Volume XX
Number 19

Tuesday
Sept. 21, 2004

Coming Programs Every Tuesday Sept 21 Mike Merrill Rotary Fellowship Climbing Kilimanjaro Sept 28 Jonathan Koehler Napa County Resource Conservation Dist. Oct 5 Sheli Smith The Frolic Oct 12 Bruce Campbell Rotary District Governor Oct 19 Andy Bartlett Youth Exchange Program Oct 26 Pete Lagarias Almost Perfect - Rotaplast & Vietnam Coming Events Oct 16 Foundation Dinner South Windsor, CA Nov 5-14 Festival of Brotherhood Guadalajara, Mexico Birthdays Sept 2 Elaine John Sept 11 Wendell Dinwiddie Sept 14 Margo Kennedy Sept 14 Jim Meehan Sept 15 Suzan Rada Sept 20 David Moreland Sept 22 Beverly Davies-Mes Sept 26 Michael Thomas Wedding Anniversaries Sept 1 Robert Hoffman (Elaine) Sept 14 Bill Word (Margaret) Sept 20 Mike Smith (Dina) Sept 22 John Sales (Joanne) Club Anniversaries Sept 1, 1969 David Rice Sept 1, 1979 William Butler Sept 1, 1989 Joice Beatty Sept 1, 1998 Andy Bartlett Sept 1, 1998 Steve Yost Sept 16, 2003 Jonathan Briano Sept 16, 2003 Ron Sculatti Sept 24, 1996 Frank Toller

A LETTER
FROM ANNE IN BRAZIL
By Polly Keegan
 

KATHLEEN PATTERSON Club President 2004-2005

September 7^th -- A note to the membership: please try and keep track of the weekly assignments as President Kathleen has had to step in several times. She does a great (impromptu) job, and certainly she isn't complaining.

Visitors this week of were Bill Micklie from Fraserburgh, Scotland who presented Kathleen with a great looking Rotary banner. Tom Allen, owner of "Jaunt" was visiting, Moe, our exchange student from Italy, Marilyn Albright who has been married to Al for 36 years! And Ken Horowitz whom everybody knew.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Donations are being accepted for the National Fibromyalgia Research. Mike Thomas is riding in a 520 mile bike race. The race honors his daughter Carrie, who passed away in June.
• President Kathleen described a day in the Rotary in Brazil, -3 hours from Greenwich Mean Time.
• Andy Bartlett want Moe to attend some gams, and is asking for extra tickets. The letter from Annie who is in Brazil is relayed in this issue, along with a couple of photos.
• Tim Coon announced that the process of building the second series of 10 houses in Nicaragua has been redesigned. The first 10 took 7 months to build, the 2^nd group will be finished more quickly.
• Kathleen heartily thanked Wendell Laidley for stepping into the secretary roll in Rotary.

BELL RINGERS:

• Rex Stults is broadcasting High School football for the 11^th year.
• Joice Beatty thanked Hendrik Smeding for sponsoring the High School Ag Boosters dinner. Hendrik underwrote the dinner that raised over $30,000 in less than 5 minutes!

A Letter from Anne in Brazil ... Continued
 

FINEMASTER:

TIM COON

Tim Coon, Finemaster, did a lot of fining.
 

PROGRAM: PEACE CORPS AND THE ROTARY, GEORGE AND CAROL CHAFFEY

George and Carol Chaffey joined the Peace Corps in Liberia back in 1967. Both taught in Monrovia, George at the Law School, and Carol taught 3^rd grade. The Peace Corps experience affected the rest of their lives. They have been involved in all the Rotary International Programs from the Wheelchair Project to the Polio Immunizations. They have had a chance to revisit Africa. The message they wished to convey is that Rotary offers the opportunity to have amazing international experiences, that impact your own life and others. If you have any interest, don't wait! Do it Now!

A LETTER FROM BRAZIL:

The following email was sent to Andy Bartlett from Anne Koscielak, our exchange student in Brazil.

August 24, 2004

Oi Andy!

Sorry about the lateness of this email, but I tried to send a few from my AOL account before realizing that it did not work. I am now about a week and a half into my exchange. I had no trouble with the changing flights or finding my baggage. Thankfully, it all was smooth travelling which made for a great transition into my new home. I was a little bit jet-lagged, especially because I started the  "oh-so-overwhelming-and-early" school only two days after I arrived. The school here is very different from St. Helena High School! I have ten classes, nine of which I attend. It is very difficult for my family to get me to the early class of P.E. twice a week, but there are lots of kids in my class who don't go to P.E. It's common for kids not to go to early classes due to not having early rides to school because the driving age is 18. All of the kids in my class are making a very good effort to help me learn Portuguese, I feel as though I have 30 different tutors who also double as my friends! School begins normally at 7 and lasts until 12, when I usually come home for lunch and then either study or go out with friends to the beach or shopping. The city is huge compared to home, population about 800,000 , so still look forward to exploring most of the city.

