UPCOMING SOCIALS & PROJECTS & EVENTS  

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

Opening The Meeting:

Rose Frances led us in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four/Five Way Test, followed by her Reflection

President Julia opened the meeting with, “Welcome to the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa where we are “United for Good in Santa Rosa and the World”

Rose Frances led us in the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four/Five Way Test.  Her Reflection was about growing up in Chicago and the immigration stories that she heard in the classroom when her teachers would ask, “Where did your ancestors come from?”

Which is why she decided today to recite the Emma Lazarus’ poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty.  Rose got a little emotional reading the poem and could not finish it.  She has such a big heart!

Vistors:

Visiting Rotarians:

Sunshine Report:

It was about our guest speaker Susan. She was all prepared to fly when her blood pressure soared, and she had to go to the hospital.  Too bad for us.  It would have been great to see her and hear her stories. Susan was a member of our club for about 10 years.  She is a retired basketball coach.  Ask Steve Olson about her shoe collection and what he did to it on a visit back east!

50/50 Drawing:

Fred holds the bag of marbles, but Michael does not pick the winning one.

Fred Levin ran the drawing today, and we had 11 marbles in the bag. New member-to-be, Michael Tonjum, not only was asked to pull out a ticket, but he pulled out his own ticket! But he got a yellow marble and put his $10.00 consolation fee into the Polio Pail.

Joke of the Week with Michael Moore:

Driving in the countryside, a copier salesman saw a chicken run past his car.  It appeared that the chicken had three legs. He came upon a farmer and asked, “Did you see that three-legged chicken run by?”  “Yes.” said the farmer “I raise them. You see me, my wife and son really like drumsticks.” The salesman asked, “How do they taste” The farmer said, “I don’t know. I have never been able to catch one.”

Announcements:

1. We will be passing the hat for our wait staff next week. Bring extra cash and be generous.
2. Diane Moresi reported that we had 93 children at the Nutcracker this past Sunday. (Click here to view pictures) The show was very good, and the children loved it! Each child got a letter from Santa and a gift card. The chaperones had a good time too!  Santa got asked some good questions:

Where are your elves? “At the North Pole.”
Where are your reindeer? “On the roof.”
Were you at the teen center last week? “Yes, I was.”

3. 

   Ray & Nate auction off Sam’s donated origami wreath

   Ann Gospe thanked us for all the coats, hats, gloves, etc. That she is taking to Face to Face. You can bring more next week.

4. Jeff Kolin and Kris Anderson are going to the 80^th anniversary celebration of the United Nations in San Francisco on December 11^th. Did you know Rotary was there at the founding of the United Nations?
5. Ann Gospe says there are a few more bell ringing slots she needs to fill.
6. Sam McMillian brought an origami wreath to auction off. He paid $50.00 for it at his men’s club. Ray Giampaoli auctioned it off, and Ann Gospe paid $100.00 for it.
7. Ray also is the leader of the Giro Bello this year, and he let the club know that a whole lot is changing this year. The start and end of the ride will be a Balletto Winery. All the routes will be new this year; heading south towards the coast and Marin County.  We will have live entertainment and a single vendor to provide all the food.
8. Debi Zaft reminded us that next week is our last meeting before Christmas. Wear your favorite holiday outfit. We will have eggnog!
9. On January 24, 2026, District 5130 is planning a multiclub tree planting day with Forests Unlimited. Forests Unlimited is a 501 (c)(3) that is involved in educating the public about California forestry practices and reforesting burned/logged areas. Forests Unlimited holds several volunteer tree planting days each year and has planted thousands of redwoods over the years. On that day we will be planting 12-inch redwood tree In the Jenner Headlands Preserve, likely carpooling from Duncans Mills. It will be from 8:30 to 3:00, lunch is provided. All tools will be provided, but if you have a favorite shovel, bring it along with a hat and water. This is the third project that District 5130 has conducted in the past few years. The first two were very successful, well attended, and a LOT of trees were planted!
10. Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Scholarship Applications – The Scholarship Committee is excited to announce that the 2026 Scholarship applications are now available! We ask for your assistance in sharing the following information with friends, family, and anyone you know who may have connections to eligible students. The more applications we receive, the better our selection of qualified recipients will be. Thank you for your support! (Click here to view the letter)(Click here to view the flyer)

Installation of Our Newest Member:

Michael Tonjum getting installed as our newest member

Michael Tonjum was installed as our newest member. His wife, Jan Gilman, was here to meet us too. Curt Groninga will be his mentor.  He is a retired psychologist, married for 45 years with 2 adult kids and 2 grandkids. He is an avid golfer and bird watcher. He loves to travel, and Paris is his favorite place in the whole world (France, of course…not Paris, Texas). He hates brussel sprouts.

