Thousand Flags Our annual gift to the community (and possible fund-raiser) is well underway. Even if you didn’t sign up to volunteer, feel free to stop by to give relief or help out. There will DEFINITELY be a need to help with the flag take-down on Monday starting at 3:15. Thank you to all who are available to volunteer this weekend! Thank you Thousand Flags Committee Chair for an excellent briefing. The event program is on our BBRC.org home page. Feel free to share it with others. Above and Beyond Award BBRC Peacebuilder Committee Committee chair Mindy Wilmot reported that our application to become a Rotary District 5240 Peacebuilder Club has been submitted. Mindy shared that BC is planning a second Peace Garden at the main campus. BBRC with other clubs will provide a second peace pole for that campus. Additionally, Bakersfield College has also requested peace poles for the Delano and planned Arvin campuses. BBRC Club President BBRC is fortunate that we have well-qualified and enthusiastic members who volunteer to serve as club president. David Lari was elected to serve as our 2024-2025 president at the May 25, 2022 meeting. Congratulations Dave! When asked how he felt about his election he said he is happy and celebrating by going to Disneyland (or not). Here is our Presidential line-up: 2021-2022 President Jeff Haynes (Jeff is also excited that his term is wrapping up.) 2022-2023 President Elect Karen Bonanno (Karen is prepared and ready to go!) 2023-2024 President Elect Nominee Pat Thompson 2024-2025 President Elect Nominee Designate David Lari Dictionary Project One of our club's community service highlights is presenting very special dictionaries to all of the third graders at Fremont Elementary every year. I am proud we activiely support this Rotary Focus Area - Basic Education and Literacy. Past Rotary International Presidents have advocated for literacy and providing dictionaries and books to elementary school children. This project took off when member Michele McClure brought the project her former Napa Rotary club was doing to us when she returned to to BBRC. This year ten members gathered at Fremont on Thursday, May 27 or Friday May 28 to prepare and present personalized dictionaries for EVERY student in the third grade (a subset of these volunteers is pictured here. These are not your flimsy little paperback dictionaries - these are hard bound with pictures and word explanations perfect for the young minds. Every third grade student in attendance was presented with their own book in each of the five classrooms. Excitement abounded! |