The Meeting Opening The meeting was called to order by President Glenn Pulliam, at BCCC.  Glenn asked Tom Knowles to lead the pledge, which he did.  Jim Patterson then presented the invocation.   Then Larry Bradley’s led us in singing “God Bless America”.

Announcements

Join hundreds of Rotarians and other North Valley notables for our annual Gala, abenefit for local youth. The event includes dinner, music, live and silent auction and hosted beer and wine bar. Dress in your St. Paddy’s Day best!Sponsorships, Tables and individual tickets are available.  It will be Sat Mar 16 2024 at 05:00 pm to 09:00 pm at Bell Memorial Union, 400 W. 1st St. Chico, Ca, 400 W 1st St, Chico,CA 95929-0001, United States, Chico, California. 

President Glenn thanked Jessica Thorpe for putting together a basket for the silent auction at this Chico Sunrise event

All Club Meeting:

President Glenn announced that Chico Rotary was hosting all local clubs on April 9^th for a joint meeting.   Glenn said that since it is on a regular meeting night for us, I will be our meeting for the week.  The Club will pick up the cost of the dinner for members.  If you bring a guest, your cost for the guest will be $22.

Club Social:

Diana Selland announced that the club social meeting on April 30^th will be at Marigold Marketplace in Durham.  It is located at 2500 Durham-Dayton Hwy #8, Durham, CA 95938

We will hear from Kelly, the owner, about her business model and what she's brought to the community. We will have beer &wine available for purchase, and dinner will be provided from a host of her local vendors.

Invitation and RSVP info will be coming out soon.

Interact:

Diana Selland reported on her attendance at an Interact Club meeting and selecting students for Club Venture.  Las year’s attendees were there talking about their great experience.  The deadline for applying is March 20^th.

Introduction of Visitors 

Larry Bradley had two Students of the Month present with parents.  He introduces the following:

Liam Wilbur, Student of the month for January, accompanied by his parents Will and Erica Wilbur.

Brooklyn Wilkes, Student of the Month for February, who was accompanied by her mom DeAnna Kellogg.

Marty Wilkes, principle of Durham High School, joined by his wife Shanna.

Steve Plume introduced Sharon Robertson.

I introduced Tim Calhoon, who was my program for the night.

PETs. Conference

(President Elect Training)

Peggi Koehler talked about her recent great experience at the PETs conference.  With the adjacent photo prepared for her for the hospitality suite by Jen Liu and her husband

Recognitions

None tonight.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be March 26^th at BCCC.  Daryl Polk will present Rob Doornbos, Founder and CEA of Weather Tools, Inc.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

Students of the Month

Larry Bradley presented Students of the Month plaques to:

Liam Wilkes, Student of the Month for January

Brooklyn Wilkes, Student of the Month for February.

Tonight’s Meeting Program

I presented Tim Calhoun, who, upon his retirement as Executive Director of theCalifornia Community Colleges Technology Center at Butte College moved to Butte Creek Canyon and became a student of the canyon’s fascinating history.  He talked about early day gold mining in the Butte Creek Canyon and around the Centerville area.  He talked about the various ways gold was mined from panning to dredgers. 

He took to gold mining himself and has his own mining claim in the Canyon.

For more information on the history in Butte Creek Canyon visit the CentervilleSchoolhouse (where my two great aunts, Ada Woods Hintz and Cora Woods Hintz were the first two teachers) and the Colman Museum.  They are open Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00-4:00pm.

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some greatthings, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary memberswho provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift ofRotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make adifference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donationsaccumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

If you have any questions ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The RotaryFoundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

Must Be Present to Win Drawing:

Steve Plume drew Jen Liu’s name.  Jen was present to win.

Glenn then closed the meeting.

________________________________________________________________

From District 5160

Spring Assembly: South – March 23, Fairfield

Spring Assembly: North – April 6, Redding

Field of Rotary Dreams 2023-24 District Conference – April 26-28, Sacramento

RI Convention Social – May 26, Singapore

District 5160 Awards & Installation – June 13, Davis

World Peace Conference – January 24-26, 2025, Rohnert Park (Sonoma Wine Country)

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From Rotary International

Rotary projects around the globe

March 2024

By Brad Webber

United States

Most North American plant species depend on insects, predominantly bees, forpollination. “Your whole food web is supported by bees,” says Dave Hunter, a member of the Rotary Club of Woodinville, Washington. The club leads a projectthat nourishes bees while beautifying the Seattle suburb. Members use donated wine barrels to construct planters to attract pollinators. Local businesses cansign up to have one placed at their storefront for a donation of $150 a year to the club’s foundation. The planters have QR codes that take visitors toinformation on the club’s website about the program and pollinators’ importance. “We are not just putting planters out; we’re educating throughthem,” says Hunter, proprietor of Crown Bees, which sells bees, bee houses, and other materials. The club also partnered with the city, businesses, a gardenclub, and a nonprofit organization to host a Pollinator Fest in May that attracted about 500 people to hear the latest buzz on bees.

Canada

The Rotary Club of Olds, Alberta, is livening up its process for awarding grants to communitygroups. In November, representatives of about a dozen organizations pitched their proposals at a contest modeled on Dragons’ Den, a CBC television program (much like Shark Tank in the U.S.) in which venture capitalists judge entrepreneurs’ proposals for investment. Theorganizations were allotted five minutes to make their pitch, followed by five minutes of questioning by a panel of Rotarian “dragons,” or judges. ClubPresident Randy Smith concedes that the awardees would have received their share of the roughly $10,000 regardless of who won. But he says the spiritedaffair gave the groups, including Interactors and fire department cadets, an opportunity to hone their presentation skills and showcase their creativity.

Hungary

When the operator of a summer camp for children with Down syndrome or other cognitive disabilitiesannounced in 2021 that she could no longer run the weeklong program, the Rotaract Club of Kecskemét stepped up. The initiative to keep the program going has become “our club’s biggest and favorite project,”says Anna Antalfalvi. She and other members of the university-based club are education and psychology students. “Our aim is tohelp children develop through activities during the day. This allows parents to relax and work through their difficulties in support groups.” The club’s eightactive members and a few volunteers run workshops, cook, serve, and clean. The camp, which is free for participants (17 children and their families in 2023),costs the club about $3,100 a year. “Our sponsoring Rotary club helped for the first time this year, providing a day’s food and cooking a lunch on anotherday,” Antalfalvi says. “When they personally experienced the atmosphere of the camp and the importance of the work we do there, they decided to make it part of their annual fundraising goal to help fund the camp.”

South Africa

What began with an enthusiastic health worker telling U.S. Rotarians about water scarcity in SouthAfrica has blossomed into a partnership that has overhauled kitchens, bathrooms, and other sanitation facilities at nearly a dozen schools servingmore than 7,200 students. It began with Julia Heemstra, who grew up in South Africa, speaking to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in2018. Club members decided to support her in providing handheld water filters — and were eager to do more. Heemstra connected the Wyoming Rotarians with theRotary Club of Grahamstown, South Africa, which was at the time rehabilitating sanitation facilities at Ntsika Secondary School. “They had an inconsistent water supply. When the water is shut off, the schoolshave to shut,” says Stuart Palmer, a past governor of District 5440. “We were seeing the children shortchanged in their education.” The clubs partnered on aglobal grant to do that work, then a district grant to upgrade the water systems at 10 additional schools. Then, in 2022, the two clubs received a$400,000 global grant to upgrade toilet and kitchen facilities at seven of the schools where they’d previously worked. “Seeing the incredible change — you notonly have water, but you’re getting a face-lift on all these schools — it’s huge,” Palmer says.