Woodland Rotary - The Rotary Club of Woodland Website

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Rotary Theme 2024-25

Stephanie Urchick, 2024-25 Rotary International President

https://www.rotary.org/en/stephanie-urchick-celebrates-magic-rotary

Daniel Geraldi, 2024-25 Governor,

Rotary District 5160

VIEW VIDEO HERE DG Welcome letter

2025 Dinner Auction

Preparations are underway for our 2025 Dinner Auction on Saturday, April 26, at the Silos at Velocity Island Resort, 755 N East Street, Woodland. Find out below what you can do to help!

BENEFICIARIES

The Woodland Rotary Club/Woodland Rotary Endowment are raising funds this year to assist the efforts of the following local, non-profit organizations:

Yolo Farm to Fork - (https://www.yolofarmtofork.org/) Up to $11,000 for construction of two large instructional gazebos for the outdoor edible gardens at Beamer Elementary and Gibson Elementary schools. Currently the gardens are not shaded and have no seating. Materials will be procured from local suppliers, individuals and firms for the construction. The structures will provide an outdoor classroom (shaded with seating) for teachers, staff, volunteers and students to learn about outdoor gardening. Construction is planned to be completed by August 2025. This is the first priority for Auction proceed funding.

Woodland Healthcare Foundation – (https://www.supportwoodlandhealthcare.org/) The balance of 2025 Dinner Auction proceeds, up to $38,387, would be used to complete the purchase of state-of-the-art surgical tool to assist in orthopedic surgeries. The equipment is radio-graphic camera technology (x-ray machine) called the C-Arm (due to its shape) and is used in spinal, hip, knee and other orthopedic surgeries. Woodland Healthcare already has 4 C-Arms, but with curent demand for use all are in operation creating 30-minute or longer delays in some surgeries. The new machine will have updated technology including the ability to capture precise measurements and a map for surgeons to use. The new machine captures 3-D imaging allowing surgeons to view a multi plane image. The machine allows for precise confirmation and analysis of structures not currently available with the existing machines. The total cost of this C-Arm is $399,467, and the Foundation has assembled all but the requested amount, $38,387.

Amounts awarded will be dependent on proceeds from this Dinner Auction.

REGISTER FOR DINNER TICKETS

Members: If you purchased tickets with your annual dues - you still need to go to the Eventbrite website at: Rotary Dinner & Auction - Purchase tickets here and select TICKETS - then put in the number 4 next to the DINNER TICKET PRE PAID option. Fill in your name so we can confirm you have paid and are good to go!

Others: Want to buy dinner tickets? Cost is $75 per ticket. Register on the Eventbrite website at: Rotary Dinner & Auction - Purchase tickets here

to register and purchase.

PLEASE REGISTER/PURCHASE YOUR DINNER TICKETS BY APRIL 9 SO WE CAN GET AN ACCURATE HEADCOUNT FOR THE CATERER.

Contact David Pinto at 530 304-5592 with any questions.

SPONSORSHIPS

Sponsorship Tiers:

Gold - $2500

Silver - $1000

Bronze - $500

Business Card - $250

View the Sponsorship Form.

Contact Mark Ullrich or Roger Kohlmeier if you wish to sponsor, or know of someone looking to sponsor.

WINNERS CHOICE RAFFLE

$100 per ticket to purchase. Only 200 tickets available. Each member is asked to purchase or sell at least two tickets. Contact Angela Lynn to get your tickets.

Winner gets the following Trip Options - roundtrip airfare from Sacramento included to:

Kaua'i, Alaska's Northern Lights, or Puerto Vallarta, Mexico;

or $3,000 cash;

see description above for details -

$6,000 Travel Value!

AUCTION DONATIONS

Peter Holmes, Clyde Brooker and Kris Kristensen are looking for donations of oral items to be offered during the event. If you can offer an item, or a suggestion, please contact any of them.

The Silent Auction Committee, led by Blair Voelz and Lori McGrath, are looking for silent auction items to be offered during the event. View the silent auction donation request letter.

WHEEL BARREL OF WINE

Each Club member is asked to donate two bottles of good quality wine (minimum $20 value each) to fill two wheel barrels for the oral auction. Gregg Kowes is coordinating. Bring them to a Tuesday Club meeting no later than April 22.

