What you Missed May 7, 2025

Call to Order

We had quite the full house in the little room at Seven Oaks between members and guests!

Guest Craig Austin with the Bakersfield Sports Lions Club
First Lady Marti Lari
Honorary BBRC member Jennifer Yamauchi and her Interactor daughter Grace
RYLA students from Golden Valley and Del Oro High Schools
Michelle Zdybowicz from the Ventura East Rotary Club
and Brian Wooster, a guest of Jeff Schwartz.

Celebrations and Happy Spots

Temo Lopez had a birthday on 5/10. He tried to run past the slide celebrating him but gave up. You can run, but you can’t hide Temo

Freddy and Ida Walkover just celebrated 41 years of marriage on 5/6.

Sandra Parnell and the rest of us celebrated her nine-year club anniversary on 5/11.

Denise Haynes – Took a vacation last week in Florida with hubby Scott. They went to Universal Studios, brought duff beer from the Simpsons and made a gift of a Duff Beer Koozie and a Hungry Crab restaurant bib (both Dave and Marti are appreciative of the bib), some spice and a cool team exchange bag. $10

Tom Burke went to Jamaica with family members including the grandson. He made Pres. Dave’s day with Bob Marley style hat, beer and Jamaican booze.

Cheryl Scott was asked by President David, as his sponsor and mentor, what should he do with members that don’t fulfill duties, such as missing a responsibility like greeting members and guests. Cheryl attempted to compensate Dale Bender for filling in for her last week and gave him her “lucky tickets”. Her reason for missing that that she had hair appointment at 6:30 am and pointed out that “this (pointing at her amazing hairdo) doesn’t just happen.” She fined herself $25.

Family of Rotary

Past President and first female president for BBRC, Bonnie Crawford (1996-97) passed away this spring. Her service will be on June 7 in the early afternoon at the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints at Fairfax & Panorama in Bakersfield. Bonnie was a lovely person and a great leader for our club.

BBRC Good Deeds – Spring Community Service Project - Eyeglass Collection and the Lions Program.

Craig Austin from the Bakersfield Sports Lions Club expressed appreciation for being invited to the meeting by our eyeglass donation project coordinator MaryJo Pasek. We wanted to know more about their entire donated eyeglasses project and how they started.

Lions formed in 1917 in response to social problems created by World War I and rapid industrialization by a Chicago businessman, Melvin Jones. (Note, this is 12 years after another Chicagoan, Paul Harris, started Rotary.)

In 1925, Helen Keller attended the Lions Clubs International Convention and challenged Lions to become “knights of the blind in the cr

usade against darkness.” As a result, the Lions adopted sight programs as one of their focus areas. They have two foundations that support this area. The Lions Eye Foundation of Northern California and Nevada works with two medical centers to provide eye surgeries to those who cannot afford it and Lion in Sight is the eyeglass program.

Lion in Sight involves the collection and distribution of used eyeglasses. The process is as follows:

They receive glasses via donation boxes at eye doctors’ offices, churches, pharmacies and more.
Glasses are sent to Vallejo, CA where they are sorted and cleaned.
Glasses are then taken to Avenal State Prison by Lions where the inmates determine the prescription of eyeglasses with Lions in Sight-provided lensometers. They then clean the glasses again, insert them into small, zippered plastic bags, and write the prescription on the bag before the glasses are shipped back to the Lions in Sight warehouse. The inmates benefit by receiving a small fee per eyeglass, having responsibility, and feeling productive. In some instances, inmates might be able to use the skills they’ve learned working with the lensometers when they are released.

Since Avenal State Prison became involved in the program nine years ago, they have refurbished over one million pairs of eyeglasses.

BBRC Good Deeds – Sponsor Interact Students to attend RYLA

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts where participants from 14-30 years old develop skills as a leader while having fun and making connections. RYLA events are held around the world and typically last between 3 and 10 days and include presentations, activities, and workshops covering a variety of topics. Our district (5240) only has high school students to be participants.

