been meeting for over 53 years and this
MORAGA
ROTARY
NEWSLETTER
July 21, 2020
_________________________________
Next: July 28, Noon
We are now conducting regular
meetings on-line video or by phone!
Program: Erica Leonard, Kid
Power
____________________________
To participate next week:
Zoom connection information for next week’s
meeting will be distributed early next week.
Upcoming Speakers:
Aug 4 – Mike Martin: Vietnam War
Veterans of Diablo
Aug 11 – Shawn Knapp, Moraga Town
Engineer: Canyon Bridge
Aug 18 – Dave Kemnitz – Cars 2nd
Chance
Sept 8 – Mark Nagel: St. Mary’s College
Dec 1 – DG visit: Mark Roberts
~~Third Meeting of the 2020/2021
Rotary Year ~~
President, Brian South rang the
Moraga Rotary Bell to open the meeting.
Brian reminded us that this club has
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year’s theme is Rotary Opens
Opportunities. Ron Mucovich provided
the invocation reminding us to pray for
all those impacted by covid-19 in our
community and beyond. Ron also asked
us to pray for those who are dying on
our streets who are not recognized or
remembered. Then Ron led us in the
Pledge of Allegiance.
A busy Moraga bee!
We had a number of guests today - our
speaker, David O’Connell, Head of
Saklan School; Kathe Nelson,
Executive Director of the Moraga
Chamber of Commerce; Joy
Alaidarous, Assistant Governor Rotary
District 5160 Fab Five Clubs; Pat
Tidmarsh, Moraga Rotary Honorary
Member; Ron Haas, GM Moraga
Country Club and Luis Ballesteros,
Director Course Services &
Landscaping – Moraga Country Club.
Debbie Roessler told us her hubby and
Honorary Moraga Rotarian Lou has
moved from John Muir/Mt. Diablo
General Hospital to Manor Care. He is
feeling better, but Debbie says it is so
hard to have anyone in medical care at
this time. You cannot visit and it is very,
very difficult to get information.
~~Happy Bucks~~
Jennifer Brophy gave $5 Happy Bucks
because Baseball Is Back! Exhibition
games began for the Giants and the A’s
last evening. Regular games began July
23rd.
Debbie Roessler produced $10 Happy
Bucks - $5 because Lou Roessler is out
of the hospital and $5 because she
“escaped to Moraga” to drop a load of
books to Evie Michon, had coffee with
Evie outdoors at CiCi Café and visited
her sister in Alamo.
Alka Mulakaluri gave $4 Happy Bucks
because two of her patients had babies.
Stephanie Dickerson had $3 Happy
Bucks because she and her family
traveled by car to visit her parents in
Ohio. They had a blast on this extensive
car trip.
Debbie Roessler mentioned that
President Brian was in both the East
Bay Times and the San Francisco
Chronicle as Moraga’s chief coyote
chaser. Brian added there was one
confirmed bite by a coyote of a child at
the Moraga Commons Park. The park
was closed for a time and Brian worked
with Fish & Game to make sure the park
was clear. There was another report of a
possible bite at the Moraga Country
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Club, but it is unconfirmed. Fish & Game
says the coyotes here in Moraga are
getting too complacent with human
closeness. In more rural areas they are
chased and tend to give humans more
space. Best advice – chase any coyotes
that come close. Yell – Throw rocks –
Make them run away.
~~Anniversaries~~
Marv & Joyce Ellenberg celebrated
their 59th anniversary on July 16th. For
dinner they had take-out from La
Finestra. That’s a $40 maximum Happy
Fine.
~~Club Business and Info~~
A Note from President Brian:
Moraga Rotary Club Fundraiser –
Ribs for Rotary
During these challenging times, Moraga
Rotary still has local community and
international projects we are dedicated
to support. The Board of Directors has
approved a new fundraiser that is
suitable during Covid restrictions. The
Moraga Rotary Club is planning to
partner with a local Moraga restaurant
for a “Ribs for Rotary” fundraiser. The
concept is to create a family style meal
deal (ribs?) that can be ordered ahead
of time on the Moraga Rotary
website. Rotarians will set up an
outdoor area in the parking lot where
people can drive up and be handed their
meal on the day of the event. Other fun
aspects can be incorporated like having
randomly selected cars win prizes,
etc. This is an opportunity to introduce
a new Rotary fundraiser as well as
support a local Rotarian-owned
business during this difficult time. Also,
being outdoors with physical distancing,
masking, and limited contact outside
with the patrons means this can be done
following all Covid restrictions…Safety is
paramount. Only a few Rotarians would
need to be physically at the event and
even then, only those that are absolutely
comfortable with it. But we do need
help with the planning!
