On October 24th, students to Arcata came from all over Humboldt County - as far south as Rio Dell, as far east as Hoopa and Casterlin, and as far north as McKinleyville - to compete in the 4th Annual RCAS Cross-Country Championships. Medals were awarded to the top three boys and the top three girls in each grade. Thanks to all who helped, and a special thanks to Rebecca Crow who once again organized the event.
On Saturday, November 9th, you have the opportunity to support the Rotary Foundation by attending the Foundation Dinner. It will be held at the River Lodge, and you can still sign up at the District 5130 website. If you aren't able to attend, you can still help out by purchasing raffle tickets. 100% of the price of each raffle ticket is credited to your Paul Harris account, and you could win a raffle prize as well! Contact Terri Clark for more details.
On Monday, November 11th, the Rotary Clubs of Eureka and Southwest Eureka will hold a joint meeting at the Adorni Center in honor of Veterans Day. Participants in the Honor Flight group that visited Washington, DC during the recent government shutdown will in attendance.
Later that week ... on Saturday, November 16th, the Garberville Rotary will celebrate 75 years of service to Southern Humboldt. The event will take place at the Scotia Inn. For more information, please see President Jessica or contact a Garberville Rotarian.
We received a thank you note from the members of the Mad River United Youth Soccer League for our recent contribution.
Don't forget about A Taste of the Holidays, which is now only about three weeks off. Right now, the focus should be on selling tickets, but don't forget to lock in your raffle prizes and sign up to work at the event.
Jessica Ayala-Pimentel and Rachel Damme of the North Bay Rotaract Club visited our Club last Friday, along with Lost Coast Rotaract member Ashleigh Diehl. Jessica said that her Club is close to completing all the requirements for chartering. They've written their bylaws and constitution, but their main need is for additional members. They meet the first and third Wednesdays of each month, currently at the office of Jackson and Eklund in McKinleyville. If you know someone between the ages of 18 and 30 who would like to make a difference in our community, please encourage them to visit the Club to find out more.
Cindy Sutcliffe just can't seem to stay retired. She told us last Friday that she is once again back at her old job with Humboldt County Child and Family Services. She is filling in while the woman who replaced her is on maternity leave.
SWOT OPERATION #003: Clubhouse Edition
Last Friday, Barbara Browning provided a recap of our Club's makeover of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Redwoods clubhouse. The work took place over five days - from Friday, October 11th through the big "reveal" on Tuesday, October 15th.
Barbara said that she and her fellow planners thought that the project would cost about $40,000, but they only had a $2,000 budget. Thanks to the efforts of 29 Sunrisers, over 40 local businesses, and an additional 50 or so volunteers, the makeover was a success - and they only spent $1,961! Another $2,125 has been donated since the reveal, and that money will go to fix a few remaining issues.Ours was not the only Rotary Club involved in the project - Old Town Eureka Rotary pitched in, as did the Arcata (Noon) Rotary and the Eureka Rotary. The Southwest Eureka Rotary helped, and they agreed to adopt the Boys & Girls Club to provide ongoing support. Hillarie Beyer, whose McKinleyville Family Resource Center was the target of our Club's first SWOT Operation, lent a hand and offered to mentor Clubhouse Director Monica Rose.
Barbara said that, in undertaking this latest SWOT Operation, "I think we changed a lot of lives." For more information about the makeover from the recipient's point of view, visit the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Redwoods website.
Foundation Final Friday Auction
The last Friday of most months, our Club dedicates its meeting to the work of the Rotary Foundation. Since we won't be meeting on the last Fridays of November or December, our last meeting was the Final Final Friday of 2013. Fortunately, the Sunrisers were up to the challenge. Here are the results of our Foundation Final Friday Auction:
- George Cavinta donated a feast in a basket, including salmon that had been vacuum-sealed that morning at 5:30 and a bottle of wine. Rebecca Crow was the high bidder.
- Mark Burtchett offered a bottle of wine that he and his wife Cammy purchased at a winery. Fearing spousal retribution Mark purchased his own auction item. We don't know yet whether he put it back before Cammy noticed.
- Something came from Beaver Creek, and it was either the gin or the designer tonic water. Either way, Matt Babich provided a highfalutin' combo that hailed from Great Britain. Cindy Sutcliffe knows, 'cause she won the package!
- Terri Clark brought a basket filled with bath and beauty goodies, which soon became the property of Kathy Fraser.
- Mary Crow has earned one Paul Harris Fellowship, and she is now working on her second. To that end, she donated some hand-crafted jewelry to the auction. You may see some of these accessories adorning winning bidder Janice Newman.
- It was a "Craft Party in a Basket" that Tami Camper offered. It contained beauty and crafting items galore, and Rebecca Crow was the winner.
- Brandi Easter has won prizes for her home-canned goods, and she donated several such items, including albacore and some jelly, which she described as "mostly pomegranite". The purchaser was Susan Jansson.
- Rebecca Crow noted that we don't hold Final Friday Auctions during the holiday months, so she offered holiday-time "subscriptions" of cookies to be delivered in November and December to two lucky bidders. The lucky ones were Dawn Elsbree and Amy Bohner.
- Scott Heller said that the bottles of wine he donated were nine years old ... plus one month? They were slated to be auctioned off at our last Final Friday, but the Cabernet Sauvignon survived an additional 30 days. I don't know whether the additional aging had an effect on Tami Camper's winning bid.
- Our last item was a 49ers Fan Package donated by Tomas Chavez. It included sportswear and memorabilia galore. Terri Clark snapped that right up.
