Rotary Club of Eureka, California

Meeting Of The Rotary Club Of Eureka

June 10, 2013 

This was the 43^rd meeting of the Rotary Year 2012-2013.  The meeting was held at the Elks Lodge, which we were testing out as a possible new venue…a vote of which will happen next week at the Wharfinger.

Flag Salute was briskly handled by Gary Todoroff, 1988 Paul Harris Fellow, and the invocation was given by Dan Hienen.

We had no visiting Rotarians this week, but we did have two guests of Rotarians.  Dick Storre graced us with his lovely wife Debbie, and Jason Eads introduced us to Scott McAnich, who’s going to law school at Golden Gate University and who’s an intern at Jason’s office this summer.

As with visiting Rotarians, we had no guest students, but we did see our Exchange Student Larissa Toelke whose graduation at Eureka High School is this weekend.

We acknowledged the birthday of three of our illustrious members:  Eric Bergel and Greg Pierson have birthdays on June 11^th, Gregg Foster celebrates on June 13^th, and Greg Seiler’s joyous day is June 15^th.

As we learned last week, June is a busy month for Wedding Anniversary announcements – Sid and Judy Anderson (June 11^th), Gail and John celebrate their 25^th (June 11^th), Terry and Rob McLaughlin (June 11^th), Al and Marjorie Crnich (June 12^th), Rhonda and Tim Foster (June 12^th), Michele and Jack Rieke (June 14^th), Jason and Stacey Eads celebrated at Mt. Shasta (June 15^th), and Matt and Heide Messner had their joyous 23^rd (June 16^th).  Not to be left out, Don Leonard stood, and apologizing that he missed last week, announced that last week was his FIFTY-FIFTH anniversary (June 6^th), which brought a standing ovation – that’s AWESOME Don!! We celebrate all these wonderful anniversaries.

We also announced one Membership Anniversary – Aaron Tilch (June 10, 2011).

We had a number of announcements this week: 

 First, there were five $750 scholarships to the following Eureka High Students: Maya Kaup, President, EHS Interact), Carolyn Smullin (Secretary, EHS Interact), Arleah Aguilar, Riann Thayer, and Brook Wahlund. Congratulations all!

Second, the Harvey Harper Memorial Automotive Scholarship was awarded to Kristian Mohorovich.  Well done!

Third, we thanked Carol Rische and her committee for handling the selections and Kathy Cloney-Gardiner for helping advertise and obtaining a large applicant pool. You ladies are AWESOME!! Thank you so much!

Fourth, don’t forget that the meeting next week will be back at the Wharfinger and we will vote on a temporary change in venue.  Kim Bauriedel answered a few remaining questions, and those present seemed prepared to do the vote next week.

Fifth, don’t forget the Backpacks for Kids fundraiser! The winner will be selected Aug. 30th. Tickets are $10 each or packs of 12 tickets can be had for $100.  The prize is $3500 Vacation Getaway. Don’t let this slip through your fingers – buy a ticket, buy a pack of tickets…buy even more! Let’s have a great fundraiser!!  Click here for the fundraiser flyer.

Sixth, we announced that Roster Photographs could be taken at the end of the meeting for anyone who wanted updated photos.

Finally, Bruce Smith gave a heartfelt Craft talk.  He received a number of acknowledgments afterward. Thank you everyone for the kind words.

We had two winners for the Spengler “Science Fair” Raffle Tickets:  $10 went to Jill MacDonald and $10 went to Kim Bauriedel who donated his to Larissa.

President Dean then introduced our speaker, Patrick Cleary, the new Executive Director of Humboldt Area Foundation since October 2012.  Patrick is only the third person to serve in that role in the Foundation’s 40 year history.  Our speaker moved to Humboldt County in 1997 from New York where he was managing director at The Chase Manhattan Bank.  He earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University in 1979. Since coming to Humboldt County our speaker served as the general manager of the Northcoast Co-op and KHSU. For many years he was chair of the county’s Headwaters Fund, and he served on the boards of the St. Joseph Hospital Fund, The Humboldt Folklife Society and Dell’Arte International, among others. In 2008, the North Coast Association of Non-Profits named him its “Leader of the Year.” More recently our speaker was the president of Lost Coast Communications.

Our speaker lives in McKinleyville with his wife Cat, their three dogs, three horses, and one cat, and is an avid amateur musician who currently performs with local group The Pilot Rock Ramblers. He plays guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica and bass.  Please join me in welcoming Patrick Cleary.

A lot of people don’t really know all the philanthropic activities the Humboldt Area Fund (HAF) provides, so Patrick spent most of his time telling us about the various activities they provide. The founding of HAF can be traced back to Vera and Lynn Vietor. Lynn Vietor was a graduate of Stanford University. After graduating he returned to the area to work in his father’s business, Eureka Boiler Works.  When they both passed away in 1972 they left their estate to form a community trust. The first Community Trust was the Cleveland Trust, which was founded in 1914.   HAF was modeled on this trust structure, and it now has a wide range of funds, which include some of the following:  Designated Funds, Donor Advised Funds, Flexible Funds, Field of Interest Funds, Companion Animal Funds, Education Funds, Natural Environment Funds, Senior Opportunity Funds, Scholarship Funds (over 300 such funds!), and Organizational Funds.  At present HAF has over 700 funds totaling in excess of $75 million.

In addition to the wide variety of funds, HAF also operates at the regional level, providing services for the Trinity Trust and for Trinity County, Del Norte County, the Wild Rivers area (Kerry County in Oregon), and for Mendocino County (which finally spun off into their own foundation in the 1990s).   Furthermore, HAF provides services and funding that assisted General Hospital, it provides meeting rooms for community use, has a wonderful HR Center which provides resources that assist other non-profits in the community identify grant sources and write grants, is involved with the Cascadia Center for Leadership, has a Native Cultures Fund (which works with local Native American groups, and their recent use of the Morris Graves Foundation building near the Eureka Inn), is a leading force behind NORCAN (Northern California Association of Non-Profits), is a driver or provider of resources for local initiatives (such as the local Economic Development Plan, the currently updated General Plan, and more), is a leader for the local Planned Giving Center, and has recently been awarded $10 million over the 10 years for the Building Healthy Communities program, to name just some of the more prominent efforts.  In the last year HAF has provided over $4 million in grants, including over $900K in Health related grants, over $600K in Scholarships, over $500K in the Arts, over $750K for Community grants, over $400K in Animal related grants, and over $400K in Youth related grants.  HAF is the most significant foundation locally, and is the 12^th largest in the state of California.  HAF has given out over $60 million since 1972.

As a personal comment, the breadth and scope of services and community involvement by HAF is amazing. It’s clearly one of the crown jewels of the Northcoast.  Thank you Patrick for sharing some of what HAF does!!  We look forward to your leadership at HAF in the years to come.

Presented in Rotary Service by Bruce Smith