Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 25, 2016

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, turkey rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles, beef stroganoff, rolls, dessert.

Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm.  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by John McBeth. The Invocation was led by Craig Hansen.

VISITING ROTARIANS: None.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Jay introduced our guest speaker, Jon Sapper with the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE).

BIRTHDAYS: Chris Freeman, Glenn Goldan, Corky Cornwell, Hank Pierson’s wife- Cathy Pierson, Jeff Leonard’s wife- Michelle.

ANNIVERSARIES: Dennis and Karen Hunter-32 years, Jesse and Roop Klair.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Jay announced a vote for Rotary Club of Eureka President in 2017-2018…  There was only one person running and it was a unanimous, resounding, yes vote from all present.  Bruce Smith will be our president following Matthew Owen in 2016-2017.

Matthew Owen reminded us that our annual fundraiser will be February 20^th.  It will be held at the Sequoia Conference Center. Invitations will go out next week.  Tickets are $150 for 2 people. The dinner will be buffet. You must be present to win or have a proxy selected prior to the dinner. Prizes are needed.

 President Jay said there will be an important board meeting tomorrow at noon at the Ingomar.  All Board Members need to attend if possible. Neal Carnum announced that the Rotary Club of Eureka will be holding a joint fundraiser with Mad River Rotary on April 16^th.  The money will go to help the village in Nepal.  It will be a dinner/auction and Carol Rische and Bruce Rupp are also on the committee.  They will be contacting Rotarians about donations of prizes.

RECOGNITIONS: Matthew Owen just returned from Hawaii and he got to spin the wheel… end result $100 to Backpacks for Kids.

President Jay said that Tom Schallert has been taking up a lot of his time lately because he’s been in the paper so much.  Somehow this conversation segued into a discussion of the new chamber board members- Paula Patton, Jaison Chan and Chamber Executive Director, Don Smullin.  All were asked to stand but no fines were given in recognition of their outstanding service.

Jack Macdonald, however, was not so lucky.  In recognition of Jack’s recent Chamber Lifetime Achievement Award, he appointed head of the cartel, Ken Stoddard.

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: Rotary World Ink Pen: Ziggy & $10: Neal Carnam. Linda Wise drew a card for a pot of $540 and WON!  Congrats to Linda!

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY: Matthew Owen.  Jon Sapper is the Assistant Superintendent at HCOE.  He was born and raised in Humboldt County, sits on the board of the McLean Foundation, SHN Engineering and is a Past President of the Fortuna Sunrise Rotary Club.

Jon talked about ACES – Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. Jon said that 5 or 6 years ago he and Dr. Garry Eagles became concerned and puzzled by changes they were seeing in the kids coming to school.  They were seeing a lot of behavior issues, highly dysfunctional families, etc. Then they found out about a study that was done last year in San Francisco.  Dr. Nadine Burke Harris headed up the study.  Jon showed us a 14 minute video:  https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime?language=en.

Basically, childhood trauma affects kids throughout their life.  For people with a significant bout of abuse it can affect the development of the brain and cause lifelong health issues.   Jon said in Humboldt County, 70% of families experience 1 or more serious types of abuses and 30% experience four or more.  Statistically in the State of California that number is 12% of families that experience four or more. Humboldt County ranks as the top county in California.  Locally many kids have a diagnosis of needing special education- (19.3%) compared to Los Angeles with 11%.  Jon feels many kids are receiving a diagnosis that stems from abuse related issues.  The single most significant resiliency factor that can help kids recover is the presence in their life of a significant adult that can mentor them.  HCOE is putting together teams of health care workers/ counselors etc. to address these issues.  Quick intervention with kids showing behaviors and education at the family level are vital. 

MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm

Respectfully submitted, Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 18, 2015

The Club was dark in honor of the Martin Luther King Holiday.

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 4, 2016

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, macaroni & cheese, roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed vegetables, rolls, and dessert.

Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Linda Wise. The Invocation was led by Matt Messner.

VISITING ROTARIANS: None.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: None.

STUDENT GUESTS: None.

BIRTHDAYS: Bob Morse, Neal Carnam (Medicare party)

ANNIVERSARIES: Tom & Tess Schallert- 40 years!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: There will be no meeting on January 18^th in recognition of Martin Luther King Day.  The 2017 Nominee for President is 2017-2018 will be Bruce Smith.  Nominations will remain open for two weeks.  If you would like to nominate somebody please contact President Jay.

RECOGNITIONS: President Jay asked all 49er fans to stand.  About ½ the room rose to their feet.  He then asked everybody who thought the 49ers would actually win the game in overtime to stay standing.  Russ Harris was the lone survivor.  President Jay took pity on him and did not impose a fine.  John Burger was asked to stand to display his San Diego state paraphernalia but didn’t fine him.  

President Jay requested volunteers who needed to own up to a fine worthy event to stand.  

Craig Hansen stood and notified the room that there was one Rotarian in the room who had just purchased a brand new spiffy truck from Harper Motors and thought maybe that Rotarian would like to confess.  President Jay confessed and promised to pay a fine.  He asked if anybody else wanted to own up… Steven Lafferty owned up that he had met with Harper Motors that morning and now had a little over 3 hour relationship with them.  He was asked to spin the wheel, which after President Jay did his “magic” calculations came to a fine of $25.  

Jason Eads was asked to stand and introduce the change that recently occurred in his life…  Jason moved offices July 1^st to Stokes, Rowe, Hamer & Kaufman in Arcata where he will be specializing in Estate planning.

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE:  $10: Steven Lafferty Rotary Timer: John Fullerton Keith Crossley drew a card for a pot of $480.

GUEST SPEAKER: Emma Breacain is the Executive Director of the Humboldt Literacy Project.  Basically they teach English literacy to adults with volunteer tutors.  She started with a story…  She had a persistent telemarketer who was hounding her and despite many requests would not stop calling.  Determined to stop the situation she researched the laws and found that he was operating outside of the law.  When he called next time she notified him that he was operating illegally and realized that in order to protect herself and do this research she had to have literacy skills.  She asked everybody in the room to imagine what it would be like to not be literate.  Could you still have the career you had? Could you still function as well as you do?  What would your income be like?   

There are 80 tutors and 80 learners at Humboldt Literacy Project.  Emma has been there 5 years but the organization has existed for 30 years.  Originally they were under the umbrella of the library but because of budget cuts they were removed from that umbrella in the 1980’s and now operate as a non-profit.  It is estimated that 15% of the adult population in the United States have literacy issues, that would be 14,000 people in Humboldt County.  It’s often hard for people to ask for help.  People come in that are keeping this a secret from their boss, friends, even from their spouse.  Becoming literate can turn people’s lives around.  April 3^rd is the Humboldt Literacy Project’s annual fundraiser at Cher-ae Heights Casino.  Check their web site for details.  If you want to get involved donations of money are always appreciated or you can volunteer as a tutor.

MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm.

Respectfully submitted, Alicia Cox