Welcome to the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa East/West
"People of Action"Veterans Tribute Luncheon
When and Where We Meet
Our Rotary Club meets at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa at 12pm on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month. Additionally, we engage in at least one hands-on project and evening Club social per month. It’s best to consult our Events Calendar for up-to-date meeting times and locations. We love meeting new people, so we hope you’ll join us!
What We Do
We are a service club that works together to make our city and our world a better place for all, especially those affected by poverty. We spend our time planning projects, distributing funds and learning about our community. We develop friendships and create opportunities for networking, and we welcome everyone.
Santa Rosa Veterans Tribute Is Back
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This year’s event features keynote speaker Retired USN Captain Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native (SRHS 1988) and American hero. Captain Crozier was a helicopter pilot, an F/A-18 fighter pilot and squadron commander as well as Captain of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN 71.
Entertainment at the luncheon includes the Elsie Allen High school drumline marching band, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Color Guard, a vocalist from SRJC, local trumpeters and a bagpiper.
Club members should purchase a ticket for themselves as well as a ticket for a veteran. If they don’t know a veteran to invite, their second ticket will be donated to a veteran. We strongly encourage inviting relatives of veterans including partners, parents, widows and sons and daughters.
Tickets are $20 and lunch will be provided by Oakmont Village Market. We have 390 seats to fill at Garrett Hall at the fairgrounds, so we encourage you to buy your tickets early. And, if you can’t attend, please buy two tickets to be donated to veterans.
Captain Crozier’s excellent book Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain will be on sale at the event by Copperfield’s Books. He currently works as an advisor to a veterans nonprofit and is Managing Director of a start-up company.
To purchase or reserve tickets for the event, call or text Dan Lambert @ (707)-484-5808. Veterans are welcome to a free lunch but must reserve a ticket in advance.
View flyer HERE
Where Have All the Flowers Gone - English/Ukrainian
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Early in 2023 Peter Yarrow and Maria Burmaka, a Ukrainian peace activist and singer, collaborated to produce a music video of the song Where Have All the Flowers Gone in Ukrainian and English. The history of this song is a bit convoluted but was first recorded by Pete Seeger and subsequently by numerous other artists including Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, and Marlene Dietrich. The original version of the song originated in Ukraine or in the Don River area of Russia just east of Ukraine.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/799684684
Continuing Support for Ukraine
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As the Russo-Ukrainian War continues unabated; as winter approaches; and as the needs of Ukrainians continue to increase; our consortium of local Rotary clubs is again seeking funds at the specific request of Cherkasy-Centre Rotarians:
- $25,000 Children’s Trauma Relief program
- $50,000 Emergency power equipment for medical centers (battery packs & generators)
Checks Payable to: Rotary Club of Santa Rosa East/West Foundation
PO Box 2785, Santa Rosa, CA 95405
Please write Ukraine on the memo line
Contact: 707-484-5808
501(c)(3) Nonprofit Tax ID# 68-0374168
Your generous contribution will make a difference.
Our partnership includes Rotary Clubs:
- Santa Rosa East/West
- Santa Rosa
- Healdsburg
- Rosenheim-Innstadt, Bavaria, Germany
- Cherkasy-Centre, Ukraine
- Rotary Districts 5130 USA, 1842 Germany, 2232 Ukraine
Through a partnership of local Sonoma County Rotary Clubs and the Rotary club of Rosenheim-Innstadt in Bavaria, Germany, we have to-date raised $275,000 for first aid kits, generators, portable battery power units, medical supplies, etc.
Unreliable power presents countless challenges, whether in the operating room of a field hospital or a health clinic. Last winter, Sonoma County Rotary Clubs with our partners in Rosenheim-Innstadt, Germany delivered over 7 tons of generators and battery packs for emergency power through our all-volunteer network of Rotarians.
Power for the People - Ukraine
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Our club joined with the Rotary Clubs of Santa Rosa and Rosenheim-Innstadt of Bavaria, Germany, to purchase and deliver over $90,000 worth of generators and portable power units (battery packs) to the Rotary Club of Cherkasy-Centre, Ukraine. The equipment was sourced in Germany due to the differences in European and American electrical power and to simplify the transport to Ukraine.
