte HS and Diana Garcia from RBHS.
Kathy Marron
Matt Hunt
Gary then hosted a Q&A session between the members and students.
Co-chair Terry concluded the event by thanking the PUSD counselors and case managers for their good work, and also the club for its financial and spiritual support. He said it was a pleasure to meet all the students and that based on what he saw and heard, our future is very bright.
President Alex adjourned the meeting at 6:30 pm.
Note: more information is available on each student in the email sent to all club members by Gary Saks via ClubRunner on May 11, 2021.