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Lady Grizzly, our Shelter-in-Place President, introduced our virtual greeter of the day, Brent Tucker, whose thought of the day was about friendship and Rotary: “FRIENDSHIP is the craving for which brought Rotary into existence and is the thing that will keep Rotary living. It is the VERY foundation of our organization.” This quote was delivered at the 1920 Rotary Convention in Atlanta by then President Albert Adams, whose classification was Real Estate. Brent emphasized that building better friendships lives on today in Rotary and in our club, just as it did 100 years ago. In fact, in 1934, the Four Way Test was first adopted by Rotary and included the part, “Will it build better friendships”. Great pieces of history! As a tribute to Brent’s thought, we all recited the Four Way Test and the pledge, for which some of us un-muted ourselves on Zoom. We then learned that Brent Tucker’s Rotarian lineage goes back as his dad and grandfather were both Rotarians. Brent attended Cal State Hayward (NOT Cal State East Bay as folks call it now), where young John Simms and Jay Tontz were his professors! I wish we had a photo of this. After graduating in 1970 with a business degree, Mr. Tucker formed aptly-named Tucker Associates, Inc. He joined Hayward Rotary in 1971, and moved to San Ramon Rotary Club in 1983. Brent has been married to the love of his life, Terri, for 31 years. He loves to travel, to spend time with his family, and cars!
Announcements Colette gave us a quick update on our club - we’ve been meeting on Zoom, and Carolyn Degnan has been organizing happy hours on Monday, which are a riot! If you want to learn incriminating things about your fellow Rotarians, definitely join the happy hours! Also, lots of community members have been stepping up. Colette mentioned Volunteer Surge - a Rotarian-led initiative making it easy for anyone who’s willing to help in healthcare to give service and take some of the load off of front-line workers, all from the safety of home! Learn more and join at https://theglobalimpactgroup.org.
Program - Stoles and Scholarships
Patti Hennigan presented our annual program, Stoles and Scholarships, which is the culmination of our club’s yearly efforts during the Online Auction for Education to fundraise and provide thousands of dollars in scholarships to extraordinary Cal High Seniors. This year’s presentation of awards was quite unique and spectacular, given our circumstances; the Stoles & Scholarships Committee organized a social-distanced parade where Rotarians, escorted by several police with sirens OFFICER A. HUSAIN, SERGEANT E. WEBB, OFFICER D. WILLIAMS, OFFICER D. ROACH, OFFICER P. ESPIRITU, AND OFFICER C. BENNINGSON, visited each scholarship recipient, donning homemade recognition signs and congratulations. During our meeting, we watched videos of the event, and the recipients were surprised and thrilled beyond words! Thank you to everyone - Patti Hennigan, Lourdes Ylagan, Don Jones, Gary Sloan, and Chris Gallagher - for all the coordination needed to make this happen!
There were so many amazing students to choose from this year, and selecting the top 8 to receive scholarships was quite a feat. Luckily, the committee had the help of Kari Gardella to sort through all 20 applications and then interview the top 10, who were then evaluated along various indices, including academics, letters of recommendation, financial need, community service, personal essays, and overall personal characteristics. Gary Sloan presented our extraordinary 8 finalists, almost all of whom were present to receive their awards, to receive a total of $20,000: Kasey Nye (winner of $10,000 John Simms Memorial Scholarship) Jeana Lee Surya Rajan Siddhant Sharma Michelle Pham Angela Kan Jocelyn Gao Pratham Goradia The program was incredibly heartwarming, as each student gave a special thank you, and became an extension of our Rotary family. It was instantly obvious how remarkable the recipients are. To end the presentation, Gary read from the personal statement of the John Simms Scholarship recipient, Kasey Nye, who had written a thoughtful, provoking, and poetic essay describing her triumph over domestic abuse. Kasey graciously accepted her award as her mother sat behind her, in tears. Wonderful, wonderful work to all our amazing students, and CONGRATS ROTARY 2020 SCHOLARSHIP PARTICIPANTS!