Power for the People (pdf)
Life without Electricity in Ukraine (pdf)
Having previously sent over $175,000 to the Rotary Club of Cherkasy-Centre for the fabrication of 5,600 first aid kits and humanitarian aid, we focused on the lack of electric power caused by Russian missile and drone strikes.
This equipment provides power for heating and charging centers, where people come to get warm and charge their mobile devices. Larger units pump steam and hot water into residential apartment buildings and power medical equipment in hospitals and clinics. The Rotary Club of Cherkasy-Centre distributed the units locally and through other Rotary Clubs across Ukraine.
Donations are fully tax-deductible. Santa Rosa East Rotary Foundation Tax ID 68-0374168.
Please join us in helping the people of Ukraine by donating to a fund used exclusively for this purpose.
Cherkasy has been a sister city of Santa Rosa for thirty years.
Ecuador Project
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I had the opportunity to visit a project that our club supports in Chone Ecuador. The Agricultural Training Center provides education to farmers and agricultural students on sustainable farming. Their primary crop is bamboo, but they have 17 crops on the farm for diversity and crop rotation. The education of diversity is important, as it is not intuitive for the local farmers.
Chone is an extremely poor region. In 2016, it was devastated by an earthquake that destroyed most of its infrastructure and homes. Farmers were particularly affected, being one of the most fragile and impoverished groups.
However, Chone possesses ideal soil, rain, luminosity and climatic conditions for agricultural production, especially for bamboo and cocoa due to its location in a tropical mountain range near the Equator.
Farmers of Chone share similar difficulties with the rest of farmers in Ecuador and the Third World. Their occupation is intrinsically risky since it depends on a great deal of variables which they cannot or do not know how to control such as price, weather, climate or pests.
The mission of this Rotary project is to provide sponsorships to young farmers who would like to increase their education around sustainable farming, replace the use of chemicals on their farm with organic methods and learn how to export their goods.
If you would like to donate to this project, and maximize your donation with matching grant funds, contact Don Johnson at thedonjohnson@hotmail.com.
The Dictionary Project
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"From set up to delivery, everybody had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed going to the schools and meeting the children. I especially loved it when their faces lit up and how they couldn't stop talking about their new dictionaries. A very worthwhile project." Chris Parr-Feldman
History
In 1999-2000 the Sonoma County Literacy Coalition (SCLC) decided to give quality dictionaries to 3rd graders. There was $4,000 in the treasury designated to go for children. At that time there were about 1,000 3rd graders in the Petaluma area. SCLC purchased 400 dictionaries and 600 were donated.
During Rotary year 2000-01 SCLC decided that they didn’t want to be in charge of handing out dictionaries the second year. Harvey Freetly, member of the Rotary Club of Petaluma, took over the task, calling it the Dictionary Program. They had a Friendship Feast which earned enough money for 400 dictionaries but were 600 short. Harvey solicited everybody and everything to make up the difference. Price at that time was $11 per dictionary plus shipping and use tax.
The Dictionary
The MACMILLAN DICTIONARY for children ages 8 to 12, published by Simon and Schuster, is an inviting book to open because it is colorful and full of photographs and diagrams. The Reference Section is loaded with 35,000 fascinating entries and there is a Thesaurus.
The book finds use in a home where English is a second language. It can be used by brothers and sisters of the child who received the book. Many times during the presentation process we have discovered this book will be the only book in the home.
Dictionaries Project Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West
Terri Evans was the club’s first Dictionary Project chairman for the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West. For the first time she and her committee personally delivered dictionaries to Santa Rosa Schools. It was a very rewarding experience and she convinced our club how important it was to continue doing this wonderful service. Unfortunately for us, Terri’s job moved to a new locale.
David McDonald replaced Terri as chairman for the Dictionary Program. In 2003 our club purchased 320 dictionaries and delivered them to local elementary schools: JX Wilson, RL Stevens, Wright, St. Rose, St. Eugene and Kid’s Street.
