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The meeting was called to order at 12:02 p.m. by our spooky Halloween President, Chris “Top Gun” Gallagher. Our president forgot to remind the members that Holger Knaack was our R.I. President this year and the 2020-21 theme is “Rotary Opens Opportunities” despite the fact that few doors will be opened this Halloween. Scary as it is, Chris introduced our Greeter, Judy Lewis. Judy’s thought for the day came from three sources: Jimmy Dean says: I can't change the direction of the wind but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination! Einstein says: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving!!! Churchill says: Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts! After the flag salute, Judy shared that her daughter from Seattle came to visit. She also has seen her local Orinda daughter more often. “This is your Song” movie is in production despite the pandemic delay.
Judy also went to Lake Tahoe but lots of people were not wearing masks. So, she limits her time to various “PODS” which include family, dress store friends, Rotary, general friends. Makes you wonder why Judy shelters in at all! President Top Gun led the group in our welcome tradition of ALOHA. Guests included our guest speaker: Elaine Kociolek What has become a favorite for Rotary Club members, President Top Gun shared “Today’s News You May Have Missed”: Grocery store ceiling collapses revealing someone who had been living above the store. Bulldozer stolen supporting Biden but the driver could not remember why or where he stole the vehicle. Raccoons were discovered in a bizarre banking heist An HOA requested a homeowner to remove a skeleton pole dancer. Emus in Australia learned to walk upstairs where they could enter into a bar and eat French Fries as well as get behind the bar. (No doubt trained by Fred Nevarez and Geoff Disch) A saying posted: “I’m not turning back my clock this year, who wants another hour of 2020?” Announcements: Raffle: Julie shared that we were conducting a raffle today. All were encouraged to attend. Online Auction: Norbert announced that we were finishing up with 130 items at last count. He also received assistance from Kathy Gailey to repackage some of the items. Thus far the club has raised a little over $40,000 in sponsorships. If the club receives minimum bids from the auction, we could raise just short of $60,000 due to the amazing participation of all 59 Rotarians and Norbert’s leadership. In promoting the event Chris and Terry will do a live event. They will send out the Zoom link to participate. There will be three items up for bid along with student entertainment and a cake auction. Norbert has selected 1) Shadow Day with Ana, 2) Pajaro Dunes vacation, 3) 1 year of free Pizza. Chris encourages the club to watch. The live auction will be a web-ex. Dictionaries: Dr. Bill needed one more volunteer for Nov 6 morning to put labels on the dictionaries. Our perennial volunteer, Colette, volunteered. Guy also belatedly volunteered Veterans Day: Julie shared that a Veterans Appreciation program is coming up. Next week Rotarians will receive flags in the mail to make the meeting as festive as possible. Mike Conklin will host the meeting. Gary announced that the Dodgers won the World Series which was met with vehement objections, catcalls and resulted in Gary being muted for the rest of the meeting. Chris Gayler referred to it as the mini-World Series and Vera asked why it was called the World Series when other countries were included. Vera was reminded that Brazil only knew how to play soccer.
Recognitions / Acknowledgements
John Milich celebrated an August birthday which he described as Immaculate conception day, His wife’s October birthday in October and their anniversary in September. With all that excitement, John was recognized for $50 Jerry & Dana Marrs celebrated their Anniversary on Sept. 29th: by going out to dinner at Café Esin. After threatening to share a full slide presentation he too was recognized for $50 Julie & Bryon McKinney also had an Anniversary on Oct. 19th: They went to Monterrey in a borrowed convertible with beautiful weather down Highway 1. Julie announced that she did not get pregnant, but invested in convertible boxer after experiencing the two-seater. She was recognized for $75
Program- Adult Literacy, Elaine Kociolek
Karen is in Mexico at John Tatum’s auction vacation spot so our speaker made her own introduction. Elaine Kociolek, Program Manager at Contra Costa County Library, was here to talk about low adult literacy. She began by asking how many remembered when and how we first learn to read? Few members remember this seemingly automatic skill. Elaine shared some facts: 36 million adults in US can’t read or write above 3rd-grade level. The U.S. ranks 16th of 24 developed countries in a recent assessment. 20% of adults in Contra Costa have trouble reading daily tasks. Low literacy impacts all walks of life. One urban myth indicated that there was a teacher who taught for years who did not know how to read. Elaine explained that the bar for literacy keeps getting higher as demands rise with technology requirements. Barriers caused by low literacy have been exacerbated during the pandemic. Many parents who are asked to help children learn at home are unable. The impact is significant. Low literacy is generally intergenerational. There is a 72% chance of low literacy if the parent is illiterate. Project Second Chance (PSC) is an organization that offers free confidential tutoring for Adults over 16 years. They must be able to read, write or spell at a 6th-grade level This group trains community members who are matched with a learner on 1 to 1 basis for 90 minutes twice per week. PSC is now using Zoom but tutors have traditionally worked in the library or at public coffee shops PSC maintains 5 offices in the county. There are 12 hours of tutor training to help clients read a medicine instruction, obtain a driver’s license or communicate with teachers and schools. Students range from age 18-89 and are predominantly women. There are 30 native languages but students generally fall into 2 groups: 1) where their primary language not English and 2) where there are learning disabilities. The Wilson Reading System is used but requires an additional 6 hours of training for tutors.
Other PSC Achievements: Students have -
48 read book for pleasure
42 wrote a letter or email
9 helped a child with homework
12 received promotions
7 got a driver’s a license
5 citizenship A video was played sharing about student, tutor experiences, and how PSC contributed to their progress. This is Contra Costa Library Literacy Program generally serves students looking to obtain a GED, a Driver’s License, looking to pass the Citizenship exam. This program helps others regain their confidence and dignity. Tutors “pay it forward”. There are two needs of the organization: 1) Spread the Word
2) Become a Tutor (one-year commitment) You can attend orientation session in December. Rotary Questions: With pandemic, does PSC address shortfalls revealed to parents who are having difficulty helping their children? Yes, and the silver lining is that parents are motivated to explore tutoring literacy training as a result. What is the percentage of non-native English-speaking students seeking tutoring? 75% are non-native English. Elaine was asked about her Zoom backdrop. It was a snowy Mt. Diablo How many people who start the program, finish the program? Usually, tutoring is very task oriented, (ie. Obtaining a driver’s license) while others may have learning disability over a 2-3 years. So it is hard to say.
Who funds the program? PSC is funded through Contra Costa Library (75%) as well as State Library (25%) and some through donations. What is the demand for the service and Volunteers? Currently, there are 10 learners waiting with new intakes being expected.
What is the Tutor training-site: www.ccclib.org/psc President Gallagher thanked the speaker for an excellent presentation and announced that next week we will be dark but the Live Auction is happening that evening. The Veterans Day Meeting will be the following week. The Raffle with son Jackson assisting:
Vera Packard was the winner drawing the blue marble but got the cost of her raffle tickets forgiven. There was a 1 in 23 chance of winning the pot. $175 was raised for the club. The meeting was adjourned at 12:52p so Top Gun could go frighten some children before Halloween. He encouraged all to dress up for Halloween particularly soon to be wed Steve Wilcox.
Respectfully submitted,
Gary Sloan
San Ramon Rotary Scribe |
