Escondido Sunrise Rotary; Meeting to Serve our Community via Zoom; and “The San Diego Blood Bank; Our Own Source of Lifesaving Blood”…May 20, 2021
As we all try to conduct our professional pursuits in new ways, it’s appropriate to remind ourselves of who we are as a Serving Organization… Our accomplishments, our fellowship and the reminder of our many successes is valuable as we await the time we can gather together again…
President Chris opened the meeting… Finally with the Presidential Bell…
Shown are President Chris and President-Elect, Richard in the ‘Sunrise Rotary Command Center’… And, with the Bell… Hooray!!
And, with our Presidential Bell finally returned… We had a service and fun-filled great Sunrise Rotary Zoom meeting…
Past President, George Beitner led our salute to our Nation’s Flag…
Membership Chair, Dr. Joe Holtz offered an invocation…
Guests and Visitors:
None this week…
Now, some Sunrise Rotary member milestones…
Birthdays:
None this week
Anniversaries:
None this week
Rotary Anniversaries:
None this week
Rotarians Having Fun and Serving…
All kinds of fun and service these two weeks… Pictures are worth a thousand words…
Celebration of Life for Past President, John Masson…
Several Sunrise Rotarians attended an event celebrating Past President, John Masson’s life…
Pictured in this photo is a plaque that will be installed at the school in Mexicali that has been the recipient of our work along with the Rotary Club of Calafia Mexicali… Past President John was an active volunteer on many of those projects… Along with the plaque are pictured John’s family and Past President, Mark Hoekstra…
In this photo, more of the Sunrise Rotarians that attended the Celebration of John’s Life… Also included in the photo is an artist creating a caricature of John from a photo of him enjoying a Mexicali Project experience…
Hiking in the Utah Mountains and Finding Rotary Present…
President Elect, Richard Agnew and his bride, Marcia were enjoying the great outdoors near Midway Utah… On the mountain trail, they crossed over a creek with a bridge provided by local area Rotary Clubs…
Sunrise Rotarians Serving, and Announcements:
Mark you Calendars…
Note some service opportunities coming up…
Support for Neighborhood Health Vaccination Clinics…
President Elect-Elect, Tina Pope reported on the continuing need for volunteer support throughout May and June at Vaccine Clinics conducted by Neighborhood Health. An email was sent to all members with available dates…
Rotary Foundation Support…
Past President, and Foundation Chair, Kevin Svetich reported on Escondido Sunrise Rotary’s standing in District 5340 as to Foundation support this year…
Past President Kevin sharing the details…
High Fives:
Celebration of Life for Mexicali Volunteer, Al McDonald…
Past President, Mark Hoekstra shared that Al McDonald, a long-time Mexicali project volunteer had passed away. Al’s family will be celebrating his life on May 23 at his home in Lakeside. Because of Al’s long-term commitment to Rotary Service, a Paul Harris Fellow Award will be presented to honor Al’s Rotary service… His son’s will receive the recognition of their father’s volunteer efforts…
Program:
San Diego Blood Bank representative, Claudine Van Gonka was our Speaker…
Club Secretary, John Schwab introduced Claudine… She has served with the Blood Bank for 17 years, and is currently the Director of Communications…
Claudine Van Gonka speaking to Sunrise Rotarians…
Claudine provided some history of the San Diego Blood Bank, the only local blood-providing organization in San Diego. She shared a photo of the connection the Blood Bank has to the community; in 1979, the PSA crash over San Diego was a huge tragedy, with no survivors, however residents flocked to the Blood Bank’s headquarters to donate blood… Just because they wanted to do something because of the tragic plane crash…
The Blood Bank delivers 3,000 components of blood, whole blood and platelets each week… And, as donors come to the blood centers, they receive a ‘mini’ health checkup as well as wellness education.
There are many ways for individuals to support the Blood Bank’s mission; along with blood donations, money can be donated, or one can volunteer at a donor center, and we can all spread the word…
An important goal of the Blood Bank is to reach out to younger donors; many of the long time donors are advanced in age… There is no upper age for donors as long as one is health; however efforts are underway to attract young donors, such efforts include blood drives at high schools and colleges in an effort to engage young people with a lifelong commitment to ‘sharing life’…
Claudine shared photos of recipients of blood support from the Blood Bank; all of those stories bring empathy from potential donors…
During the Q & A time, Past President John Boyce raised a question and shared that he is ‘Double Red’ donor… Thanks for being a regular donor, John…
Next Week’s Meeting:
Davinder Singh of the Duwara Consciousness Foundation will be our speaker…
Thanks for Attending Today’s Meeting…
Support for our Escondido Community …
Our great community and the success of its businesses is all of our responsibilities… Support the businesses that are doing all they can to survive during this challenging time… Take out some chow… Be ready to support them when the economy begins working again…
The ‘Giving Arch’ on Grand Avenue and Centre City Parkway reminds us that Escondido is a caring, giving community…
To all; be safe and be well…. God Bless those men and women that carry the load at our medical facilities, and God Bless the first responders… May our governmental leaders be wise, thoughtful and smart as this pandemic is overtaken by our hard work and collective support…
Online Meetings:
Technical Support for Online Meetings:
Our on-line meetings continue to be technically managed by President Elect Richard Agnew… Thanks for that Richard… And, Richard is prepared to support all of our attempts at joining the on-line meetings… Look for his email with details and links to log on to the upcoming Zoom meetings…
Watch for emails defining the next online meeting. The system works fine, dependent upon your technical support available through your PC or laptop…
SEE YOU SOON… ON LINE OR IN PERSON….. Next meeting; Thursday May 27; 7:30 AM… Check President Chris’ or President Elect, Richard Agnew’s email for the Zoom Link…