March 25th Meeting

President Bob Nakken was at the helm of today's meeting and got his wish for a female voice to help with Rotary Grace when our server Jordi Richter joined Dan Stroski and Steve Venables.

Joe Cadelago celebrated his 46th birthday on March 19th (Vallejo). Gregg Kowes was celebrating his 45th birthday (Grass Valley) TODAY, so he was serenaded by everyone with 'Happy Birthday To You'.

Peter Holmes and Clyde Brooker reported an exciting lineup of oral auction items is developing for the Club's 2025 Dinner Auction on April 26th. They highlighted the following items:

Two-night stay at the Durant Vineyard & Olive Mill in Dayton OR will be back again this year with lodgings improved to a hillside cottage over the vineyards. Thanks to Blair Voelz for arranging.

(NEW!) A paella dinner for eight (8) at the Roy home, offered by the women members of our Club. Jordi Richter will be serving.

(NEW!) With the Las Vegas A's playing baseball at Raley Field in West Sacramento the next three years, the Club's past presidents are offering a suite for 20 people to an A's game this season. A show of hands indicated there was interest in bidding on this opportunity to see major league baseball in Yolo County.

Oh, hold your noses, but we will be offering a truckload (about 25 tons) of compost from Lopez Ag again this year.

Today's guests included visiting Rotarians Don Sharp and Byron MacConnell from Woodland Sunrise; Dan Stroski introduced his exchange student son Andy; and former member Frits van der Hoek joined us.

Lori Ross was in charge of today's Recognition and was happy she has secured an office for herself near the Hotel so she can attend more Club meetings. Don Huff III was happy for skier Lindsey Vonn, who at the age of 40 years, won a World Cup race over the weekend for the first time since retiring from the circuit due to injuries back in 2018. Karl Diekman rejoined us after an extended absense, and 'rang the bell' reporting he has a new home in Bang Saen Beach, Thailand. Kevin Haarberg and wife Lorie had a great time on their annual vacation to Cabo San Lucas. Lori went on to ask a series of questions of people with birthdays in March, giving details on famous and seeing who can guess the correct name ('Who Am I').

Salvador Ramirez, Executive Director, Yolo Farm to Fork, was our guest speaker today, giving us a look at what Yolo Farm to Fork, one of the beneficiaries of this year's Dinner Auction, does with helping young people learn about food. More about Yolo Farm to Fork can be found at its website: https://www.yolofarmtofork.org/

March 18th Meeting

President Bob Nakken greeted a modest size crowd today. Attendance is likely down due to several members attending Spring training baseball. It was a sunny, yet still cool winter day. President Bob wanted everyone to remember we are the Original Rotary Club in Woodland and still the best!? Back for more, Jim Nolan joined Dan Stroski and Steve Venables today to get us going on Rotary Grace. President Bob also told us progress is being made by Yolo County Rotary Clubs in the development of an observation platform at the Woodland Regional Park Preserve, and of the related article appearing in the Daily Democrat today. To view the Daily Democrat article go to: https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2025/03/18/rotary-clubs-to-build-pavilion-at-regional-park/

With the pot at $125 and 25 cards to choose from, Byron MacConnell drew a free lunch. Angela Lynn celebrated her 46^th birthday on March 13^th (Woodland). We were joined by Woodland Sunrise Rotarians Byron MacConnell and Don Sharp. In addition to our guest speaker, Lori McGrath introduced Raylene Ewing, past President of Luna Vista Rotary, and a Native Daughter of the Golden West member. Tim Pettit introduced his guest and son-in-law, Darren Glenn.

Chuck Maltese distributed signup sheets for those interested in participating in the 2025 Rotary Mystery Golf Tour on Wednesday, May 7. Price has risen to $140 per player for transportation, golf, cart, range balls, lunch & fellowship. If interested, sign up with Chuck now. Clyde Brooker took the helm on today’s Recognition. Following happy time, Clyde raised funds by asking selected members the meaning of familiar phrases often used by folks with southern roots. President-elect Aniek Pflager is feeling upbeat on preparations underway for the Club’s 2025 Annual Dinner coming up Saturday, April 26, 2025, at the Silos at Velocity Island Park. She urged everyone to register your dinner tickets, the ones you have already paid for, and others you want to purchase, on Eventbrite:

Rotary Dinner & Auction - Purchase tickets here

David Pinto enjoyed a 21 day trip to India, including stops in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and stayed healthy despite staying at a different friends home nearly every day.