In 2004 Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West also distributed 200 Webster Bilingual Dictionaries, both English/Spanish and Spanish/English. These will be used by students, teachers and parents and were given tothose in greatest need for bilingual dictionaries.
Multi-Cultural Center
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In 2014 Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West donated both time and materials to help the Multi-Cultural Center install a new playground for the kids.
The Multi-cultural Preschool has been operated since 1972 by the West Santa Rosa Local Action Council, a tax-exemptnon-profit corporation founded by a group of parents. With financial assistance from the State Department of Education, the School has provided basic education and developmental activities in the skills for daily living to 62 poverty level children each year for the past 25 years. These children are in the 3 – 5 year age group. About 40% are from Caucasian families. The remainder are from a wide assortment of different racial and cultural backgrounds. English is the language of the school. Nearly all the children speak the language fluently at the end of two years. Parental involvement is required.
For 20 years, the School was housed in the Knox Presbyterian Church. This became an increasingly crowded and unsatisfactory arrangement. In 1993, The The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West was asked to help raise the funds to build a building for the School on a site provided by Knox Church for that purpose. This project was undertaken.
The initial budget was $459,000. The project was completed at a final cost of $501,000 and the building dedicated on June 2, 1997. The ceremony was attended by 200 people, including the Mayor of Santa Rosa and many other dignitaries. The event was combined with a regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West.
This was perhaps one of the largest projects of its kind undertaken by a single club in District 5130. Recognition has come from many sources, including the award for best Community Service for the Club and District Rotarian of the Year for the Project Director.
The hard work and continuing support of The The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West and many volunteers from the community made this project possible.
Dear Fellow Rotarians:
As Executive Director of the Multi-Cultural Center I want to express the preschool’s gratitude to Rotary for the club’s continued support of our preschool program. It has been three years since your fundraising efforts provided us with our wonderful new facility, which we have very much enjoyed.
During that time:
- We have provided over 200 children with a quality preschool experience. We were successful in increasing our funding to serve more children. This year we have increased our enrollment from 64 to 80 children enrolled. We still have a waiting list of over 30 income-eligible children.
- We have increased our staff from 10 to 14 part and lull time employees. One of our new staff is a teacher-in-training from the TRECC program (welfare reform training program) in collaboration with SIUC. The TRECC program subsidizes this additional staff member 50%. One of our parents has successfully completed her training through the TRECC program and is now a regular member of our teaching staff.
- Four of our teachers are participating in the Governors California Reading and Literacy Project and have received 40 hours intensive training in early reading instruction. The teachers will also attend 5 Saturday training sessions and will assess the results of the new program by testing and tracking the progress of their students over the academic year (2000-2001). I am proud to note that these teachers have chosen to participate in this program even though they receive no compensation for their extra time and effort in doing so beyond a small stipend in recognition of their dedication and commitment. Ours is the only preschool in Sonorna County to participate in this project.
- In collaboration with volunteers from Knox Presbyterian Church, we have provided free English Improvement classes for parents and family of Multi-Cultural preschool children for the past three years. Children have a greater success in school when the parents are also literate. Rotarian Carl Anderson is the energy and leadership behind this effort. Free childcare is provided for families who attend the classes.
- We are continuing our collaboration with the Vocational Nursing Program at SRJC. Nurses are observing child development in our program as part of their OB/Pediatric training rotations. This semester 20 nursing students will participate in this program at Multi-Cultural.
- We also continue to mentor teachers in training from SSU. This semester we have two student teachers working and studying in our program. It is a rich experience for them in teaching diverse groups of children, as our children this year represent 10 different linguistic groups. English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Tigrinia, Vietnamese, Lao, Malay, Chinese, and Creole.)
- We have been working on improving our outdoor learning environment. We have expanded our gardening curriculum, adding new planting areas. We have replaced old equipment (non-compliant with new playground safety regulations) with new, safer and more challenging equipment. This Rotary Club assisted with grants to replace our tire swing and add shade to the playground. Rotarian Bill Dodson provided technical advice and assistance with the shade structure.
