Bakersfield Breakfast Rotary Club has some of the most enthusiastic, energized community service-oriented members you will find. This was evidenced by yet another fabulous community project that involved the Bakersfield Fire and Police Departments as well as numerous other local organizations to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of September 11, 2001. Marked by colorful American Flags that we use during our annual Thousand Flags Memorial Day celebrations, “our flags” were borrowed by the fire department to adorn t
he streets in front of the fire and police departments on Buena Vista Road last weekend. More photos can be seen in this Photo Album.
he streets in front of the fire and police departments on Buena Vista Road last weekend. More photos can be seen in this Photo Album.Many faithful Breakfast Rotarians, made the effort to assist in erecting our flags which made for a perfect tribute held outside of the fire and police departments Saturday for those Americans that were lost to the dreadful events twenty years ago. President Jeff Haynes shared with us a brief video to start our meeting that featured our good Rotarians’ contributions towards a very emotional and personal project towards remembering fallen first responders and citizens that perished in the wake of the 911 attack.
Most fitting was our morning invocation delivered through Zoom by Will Duerksen who was visiting family in Idaho. Past president Denise Haynes led us in America’s Flag Salute and BBRC choral director Carol Smith had us sing one of her favorites, “Is it the truth” (the Four Way Test song.)
No visiting Rotarians, but we had a sampling of guests including Rebecca Robison who is the newly appointed Director at Habitat for Humanity. Rebecca was a guest of Michele McClure. Our Sergeant of Arms, Jacque Alexander invited Marty Cheatham a realtor with KW and Associates. I too invited a guest, former NBA basketball player with the Oklahoma City Thunder Devin Hardin who is employed in the insurance business at INSURICA. Welcome one and all!
**Program Highlights**
As we all settled in for our featured speaker, Pete Leveroni had the honor as our program chair to introduce Brynn Carrigan, the recently appointed Director of Kern County Public Health. Her role comes with tons of responsibility, accountability and oversight. One of Ms. Carrigan charges is to report the community’s health status to our Board of Supervisors; COVID reporting seems to make up most of their time. Of course, there are
many other health concerns that appear on Ms. Carrigan’s office monitors. She and her staff work closely with local heath care providers to promote the well-being of our citizens and prevent or control disease outbreaks. It goes without saying that this California State Bakersfield graduate is one busy lady. She has served the county for 14 years as supervisor in several departments and now, with the rest of her responsibilities is Incident Commander for Public Health’s Department Operation Center during the COVID Pandemic.
many other health concerns that appear on Ms. Carrigan’s office monitors. She and her staff work closely with local heath care providers to promote the well-being of our citizens and prevent or control disease outbreaks. It goes without saying that this California State Bakersfield graduate is one busy lady. She has served the county for 14 years as supervisor in several departments and now, with the rest of her responsibilities is Incident Commander for Public Health’s Department Operation Center during the COVID Pandemic.Ms. Carrigan prepared a nifty PowerPoint that shared very current COVID data. Some of the noteworthy points of her data was that an anticipated and much welcome “peak” of new cases will occur within the week before a downturn. This is not to say that we are out of the woods by any means. The last few months, Kern County and the nation have experienced another surge that has imperiled hospitals with near capacity admissions. With little room to admit new COVID patients, medical care providers have again been stripped of available rooms in ICU and available staff to provide care to those most ill due to all classifications of sickness and traumatic injury.
Ms. Carrigan reports that the current case rate is 40 people testing positive for COVID of every 100,000 tested. 360,000 or 47% of Kern County residents are vaccinated and 57% of Bakersfield residents have had at least one vaccination shot. Nearly 99% of all new COVID cases are in unvaccinated people; 98% of hospitalizations for COVID are those same unvaccinated people. And finally, you may have heard of people who have been vaccinated and contracted the disease anyway, or perhaps you know someone who is not interested in becoming vaccinated because of a fear of side-effects, or because they were diagnosed with COVID and they are relying on natural immunity to prevent another infection. Ms. Carrigan had data for that too!
She did not refute that a person could have a positive COVID test after receiving a shot, but stressed that of those, only .14% of those vaccinated displayed symptoms and only 28 people have been hospitalized. This pales in comparison to .62% of the population that were infected and that did not receive the shot. There are 75 hospitalizations in that group. Immunity plus vaccination seemingly provides a better safeguard against future serious complications.
Putting to bed some information we receive about the spread of COVID, Ms. Carrigan tells us that schools are not the most infectious location to acquire the virus. She said COVID is mostly passed to those that live within the household of others who are ill. She said households are the “definite” source of spread. She also supports the data which tells her that the vaccines are holding up against COVID II and the Delta variant. With prospect of oncoming variants, it is too early to tell whether vaccinations and natural immunity will be sufficient to protect us.
Ms. Carrigan told us that getting the vaccination is a personal choice that we all must weigh. It is suggested that we all take steps to reduce our likelihood of infection to live as safe as possible. With that being said, I can add that even though we may have some degree of making a personal choice, there is growing concern particularly in the workplace that choosing to not be vaccinated may in many instances have consequences affecting our ability to continue employment as we know it.
Our Beacon Clue from Ms. Carrigan is in what location are people are most likely to acquire the COVID virus.
We would like to thank Ms. Carrigan for visiting with us to provide clarity about the latest data concerning COVID. Her dedication to Kern County and the health and safety of our citizenry is greatly appreciated and respected.
