Déjà vu! We were back again in the “big” room, Sequoia A in lieu of the Elm Room. Due to an electrical issue the podium was stuck in the lowest position. Even President Cary felt it was too short.
After the Pledge of Allegiance Cary asked Rachel Ni to come forward for the Thought of the Day. She shared a lesson that she had learned while working in a restaurant from her first boss. He told her to work as if she owned the business. If she did this, she would always be successful in whatever she pursued.
With no visiting Rotarians we moved on to guests. Marilyn Orr introduced Joe McKane, a former member and past president of our Rotary Club. He had traveled all the way from Marblehead, MA.
Linna Golodriga brought along two guests. Fritz Brauner then introduced Pam Butler and Heidi Shell, both from the Women’s Coaching Alliance.
Cary led off the announcements by informing the members that our Annual Golf Tournament, our major fundraiser, will be held Monday, September 30 at Green Hills Country Club. Jennifer Pence then reminded us that our Joint Services meeting with the Lions Club will be Thursday, June 6 at their Hall. We will, therefore, not meet on the 5th.
Christine Krolik let us know that our very own Al Royse was being honored by the Pacific Council of the Boys Scouts as their Distinguished Citizen. There are still tickets available for the dinner on May 16. Information to follow.
An upcoming Fireside Chat is scheduled for Tuesday, June 18 at the home of Past-president Joe La Mariana. Doug Person is rounding up new members to attend and learn a bit more about our Club.
Fritz Brauner came forward to make a special presentation. He introduced Pam Butler, founder and CEO of the Women’s Coaching Alliance. She gave a short presentation of the mission and activities of her organization. They have accomplished much in their brief tenure.
- 70 - Young women have coached
- 500+ - Kids have had a WCA coach
- 7 - Number of sports WCA coaches
- 1.5 - Years WCA has been developing female coaches
- 16 - Communities interested in getting involved
- 100% - WCA Coaches plan to coach again
Fritz then presented Pam with a check for $1,500 to further their efforts to get more young women involved in coaching.
Jennifer Pence asked Rachel Ni to join her for our Two Truths and a Lie segment. Rachel presented three “facts” about her life. 1) She was a roller-skating champion in middle school in Taipei. 2) In college her favorite subject was anthropology. 3) As a child she wanted to be a comedian when she grew up. The votes were tallied. Rachel admitted that she actually flunked anthropology so that was the lie.
Linna Golodriga came forward to introduce our speaker. Sasha Vasilyuk. Sasha is a New York Times-featured journalist who grew up between Ukraine, Russia, and San Francisco. She has just released a new novel; Your Presence is Mandatory. It is based loosely on experiences of her late grandfather from WWII until the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The novel tells the story of a Jewish Ukrainian veteran with a secret. It acts as a historical primer on the current war in Ukraine.
Sasha read a few passages from the book to introduce the characters. She shared old photographs of her family as background. The novel is set in Russia and Germany during WW II. Her grandfather had kept his true experiences in that war a secret from his family. It only came out after his death that he had not spent the war as a Russian soldier but had been captured early on a was a prisoner in Nazi Germany.
After taking questions from the members, she offered copies of her books for sale. Cary thanked her and presented her with a certificate acknowledging her presentation with our pledge to provide 5 polio vaccinations.
Our very own Burlingame Rotarian, Mark Lucchesi has started a podcast for the Burlingame Historical Society called "Burlingame is a Small Town." He has interviewed a number of Burlingame Rotarians as well as other prominent folks in our community. You can check out his YouTube podcasts 