I really enjoy the food here too! I have come to love white rice and black beans, seeing as how they are served with every meal, excluding breakfast. They have fruit with every meal too, and usually its either pineapple or watermelon. Delicious! One of my favorite dishes is the frango, or chicken, served with carrot soufflé. I see how now it is normal for exchange students to gain weight while away, because I simply can't get enough of this new food.

Also I love the weather. It very nice right now, about 23 degrees C. It is usually pretty windy during the day, but none-the-less each day seems to be the perfect beach day! The water is quite warm and I have started trying surfing with my host sister from my last family. The exchange rate from dollars to reals also is making this trip much easier. The rate is about 1 dollar: 2.95 reals. That means my money goes about 3 times as far! I know it is very early in the trip, but I have already started buying gifts for other people too!

On Monday I went to my first Rotary meeting. It is a very small club, about 15 members, but even so they made me feel cosy and at home. In honor of my visit they hoisted an American flag. I missed the old "Members of Rotary we greet you..." song, but a year is a very short period of time and I will soon hear that again. Only two of the Rotary, or as here it is call "HO-tary" (the R is pronounced as an H) members speak any English. But the Rotary smile never fails so I had no trouble communicating that I was very pleased to be there. This up coming weekend I am going on my first Rotary event with all of the other exchange students. It will be some sort of trip to some nearby mountains, so I hope it will be fun! I have many Rotary Youth Exchange friends already that attend my school. There is one other American boy, a boy from Denmark, a girl from Turkey, two girls from Germany, and one girl from Austria. I think we still are going to get one more girl from France, but I could be mistaken about that.

I hope to hear that all is well with St. Helena Rotary Club!

Muito Amo, Paz, e Tchaus
(Much love, peace, and goodbyes)
Anne Koscielak

Bay Area Ridge Trail and Lots of Trivia!
By Carol Sobczek

President Patterson opened the September 14^th meeting by having Rex Stults lead the Pledge of Allegiance, after which she read the quite moving "Man in the Glass" as our invocation. 

We welcomed our guests: Loren Gardner's father, Larry; Wendell Laidley's wife, Inger; and Tony Albright's guest, Lidia Wilson, who is a jeweler in St. Helena. We also welcomed visiting Rotarian Dr. Ron Light.

After a rousing version of our welcome song and "Happy Anniversary," President Patterson presented "A Day in the Life of Rotary International."  This week, she introduced us to the 39-member Rotary Club in Caracas, Venezuela, which, despite their small size, has assisted their community with health care and life skills programs, a library, a community garden, and other worthy causes.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

There were too many announcements made to name all, but President Patterson announced that Father Mac and Phil Toohey were absent because they were in Katmandu delivering wheelchairs. Another announcement of note was made by Mike Thomas, who put 150 miles on his bicycle this past week to get in shape for a 520-mile ride for the National Fibromyalgia Foundation in honor of his daughter, Carrie, who passed away recently. Way to go, Mike! Andy Bartlett reported from our exchange student in Brazil, who is in touch (via e-mail of course) with a number of other Rotary exchange students around the world with quite interesting "handles".

New Rotarians Vince Van Dyke and Kelly Crane spoke briefly about aspects of their respective businesses (construction/financial planning) which they most enjoy. Loren Gardner, Tony Albright, and Steve Carbone were this week's drawing winners.

STEVE CARBONE

Finemaster Steve Carbone then had us all stumped with a round of "How Much We Forgot on Our Summer Vacations" trivia. He aimed his very interesting questions at Rotarians who did not do a make-up this summer. Will we ever forget that February of 1865 had no full moon, or that Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors? I may never wear lipstick again after learning that lipstick contains fish scales. Oh well, I like fish anyway. . .
 

PROGRAM:  HOLLY VAN HOUTEN, EXEC. DIR. OF BAY AREA RIDGE TRAIL COUNCIL
 

HOLLY VAN HOUTEN EXEC. DIR. OF BAY AREA RIDGE TRAIL COUNCIL

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council's ambitious goal is "to complete the 500-mile multi-use regional trail around the ridge lines of San Francisco Bay, connecting people and communities to parks and open spaces." Ms. Van Houten, by means of a colorful slide show, gave us a brief history of the council and the trail project, enumerated the many benefits the trail will have to our communities and the Council's current accomplishments, including completion of over 1/2 of the 500 miles of trails and a guidebook going into its third edition. She explained some of Napa County's particular issues, and that the Napa County Committee, which includes some fellow Rotarians, was addressing these issues. We can all help by fundraising or even volunteering with trail construction and maintenance. Ms. Van Houten explained that, when the trail is complete, we could walk all the way to Gilroy! Wouldn't that be something! Let's all consider ways we can help to complete this very valuable trail which will be something we, and our children and grandchildren, will be able to enjoy for years to come.

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