Just back from the “Tennessee and Wounded Knee Gluten Free Kimchee Fricassee Sweet Pea Sugar Free Green Tea Hippy Skippy Jamboree” Past President Yvonne Biely called the meeting to order at 12:10 PM.
Scott Dunn delivered the Invocation and Ken Dally led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. There were three guests of Rotarians. Bob Frias introduced Kurt Hixenbaugh, who was our speaker. Terrilee Coleman introduced John Hooten from Allan Hancock College. Cynthia Schur introduced Len Wood, a photographer from the Santa Maria Times.
Regarding the Family of Rotary, John Henning said that his wife, Sharon, was doing well after her eye surgery and that she had another appointment at UCLA this coming Friday.
Past President Yvonne reminded us that we will be dark next Tuesday, but we will be having the “Stuffing Party” for the hygiene kits next Tuesday at 5:00 PM downstairs in the Santa Maria Inn. John Henning said that at the “Stuffing Party” we stuff the hygiene kits for a little bit, then we have wine and hors d’oeuvres compliments of Judy and Hardy Hearn and Blanche Fugate. He also reminded us that there will be representatives at the “Stuffing Party” from the World Stuffing Championships. They will be scouting teams to participate in the World Stuffing Championships in Bali this summer. Of course the team will have to go there to practice for one month for the championships and the club will be paying all the expenses.
Past President Yvonne reminded us that the wine raffle will be on May 28th. We need to get our wine in to Virginia Perry Souza by May 21st. You can also sell tickets to people who don’t drink wine as we will have a dinner for four at Trattoria Uliveto included in the raffle.
The District Conference will be on October 11th and 12th at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez. We need to have a good showing for a conference that is so close to us. You can sign up on line. If you have questions please contact Incoming President Cynthia Schur.
Just recovered from four days of babysitting, the oft vacationing Susan Rees reminded us of the Walk for Mental Health this Saturday in Waller Park. (She needs this walk for mental health after four days of babysitting.) This is sponsored by the Evening Club. Also, the Breakfast Club is having their Luau on May 11th.
Past President Yvonne then brought up all the recipients of the 2018-19 Charitable Giving Grants and issued their checks.
Bob Frias introduced Kurt Hixenbaugh who is the owner of Vino et Amicis. They opened their wine bar on May 18th of last year. They are in the former location of Doc Burnsteins in old Orcutt. They like to showcase local wines and kind of specialize in small production wineries and unique labels. They have wines from 28 different winemakers. Recently they started serving beer from the Naughty Oaks Brewery. They have live music on Fridays and usually on Saturdays.
We are still looking for possible host families for an exchange student for next year. The exchange student is from Taiwan and everyone remembers how great fellow Taiwanese exchange student Nicey was.
Finemaster Ken Dally took over and fined himself and Yvonne Biely $10 for going camping at the Pinnacles last weekend.
Ron Nanning said that he has been married for 135 years. Wait a minute. He could have been married for 135 years, but Mary is not nearly that old. I guess he and Mary have really only been married for 35 years. He celebrated by going to an undisclosed location and even though he was fined $50, his lips were sealed.
Ken appeared to be fixated on Scott Dunn when it came to fines. I don’t know what Scott did to offend Ken, but it must have been really bad. First he fined Scott $25 for going to Cabo San Lucas and Sacramento (I believe he fined him $50 for going to Cabo, then gave him a $25 discount for going to Sacramento). Later he fined Scott $20 because he advertised that his agency was sponsoring a workshop on volunteer law. He then turned around and nailed Scott for $25 because he celebrated his 21st anniversary in the club. Scott said that he was being unfairly made an example of by Ken and said he was going to get an attorney to file suit against Ken. Heather Weare declined to accept the case, stating that she had to go home and count her children.
Danielle Martinez was recognized for going snow skiing to celebrate her birthday. She went to Shaver Lake with her family. When she was fined $10 she begged her dad to pay her fine. Tom agreed to bailing her out of trouble saying, “It wouldn’t be the first time!”
Barb Blanchard was so proud of her daughter who graduated from boot camp on March 28th. She was “Soldier of the Cycle” and is now doing Army Intelligence (a contradiction of terms) at an undisclosed location at a state that is in the south and has cities like Miami and Tampa in it.
Tom Martinez celebrated 33 years in our club. He said our club is a lot smaller than it was when he joined, but back then there was only one club in Santa Maria, not three. He said we didn’t have women in the club back then, but now that we have women we do more fundraising, and that is a good thing. He agreed to pay $35. Maybe he should have asked his daughter to pay his fine, since he paid for hers.
Laura Segura celebrated 23 years of marital bliss by going to Mexico. She coughed up $25, which is 4.2 million pesos.
Fred Donati went to Legoland for the third time. He took two grandchildren with him, but may not go back. He has 30 or 40 lego models that he has made, so he agreed to forfeit $35 of his hard earned money.
Grant recipient Steve Baird announced for the absent Fred Pratt that Camp Flores is now full, and agreed to pay whatever fine would be levied.
Heather Weare will have the Exemption Badge the next time we meet.
Steve Baird had the lucky ticket for the 50/50 drawing, but he was not lucky enough to select the white marble.
The meeting adjourned at 1:27 PM.
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