Visalia Breakfast Rotary - Visalia Breakfast Rotary News

Nate Ide receives a special gift from President Dennis due to Nate's celebrating his anniversary with his wife. Arts Visalia was in this morning conducting their annual Orchid Fundraiser and sold many of the $25 plants to club members.

Sam Romero inducted three of our Exchange Students into the club as Honorary Members and presented each of them with a Club Badge. Welcome Kaori (incoming from Japan 2008-09), Zoe and Daniel (both outgoing in 2009-10)

Harold and Krista Rollin, who met in the club a few years ago and eventually wed, announced to the Club this morning that they are expecting. Congratulations to the Rollin's, and, we need to pass a message up to the District that we've found a effective membership growth technique.

Janet Hogan, visiting us from First Five of Tulare County, was an interesting and informative speaker. First Five is a state agency that is responsible to alot grants within Tulare County for projects for children under 5 years of age. The money is from our Tobacco taxes and has been contributing approximately $10m annually to our county.

April 23rd - Regular VBR Meeting

Student mentor, and a great VB-Rotarian, John Ramirez brought with him Leo Castillo, the recipient of our 2007 Student Scholarship. Leo actually finished COS over the past 2 years while staying at home to make sure his younger brother stayed focused in high school, and now both of them are moving on to Fresno state. Leo wants to get his Bachelors in teaching and then come back to Visalia to help the youth. Now, that's what we are doing all of this for. Good stuff

Traveling Rotarian, Dale Bruder, presents President Dennis with a shirt from the LA Kings.

Suzanne Bertz-Rosa presented her "Boomerang" program to the club. Suzanne is a Boomerage, meaning that she was originally from Fresno, left for quite a while, and then came back to Fresno to live permanently. She presented a very well done film interviewing many other "Bommerangs" from all over Fresno.

April 20th - Visalia Schools "Hall of Fame" - Hot Dog BBQ

Our "Cue Crew" included (left to right) Matt Kneeland, Glenn Black, Bob Dickey, Reggie Johnson, Mark and Lucilina Brackett, Jim and Bonnie Preston, Kathy Chandler, Gary Heffelfinger, Bill Mathis, Doug Udlock, Lloyd Hicks, Mark Perry and John Ramirez (not pictured)

Doug, Gary and Reggie work the weiners!

Doug, Bob, Reggie and Mark work the dogs

You can always count on Clancy to supervise, only thing missing is the cigar. How many Rotarians does it take to cook the dogs anyway?

Bill and Lloyd at it. In all, we cooked, wrapped and served 750 hot dogs, all with condiments and chips, each one placed in a small box. We also got great reviews from the crowd and have been invited back.

Here at the wrapping station was Kathy, Mark, Lucilina and Bonnie Preston. These guys stayed busy for well over an hour.

Perennial Cookers, the Bracketts probably haven't missed a VBR "cooking" event in the last 5 years. Great job!

April 16th - VBR Regular Club Meeting

What a nice surprise to see a great past-Member, Nick Giotta, join us for breakfast this morning.

New Member, Kathy Chandler, presented her "biography" to the club this morning. Kathy has been living in the Visalia area for approximately 10 years and is an attorney work as a Trial Judicial Attorney for the judges in the Tulare County Superior Court.

Another new Member, Brice Yocum, also gives his "craft" talk this morning. Brice is a graduate of Pepperdine University Law School and practices with a firm in Fresno.

Our speaker this morning come to us from the City of Visalia's "Green Department", or the Natural Resource Conservation Department. Nathan Garza presented all of the City's efforts to help the environment including trash services, air quality issues and water issues. Nathan also brought each member a recycling bag.

April 9th - VBR Regular Club Meeting

VBR Member, Stan Shawl, gives the Club an update on the Cal Berkeley's rowing team and their recent success during our regular "Bragging Rights" session.

Cynthia (Cyndy) Paulus gives the club her Craft Talk and lets us get to know her just a bit better. She was raised in Minnesota until the age of 6 and then her family moved to Santa Monica and the LA area. She is currently the Human Resource Director at Suncrest Bank in Visalia.

President, Dennis, with Kaori, our incoming Exchange Student from Japan. Kaori gave the club a presentation of her home and experiences being an exchange student.

April 2nd - VBR Regular Club Meeting

Mark Perry announces the incoming student for the 2009-10 year for the Youth Exchange Program, Caro from Germany, and Ale from Ecuador. Mark and Sam Romero have been completing a ton of paperwork to coordinate our new student and we should give them a big hand. Great work both of you guys!

President, Dennis, discuss some of the District's training events with the club. Hat came from Matt Kneeland purchased at PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) held March 6-8 in San Jose.

Woodlake Police Chief, John Zapalac talks with the club and gives a great video presentation on the proliferation of Methanphetamine throughout Tulare County.