July 27, 2021
Scribe: Tom Boylan Editor: Natalie Lim Introduced by: Pam Moulton
President Pam welcomed the Dustin to our Club and asked him to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Immediate Past President Bill Bolster led us in Tom Petty’s We Won’t Back Down. Not a highlight for our DG Meeting!
Jim Rupert gave his Rotary moment of growing up in Cloverdale with his father being a very avid Rotarian. Jim knew that someday he’d be a Rotarian too and has been in our Club for over 15 years and enjoyed every minute of it. So have we!
Visiting Rotarians (in addition to Dustin Littlefield) – Randy Seelye
Guests – Jamie and Brian Williams, Rodrico Pettus, Jeannie Fournier, and Janet Pavley. Brian Williams will be joining us as the representative from the WUSD and Jamie Williams will be inducted as our newest member today.
New Member – President Pam brought up our District Governor to induct Jamie Williams as the newest member of the Rotary Club of Windsor. Jamie is the Athletic Director at Windsor High School and will be a fantastic addition to our club. Thank you to Renee Hyde for sponsoring Jamie to the club. Following Jamie’s induction, the Club gathered for our traditional group welcome to our new member.
Rotarian of the Month – President Pam thanked and congratulated Wally Krutz as our Rotarian of the Month for August.
Secret Greeter – Our first secret greeter was Sandie Krutz! Everyone that didn’t say hello to Sandie was up for a $5 fine. We’ll keep doing the Secret Greeter for a while so arrive a little early and work the room. You won’t regret it and you might just save $5!
Calendar and Announcements – President Pam reminded us to watch the pre-meeting slides for upcoming events and Club announcements.
Member Introductions – In keeping with request for more storytelling and to reacquaint with each, the membership introduced themselves along with any current position in the Club and what year they joined.
Guest Speaker – Past District Governor Michael Juric introduced the new District 5130 Governor, Dustin Littlefield from the Rotary Club of Arcata Sunrise.
Following a warm welcome and (Rotary tradition) standing ovation, Dustin thanked the Club and mentioned he wanted to visit us early in his DG year as we are one of the more inspiring clubs in the district! He emphasized our years of success in reaching out to many clubs locally and internationally and having numerous members take District Leadership roles in the past and future.
Dustin spoke to the Rotary International theme this year, “Serve to Change Lives.” His District theme is “This is Rotary.” DG Littlefield will do all he can to help strengthen each club resulting in a stronger District. When we are asked, “What is Rotary?”, we all have a variation of service and fellowship. He continued his presentation “What is Rotary? – This is Rotary.”
The DG is encouraged by all the club’s versatility and response in reaching out to their members and the community. Expanded website communications and virtual fundraisers have kept clubs going and surviving the past year. Be creative and if one idea doesn’t work, “Throw it over the fence and try something else!” One of his personal objectives is to create Leadership Pathways for Young Professionals, and sharing the Rotary message throughout the District.
The Governor reminded us that meetings are only one way to share the Rotary experience. Rotary International has 1.3 million members! How we all rebound from the year plus of the pandemic will strengthen every single club. Rotary is in a competitive world, and he encouraged us to reach out to everyone, be creative with technology, and maintain a flexible meeting format for remote access. We’re all looking to expand our membership and otherwise finding “followers”. He observed that Rotary could be considered the original “linked in” with the network and impact far reaching.
Lastly he reminded us of the areas of focus with the addition this year of the Environment as our 7th area of focus. Everything we do is important to our members, our families, and the people that we serve. “What is Rotary? This is Rotary”
Thank You to DG Littlefield – President Pam presented our new flag for the Rotary Club of Windsor to the District Governor and thanked him for his time yesterday and today.
Closing – President Pam thanked everyone that participated to make today’s meeting a success, reminded us that Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore will be here next week, and closed with a quote from Henry Ford, Coming Together is a Beginning – Keeping Together is Progress – Working Together is Success!
COVID UPDATE
NEWS FLASH!!!! There continues to be a large increase in new COVID cases and infections are being seen in our young. You can do something about this………
Total Cases: 32,325 (last week 31,763)
Recovered: 30,827 (last week 30,530)
Active Cases: 1169 (last week 926) – this is 243 more than previous week a trend we do not want to see!
New Cases: New cases continue to increase at an alarming rate in the unvaccinated but we are seeing it in the vaccinated, especially those with young children who cannot get vaccinated. We owe it to our young to spare them by getting vaccinations and avoid super spreader events. Spread is more prevalent as we have relaxed our policies and recommendations and people are going without masks. The largest group continues to be the 25-44 age …. But it has been reported that a 5 year old died of COVID as well as babies becoming infected because their parents are not vaccinated.
Deaths: 329 (last week 327)
Hospitalized: 42 confirmed and 3 suspected (last week 44 confirmed and 0 suspected) Very alarming increase in hospitalizations we are seeing and in the ages of 25-44 – also being reported that the largest percentage of hospitalizations and new cases is in the unvaccinated. Hospitals are worried about the increase in numbers and the increase wait time in their ER’s due to COVID. Care is being delayed to people needing emergency care for diagnoses other than COVID which is alarming.
Vaccination information…. As of July 26th, 619,721 residents in Sonoma County have received the vaccine (last week 613,003). 70% of our populations 16 and older are fully vaccinated and approximately 78% have received at least 1 dose. Because of the hold out among groups and parts of our County that will not consider vaccinations, we are beginning to see employers notify them of deadlines to become vaccinated. The Governor has issued a mandate for all state government employees and all public and private sectors in health care to become vaccinated beginning August 2nd and implemented by August 23rd. In California we have had a 200% increase in the past 2 weeks of new cases with State wide only 64% fully vaccinated. This has to change in order to prevent breakthrough but even more importantly to prevent new variants and replication and mutation of the virus.
Please continue to be cautious while you are enjoying our new freedoms of getting out, socializing and feeling like we can live again. Remember not all people are vaccinated and unless you know the people you are with have been vaccinated, wear your mask to protect others that may not be. It is being recommended that you wear your mask indoors when you are in stores and crowded places. Help others to see the value of vaccinations so that we increase our numbers. We want to see this over but still need to be cautious and very careful. Just be careful and help to spread the word that our safety and that of those who cannot get vaccinated depends on those who can!!!!!
Thanks
Di