The goal is to have the event occur by
October…We will need ALL Rotarians to
help with marketing the event and
spreading the word once we start. Also,
much detail and planning needs to be
worked out (maybe even a new name)
so we have created a subcommittee to
work primarily on this project. All
members are invited and encouraged to
join the subcommittee, especially newer
Rotarians or those who have not yet had
the opportunity to be on a
committee. All of the planning can be
done safely and remotely via Zoom,
email, and telephone. Please contact
me via email if you want to help. There
is a subcommittee meeting tentatively
scheduled for August 4, so please let
me know if you are interested or if you
have any questions. As Rotarians, we
will always adapt and continue to be
People of Action!
Thanks, Brian
Zoom meetings during Covid-19
distancing - President Brian said there
was an incidence of Zoom Bombing
interfering with a Zoom meeting for one
of the Fab Five Rotary clubs. “Zoom
Bombing” is an unwelcome interruption
of a Zoom event by an unauthorized
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person who then does something
disruptive. If something like that
happens to one of our Zoom meetings,
we will end the call. Zoom will probably
set up a password system to protect
users. You will hear more about this as
things develop.
New Game for Zoom Meetings
President Brian announced a new
game starting with next week’s meeting.
Everyone who wants to play puts in $10
to build a game pot and will then be
eligible for selection by random drawing
to guess the suit from among four
playing cards (Diamond, Heart, Spade
or Club). If they guess correctly the first
week – the win is $10. If there is no
correct guess the first week then the
next prize will be $20. If it goes to a third
week the prize rises to $30 and so forth
until a maximum win of $50 is available.
Remember to get your $10 to Treasurer
Rich Render to be eligible to take part.
Greeter/Invocators
Don’t forget, we need greeters and
invocators! There is an updated list on
page 6 showing people who have
signed up recently. Please let Herb
Wehmeyer know when you would like
to do this service for your club. Contact
Herb at: oherbw@att.net
Summer Smiles Project
Pictures are coming in of Moraga
Rotarian response to the “Summer
Smiles Project” which is a joint project
with the Moraga Junior Women’s Club.
Both our clubs are decorating rocks to
be placed at Moraga Royale and Aegis
to cheer the residents for
“Grandparent’s Day.” Rock decorating
kits and markers are available at the
Canyon Club Brewery. Kits are located
in a special rack just within the entrance
outside the brewery. Just pick up the
kits and decorate to your hearts content.
Then drop the finished rocks back to the
rack outside the Canyon Club Brewery.
See the flyer at the end of this
newsletter. It would be swell if you could
take a photo of your completed rocks
and email to MoragaRotary@gmail.com
Because of Covid concerns you may
prefer to have the kit/kits dropped off at
your home - contact the Moraga Juniors
at: service@moragajuniors.org. And
when you get done with the decorating,
you can also notify this site for a pick-up
from your home.
You will also see another Moraga
Juniors project in the rack next to the
Rock Decorating kits. The Juniors are
also collecting school supplies for
students that are in need. If you can -
please help the Juniors collect supplies.
The “Dice-Cup-Marble-Pull” made a
visit to the club today. The name of one
of today’s attendees was drawn and it
was Past President, Debbie Koo who
got to try to pick the elusive green
marble from among four orange ones for
a possible win of $10. Debbie had no
luck though. An orange marble came up
which brought groans of, “Oh so close!”
from the rest of the Zoom attendees.
The Club Mystery Box
President Brian again showed last
week’s mystery box wrapped in blue
paper. Last week’s hint was “The item is
worth about $60” and this week Brian
told us “The item is Rotary related.” The
guessing began:
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• Debbie Koo “A Rotary shirt?” No
• Alka Mulakaluri “A Rotary
banner?” No
• Jennifer Brophy “A briefcase?”
No
• Evie Michon “A backpack?” No
• John Erickson “A book?” No
• Debbie Roessler “A Rotary
gavel?” No
• Debbie Koo “A blanket?” No
Each wrong answer costs the
guesser a $1. Please send your
Happy Guess money to Moraga
Rotary, P.O. Box 122, Moraga, CA
94556. Next week there will be
another hint.
You can confidentially submit ideas
for box items to Brian. The box is
about 10 inches by 10 inches.
