Tuesday September 7, 2021

Scribe: Tom Boylan Editor: Natalie Lim Introduced by: JB Leep

President Pam Moulton rang the bell at 7:30 and ask Bill Bolster to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance

Heather Cullen   inspired by Kermit the Frog lead us in her version of “Being Green”

 John Hackenburg shared his Rotary Moment:  John recalled his trip to Mexico with Festival of Brotherhood when he met a family all suffering from aids, unable to obtain vaccinations and treatment, and his trip to Africa where Rotary was providing clean water, toilets & education and witnessed the power of Rotary to change lives.  John stated thinking about his Rotary moment he had an ah ha moment and realized he has a Rotary moment over and over, every week as a Rotarian has the ability to change lives.

We had no visiting Rotarians this morning and our Guest was our speaker Clare Becker introduced by JB.

President Pam announced our September Rotarian of the month is one of our newer members, one that hit the club volunteering, and is in fact our present Club Secretary: Catherine Hanron definitely is an asset to our Club.

Renee Hyde announced the Rotary Bar made $906.00 last Thursday, she stated she has volunteers for this week; however, all are welcome to come by say hello & lend a hand.  Renee will be sending a signup sheet via email to Rotarians for sign up for the remainder of the Thursday night Rotary Bar.

Windsor Chili Cook Off:  Saturday September 11, 11am – 4pm   purchase tickets for tasting and chance to win a Trager BBQ       https://www.windsorchilicookoff.com/

September 23, 2021 will be the 34 Anniversary of the Rotary Club of Windsor; Joan Mora is putting together a social to celebrate on the Town Green Thursday September 23rd.

Rotary Youth Exchange GOLF TOURNAMENT

  • September 25, 2021
  • Register online at: ye5130.org/golf
  • Questions: golf@ye5130.org or Haider at 707 499-6219

JB is looking for volunteers to work with waste less Windsor Thursday night on the Green; I was told it really is a fun rewarding experience.

Barbara McChesney announced a “Clean up on the River” Saturday September 18th. Contact Barbara for more information: barbsmcc@gmail.com

President Pam stated no secret greeter for the time being, just remember to say hello to all, keeping that safe distance, of course.  Air Hugs

Susan Cole presented our first community check this morning to Jamie Williams representing Windsor High School Girls Varsity Volleyball & Girls Varsity Soccer Team.

The Rotary Club of Windsor is sponsoring girls from both teams to attend a Leadership program, “Women in Conversation” at Sonoma State, presenters at this event will be:        Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic, U.S. and World Hall of Fame figure skater,    Brandi Chastain, World Cup and Olympic soccer player and Kerri Walsh Jennings, World Championship and Olympic beach volleyball player.

Last year Girls Varsity Volleyball team was the top team, this year they are undefeated and look forward to participating in playoffs.

Jamie left tickets for Rotarians that would like to attend any of the sporting events @ WHS.

We look forward to the presentation from a few of the girls after attending the event.

John Hackenburg filled in for fine master Leslie Lewis today and recognized Birthdays in September:

  • Michael Ragsdale plans to spend his special day with wife Barbara & Children and will do whatever they tell him to.
  • Tom Boylan and his wife Melody are going to Little River End for the weekend.

 Diane Brabetz was recognized for some advertising, although the advertising was for hard to find staff, she made a donation to the Ken Moulton Scholarship fund.

SPEAKER:

JB introduced Clare Becker from Sonoma County Resource Recovery Clare graduated from Santa Clara University; she works closely with recycling resources at events and is working to further recycling efforts in Windsor.

Sonoma County Resource Recovery is the exclusive collector of garbage in Windsor.

Single dwelling homes in Windsor have dual stream recycle cans to separate recyclable items.  Windsor residents are also provided green waste containers for yard and food waste.

Trucks are equipped with dual compartments to keep recycle items separated.  Recycling is taken to facility where it is further sorted to prevent contamination, toxic leaching, plastic pollution and reduce landfill waste.

Green waste is transported to Cold Creek Compost in Eureka to become usable compost.

The big challenge starts with us the consumer, using less plastic and green gas pollutants and separating our waste and placing in the correct receptacle.

