Membership Chair, Nancy Bender - announced that she is looking to we members to be recruiting possible new members. Ask a coworker, friend, or possible associate to a meeting.
Brewfest is May 7th – Jeff Ambrosia, the chair, announced we have 17 breweries committed. We need more. He has posters to put up so be sure and get one from him and put up in your business.
Cindy announced that she was passing around a container to collect money for Rotary to help Ukraine. She later shared that we collected $770. More will be counted from Venmo donations. If you want to help with this cause, you can Venmo Auburn Rotary with your donation. Be sure and post that it is for Disaster Relief Fund.
John Donlevy - member of the International Committee advised that we are, along with the other 3 Rotary Clubs, working on 2 International Projects. One is the solar project for Puerto Hemosa, home for disabled children. It will cost around $18,000. The project has received a $10,000 District Grant. The other project is a long-term water project for grey water conversion. This is for Rancho Genesis, which is a camp for orphans coming from the Mexican Border Area. The project is going to cost about $100,000. The other committee members include Earl Wilson, Chair, Bob Dunstan, and Bill Johnston. Bill is the one is the key to getting the job moving for the Puerto Hemosa project.
Bridget Powers - shared that the 2022 Rotary Ski Challenge was a success despite the inclement weather. The other committee members included David Gibson, Dan Gustafson, and Bob Santin
District Conference - President Scott shared the date for this fun event that will take place in Harrah's Lake Tahoe on April 29th to May 1st. I would encourage all members to sign up. It's fun to meet other Rotarians from other clubs. The Music Contest and Speech Contest are amazing. Fantastic speakers too. You can attend all three days or just one. Be sure and check it out.
Birthdays - Mary Jo Payne; Jeff Small, Mike Holmes.
Anniversaries - Larry and Lawanda Rolufs; Nancy and Ken Nittler
Happy/Sad Bucks -
Cindy Elund had happy bucks for her granddaughter, Kiera Odell, who graduated from Sierra College with:
Associate of Science with honors in:
Allied health - pre nursing
Allied health - general
Biological sciences
Natural science
Social and behavioral science
Rachel Kanowsky had happy bucks for both moving to Meadow Vista 5 years ago and joining Rotary 3 years ago. We are so glad you did.
John Donlevy was presenting happy bucks for completing over the weekend the Way Too Cool 50K.
Rodney Borges, President Elect - Donated $100 to Polio Plus for enjoying PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) this last weekend in San Jose. He was able to meet Jennifer Jones, the Rotary International future President. She will be the first female President.
Peter Konrad - had some sad bucks as just this morning, a coyote entered his back yard and killed one of his cats. His wife had to deal with the unfortunate event.
Raffle - $128 available, but no winners this week.
Guest Speaker - Preston A Marx, PHD. Virologist.
Current appointments
Professor of Tropical Medicine, Department of Tropical Medicine, in the School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine and Core Scientist in the Division of Microbiology, Tulane National Primate Research Center
Has over 39 years in research on AIDS that started at the UC Davis primate center in 1983
Over 250 publications including a textbook on Virology
Research Accomplishments
Discovered SIV viruses ancestral to HIV in monkeys in West Africa and linked them to emergence of HIV in West Africa; discovered 5 new Simian viruses in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and a new species of Mandrill monkey in Gabon. His discovery that simian viruses ancestral to HIV were ancient viruses was named by Discover magazine as number 20 of the top 100 scientific achievements of 2010.
Dr. Marx shared a PowerPoint on COVID. Some highlights included:
- The COVID virus started an open Market in Wuhan, China. There were 10 cases found that day from people attending the Market.
- Bats carry many dangerous viruses including COVID. The open market in Wuhan had bats in the rafters of the market.
- 90% of animal viruses are from bats, rats, birds and pigs.
- Pet Hamsters are the likely source of the Delta variant.
- Humans are the other mammals that spread the virus.
- Vaccines have been shown to be very effective against the corona virus.
- There will be other variants. We will have to learn to live with the virus and it's variants as they are hear to stay. The good news is that they are milder.
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