Berkeley Rotary’s  most recent service project had something for everyone – and it didn’t cost their our club a cent!  Under the able leadership of Grier Graff, their projects chair, the club replaced 36 toilets at Chapparal House, an assisted living facility for the elderly.  The new low-flow toilets were purchased by the facility, but the Berkeley team did the work!  It was a workday that included 20+ Rotarians from Berkeley, 30+ Rotaracters from UC Berkeley, and 15+ other students.   A very successful service project integrating Rotarians and Rotaracters.

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News from the Berkeley Rotary Club

1.  As we do every year, our club distributed dictionaries to every 3^rd grader in the City of Berkeley.  Huge kudos go to our member, Pamela Doolan who coordinates this massive event.  Here is her report:

In the past seven years, Berkeley Rotarians have delivered over eleven tons of dictionaries to 3rd grade students, teachers, principals and libraries in the Berkeley Unified School District. Again, this year, Berkeley Rotarians arrived at the eleven elementary schools in teams to present dictionary lessons on the use of tabs and guide words to the students. Each student then received a copy of The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary.  Following the lesson, Rotarians read the picture book, Andy and Elmer’s Apple Dumpling Adventure by Andrew J. Shoup which includes The Four-Way Test.

The Berkeley Rotary 3rd Grade Dictionary Project is our club’s way of supporting the literacy efforts of the school district. From the truck arrival with the dictionaries, to the stacking and placing inserts in the books, to the delivery of 665 dictionaries and presentations at the schools, fifty eight (58) Rotarians and supporters participated in this year’s project, several multiple times. Last week we acknowledged those who participated in preparing the dictionaries for the presentations. This week thanks goes to the following who were part of teams presenting dictionaries and providing lessons to the students. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and participation making this project possible:

President Judith Glass, Douglas Kim, Patrick Carey, Don Melandry, George Luna, Schuyler and Susie Bailey, Suzanne Jensen, Jackie Hammond, Moe Orenstein, William Commerford, Steven Holland, Marin Glenn-Ellis, Donald Alter, Irene Hegarty, Michael Roberts, Robert Randall, Tom Eelkema, Pate and Judy Thomson and granddaughter Emma Duiven, Jay Mahoney, Glenn Fuller, Bruce Willock, Mary Alice Rathbun and Chris Owen. Thank you Schuyler Bailey, Jackie Hammond and Roy Doolan for your help delivering books to the schools. A special thanks goes to Steven Holland and his co-workers for storing the dictionaries and allowing the disruption of his work day to load dictionaries into cars.

For the first time this year, Cal Rotaract participated in the dictionary project joining teams at the schools. It was a pleasure having them work with us; the elementary students seemed to enjoy hearing from other “students” and their career majors. Thanks go to Rotaractors: Co-President Joanna Kwong, Kim Arciniega, Tara Sulur, Irina Goga and Heather McMenomy.

2.  Our most recent service project had something for everyone – and it didn’t cost our club a cent!  Under the able leadership of Grier Graff, our projects chair, our club replaced 36 toilets at Chapparal House, an assisted living facility for the elderly.  The new low-flow toilets were purchased by the facility, but our team did the work!  It was a workday that included 20+ Rotarians from our club, 30+ Rotaracters from UC Berkeley, and 15+ other students.   A very successful service project integrating Rotarians and Rotaracters.

3.  As our club is sponsoring 5 Ambassadorial Scholars – both outgoing and incoming – we are enjoying hearing from them at our meetings.  They are an awesome group of dedicated young adults.

4.  Steve Holland headed up the Berkeley Club’s recent participation in hosting the GSE team here from Monterrey, Mexico.   This is a program sponsored by the Rotary Foundation bringing a team of 4 young professionals and a Rotarian Team Leader to our district for 3-4 weeks.  Our team this year was lead by Rolando Chavez from Monterey, Mexico.  The team of 4 were all from various locations in the Mexican District.  The team this year were in employed in fire departments.  One of the team members was an EMT.

The team visited many clubs in the area.  Unfortunately, they were not able to visit our Berkeley club as they arrived in our communities on October 14^th.  They visited the El Cerrito and Richmond Clubs.  We did have the opportunity to share the team with Richmond.  Fred Collignon had them at the University for a class on Disaster Preparedness on Thursday, the 15th.  Reg Garcia took them for a tour of the campus in the afternoon and then President Judith, Alex Glass and Reg took them into San Francisco for dinner and a visit the museums in Golden Gate Park.  Friday had them visiting fire houses in Richmond.

The highlight of their visit was sailing on the Bay on one of the most beautiful days that we have had in ages.  Sunday, the 18^th, they departed SFO for a flight back to Mexico.

You may have wondered is there ever a trip to Mexico.  GSE is only for young professionals who are not Rotarians.  Yes, we are sending a team that will be leaving in April.  The Rotarian Team Leader is being chosen at this time.  The District will accept applications of young persons in their 20s or early 30s.  They cannot be Rotarians nor can they be related to Rotarians.  This year they must be coming from a Fire Department which allows for volunteer firepersons.  If you have any interest please talk to Steve Holland or Rosemary Mann.

A big thank you to Rosemary Mann, Reg Garcia, Fred Collignon, President Judith and Alex Glass.  The Rotary Club of El Cerrito also assisted specifically another big thank you to Don Farquharson.

There is always room to assist.  This is a great program and you can learn a lot.

Now for an interesting fact learned from Rolando.  Did you know that there is a Rotary Club that meets one week in Mexico and the next in the United States?  It is in Rolando’s District.  He thinks it is the only club in the world meets in 2 countries.