~~Moraga Employee of the
Month~~
The final Moraga Employee of the
Month selectee was honored after
introductions by Kathe Nelson,
Executive Director of the Moraga
Chamber of Commerce and our
President, Brian South. The honoree
is Luis Ballesteros, Director of
Course Services & Landscaping at
the Moraga Country Club. Ron Haas,
GM of the Moraga Country Club
introduced Luis and gave a brief
synopsis of his history and
performance. Luis has been with the
club for 25 years. He started as a
tractor driver and has steadily moved
up in responsibility to now lead the
maintenance of the 300-acre facility.
 Ron says what Luis does with his
limited staff is “magical.” He wears
many hats, he never says “no” and
he makes Ron’s job much easier.
Luis is receiving a Certificate, a gift
card from the Chamber of Commerce
and a check from Moraga Rotary. We
all joined in congratulating Luis on his
commitment to hard work.
As announced in a prior newsletter,
the format of this award is changing.
In the future it will be the Moraga
Teacher of the Month.
~~Program~~
Today’s speaker was David O’Connell,
Head of School for the Saklan School, a
K-8th grade private academy here in
Moraga. David is entering his third year
at the school and prior to this oversaw
educational programs in Singapore,
Mexico and Israel.
David talked about what makes a good
educational program. He said first you
need two things:
• Physical safety – a situation free
of violence and in a healthy
setting.
• No stressors like bullying
If you don’t have these, the kids can’t
learn.
You can try to hurry learning by focusing
on completing the whole textbook in the
academic year, but the children won’t
really learn until they know you care
about them. Making the connection
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with the students takes time and might
seem counter-intuitive, but they are
much better learners when they feel
connected to the class and the teacher.
David shared some slides with the
attendees highlighting:
• Mentoring between the kids &
teachers - This builds strong
connections to the learning
material.
• Inspiring teachers who can help
the students directly relate to the
material and give them a
connection and a passion for
learning.
• Experiential learning which
keeps the learning interesting and
hands-on. (Field trips, Boats on
the Bay, zoos and museums)
All of these take time but produce
confident/ well-rounded kids and that is
the Goal.
Debbie Roessler asked how many
students are at Saklan School? David
replied 130 kids K thru 8th. About 8-10
kids per class and 15 kids in middle
school.
Brian South said David’s talk was
fascinating and David asked about our
project to help local schools. Brian told
him about our club’s effort to provide
video cameras to the K-8th grade
schools with installation of a world-class
system at Joaquin Moraga Middle
School this August and providing
medical kits for classrooms in all four
schools. Brian said David will receive a
Certificate for speaking with us and a
medical kit will be donated to a
classroom in his name. Brian also said Please help fill the Open spots.
the club would be happy to find ways to It’s Fun, it’s Easy!
work with Saklan School too - which Notify Herb of your preference at
pleased David very much. oherbw@att.net

~~Final Words~~ Debbie Roessler needs speakers. She

told us she found Lucas Tucker through
The Moraga Rotary Board met via the East Bay Times news article and
Zoom on Tuesday evening at 5:30 pm. says, “You can find speaker ideas
everywhere.” Please help Debbie,
Herb Wehmeyer needs particularly in light of the fact that she
Greeters/Invocators. We have the will be facing unknown time constraints
following club members signed up: when Lou comes home from Manor
• 7/28 - Roger Gregory Care. We need to flesh out speakers for
• 8/04 - Gary Irwin August and September.
• 8/11 – Roger Gregory Next week’s speaker will be Erica
• 8/18 – Evie Michon Leonard “Kid Power” and Roger
• 8/25 – Open Gregory will be the Invocator.
• 9/01 – Open
• 9/08 – Open The meeting was adjourned with a
ringing of the Moraga Rotary Bell and a
• 9/15 – Open
wish for a blessed week to all. See you
• 9/22 – Open
on the Zoom next week!
• 9/29 – Open

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Moraga Rotary Directors 2020/2021
President Brian South
President Elect Brian South
Past Co-Presidents Evie Michon & Debbie Koo
Executive Secretary Evie Michon
Secretary Jennifer Brophy
Treasurer and Youth Services Chair Rich Render
Club Administrator Debbie Roessler
Foundation Chairman John Erickson
Community Service Chairman Tony Schoemehl
Public Relations Chairman Gary Irwin
Fundraising Chairman Frank May
International Service Chairs Dianne Wilson & Debbie Koo
Membership Chairman Roger Gregory
Director at Large Mary Sue Erickson
Director at Large Linda May
Advisor to the Board John Erickson
Advisor to the Board Jim Campbell
Advisor to the Board Cliff Dochterman
District Governor 5160 Mark Roberts
President, Rotary International Holger Knaack
July newsletter editor – The Rajah - Gregory

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