Raffle and ending announcements
Ed Duarte, a board member of the Dublin San Ramon Services District, provided an update on DSRSD. Sadly, they just lost a board member, Maddi Misheloff, who passed away on Saturday, April 11, 2020. DSRSD has 112 employees, 50% are whom are working from home, and 50% at the facility as needed. So far, no employees have been infected with the virus. Norbert Walz provided an update on the annual Art & Wind Festival, which will not be taking place over Memorial Day weekend. It is currently unknown whether it will be postponed to another date this year or be cancelled. However, the annual Online Auction for Education is still on, and there is steady progress and discussion continuing on that front.
On a final note, reminder to send your good news to Ana every week, as she compiles notes for the weekly Stay-at-Home Crow’s Call. Lady Grizzle (“Grizzle” was a typo that sounds like a rap name, so I quite liked it and so left it as is) ended the meeting with an image of a yummy, gooey, chocolate chip cookie. Stay safe, stay healthy, and remember to eat dessert.
Please note that our next Happy Hour will be Tuesday April 28th
5:00 to 6:00 pm to see if it works better for more members to participate
Happy Hour #4 Recap:
What was your Favorite Year and Why?
(again, I apologize in advance if I didn’t get everything right)
Horace had two favorite years:
1943 when he started grade school with 9 classmates and they went all the way thru High School together.
1959 when 2 little girls got off the bus and he quickly swooped in to claim the one named Peggy. Apparently, his southern charm worked---They have been married 59 years.
Guy’s favorite year was 1967 when he married Mary. We asked him what his answer would be if Mary wasn’t sitting next to him—and then there was SILENCE
Gobind’s favorite year was also 1967 when she married the man her father arranged for her to marry. Her father asked her who she wanted to marry and Gobind told him either a physician or engineer. She got her engineer and was very happy! He was handsome too!
Glenn said his favorite year was 2019 because 2020 has been a little strange.
Jerry M says that he has two favorite years; 1) when he married his wife in 2007 and 2) when he graduated from the Defense Language Institute and he survived Survival training with a little left over PTSD. He is proud that his son has also survived the training,
Norbert said that marrying his wife in 1973 completely changed his life for the better. The boy that he left behind and the man that he became was all due to her. If you were at our last Happy Hour you would know that Norbert had many “free trips” in the local police squad car as a youth. Thanks Jo for making him the man he is today!
President Colette says that this Rotary year was different than she thought it would be but also better than she thought it would be. She then said “and of course all that family stuff that everyone else has said” and then she rolled her eyes. LOL! Yes, we saw your face!
Past President Kathy G’s favorite year besides getting married to Scott and the birth of her sons was 2008. That was the year she was asked to step in at the last minute as a Rotary Team Leader for a group of 5 individuals chosen to go to Ethiopia. She had two weeks’ notice to get ready and then go. The trip to Ethiopia began her adventures to Africa and she has never looked back!
Gary Sloan said that contrary to popular opinion, his favorite year was not the year he met the Transvestite but 1971 when he 1) graduated from High School, 2) spent three months travelling in Europe and Israel and lived on a Kibbutz and 3) then met his future wife. It was a great year for him---however it only took him 17 more years to convince Barbara to marry him.
Patti says that her favorite year was when she was 17 in 1985 and she took a lot of road trips in the upper Northwest. She was old enough to know better but too young to care. She was free with no strings.
Melanie’s best two years were 2007 when she married her husband and 2014 when their daughter Emily was born. Emily joined us for the meeting to let us know her birthday is coming up in June.
Geoff had two favorite years (beyond special family dates) 1) 1948-the year he was born and 2) 1966 the year he graduated and got his private pilot’s license—Who knew he was a pilot??????
Mike T said his favorite year was 2016 the year he passed the 4 Way Test but then quickly said it was 1975 when he married his wife. They were actually supposed to get married in 1974 but they set up his wife’s sister with a friend, they fell in love and stole 1974 for their own wedding date.
Dennis H said the best year was in college in 1961 when he met Sharon and the second best was when his son was born on Dennis’ birthday (May 16th). Happy early birthday!
