There is a time to sleep and a time to work…but on Wednesday morning it’s time for Breakfast Rotary. Situated at Lino’s Venue at the corner of 20th and H Street in Downtown Bakersfield any guest at our morning meeting will find no sleepy heads, just good-hearted Rotarians looking to make our piece of the world better with the efforts our club brings to so many in our city. If you are reading The Beacon…and you should be…take a moment to congratulate yourself in being a big part of giving your time and efforts to others, even demonstrating to our community neighbors the benefit of having a Service Above Self attitude.
And with all of that motivation talk, I have to admit Past President Cheryl Scott is tired. Perhaps tired of the “going’s on” facing everyday Americans, but as a Rotarian, Cheryl who is an outstanding voice for our club, encouraged us during her invocation that we will endure and lift up hope at every turn. Yes, we will Cheryl and yes, we too, taste the passion of your message.
Past President Denise Haynes in the course of our annual Thousand Flags Program at Riverwalk Park Memorial Day Weekend, announced as our Songstress that we would be singing Grand ‘Ol Flag. Denise was darn confident that we knew all of the words to the song as there were no lyrics printed for us at our tables. In spite of that, most members of the club sang all of the song lyrics quite well. For those that did not, I recommend you go home and practice, as I am sure we will see this again on a t-e-s-t!
I was a greeter this morning so when Bill Black came in he told me Roosevelt Scott who has a business in Bakersfield called Triple Threat Solutions, a firearm training school, asked Bill to say hello to me. I told Bill that he should have asked Roosevelt, “Rosey” as he is called, to visit at a Breakfast Rotary meeting soon. He said, “Yeah, that would be a good idea”. Ten minutes later when guests were introduced, another club member of whom I cannot recall, was introducing “Rosey” as his guest. That is just CRAZY that Rosey was already here! Bill thought so too.
Another guest Holly Kuntz was introduced by Past President Jackie Maxwell. A colleague of Jackie’s from the farming industry, Holly is more than a visitor, she is actually in the process of joining our club. Make a point in introducing yourself to her and welcoming our newest member as her induction will be soon! By the way, Holly is a local celeb, as she reigns as the current 
Mrs. Kern County.
Mrs. Kern County.Sockless Pete Leveroni assumed the posture as the finest Program Director as he introduced Cathy Abernathy. Cathy is a well-known Republican political consultant who has been extremely active in grooming a number of Republican bidders to public office. A UCLA graduate who also professors at Taft College is most likely a stickler for having her students know their way around the U.S. Constitution and a civics test. With California primary elections and national mid-term elections on the forefront, it is nice to hear the political “goings-on” from Cathy, to hear her shared views.
As an opening, Cathy was at a bit of a quandary as to the direction of what knee-jerk issues our voting populous feel most concerning. According to Cathy, it seems as if there are a number of issues of concern and it is anyone’s guess which could steer the outcome of an election. Take into the consideration issues such as what will be the next COVID concern, America’s reaction to the Afghanistan withdrawal, America’s national security and world-wide reputation, increase in crime with aggravated assault numbers markedly up, the immigration debate and its effect upon public schools, war in Ukraine, breach in security of the U.S. Supreme Court and high inflation that we have not been seen in 40 years. Anyone of these are major concerns. What the public will do at the voting booth remains to be seen. Cathy makes no predictions.
Cathy does not see the needle change in control of the California legislature, with Democrats having a supermajority. She expects there could be some new faces in the U.S. House of Representatives in response to the public’s demand for change in response to trends we are seeing economically. She said public sentiment of government leadership is only coming in at a 28% approval rating and that is not a figure suggesting wide confidence. Her thought that the voting populous knows what they want, yet there is a disconnect in how the leadership in Washington is responding to the public’s concerns.
As your Beacon writer, I am interested mostly in sharing with club members through The Beacon all the fun that comes through being a Breakfast Rotarian. Our speakers are often valiant proponents of the organizations and causes that they are passionate about. I applaud them all, as I learn so much by coming to each meeting where I learn from each of them. Cathy is one of those presenters who possesses a long history supporting public causes having subject matter expertise about a topic that is very important to everyone of us. I am glad our speakers, like Cathy, come to our meetings so that we can all learn, research, and decide issues for ourselves, while still respecting the beliefs of guest speakers, as long as they possess civility and dignity. That’s the Rotarian way!
Personally, I think it might be a very interesting meeting to ask Cathy to come back following the election to provide an analysis of the outcomes of the upcoming elections and their impact on how we live our lives and conduct our business. It is at that point, I hope, that our ballots will be counted and we will be poised to carry on in a manner of humanity and fairness to each other. Thanks, Cathy, for joining us to share your expertise and as a visiting Rotarian from the Downtown Rotary Club.
President
Jeff Haynes with the collaboration of Membership Director Pat Thompson have been kickin’ tail! Pat ran a membership drive which was warmly received, but turned into a hotbed of vicious competition amo
ng the membership. We have enjoyed the addition of eight new members breaking all previous records for new members during this point in a president’s one year term. The Beacon Clue is how many new members have we enjoyed during The Prez’s term.
Jeff Haynes with the collaboration of Membership Director Pat Thompson have been kickin’ tail! Pat ran a membership drive which was warmly received, but turned into a hotbed of vicious competition among the membership. We have enjoyed the addition of eight new members breaking all previous records for new members during this point in a president’s one year term. The Beacon Clue is how many new members have we enjoyed during The Prez’s term.With prizes on the line, Breakfast Rotarians were posed to give their best effort to reign in new members and to invite guests, they did a great job! Members who brought the most guests were assigned points and points were awarded to those members whose guests decided to join. Guests who are under 40 years of age who joined credited their sponsors with even more bonus points.
Members who “placed” in the competition were yours truly in 4th place. Jackie Maxwell 3rd place, Michele McClure 2nd place and our president-elect Karen Bonanno 1st place. We were told this competition will be offered again next year. Awesome!
We had a featurette from 2017-18 Past President Denise Haynes who shared with us her honor of being our president. She credited her Board of Directors the whole year for helping lead the way during her tenure. I will simply sum Denise’s presidency in this way. What she has done was to set the framework for a higher level of performance for our club, and many of the programs we still provide to the community today. Denise’s involvement remains dominant as the fingerprints of our very own “energizer bunny-fit for duty leader” are on so much we do. Thank You Denise for all you do. From all of us We Love You!
Past President Dave Spalinger is welcoming a birthday and Sandra Parnell a Rotary anniversary! Congratulations you two Super-Rotarians!
Attention all BBRCers, Denise Haynes needs a hand-full of volunteers to give her a hand at the Thousand Flags Memorial Weekend extravaganza at Riverwalk Park. I just signed up and you can to. It’s fun and easy. It is a great way to express our support of our heroes in uniform! Please respond to the email sent to you from Denise.
Happy Spots
Jeff Bell reports that his daughter who was just engaged 6 months ago is now married, wow, love at first sight eh Jeff. And Jeff’s son who recently graduated from high school has been assigned to mission duty through their church in Brazil. A lot of hard work and dedication ahead for this young lad.
Spry ‘ol Jerry Starr 81 years young is still gifting us with little “stars” as he is about to have another grandchild due in October. We are so darn happy for you Jerry and look forward to this adorable beautiful blessing to your fam
ily.
ily.In Rotary,
Frank Wooldridge
Beacon Writer