 |
| "We bad ...uh-huh ..." |
Sylvie Neander is our Outbound Exchange Student for the 2014-2015 year. She is selling coffee to help bank some funds for excursions while she is in Belgium. She is already in contact with two of her host families. If I heard correctly (never a sure thing), her first host family was originally from Rwanda. I'm more certain that I heard her say that she leaves for Europe at the beginning of August.
Calendar Items and Announcements
President Jessica asked us to remember the families and friends of those who were lost in the recent accident involving a busload of prospective HSU students.
April 24 Mentorship/Membership Mixer at the Plaza Grill. All Sunrisers are welcome, and newer members are especially encouraged to attend.
April 26 The Fieldbrook Fire Department is holding an Open House from 11 to 3 to show off their new building.
May 5-8 Fireside Meetings take the place of our regular Friday meeting this week. Be sure to take the opportunity to let President-Elect Barbara know your ideas for the coming year.
May 16-18 Celebrate President Jessica's Presidential Year at the District Conference. It will take place at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park. The theme for the Conference is "Rolling On The River".
June 1 We host young baseball players from throughout Humboldt County at "Kids, Crabs, & Rotary". We will need setup specialists, barbecuers, hot doggers, and watermelon sectioners. It's great fun, and you can run the bases with the kids if you want!
Board Reports
President Jessica shared the highlights of the April meetings of the Boards of Directors for the Club and for our Community Foundation.
Club Board:
- Attendance was 71.7% for February, and 70.0% in March.
- Brenda Bishop requested an extension of her leave of absence through May 1st, and Brandi Easter asked for a leave following her mother's passing.
- President Jessica will reach out to those with poor attendance to see whether we can help them back into the fold.
- The District has asked our Club to vote on a proposed change in the process for selecting our District Governors. The Board supports the current system, where the five most recent DGs nominate the DG Designate.
- There was an overage for expenses for this year's PETS, and the Board voted to re-purpose $100 that was originally designated for attending the International Convention.
- Although there is still some income that remains to be collected, the Spring Fundraiser outperformed budgeted revenue by approximately $4,500! President Jessica formally acknowledged the work of Dan Johnson, Ceva Courtemanche, and the rest of the Spring Fundraiser Committee for doing a fantastic job!
- The Board has named Barbara Browning, Howard Stauffer, Susan Jansson, and several others to a committee that will plan the future of the Spring Fundraiser. With the Arcata Volunteer Fire Department stepping away from the event, we have an opportunity to reshape the event.
- A savings instrument for housing our surplus funds is still being discussed.
Tomas Chavez handled the recognitions last Friday, and he showed us the cover of Bassiste No 52. The European magazine contained an article profiling the bass player for the reggae group "Groundation". His name is Ryan Newman, and the reason for this discussion is that he is the son of Sunrisers Janice and Craig Newman. Craig said that, although Ryan doesn't live in Europe, Groundation frequently tours there. Janice said that the article focused on an interview with Ryan, but another part of the piece described his equipment, which includes a custom "Ryan Newman Signature Bass". Craig said that Ryan is unique - "A bass player in a reggae band with no tattoos, no piercings."Rebecca Crow recently took a trip to San Francisco with two friends. "They bussed us down," she said, "and we stopped at a winery on the way." The group saw the show "Mamma Mia", and they dressed for the occasion. "When we saw it up here, we dressed up." That means they dressed in character, as did the other attendees - but "up here" is the operative phrase. "Down there", however, Rebecca's trio were the only ones in costume. But it was great - they were asked to pose for photos with several of their fellow theatergoers in the lobby. They assured the others, "You know, we're not in the show." They had a great time, and there were a few shopping stops on the way home.
Praj White was asked about Logan's participation in the Vienna City Marathon. He said that Logan had been training with the help of an app on his phone. It would tell him when he had run twenty, and he was surprised to discover that he was able to cover the distance with relative ease. When he was on the course, he reached Kilometer 28, and he checked his phone. It indicated that he had already finished the race. OMG! He had been reading the units as miles, but it was reporting how many kilometers he had run! "So his training program had been just less than half of what he had been thinking." Somewhere early on, he passed someone who had polio, who was working his way through the course, and Logan carried that image with him throughout the race. He really hit the wall at about Kilometer 38 or 39, and he just fell to the ground. After he was helped up, his legs like rubber, "he puked everywhere". But somehow, he pushed through and made it all the way through. Praj is very proud of him, as are we!
 |
| Before ... |
 |
| ... and after. |
Every 15 Minutes
Sunrisers Lori Breyer and Joyce Hinrichs were joined by Gillian Wadsworth of the Arcata Police Department and Gillian's daughter Gabrielle for a review of the Every 15 Minutes program which took place at Arcata High School on April 3rd.
Lori said that planning for the event, which is staged every four years at the school, began in August. She said that Gillian did an amazing job coordinating it. So many people, businesses, and organizations contributed this year that Gillian said that it took two submissions to the Times-Standard to thank everyone. There were about 150 people involved, and 30 organizations and businesses.
This was our Club's fourth time sponsoring the two-day event, which begins with an assembly in front of the school. The students file into bleachers that overlook the scene of a car crash. Emergency crews respond to the scene to help those with a chance of being saved. The scene and the actions taken are as realistic as possible.
Throughout that first day, the Grim Reaper enters classrooms to take a "victim" from a classroom at 15 minute intervals. Each victim represents a teen who has lost his or her life to an incident involving an impaired driver.
On the second day, the student body reconvenes to attend a mock trial of the drunk driver. Joyce served as the judge, and she noted that a conviction is not preordained. She weighs the evidence presented, as she would in a real trial, to determine if it is sufficient to convict the defendant.
Rotary Kid Kate Breyer played one of the victims in the staged car crash, and she told us that there was a lot of preparation involved. But one difficult part of the process was the letter she was asked to write to her parents and family. The letter included "what we wished we had told them" before they died. The second day also included a mock funeral, which was difficult for all involved.
Gillian's daughter Gabrielle was involved in the proceedings as well, serving as one of the "walking dead". She said that at one point, she also got to wear goggles that simulate the vision of someone under the influence. While wearing the googles, she was asked to negotiate an obstacle course.
Check out the video below for highlights from the event:
