By: Priya Jhingan
Lady Grizzly’s back in the house! That’s right, Past President (how good does it feel to say that, Colette?) Colette Lay led today’s meeting since Showtime Koehne is in Mexico, as usual. It appears he has a double life there.
Ms. Lay welcomed us with a picture of a beautiful, plentiful buffet lunch. Our Rotary International President is Shekhar Mehta, and this year’s theme is “Serve to Change Lives”.
Melanie Emig, a Disney fan, greeted us with a thought to bring some whimsy:
“Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.” -Walt Disney
After Melanie led us through the pledge, Colette took us through the 4-way test, which Terry Koehne’s been ignoring these days (probably due to his double life in Mexico). Melanie gave us an update on her life. Her kid is back in school, and work at the Crow Canyon Country Club has been super busy. As she said, who knew that with the pandemic, membership would rise? They’ve been so busy with the golf side of things at CCC that they’ve completely paused golf membership.
Lady Grizzly reminded us about the regular meeting schedule, and encouraged us to join when we can and share our good news with Ana for the Crow’s Call. People in this club like to keep tabs on what each other is doing. Also let us know of any community events that might be happening. There’s still a lot of uncertainty, so let’s keep doing Rotary! :)
Announcements and club business included:
Our August virtual happy hour is happening on 8/31!! Carolyn Degnan revealed the theme for this month’s happy hour: what’s the origin of your first name, and what would you change it to if you could?
Good ol’ Sunny (Norbert Walz) provided an update on our annual Online Auction for Education. This year, it looks like cash donations from sponsors, which typically comprise a huge chunk of our fundraising, will be on the lighter side. If you have any ideas for new sponsors, please reach out to Norbert and Gary Sloan. The biggest ticket items from last year were the vacations, which should still be on our items list this year. We can probably still have a successful auction and recreate the $22,000 item sales, but we may not exceed last year’s overall sales. Again, if you have any ideas, please share them with Norbert.
Julie McKinney shared some good news - San Ramon Regional is willing to host the Veterans Day lunch program this year (pending any change to COVID protocols).
On this note, Dr. Bill announced that Hermann Welm will be on scribe duty for the Veterans lunch. Since everyone is looking forward to Hermann’s perspective on things, particularly on squirrels, you don’t want to miss his notes or the lunch.
Norbert Walz further mentioned that San Ramon Regional donated back $1,000 to the Veterans lunch, which is fantastic news as well.
Birthdays and anniversaries included:
Mike Thelen had an anniversary - he’s been serenading his wife with a guitar for 46 years!!! Their original plans to celebrate at Lassen National Park were halted due to the Dixie fire, but they rerouted to downtown Monterey, and went whale watching!! They saw a lot of whales and a hungry school of fish. They also went for a hot air balloon ride, traveling up to about 2,000 feet.
Colette Lay’s birthday is coming up this Sunday!! Please call her to annoy her and eat cake in her honor.
Guy Greco’s mother recently celebrated her 108th birthday. She’s doing okay for her age. That’s amazing!
That’s it for today. If you have any questions on our club’s meeting schedule, please message or call Showtime Koehne.
Happy September, fellow Rotarians.
Thanks for coming back to us, Lady Grizzly!