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President David Lari opened by asking all the people on next week’s meeting assignments to do this weeks. He claims it’s the first mistake he has made all year. There to first greet us this morning were Stephanie Baker and Jacque Alexander. Nothing like a friendly face to start your day off right. Invocation was presented by Stephanie Baker and Karen Bonanno led us in the flag salute. Carol E. Smith led us welcoming our many visitors by singing the Club Greeting Song. Clap Clap! The only guest that really wasn’t a big surprise was our first lady, Marti Lari. She was at the meeting once again to be sure we all have Thousand Flag BBQ tickets to sell. Please sell your tickets, we need a good turnout for our first BBQ and Concert event over Memorial Weekend. Bakersfield West Rotary president Barry Hibbard (left) brought their two new members, Anthony and "Kim" (right) to see how other clubs celebrate Rotary. Welcome to all! The Program Our program was presented by Wendy Naruse from Aspiranet. This organization helps Foster care kids transition from Foster care to Independent living as they reach 18 years of age. She began by asking if any of us remembered our 18th birthday or that of our children and if at that age we were ready for taking on adulthood. There are over 19,000 Foster children that fall into the “transitional aged youth” just this year in the US. Where do they go, how do they provide for themselves? Aspiranet provides 50 aging-out foster children with housing programs and many other means of guidance and support. To be eligible for the program the child must: - Be working on a High School Diploma or GED.
- Enrolled at least part-time in school (college, jr. college or vocational program)
- Enrolled full-time in school or employed full-time
- Participating in a program designed to assist in gaining employment
- Or if unable to do the above because of a medical condition or disability.
Some of the services they offer are: case management, job readiness training and support, apartment furnishings, food and necessity allowance and referral for mental health and addiction services. The youth responsibilities include: Paying their own monthly utility bills, cell phone, food, clothing and transportation. If you select “more” below this story, you will see a Wish List to help Aspiranet assist with these transitions. Note the number to call if you can donate any of these items. Our own Donna Schwartz makes up laundry baskets full of household goodies for these youth. Club Stuff  We had the great pleasure of inducting another new member this morning. A big welcome to Michelle Zdybowicz. She comes to us after a great run in Ventura Rotary Club. We look forward to getting to know and work with Michelle. Dave Spalinger celebrates a birthday on 5/15. Thanks Dave for letting us use your shop to prepare replacement flags for Thousand Flags. Tom Burke thanked all who turned out at Skyline Cabinet Shop to finish off the recovery from our trailer theft earlier this year. Lots of people seemed happy this week. Jeff Haynes thanked David Lari for a bike tire repair while they were on a bike ride together. They saw a bobcat and Jeff put $10 into our coffers. Char Vega said TR Studio is celebrating their first anniversary and invited us to join in the festivities on May 23, 2025 5-9 PM at 1512 18th Street. Kay and Brian Pitts took yet another trek to Death Valley and returned with some gifts for Prez Dave - a fine T-shirt and a bag of Coyote Poop. She also mentioned its Bike Month and today was “Dance like a Chicken Day.’ Like magic, the chicken and music appeared and we all danced like chickens! $50 worth of happiness. Jeff Bell has a huge smile as the fourth of his five children is graduating High School and four of his five children are gainfully employed! So he took all that extra money he has now and donated $50 to the club. Willie Gordon was $20 happy, but I’m sorry I missed the occasion of joy. From President Dave’s only mistake he tried to levee a fine on Tom Burke for being late to the meeting and missing covering the flag salute. PP Pat Thompson got the other PP’s to agree that Dave himself should cover that fine, since Tom’s duty isn’t until next week. Then Dale Bender displayed his readiness to deliver the invocation this week but got preempted by Prez’s date mix-up. We look forward to hearing it next week Dale. Announcements Sandra Parnell and Denise Haynes thanked the Thousand Flags committee for all their hard work. It’s just around the corner so be sure to sign up with Stephanie Baker as a volunteer. We need all hands-on deck for this big event. Stephanie’s email is maandpabaker@sbcglobal.net Marti brought a reminder of the raffle for a beautiful, patriotic quilt made by Pat Thompson's very talented and lovely wife, Karen. Tickets will be available at the May 21 meeting and every day after until the drawing is held at Thousand Flags. There will be a  year-end celebration for the SEAL (Social, Emotional & Academic Learning) Center on Monday, May 19 at 10 AM at the Rafer Johnson school campus. It will be a performance by the Girls and Boys Club Music Fusion group. Come show your support for our SEAL kids. Sally Selby gave us information about an upcoming Community Police Academy. It is a ten-week course to help the community understand the BPD mission, services, and day to day operations that starts July 3 2025. For information email: communityacademy@bakersfieldpd.us Next week’s guest speaker will be Jimmy Yee, President of Yankee Communications. He will be giving us an update on the new Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Bill Black walked out of the meeting $60 richer by winning the mornings raffle! See you all next Wednesday! |
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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