- With donations from the community we have upgraded the technology of the center with office computers and have added computer learning to our curriculum for children. A community volunteer comes in several times a week and introduces cornputer learning to the children.
- We continue to serve two full meals to each child per day. We have managed this despite increases in food costs because we are able to shop at the Food Bank, another program that has received the support of Rotary.
All of us at the Multi-Cultural Center are proud of the progress we have made in the last three years. Much of tbese improvements would not be possible without our fine, new facility that allows us greater opportunities for successful endeavors. We thank the Rotary Club for its generous support and assistance on behalf of children.Sincerely,
Anne Abrams
Executive Director
The Building Project
Rotary Club visit to Sunrise Lima Peru
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Milagros Ott visited CIMA, and attended the board meeting and the Rotary meeting today at Sunrise Lima.
You can see the project Santa Rosa Rotary West is funding. We believe our donation will be the focused of, the pig maternity. The entire center is sustainable, all what is produced here the children utilized for food. CIMA lives of donations since they can’t sell anything for profit, due to the type of taxing/paper work it is required in Peru, tedious and impossible. Visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotaryclublimasunrise to learn more.
History Of Our Club
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SANTA ROSA WEST ROTARY CLUB
The Club was chartered as the second club in Santa Rosa on April 15, 1965.
The club was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa, which had been organized 44 years earlier — in 1921. The chartering District Governor was Stan McCaffrey, who would later serve as the President of Rotary International in 1981-82.
John W. (“Bill”) Fisher was installed on May 22, 1965 as the charter president with 23 other community leaders as charter members. The club commenced meeting at the Los Robles Hotel every Monday at noon until the Los Robles ceased operations. The club quickly became the primary service provider and source of leadership for Santa Rosa, west of highway 101.
In 1965 the club financed and installed a soccer field at Roseland elementary school. In 1969 it established, furnished and staffed The House – a facility that provided support for young people coping with drug abuse. The Club was at the forefront of the committee of local business leaders who established the Luther Burbank Art Center (now the Wells Fargo Center). The club spearheaded, organized and completed the building of the Multi-Cultural Development Center, a significant community project on Stony Point Road that involved community-wide support and took over three years to complete.
The club annually recognizes individual scholastic achievement with scholarships at Piner High School. It provides financial assistance to SRJC to graduates of Ridgeway Continuation School for attendance at Santa Rosa Junior College. The Club was a primary partner in establishing and funding the SOS (Support our Students) program in Santa Rosa to deal both with truancy and the need for supportive family counseling. Since its chartering the club has successfully raised over a million dollars, much of which has been used to support charities and service providers in the community in addition to directly financing Santa Rosa West Projects.
Santa Rosa West has looked beyond borders of the local community and provided support to other Rotary Clubs and individuals around the world as part of its commitment to international service, good will and the goal of world peace.
The Club was an early and a strong supporter of Rotary’s commitment to eradicate Polio from the face of the earth. Additionally, the club has built water wells in Mexico and Vietnam, supported the University for Peace in Central America (Costa Rica), provided support to projects in Russia and Uganda, financed numerous projects in District 4150 through the Festival of Brotherhood and developed an annual youth exchange program with a sister club in Holland.
The club has provided strong leadership in the club and beyond. Our members have served at the helm of the District Membership Committee, the Group Study Exchange program, the Ambassadorial Scholarship Program, RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), Rotaract, Interact, the District Visioning Program, the Institute for Leadership Seminar, the District Speech Contest and as Assistant Governor. The Club has provided three District Governors to serve as the District’s officer of Rotary International: John Withers in 1973-74, Dick Keith in 1982-83, and Mike Merrill in 1999-2000.
Emily Rainsford, President 2024-2025
JOIN US
1st and 3rd Tuesdays at the Finley Community Center
2060 West College Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA
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Upcoming Events
Hands On Project
Speaker: Andy Lopez Unity Park - Maintenance
Topic: This park needs some loving maintenance again.
More info
Santa Rosa Veterans Tribute
Speaker: Captain Brett Crozier, USN Retired
Topic: Veterans Tribute Luncheon sponsored by the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs of Santa Rosa
More info