April 22, 2010

TODAY'S PROGRAM
Project Amigo
Susan Hill & Ted Rose,
Host: Cathy Wilcox-Barnes

Thank you, pP David Kenitzer, for pinch-hitting at last week’s Club meeting. I had a business conference in Santa Rosa (lovely in Spring!) and PE Eleanor was waylaid by a late piano delivery, so we are grateful for your stepping up at the last minute. I am told the meeting was a most interesting presentation by Jesse Locks of the Economic Resource Council discussing the ERC’s New Business Network for young professionals and entrepreneurs. They’re doing good work keeping our young go-getters in our community building our business climate.

The big event this week for our Club is, of course, Rotarians at Work Day. We ran into some logistical difficulties with our Penzance Project. Instead, we will be helping the Nevada City Cemetery District spruce up one of its historic cemeteries for the coming conference of the California Historic Preservation Foundation and for Memorial Day. We will be out there in official, "Rotarians at Work" tee-shirts, work gloves and garden tools making things look better in our town and exemplifying Service Above Self. On Saturday from 8am to 9am, we need a crew of 5-6 people at the Lewis Road Cemetery to rake pine needles and leaves. You will have to park by the HEW building on Willow Valley Road and walk a half block or so to the Cemetery as parking there is quite limited. We need everyone in the Club who can make it to be at the Pinegrove Cemetery (off Red Dog) from 9:30 to 2. We will be doing landscape maintenance work for this historic cemetery, too. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served, so think of it as a picnic with some aerobic exercise! We also need tools: hand rakes (mostly light-duty for leaves, but a few heavier ones would be good, too); wheelbarrows; a chainsaw; a pole saw; a lopper/pruner; 5 square-headed, flat shovels; 2 regular shovels; and a gas leaf blower. Let Cathy Wilcox-Barnes know what you can bring. Bring your own work gloves, too, and long pants and long sleeves, sunglasses, cap and sunscreen are a good idea, too. See you Saturday!

Consider attending the District Conference, a District-wide, end-of-the-year celebration. You can register as late as at the conference itself (May 21-23 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno), but the price goes up again May 4th. Register on line at www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=807265. Sponsorship opportunities are listed there, too. The Club will provide a $50 subsidy if you attend for at least an over-night stay. Treasurer Ellen Davis has the details. We will provide as many subsidies as we raise funds for on a first-come-first-served basis. If we raise more than needed via our weekly raffles from now through May, we will donate the balance to the District to cover its conference costs. Join in the fun! Friday night’s dinner features sitting RI President John Kenny, quite an honor for our District and that should be an especially interesting program.

Our upcoming program is Project Amigo. Leaders Susan Hill and Ted Rose will tell us about this admirable effort to enable the poor children of Colima, Mexico to achieve their highest potential by providing educational opportunities, material support, enrichment activities, and medical and dental services not otherwise available to them. I will miss Thursday’s meeting due to a business commitment, but you’ll be in good hands with PE Eleanor (unless the piano movers conspire against her again, which seems unlikely!). I’ll see you Saturday for RAWD!