We always love to hear about the experiences the students we sponsor to attend RYLA.

Mia, whom we met at Del Oro felt that she concurred fears from speaking in public to working with teams

Alexandra from Golden Valley ropes course favorite conquered a lot of fears. Experienced people supporting and encouraging her

Another Golden Valley student loved the team building exercises.

Tatiana (Golden Valley) was initially sad about leaving her family for a few days but was also excited and full of anticipation before she left. At RYLA she faced her challenges which included public speaking. (Don’t fidget or stutter. It is OK to stop and think about what you want to say.)

A Golden Valley student who is a tennis player gained the courage to share experiences in public.

Valerie from Golden Valley came as a skeptic, but at the end was very excited and wanted to tell her family about the experience. She learned that being vulnerable isn’t a bad thing. Her favorite workshop was ethics which asks tough ethical questions. She found out that everyone doesn’t think like she does and learned not to judge a book by its cover. She also make lifelong friend. To her surprise, she received the “Most Enthusiastic” award.

Chris from Golden Valley found RYLA to be impactful; he was pushed out of his comfort zone. The workshop that helped him figure out what kind of person he was made quite an impression. He liked that people came together and got past their insecurities. Meeting students who are involved with Rotary Youth Exchange was an experience also.

President Lari wrapped this up by thanking club members for making the sponsorships possible and to Youth Service Director William Gordon for his work on this.

Program Notes - Ashley Voorhees, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Executive Director

Ashley, a member of Bakersfield downtown Rotary, joined CASA as ED two years ago. A CASA volunteer is a sworn officer of the court whose job is to provide the juvenile court judge or referee with an independent assessment of the circumstances of the child.

CASA initially started in 1977 in Seattle by a judge that wanted another set of eyes and ears to give him information about what is in the best interests of the children in court. Kern County’s programs began in 1994 led by Judge Robert J Anspach, Attorney Terry Foley, mental health therapist Judy Newman, and funded by the Junior League of Bakersfield. There are 92 active CASA and 115 foster children on the waiting list for an advocate.

In California 60,000 kids in the foster care system; more than 2,600 are in the system in Kern County. Surprising to many of us is that on average children in foster care experience three to five placements.

Children can enter the system after Child Protective Services (CPS) is notified by the child, family members or other adults. Generally, the child is suffering or has suffered from neglect (88%), abuse (9.2%), or abandonment. If it is determined by CPS that the child would benefit from leaving the home, they are taken to open placement with a foster family or Jamison Center. When they are placed with a foster family, a case plan is established with the family. Of course, there is always hope the children can safely reunite with their parents.

Many CPS cases are avoidable if the root causes are addressed through getting resources and working with families. Commonly these families are also dealing with the stress of living in poverty. One of programs is to have mentor families who develop relationships with the families and “walk alongside families that are struggling.”

CASA volunteers receive training in the child welfare system, child abuse and neglect, substance abuse, poverty, educational advocacy, cultural competency, and court report writing. Each CASA staff member follows 30 CASA who are advocating for about 75 kids. The CASA submits a report every 6 months to the juvenile court judge. CASA is an ally in the work and is another set of eyes and ears for the judge. CASA has full access to their assigned child.

Across the foster care system about 50% of the foster kid will be reunited with the biological parents. If that is not a possibility, searches are run to find appropriate relatives to place the kids.

What does a CASA (Advocate) do

Gathers information – school, home, court
Monitor that children are getting what they need to succeed
Advocate for the child – they get what they need in education, and can succeed in wherever they are.

Why do Advocates do this?

The children are more likely to find a safe permanent home
CASA kids are 4 times more likely to graduate from high school
Kids need it
Less likely to spend 3+ years in care
50% less likely to reenter the foster care system

See you at Seven Oaks for BBRC on Wednesday May 21.
Our speaker is Jimmy Yee with an update on the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.