Next meeting
Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Health Insurance Counseling
and
Advocacy Program

Kanani Reynolds & Frank Nelson

PLEASE NOTE: In-Person & Zoom meetings returned!  Please register.

–> Debi Zaft will email you the link for online, once you have paid.  Use this link to pay.  CLICK HERE!

Wednesday March 30:  Hole In The Head
Wednesday April 6: Past President’s Day
Wednesday April 13: Valley of the Moon Children’s Foundation
Wednesday April 20: Competitive Ice Dancer
Wednesday April 27: Puerto Vallarta Water Project

Click here for the current calendar (Subject to updates).

UPCOMING SOCIALS & PROJECTS  (Currently 2 Events Listed)

USEFUL LINKS

Visit our district at: http://www.rotary5130.org
Check out Rotary International at: http://www.rotary.org
Come see us at: http://rotarymeansbusiness

Watch The Meeting:  Did you miss the meeting?  Here is a link to the recording of last week’s meeting:
(Click Here)
Please note it is only available to view until: 3/27/22

Opening Ceremonies:

President Ray greeted us and our guests. Suzanne Nowacki led us in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four-Way Test. Since we were a day away from St Patrick’s Day, she read an Irish blessing. “May you always find blue skies above your head, shamrocks beneath your feet, laughter and joy aplenty, kindness from all you meet, good friends and kin to miss you if ever you choose to roam, and a path that’s been cleared by angels themselves to carry you safely home.”

Visitors:

Dr. Sundari Mase (via Zoom), Dr. Kismet Baldwin, Dr. Rachel Rees, David Rees. Francoise Rees, Vice Mayor Eddie Alvarez, Councilwoman Natalie Rogers, Councilwoman Dianna McDonald

Visiting Rotarians:

Anna from the Rotary Club of Gualala

New Member:

Today we inducted talented Odalis Medianero in as a member. She was sponsored by Julia Parranto and is a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch (as is Steve Reuter). She comes from a family of Rotarians in her native Panama.  Please make sure to introduce yourself and welcome her to our outstanding club!

Thank you from the Symphony:

President Ray read to us a letter from the Santa Rosa Symphony thanking us for the $5000.00 and said how they were going to use the money for music education.

Bowling:

Ann Gospe says that we have room for two more bowlers for March 31 at the Epicenter. Contact her if you want to join in on the fun. (see the flyer above in the Upcoming Programs section).

Hop To It For Hunger:

We sold 100 bags of beer last Saturday. Three more were sold at the meeting. We have 11 more cases, so if you wanted to buy and did not, contact Jeff Kolin. We have enough beer for another 44 bags and would like to sell it ASAP.

Giro Bello:

We are up to 137 riders. Sponsorships are wanted, so if you know of any business that would like to sponsor and get a couple of free rides out if it, contact them and give them a sponsor package.

Rotary in Ukraine:

Jose Guillen says that we have $9000.00 that will be wired to the Rotary Club of Cherkassy in Ukraine for medical supplies. This is a highly fluid situation so the World Community Service Committee will be working hard to ask for more funds for this and their other projects. If you can help, please give as generously as you can. Right now, they have the wine basket raffle and the Instant Paul Harris Award Raffle going.

Today’s Program:  The First Annual Public Healthcare Service Awards:

Once again, Carolyn Fassi has done an outstanding job putting the program together and rolling with the punches when we had it scheduled for last year and had to cancel it because of the Fall Covid rebound. Today’s honorees were Dr. Sundari Mase, Dr. Kismet Baldwin and Dr. Rachel Rees. The Sonoma County Public Health Department’s scope includes: Disease Control Surveillance and Response, Public Health Laboratory testing services (for Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, and Humboldt counties), the Office of Vital Statistics, Public Health Preparedness, Emergency Medical Services Oversight (to the emergency medical care delivery system in Sonoma and Mendocino counties), Environmental Health and Safety, Family Health (including Maternal, and Child Health, and the supplemental nutrition program known as “WIC”), and, the “Health Communities programs.

Dr. Mase says that the Sonoma County’s Public Health Department covers so much more than the Covid response that we are so familiar with. They inspect restaurants, community pools, dairy inspections, animal services and more. They run health and dental clinics, protection of women and children, in-home care for the elderly, healthy eating, vital statistics and so much more. They are the regional laboratory serving Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino Counties. They even have a tuberculosis team which was the foundation for their attack on Covid when we it reared its ugly head in 2020. How coincidental that this meeting is almost 2 years to the day from the March 18, 2020, shutdown that has changed our lives so much! The TB team’s protocol is similar to Covid, so they were able to jump right in. Sonoma County’s shut down and mask mandate was in place before the State of California. We flattened the Covid curve. The most recent statistics show that we have only 1221 active cases, 8 hospitalized and another 2 in ICU. County positivity is now 6.10 per 100,000 people. 26 people infected per the most recent day’s reporting. 81% of the population has been fully vaccinated. Approximately 105,423 people in Sonoma County have not been vaccinated or are only partially vaccinated. 481 deaths in the last two years. We have come a long way and have much to be proud of says Dr. Mase.

Dr. Kismet Baldwin is the Deputy Health Officer. Her job was to oversee the implementation of Covid protocol.  They hired 150 people to work the do the tracking, testing, vaccinating and case management. As said, the tuberculosis team was their model. There was no County infrastructure, so they had to figure it out and build it. There was concern, from the very beginning, that equity did not exist for all. Many people lacked access to the resources, so they had their work spelled out to find the underserved, build trust and engagement.

Dr. Rachel Rees is the Director of the Public Health Laboratory. Dr. Rees came to her position in 2019.  The lab was started in in 1951. The lab is does testing for disease, but also does testing animal, dairy, water, rabies, TB, food borne illnesses, and shellfish besides Covid. As previously mentioned, they were able to quickly scale up because of the tuberculosis lab.  Their lab had the second highest testing volume for Covid in the State of California. Dr. Rees credited their relationship with other labs, the police and fire departments, etc for being able to handle the volume and get it done. they were able to buy some new equipment which will help them in the future with any new pathogens. The lab has been running 24/7 for two years and the staff has doubled during the crisis.

Program Slides

Click on the image for some of the program slides

Additional Pictures

Click image below for slideshow of additional pictures.

Governor, District 5130

Dustin Littlefield

Secretary

Debi Zaft P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Board of Directors

President Elect, Kris Anderson
Club Service I, Membership, Julia Parranto
Club Service II, Club Meetings, Casey D’Angelo
Club Service III, Fundraising, Diane Moresi
Club Service IV, Member Activities, Anne Gospe
Club Service V, Information Technology and Records, Pete Lescure
Club Director, Casey Carter
Community Service I, Member Involvement, Rio Ray
Community Service II, Youth, Andrea Geary
Vocational Service, Carolyn Fassi
International Service, Dan Balfe

DIGITAL EDITION No. 448 March 16, 2022  EDITOR: Kris Anderson PHOTOGRAPHER: Jeff Gospe PUBLISHER: Richard Lazovick