Patti’s John said it was 1973 when he graduated from High School
Lourdes’ favorite year was 2007 when she decided the best way to finally learn to ride a bike was to join Team in Training. She had never learned to ride a bike as a child in the Philippines and had many, many tumbles during her Team in Training practices. She then signed up to a 100 mile ride around Lake Tahoe. Although she only made it 50 miles- it was quite impressive to make it that far! She then went to France to watch the Tour de France. Lourdes either does it big or she doesn’t do it at all!
Dr. Bill said his best year was 1985 when he left a teaching post of 35 years and found his way to San Ramon and the Wicked Eye. Actually, he began his tenure as the Dean of Diablo Valley College San Ramon Campus and San Ramon has not been the same since! (in a great way)
Carolyn- My favorite year was 1968- I was chosen as an American Field Service Exchange Student and was sent to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the war in Vietnam. It was a watershed year for me and one that made me realize that I would never be happy living in a small town in Missouri ever again.
Please join us next Tuesday for Happy Hour #5 (who is counting?) It is a great way to get to know a little bit more about each other, share a laugh or thirty and smile during this difficult time.
I have an exceptional and extraordinary request of you, and all members in our district, to join the fight against COVID-19. What if there was a way to help, from the safety of our homes, and make a real difference?
Our district is one of two districts leading in an extraordinary new effort, and your immediate participation is critical to its success. This program will be announced via a press release today (CNN, NYT, and other major coverage), and will be adopted by Rotary Clubs across the nation in the next few days.
The background is this: Two weeks ago, Rotarians in a local club engaged Rotary International to recruit 1 million volunteers in two weeks to sign up with Volunteer Surge, a new program that allows us to train online, for free, to become a Telehealth Worker, or a Community Health Worker. These volunteers will provide basic assistance and will reduce suffering and save lives, locally and across the nation. How? By helping our health care providers to focus more of their attention where it is most needed.
TIME IS CRITICAL.
Please click HERE to learn more and decide how you, your friends, and your family can participate. And share this link with others on Facebook, email, and other social media.
The world is watching, and we, as Rotarians, people of action, are now truly defined by our actions in this crisis.
With appreciation and thanks,
Tina
Tina Akins
District Governor 2019-2020 Rotary International District 5160
I was on the Mayor's call this morning, as I imagine many of you were, and the leaders of our community covered a good deal of Covid-19 information as it relates to San Ramon. You can watch the entire hour here: Mayor's Breakfast
Bonus: When you get to the 52.40 minute mark you can hear my Rotary question!
You can also go to the city website www.sanramon.ca.gov/covid-19 for up to date information.
I will be emailing you this weekend about specific ways that we can help, and engage as Rotarians in our community safely. Please reach out to me if you need anything, or just need to chat! My cell is 925.325.1611.
Hello Fellow Rotarians - I'm passing on this information from the City of San Ramon -Alcosta Senior Center - on things that are needed and things they are doing to help seniors in San Ramon. Here is the info from City staff below.
Hi Everybody,
I would like to thank you for signing up to help San Ramon Seniors in need during the shelter in place mandate. We are still looking for the public to donate new and unopened goods for care packages that can be distributed to Seniors in San Ramon who cannot leave their homes at this time. Useful items may include toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectant wipes, canned goods, non-perishables, etc.Items should be sealed in the original package, in good condition. Please direct requests from Seniors to the Senior Hotline (925-973-3250)
Donations will be accepted at the Alcosta Senior and Community Center located at 9300 Alcosta Blvd. San Ramon, CA 94583 Monday through Friday from 11am-2pm. There will be staff at the Senior Center to receive donated items.
We also encourage those who are able, to reach out to Seniors in your own neighborhoods. A simple way to help would be to share the number of the Senior Hotline (925-973-3250) with them so they can request meals for pick up or delivery at no cost.
The City of San Ramon has created a website with resources for Seniors in San Ramon including local store hours at: http://www.sanramon.ca.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=10826130&pageId=16589480
Thank You,
Steve
Senior Center Recreation Supervisor City of San Ramon