Our guest speaker today was Renee Rianda, Grand Marshall, Native Daughters of the Golden West (NDGW). Renee was introduced by our own Lori McGrath who, along with Renee, are members of the Native Daughters Woodland Parlor #90. Two years from now, Renee will become the NDGW President.Today, Renee and Lori combined to tell us about the ‘Native Daughters of Golden West’. More information about the Native Daughters of the Golden West can be found at its website: https://www.ndgw.org/

North American Youth Exchange Network

Conference '25

Dan Stroski, Rotary District 5160 Youth Exchange Inbound Coordinator, attended the 2025 North American Youth Exchange Network (NAYEN) Conference along with his wife Ginny and over 400 other Rotarians February 20-22 in Merida, Mexico.

Meet Our New Member

- Ryan Burger

Ryan Burger, sponsored by his father Jeff Burger, was installed as a new member of the Club on February 11, 2025 by President Bob Nakken. At our request, Ryan provided the following bio. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to introduce yourself to Ryan when you meet and welcome him to the Club.

As a Woodland native, I have had the pleasure of growing up in this fine town. My family has lived in the area for quite some time with my mother, Lea Burger, who is from Arbuckle and my father, Jeff Burger, from Dunnigan. I went through Woodland’s school system starting at St. John’s Preschool and ending at Woodland High School, after which I spent a brief period in Merced, CA where I acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of California, Merced.

After graduating college, I moved back to Woodland where I acquired my real estate license. I currently help my fellow community members in Yolo County, as well as surrounding counties, buy or sell their homes. I am one of five members of a team within RE/MAX Gold led by Don Sharp, who is a fellow Rotarian and another of the members is my father, who is also a Rotarian. I thoroughly enjoy what I do for work and one of my favorite parts of the job is networking and meeting new people, which is part of my motivation for joining Rotary.

In addition to being a member of Rotary, I am also the 2025 Chair of the Young Professionals Network (YPN) and an active Toastmasters member. YPN is a group that helps new real estate agents engage with their community as well as providing education to ensure our clients are getting the best service possible. Toastmasters, as an organization, has been around for a very long time but our club is fairly new, and its members share the goal of developing public speaking skills through practice and education.

As a third generation Rotary Member (with my father and my grandfather George Burger), I understand the positive impact this organization has on our community, and I am excited to be a part of it. I am looking forward to supporting the town I have been able to call home my whole life as well as making new connections and meeting like-minded individuals who share my passion for further building our community.

Meet Our New Member -

Gregg Kowes

Gregg Kowes, sponsored by Brian Dwyer, was installed as a new member of the Club on January 7, 2025 by President Bob Nakken. At our request, Gregg provided the following bio. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to introduce yourself to Gregg when you meet and welcome him to the Club.

I was born in Grass Valley CA but moved to Woodland at the very young age of 1. After graduating from Woodland High School, I attended American River College and then to the University of Phoenix.

After college I started working at Woodland Davis Termite and Pest control. I worked there for 12 years before becoming an owner in 2018.

I got married in 2006 to my wife Kim and we have 3 wonderful boys. My oldest son Nick works with me at the pest control company and our 2 younger sons Tyler and Brett attend Woodland Christian School. They are involved in football, baseball, and FFA programs which keep me very busy.

I served on the Woodland Little league board for 8 years until my sons aged out. Coaching has been my passion for many years. I coached the Woodland High JV baseball team for 6 years and then it was time to coach my boy’s baseball teams which included little league teams and their travel baseball teams.

These days I enjoy walking my two dogs Vinny and Deebo in the Davis Arboretum and golfing at Yolo Fliers Club.

Meet Our New Member -

Joe Cadelago

Joe Cadelago, sponsored by Mark Ullrich, was installed as a new member of the Club on January 7, 2025 by President Bob Nakken. At our request, Joe provided the following bio. If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to introduce yourself to Joe when you meet and welcome him to the Club.

