The Beacon November 9, 2022 (Nov 11, 2022)

The Beacon

The official weekly publication of The Rotary Club of Bakersfield Breakfast

Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary business is top of mind, anytime and all the time. Even the morning after Mid-Term National, State, and Local Elections, one cannot focus an ounce of our attention away from the important business we choose to conduct 24/7/365 at BBRC. I’m proud of that, and I know you are too. As a matter of fact, I like the odds of Rotarians solving challenging issues across this country better than anyone…I’ll bet you agree.

Keeping in line with this frame of thinking, member Stephanie Baker started us off by providing the invocation asking for blessings and guidance to direct our members to best serve our community in need. Past President Neal Walker had led us in America’s Pledge of Allegiance, and Robert Provencio sang us right into an 1860s favorite Battle Hymn of the Republic. A fitting momentum as we as a club draw near our Wine, Place and Show fundraiser this weekend at Luigi’s Warehouse.

According to Dr. Bani Singh, MD, no visitors on this bright, brisk, rain-washed Wednesday, but William Gordon managed the arm twisting of his friend Ray Goyeneche to attend a meeting as a guest. I got to catch up with Ray after the meeting. Nice man, whom I hope will come back to visit us. I guess Joanne Bender could be a visitor, but since she is Dale’s wife, Joanne is welcome anytime, whether Dale invites her or not!

Pete introduced our program speaker…wait where is Pete Leveroni? He is sitting back there, waaaaay in the back. Does he have laryngitis or something? President Karen Bonnano took over the reins and introduced the speaker instead of Pete. What’s up with that? Oh well, speaker Ed French who hails from Bakersfield, is a self-proclaimed local actor when he is not tasked with the work at Bristol Hospice. The sound of hospice care is usually not a conversation many desire to engage in; most would rather see past President Jeff Haynes with his shirt off at a meeting…oh yeah, we saw that. But anyway, Ed was friendly enough to take time away from his duties to educate us about what hospice care is and is not.

With ten years of experience under his belt, Ed got from the acting stage, a passion he still engages in, to caring for those people and

families facing end-of-life situations. Not an easy conversation to have but needed in many cases just the same. Ed told us Bristol maintains trained staff and volunteers who dedicate themselves to providing comfort and peace to the terminally ill and resolve to families who are emotionally broken from having to face the inevitable of saying good-bye to a loved one. My hat off to Ed and people like him who find in their hearts the compassion and patience to take on the challenges of hospice care.