SB1383:  Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in California

  •  SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) is the most significant waste reduction mandate to be adopted in California in the last 30 years.
  • SB 1383 requires the state to reduce organic waste [food waste, green waste, paper products, etc.] disposal by 75% by 2025.  In other words, the state must reduce organic waste disposal by more than 20 million tons annually by 2025.
  • The law also requires the state to increase edible food recovery by 20 percent by 2025.

SB 1383 will take effect January 2022

Clare stated recyclable items should have as much food wiped out as possible, not necessary to be completely cleaned.  Pizza boxes with oil are not recyclable.  Plastic bags are not recyclable.

Electronics are increasingly difficult and more expensive to recycle,

It is important we begin to rethink about the products we use before they become waste items.  Reduce Waste.

Resource Recovery is working on dual stream recycling for multifamily dwellings.

President Pam, thanked Pam for presenting and all the Rotarians that did set up, handled the zoom side of the meeting and to everyone for adhering to the mask protocol.

Next week Past President Susan Cole will conduct our meeting as this month’s President Rep. and provide an International Review.

Closing quote:

  • “There is no such thing as “AWAY, When we throw anything away –           it must go somewhere!”

Meeting adjourned at 8:30am

Amazon Smile:  A painless easy was to contribute to the:  “Windsor Rotary Club Foundation” Once you have registered with amazon smile and chosen the charity of your choice Amazon does the rest.  Last week I purchased spreaders for the Wine

SONOMA COUNTY RESOURCE RECOVERY LINKS

PowerPoint PDF: Rotary Club 9-7-2021

Dual stream sorting video: https://youtu.be/ermJbOMHEeU

Recycling facility video: https://youtu.be/SK0-0C5373k

Compost facility video: https://youtu.be/Fw8H5nzl0Wk


COVID UPDATE

NEWS FLASH!!!!   FDA approves Pfizer vaccine for COVID 19!    Moderna also has a request in with the FDA for full approval and we should have an answer within the month.  Hopefully this will help to sway persons on the fence or were hesitant to get their vaccinations.   We continue to see huge increases in hospitalizations and are also seeing breakthrough infections probably most due to the Delta variant.   All of this at a time when testing sites are hard to find and most people felt they were safe from infection because they had gotten vaccinated!

Total Cases:

  • 37,676    (last week 35,562)

Recovered:

  • 34,436    (last week  32,604)

Active Cases:

  • 3024   (last week 2875)

Deaths:

  • 365  (last week 344) of our county citizens have died of this virus!   – this is a jump in 21 new deaths reported in only one week.   We need to realize that this is not seniors dying in nursing home any longer, but young people, middle age and people who are not vaccinated.  We are seeing kids filling hospitals and deaths of treatable diseases and conditions because they cannot access care due to ER’s and ICU’s being filled with COVID.   It is hard as a nurse for me to wrap my head around people dying because there is no care available and that this disease has become so political!

New Cases:

  • 1178 new cases this past week (last week I was alarmed about 137 new cases) in Sonoma County!   We are not going to return to a normal or ordinary life but with the virus’ mutations and the refusal of millions of Americans to take the shots, there is little hope.

Hospitalized:

  • 66 confirmed and 1 suspected    (last week 81 confirmed and 2 suspected)      We are seeing continued increase in hospitalizations in other parts of the US which are taxing our hospitals, our ER’s and putting a strain on medical services that are needed by others not fighting COVID.   We have a labor shortage even in health care and we are seeing it in are health care settings with positions open, people not applying and those working on overwhelm.    Wait times in ER’s have increased dramatically due to COVID.    We continue to do much better here in Bay area and Sonoma County but we are seeing breakthrough infections as we are well aware of.

Vaccination information….  As of Sept. 5th,  666,732  residents in Sonoma County have received the vaccine (last week 649,222).     75% of our populations 12 and older are fully vaccinated and approximately 83% have received at least 1 dose.     With the FDA fully approving Pfizer vaccine, we are already seeing large employers as well as government entities mandating the need for vaccinations and probably will continue to see more.

Please continue to wear your masks, be aware of your surroundings and even outside, if you are in crowded situations, mask up!   Wash your hands frequently, use hand sanitizer and take precautions.    We need to try and manage this disease as we are not going to control it!

Thanks

Di