I was born in Vallejo and grew up in Napa. I spent my entire childhood there until I was 20 after I finished my associates degree at Napa Valley Junior College. Napa was a great place to grow up in the 80’s and early 90’s, until the city removed most of the fun things for kids as it moved towards a tourist-centric destination place. My grandparents on my mother’s side met during WWII in England and relocated to Napa. My grandparents on my father’s side immigrated from Italy and relocated to San Francisco. My parents met in Napa when my father moved to Napa from SF to start his music teaching career which he had for 38 years before he retired. My mother was also a music educator and balanced that as a full-time mother to myself and my two siblings. I have an older sister that lives in Roseville, and a younger brother that lives in Seattle.

After graduating from Napa Valley Junior College, I transferred to Chico State. I chose Chico State for two primary reasons: my great uncle was one of the founders of the Chico agricultural department and always spoke fondly of the community and the school. In addition, I found Chico to be a college that was just far enough away where my parents couldn’t easily visit often, but close enough to go home to visit when needed. I also heard Chico was a great place to develop my social skills and that proved to be true.

I received my degree in Political Science and spent the first several years of my career working for various political entities. This included my first career job as the mailroom assistant to Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was elected Governor. To this day, it’s still one of my favorite jobs. I had a variety of roles in the administration, and finished after I completed my time as his political director for Northern CA. For the past 15 years I’ve been with Waste Management (WM) managing the business contracts between the company and various local jurisdictions. My primary office is in Woodland, and I also manage a team of recycling coordinators in Yolo County.

I met my wife Amanda at a party at Chico State within a few weeks of transferring there, and we’ve now been married almost 22 years. We don’t have kids of our own, but we fostered three siblings from Woodland for several months and it was a life-changing experience for us and them. We currently live in Carmichael and have two dogs, a Weimaraner (Watson) and an Aussie-doodle (Mabel). Amanda and I love to travel, and have been to Sweden, Italy, France and England in the past few years. My personal hobbies include road cycling, volunteering in the community, family time, and doing my best to enjoy life each day.

I was previously a member of the Pacific Grove Rotary Club and a Paul Harris Fellow. Tuesday lunch meetings were at Spanish Bay with ocean views. Miss those meetings but am excited to be part of the Woodland noon-club and looking forward to contributing and participating.

Rotary Gives Children's Books

to Gibson School Kids

Lori Ross reports our Club presented the kindergarten and first grade students at Gibson School with their own personal copies of children's books on January 23. The author of the books, Leticia Ordaz, along with Club President Bob Nakken, members Lori McGrath, Gary Wegener and Woodland Sunrise Rotarian Wayne Ginzburg were also on hand to make the presentation. Thank you to Kelly Timothy, Gibson School Vice Principal and Acting Principal for making the presentation possible.

News From Club Polio Warrior Mark Ullrich:

Polio Update

2024 is now in the books. Here’s where we stand:
Officially reported WPV1 and cVDPV cases as of 31 December 2024
Wild poliovirus (WPV)
· Total global WPV1 cases in 2023: 12

· Total global WPV1 cases in 2024: 92 (compared with 12 for the same period in 2023)

Variant (Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus) (cVDPV) cases
· Total global cVDPV cases in 2023: 528

· Total global cVDPV cases in 2024: 252 (compared with 447 for the same period in 2023)

When thinking about Rotary’s ongoing efforts to eradicate polio, one can easily become disappointed about what happened during the calendar year 2024. As of Dec. 31, 2024, there were 92 confirmed cases (children) of paralysis caused by wild poliovirus type 1 and 252 confirmed cases of paralysis caused by one of the variant polioviruses - nearly all type 2. That could mean the final total could be over 100 cases when the 2024 totals are finalized. This has been especially unnerving when we consider that the total number of cases of wild poliovirus caused paralysis in all of 2023 was twelve!

But for those who joined our February 5th call with Rotary International President Stephanie Urchick, we know there are reasons to be hopeful for calendar year 2025. She reminded us that we are making good progress decreasing the number of cases of paralysis caused by variant polioviruses, especially type 2. Moreover, Pakistan is keenly aware that the world is watching, and they are working hard to reduce wild poliovirus cases. Historically, the number of cases of wild polio has always increased in election years in Pakistan, such as 2024, because the active government officials all resign as soon as an election is announced, and a “caretaker” government is put in place for about six months before the newly elected government officials take over. With elections passed, we are hopeful the government will redouble its efforts and partnership with Rotarians.

More information about Rotary's End Polio Now can be found at its website: https://www.endpolio.org/

Here you can sign up to receive the End Polio Now newsletter.

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