**BBRC Highlights**
Someti
mes you just can’t teach a dog a new trick, and in this case that idiom applies to Past President Craig Holland who was the featured Past President in President Haynes continuing series starring BBRC presidents from the past. Craig, as the idiom applies, knows all the tricks! As Breakfast Rotary president during the 1987/88 term, Craig served when there were no women members unfortunately. The club’s Income Statement revealed tight finances in those days. Craig said if it where not for the generosity of members like Dr. Mehta who graciously contributed to club coffers, Craig’s term would not have been so memorable. But as it turned out, according to Craig, his term and experience as Breakfast Rotary president will be one that he will always be proud. It is for that reason and the years of our club’s growth in so many ways that Craig continues his active membership. Thanks, Craig, for showing us how to lead the way!
mes you just can’t teach a dog a new trick, and in this case that idiom applies to Past President Craig Holland who was the featured Past President in President Haynes continuing series starring BBRC presidents from the past. Craig, as the idiom applies, knows all the tricks! As Breakfast Rotary president during the 1987/88 term, Craig served when there were no women members unfortunately. The club’s Income Statement revealed tight finances in those days. Craig said if it where not for the generosity of members like Dr. Mehta who graciously contributed to club coffers, Craig’s term would not have been so memorable. But as it turned out, according to Craig, his term and experience as Breakfast Rotary president will be one that he will always be proud. It is for that reason and the years of our club’s growth in so many ways that Craig continues his active membership. Thanks, Craig, for showing us how to lead the way!Wednesday morning, I felt like I was at some kind of a seminar with one good speaker after another. Next up was our Lady Mindy Wilmot for a vocational craft talk. Mindy spoke with the pride of a Renegade about her role as Professor Librarian at Bakersfield College. Mindy shared with us all of the innovative changes that she oversees that enable students of maximize their usefulness of the library. From improved research techniques, to mastering archives, Mindy has got the answers. Where has the Dewey Decimal System gone that we used when we were in school? I don’t know, but Mindy will have the answer for you in the…History section. Oh, by the way, with Mindy at the helm, I’ll bet the library is the cool place to hang out at BC.
Celebrating a Rotary Anniversary is Ken Quarnberg logging 22 years with Breakfast Rotary. Wow, doesn’t time fly!
**Announcements**
Comm
unity Service Director Athena Collup tells us that this month Breakfast Rotarians can lend a hand, or two, by joining in at “Bakersfield Fall Overhaul”. The event starts downtown at the Fox Theatre on Saturday September 25th from 7:30 am and runs to 11:00 am. This is now an annual event that gives our downtown landscape a facelift through clean up and beautification. So come one, come all, and join other Rotarians and community partners in a fun filled effort, especially those of you that have a Green Thumb.
unity Service Director Athena Collup tells us that this month Breakfast Rotarians can lend a hand, or two, by joining in at “Bakersfield Fall Overhaul”. The event starts downtown at the Fox Theatre on Saturday September 25th from 7:30 am and runs to 11:00 am. This is now an annual event that gives our downtown landscape a facelift through clean up and beautification. So come one, come all, and join other Rotarians and community partners in a fun filled effort, especially those of you that have a Green Thumb.Denise Haynes reports Wine Place and Show scheduled for November 13th is soon approaching and tickets are available by going to our club’s website. She also is cracking the whip and asking all members to send to friends, co-workers, potential sponsors, or any other affiliates notice of our one and only fundraiser of the year. This should be especially significant since we were not allowed to hold last years scheduled WPS. Simply see the below links:
WPS online ticket sales for individual Tickets
WPS Sponsorship Information for Sponsorship Packets
Your assignment for December 3rd is to be at Charter Night! It will mark our 40th year. I am sure there shall be some surprises, so mark your calendar. The event will be held at Bakersfield County Club.
**Happy Spots**
Past President Ron Nelms, in his typical 08’er sense of humor brought back one heck of a prize from a recent trip to Avila Beach. The prize that was bestowed upon the head of our President Jeff was a ballcap with two lids (visor lids people c’mon). The text on the hat is "I'm their leader, which way did they go?" Ron has a lot of vision too, and that is why he got the hat for The Prez to give Jeff great decisive vision throughout the rest of his presidency. Plus, Ron has his own matching hat.
Past President Mike O’Doherty went all the way to Wisconsin for a little football, ice cream and beer. I will have to say, not a bad plan at all. I’ll give him credit for that decision, I just don’t have a clue what business Mike has with a Rubic Cube not to mention giving The Prez one. I’m sure it is gonna get a lot of use…
During a recent trip to Montana, I happened upon the beautiful Glacier National Park. Yes, truly amazing and majestic. A bit of an intoxicant…so I brought home to The Prez a shot glass, enjoy.
Temo Lopez got a little spacy with us Wednesday by bringing to President Jeff something to eat …Alien Whiskey Jerky. Not sure how that works, but hey it’s Alien to me.
Moneybags Greg Desme returned from a recent trip visiting his children and grandchildren in St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in America. Is that right Greg? I’ll tell you what else is old and that is forgetting to get a gift for The Prez when on vacation. That’ll cost ya $20 bucks.
President Jeff is getting pretty good now remembering that the meeting is not over until he calls the raffle. Just ask Mindy as she took home the cool cash!
In Rotary,
Frank Wooldridge
Beacon Writer