This week’s featured program: What do you do when your speaker cancels at the last minute? Improvise! So, this week’s program, “Funny Travel Stories.”

1. Susan Nowacki Makes Potatoes in Japan. Susan went to Japan to visit an exchange student.  Not knowing what to expect, she encountered some cultural differences! First, she brought napkin rings as a gift, not knowing that the Japanese do not use napkins. She was to make them dinner and did not know that the Japanese do not use ovens like we have in the United States. However, they did have a convection oven with a very flimsy tray.  After cooking the potatoes, the tray could not hold the potatoes, and they fell into the soapy dishwater in the sink! They rinsed them off, and nobody knew the difference.
2. Michael Tonjum was in Prague on a riverboat cruise. He and his wife were at the end of the Charles Bridge and needed to cross the street. The light was flashing, so they assumed that meant they were safe to cross.  Nope! The exact opposite and a policeman stopped them.  He asked to see their passports, but they did not have them, nor their driver’s licenses. He wrote them a ticket, but they did not have any money to pay the fine.
3. Kris Anderson was on a train with two girlfriends going from France to Spain. They had paid for the ride to Madrid, but when they changed trains at the border, the second train was an express train…which costs more. When the conductor came to check their tickets, he said they owed more money for the faster train. But he would only talk to Kris because she was the only one of the three who was shorter than him. The one friend, JoAnna, was fluent in Spanish and French but he refused to talk to her. So JoAnna told Kris what to say. Turns out he wanted one additional Franc…One.  They think he was pulling their legs for fun… and one Franc.
4. 

   Mark telss us all about his emergency landing in Reykjavik, Iceland

   Mark Burchill and Mel Konrad were flying from France to San Francisco when their plane had to make an emergency landing in Reykjavik, Iceland. They were stuck for six hours. In the meantime, Mark went shopping for an Icelandic souvenir and bought a Bjork CD that she recorded, before she became famous, of Jazz.

But wait! There’s more! The flight crew had to have a mandatory rest period. By the time they got home, they were 36 hours late. Recently another plane had the same issue.  Was that the same plane…?

5. Ray Giampaoli had this goal to shoot one, each, of the four subspecies of turkeys in North America. He wanted to go hunting in the Midwest for one of them. He made arrangements to go hunting on a guy’s land and in trade Ray would host him at his duck club when he wanted to come west to hunt. Well, this guy is a Rotarian. “Jodi asks, “Oh, how much is this trip going to cost us?” They would be going to have their annual fund-raising event while Ray was there.  Ray went to Balletto to pick up a couple of Pinot for Polio bottles to take with him for their auction. However, Ray left them in the car he hired to get him from the airport to the place he was staying…a six hour drive each way. He went and got them, and they were auctioned for $300 a piece and a trip west to his duck club for $1500.
6. Peter Holewinski was working for Citibank back in the early 1990’s when they reopened an office in Hanoi, Vietnam. They flew into Vietnam on an old Russian aircraft. The city really had built nothing new since the French left in 1954, so it looked a lot like a provincial France…with people drying rice in the streets. They showed him the lake where John McCain landed and was imprisoned.  They were invited to go see the old American Embassy that had been mothballed since the Americans left in 1975. There were packets of cigarettes on the floor.  The handwritten signs for the escape route on the roof were still there.
7. Casey and Pam D’Angelo spend a few years working overseas. One of the funny stories was on an overnight car Ferry going to Newfoundland. They were told that the ferry would arrive at 6:30 am the next morning. Turns out it arrived at 5:30 am and their car was first in their line to get off.  The other guests were none too happy waiting for Casey and Pam to get to their car!

So those are our funny traveling stories for this time. Maybe we should do this again.

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