UPCOMING SOCIALS & PROJECTS & EVENTS  

Socials, Meetings, & Events:

Giro Bello – June 27, 2026

April 7, 2026 – 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Rotary Board Meeting @YMCA (Mtgs are 1st Tuesday the month)
April 9, 2026 – 7:00 pm – Rotary International’s Club Meeting  @ Jim Green’s house (Mtgs are 2nd Thursday of the month)
April 10, 2026 – Elsie Allen High School – Fundraiser – See Sam McMillan for more information. (click here for flyer)
April 11, 2026 – 9:30 – 12:30 – Rotaract Suicide Prevention Walk.
April 27, 2026 – 3:15 pm – Foundation Board Meeting @ Andersen, Zeigler (Mtgs are 4th Monday the month)
May 16, 2026 – RYE Celebration & Epic Day of Service
June 27, 2026 – Giro Bello – Register or Volunteer now (See Flyer)

More socials, projects, & events coming soon!

Rotaract Fund Raiser
If anyone would like to donate money to GRA (Global Rotaract Alumni Club) they can donate the money on the GOSC site and include a note that it is for GRA. This would help us tremendously to continue growing as a club and be able to conduct larger scale projects. Here is the donation link: Donate Now – Global Offsite Care

Rotary Club of Santa Rosa
April 1, 2026

Opening The Meeting:

President Julia

President Julia welcomed us on this fine April Fool’s Day, “Where we are united for good in our world and for the Children.  Fred Levin led us in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four/Five Way Test. His Reflection was on the origin of April Fool’s Day.

“The exact origin of April Fool’s Day is unknown, as the tradition is shrouded in mystery and likely evolved from several different ancient, medieval and early modern sources.

However, Mark Twain came up with the best explanation, “The first day of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”

Here is hoping you will pull off a prank on someone today that will tickle your funny bone (and theirs too).

Visitors:

Nada…they are off pulling pranks on their friends today.

Visiting Rotarians:

Edgar Najar Flores from the SRJC Rotaract Club

Sunshine:

Debi Zaft’s grandson was killed in a motorcycle accident (Debi and Nate, know that we are all horrified to hear about your grandson’s death and we are sending hugs to you). She and Nate are with family today. Judy Glenn’s memorial service will be April 17, 2026, at Resurrection Church on Stony Point Road, Santa Rosa at 1:00pm.

50/50 Drawing:

Malia Nichols was at the helm for the drawing today. Tavo Guillen had the right ticket….and he won!  Not sure what the pot was today, but it was $95 last week.

March and February Birthdays:

Somehow, we never celebrated the March Birthdays, so Keven Brown came today loaded with Corrick’s gift cards: Rick Allen, Mark Burchill, Robby Fouts, Ginny Cannon, Andrea Geary, Curt Groninga, Richard Lazovick, Rich Rossi, Patty Kolin, Debi Zaft

Michael Moore and the Joke of the Week:

A man and woman were married or many years. Whenever there was an argument, yelling could be heard deep into the night. The old man would shout, “When I die, I will dig my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!”

Neighbors feared him. The old man liked the fact that he was feared. Then one evening when he was 98, he died. After the burial, the woman’s neighbors, concerned for her safety, asked, “Aren’t you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way out of the grave and haunt you for the rest of your life?”

The wife said “Let him dig. I had him buried upside down…and I know he won’t ask for directions.”

Announcements:

1. 

   Edgar – Announcing the Rotaract Suicide Prevention Walk

   District Assembly is this weekend…bring old tennis shoes that you no longer need.

2. President Julia says the Renaissance Hotel Marriott in Reno is better priced for the Far West District Conference  than the Grand Sierra.
3. President Julia says the upcoming High School Recognition Awards and the SRJC scholarship awards are excellent meetings to bring guests.
4. A Simple Gesture would like a Santa Rosa Rotary club to run the Santa Rosa program.  It would require about 2-3 hours a week.  Malia Nichols said she would be the lead person and Robert Pierce and Ray Giampaoli said they would be part of the team. Curt Groninga will sign up to donate, be a driver, and will donate $1000 to start. Yay team!
5. The Giro Bello has 183 riders! Sponsors still at $30,000 (the goal is $50,000)
6. Edgar from Rotaract, announced their Suicide Prevention Walk on April 11, 2026, from 9:30 to 12:30.

Recognitions:

World traveler John Poremba was back from his Asian cruise that went from Auckland, New Zealand to Tokyo Japan.  He donated $100 to the John Brown Fund.

Peter Holewinski: An immigration story…with a twist.

Peter Holewinski presenting his family’s Immigration Story

Peter’s family, on his mother’s side, came from Lucca Italy.  Interesting to note that the people of Lucca discriminated against the people outside of the walled city. Her father was an expert marble cutter. His talents were of great need after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Anyway, his maternal great grandparents left Italy for the United States. Peter’s grandmother, Giulietta Cerri was born on the voyage in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was issued a false birth certificate. Because she came to the United States with her parents, she got citizenship. The family eventually got to Healdsburg via New York City, Providence RI, and San Francisco.

Peter’s grandfather, Rafael, came to the United States when he was 14 to join his father who made wine and was also a miner. By the time he was sixteen, he joined the United States Army. He served with General Pershing’s troops along the Mexican border during the campaign against Pancho Villa and later rode with the Cavalry in the Philippines. He became a trick rider. He performed at rodeos. He learned to speak English without an accent. He loved this country completely.

He always believed he had promised citizenship in exchange for his military service. That promise was never kept. It wasn’t until 17 years later that he became a citizen. To make matters worse Giulietta lost her citizenship when she married Rafael (now known as Ray).

They did not flee. They were not deported. They were treated, in that moment, with a basic measure of human decency — and eventually, in the early 1930s, both of them became citizens. His grandmother, for the second time.

One of Peter’s slides

There is a wonderful family story about that final hearing, where she respectfully disagreed with the judge on a point about the Constitution, the rest of the family quietly panicking in the courtroom — and the judge, after having a copy of the Constitution brought in, announced that she was right. She received her citizenship with a wry smile.

They went on to own a small business. They raised three children. They had ten grandchildren. They were proud, loyal Americans who had traveled an extraordinarily long road to get there — from Lucca to Brazil to Ellis Island to Providence to San Francisco to Sonoma County — through war, through changing laws, through moments of real legal uncertainty. And they were never made to feel like criminals for it.

Here is a link to his his American Story: An_American_Story_Introduction

Foundation Report:

The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation recently approved a contribution to the Redwood Gospel Mission in support of The Rose Women’s Shelter. “The Rose” provides emergency housing and support for women and children. The $4,300 grant is sufficient to cover over 300 nights of service including shelter, meals and needed supplies. The grant was made possible by the foundation’s Druquer Fund, which was established over 30 years ago.

The Drucquer Endowment Fund for the benefit of “Battered and Abused People” was established by the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation in 1995 with the passing of Catherine Druquer and the designation in her estate plan to help battered and abused people. Catherine was not a member of Rotary but was friends with Rotarian George Thebolt. George informed Catherine about the Rotary Foundation and its mission of

supporting local non-profits with special projects. The Drucquer endowed Fund started with the initial contribution of $53,000 and which has grown to over $115,000. Each year the proceeds from the fund is awarded to a local non-profit serving the needs of battered and abused people.

USEFUL LINKS