Posted by Elsie Casida on Aug 01, 2018
MORRO BAY ROTARY MEETING
July 31, 2018
 
Meeting called to order by President Jude
Invocation by Michael Shaffran, after which we sang a speedy version of “Happy Birthday” to Michael, our best effort ever!!
Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag:  Katherine
 
Rotarian Guests:    None today
 
Guests of Rotarians:   Mike Williams introduced Ron Vasconcellos, from North County Adaptive Sports and Rec; Jordan Ridge who was our Outgoing Rotary Exchange student who spent last year in Germany; Kimberly Perez with Pacific Wildlife Care.
 
Jamie sent around a sign up sheet for the Avo/Marg Festival on September 8th.  We need to sign up 50 people for five hour shifts so we will have enough hours to earn our club $5,000.
 
Pete announced that on August 5th, the Zotovich’s and the Kimbrell’s will be hosting a party for Max and his family, who will be going back to France on the 8th of August.  We want to get together to give them a good send off.   Pete passed around a sign up sheet so he will know how many to prepare for.  Bring your own drinks; food will be provided.
 
 
Heidi presented a check in the amount of $800.00 to Kimberly from Pacific Wildlife Care.  This check will specifically be used for a video camera to monitor the Sea bird section of their facility.  The camera will help keep the birds stress free while they are being watched.
 
 
Jamie was next with tips about the Clubrunner.  She explained how to get on the website, how much info is on the site, upcoming events, the bulletin each week, etc.  She told us how to get logged in for the few of us who have not ever logged in.  We are able to get emails, phone numbers and birthdays from our site; as well as update our own information.  We can also sign up to attend and buy tickets for the Human Trafficking Summit on Clubrunner.
 
Mike Williams introduced Ron Vasconcellos, who graduated from Cal Poly with an Engineering degree.  He is now working closely with the Kinesiology Dept at Cal Poly to  serve individuals with various special needs.  They provide adaptive sports, including swimming, to help with building skills, gain self confidence as well as provide social interactions.  This non-profit started in 2010 and has done much to enrich the lives of adults with disabilities.  A bocce ball court which is used by Cal Poly as well as the Adaptive Sports participants was entirely built by volunteers.  Everyone who works in this program is a volunteer from the top down.  Basketball, volleyball, bocce ball, aquatics, line dancing (which has turned out to be a favorite), and broom ball are just a few of the activities that are offered.  They now have an average of 18 Cal Poly students who help with their programs.  Many of these students, including Tom Hay’s daughter Marissa, go on to have careers in this field.  Thank you, Ron, for this informative talk.  It’s good to know about the wonderful programs going on in our area.  
 
Next week’s program will be Deepa Willingham, speaking about her PACE School and also Human Trafficking.
 
50/50 was won by Jamie............Well Deserved
 
Be the Inspiration.     ”You can do anything, but you can’t do everything; so Choose Carefully” a quote from a Dove candy wrapper.