Notes by Priya Jhingan
Happy Halloween month, Rotarians!
We started the meeting with a picture of Terry Koehne tanning on a lounge chair outside. Actually, all we could see were his legs - definitely a sight to see.
The elusive Naim Katiby was our greeter today, and he began by greeting himself because we haven’t seen him in a while! His thought of the day came from Omar Khayyam, a very famous Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. A translation from one of his poems in Farsi reads:
“This world
that was our home
for a brief spell
never brought us anything
but pain and grief;
it's a shame that not one of our problems
was ever solved.
We depart
with a thousand regrets
in our hearts.”
Thank you, Naim, for the poignant words. His brief greeter profile included the update that his son is at home, and he and his wife are enjoying his presence.
Top Gun Chris attempted to jump right into Rotary business, but had some trouble getting his clicker working and the slides up. Perhaps he had a margarita or two for breakfast…
Once we were up and running, we learned that October is economic and community development month. Our much-awaited weekly news stories (the only reason some people come to the meetings) included a rat that sniffs out landmines in Cambodia, Florida repealing a ban on saggy pants, cursing parrots in a British wildlife park, and North Carolina coining Bigfoot as a “social distancing champion”.
Guests and Announcements
Interact announcements: Thomas Files, Communications VP at Cal High Interact, updated us on recent and upcoming events of this magnificent club. They made $30 at the Dos Coyotes fundraiser, made 50 dog toys that they just dropped off for donation, and concluded their first Club Faire meeting day, which attracted 100 people, out of which 60-70 were retained as members.
Upcoming Interact initiatives include the Teaspoon fundraiser (Oct. 19th, 3pm), Bay Area Homeless Drive, Vote Forward Letters (nonpartisan letters to registered voters encouraging them to vote in Michigan, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina), Rocks for Positivity (Oct 9, 4-5:30, painting rocks with positive messages & spreading them around San Ramon to brighten someone’s day), Interact Game Night on Zoom (Oct 3, 4-5:30, featuring Among Us), the Bollinger Canyon Elementary Mural (about protecting the environment), and the District 5160 Leadership Conference (October 18, 2020 10AM-12PM). At the District Conference, Cal High Interactors will be presenting workshops, including those on member recruitment and starting a new club) that would benefit from the presence of Rotarians.
Celeste Paapanen, Senior at Cal High and President of Interact this year, mentioned that the school has requested for the majority of events to be virtual. This year, they are focused on implementing the following key initiatives: 1) education and environment, and 2) homelessness and hunger. Celeste invited us to attend an Interact meeting on the afternoon of October 14 - if you’d like to attend, email Celeste for the Zoom info - celestepaap3@gmail.com.
Julie McKinney provided an update on the raffle, which is now in its second week of rebirth. The ticket price is $5, and today, Julie donated a $50 greeter’s gift. Please submit your raffle ticket orders every week by 12:30pm.
Colette Lay talked about Blue Star Moms - collecting care packages for deployed troops. If you are interested in donating/participating, please reach out to Colette. An easy way to contribute is to shop on Amazon for delivery directly to Colette.
Ana Dominguez revealed our latest Online Auction signs, for the annual auction taking place November 1-9. Norbert Walz offered a giant THANK YOU to everyone who has participated in the Online Action, whether by providing items or cash. And a special thank you to Gary Sloan, who has overcome the decline of our usual sponsors to secure $40,000 in sponsorships this year! Wow!
Chris Gayler gave us a quick update on the Run for Education, for which registration is now open. Sign up at svref.org.
On a final bit of news on the auction, Terry Koehne was able to snag a 3-night stay at a beautiful Napa winery. This is an example of an item that sells like hotcakes, so if you know anyone who has a property like this, do your best to work something out for the auction!
Program - David Benet from Mobility Matters
Karen McNamara, who has been volunteering to drive for Mobility Matters for 6 months now, introduced us to David Benet, Volunteer Coordinator at Mobility Matters and a fellow Rotarian. Working with Mobility Matters for a few years has changed David’s perspective on how we deal with seniors and veterans in our community.
Mobility Matters gives free rides to disabled seniors and veterans, essentially matching riders with providers. 90% of seniors want to stay in their own homes, versus living at a nursing home. David’s first ride was a woman who was 102 years old; she was blind but really sharp. She enjoyed living at home because she loved her neighbors, who visit and talk to her regularly. In fact, one of her neighbors took her clubbing in the Castro in SF! A number of the seniors served by Mobility Matters are over 100, including one WWII vet.
This program is much needed because if you lose your license or ability to go somewhere by yourself, that means, by default, you might have to go to a nursing home, which costs about $7500/month. Medicare can pay up to 65%, and $400 billion goes into long-term care from our government every year. The mission of Mobility Matters is to help people age gracefully in their own homes.
They offer 3 core programs: rides for seniors, rides for veterans of any age, and a transportation and referral helpline. This helpline allows Mobility Matters staff to correctly screen and route incoming calls to volunteer driver programs, friendly visitor programs, community operated vans, paratransit, public bus/BART, taxis, and more. 85% of their funding comes from government grants. One unfortunate piece of information shared was that out of the 49 victims of the recent Northern Californian campfire, 85% were 60 years or older. Mobility Matters has an emergency preparedness kit that they give to seniors, including a big “Help Me” sign to place at the window in cases of emergency like the campfire.
They have responded to COVID-19 with sanitation kits and N-95 masks for their volunteers and clients. They’re also not taking people to get groceries anymore, but are instead doing the grocery shopping for their clients. One really difficult aspect of conducting business during COVID is that they can’t hug their clients, which is how their clients like to repay them.
Mobility Matters is looking for volunteers! To apply to drive, you need to be a caring, mature individual who is willing and able to provide transportation to a senior or veteran who can no longer drive. For more info, visit https://www.mobilitymatterscc.com/volunteer/
Raffle
Julie McKinney announced the winner of the newly revived raffle to be none other than Gobind Anand! Luckily, Gobind was not on the phone when the time came to receive her prize. We may be seeing real marbles back at the raffle next time.
Next week’s greeter is Terry Koehne, and our speaker is Mark Roberts, District 5160 governor.
Stay safe and be well!
