01/09/2023

President Annalise von Borstel presided over the first meeting of 2023.  The flag salute was led by Jera Newland and the inspirational thought of the day was given by Alissa Woods who talked about Service Above Self and what that means.

Guests of Rotarians included Jessica from the Speakeasy, Ian our outbound exchange student in 2023,

Gregory Fillmore with Eureka Natural Foods and Christian Hill a former Rotary Club of Eureka member who will be introducing today’s speaker.  Brad Mettam officially retired at the end of December 2022!  His wife Diane joined him at today’s meeting.

Hilla Honkamakila, our exchange student from Finland said she has 20 calendars left to sell.  She is excited to be able to go to Hawaii and maybe New York with the funds she has raised.  She was so appreciative to everybody for supporting her.  Talk to Hilla if you want a $20 calendar.

Eureka City Manager, Miles Slattery provided a monthly “minute” and told us 7 buildings and 40 residential homes in Eureka were affected by the earthquake.  The Lloyd Building in downtown Eureka will have to be destroyed because of the extreme damage. The City has also sent staff to Rio Dell to help with the evaluation of building structures there.

Lynn Dugaw read us a charming letter from Naomi our Outbound exchange student who related the joys of Christmas time in Denmark.  Make sure to check out her blog.  The link is sent each week by Nancy Dean with the announcement of the upcoming meeting.

UPCOMING:

  • Rick Littlefield and his wife Betty recently attended a Rotary Eco Tour in Mexico. They planted trees, picked up trash and learned a lot about the area.  Plans are being made to have the Mexico group here in March for an Eco-Tour in Humboldt County.  They need hosts to host a couple for 3 or 4 days.  They also need people to join the committee to put together the details of the Eco Tour.
  • Tom Schallert talked about the Flail Mower that our club helped sponsor. It has arrived and is in use!
  • Rio Dell still needs a lot of donations. A list will be emailed soon if you can bring supplies to the next meeting please do.
  • Mark this date on your calendar! Monday March 20 @noon we will meet at the Morris Graves Museum to have our photo taken outside of the Eureka Inn. Please plan to attend.
  • January 25, 5:30 – 6:30pm will be the next centennial committee meeting.
  • January 23, following the noon meeting there will be a meeting of the public image committee.
  • Backpacks for Kids happens every Thursday from 3:30 – 4:30 at Old Growth Cellars – 1945 Hilfiker Ln, Eureka. Come help pack bags of food for kids.
  • Online elections for the board of directors have closed. You can still submit a paper ballot by voting today at the meeting.  There are ballots on the table.

RECOGNITIONS

  • Tom Schallert was recognized for recently celebrating his 47th anniversary with his wife Tess. He related to us that at their wedding the food was all gone by the time the pictures had been taken so they ended up ordering hamburgers, fries and champagne that evening for dinner.  Every year for 47 years they have celebrated with the same menu.
  • Phillip Nicklas and his wife Alana have a new baby! Paul Nicklas, named after his dad.
  • Neal Carnam’s oldest son was recently married in Columbia. Neal talked about the amazing time they had visiting the country.
  • Jim Sessa talked about an upcoming board of directors vote at Coast Central Credit Union that has been in the news and offered to answer any questions after the meeting.
  • A reminder that there will be no meeting next week as it is a holiday, Martin Luther King day.

Raffle Winners – Alissa Woods, Christine Tyson, Neal Carnam, Ian. Gold coin drawing was worth $468.  Unfortunately Alicia Cox did not draw the winner.

GUEST SPEAKER – Darian Harris, Chief Executive at St. Joseph Hospital and Redwood Memorial at Providence

Christian Hill introduced Darian Harris to the Club. Darian has been in Eureka for 5 months and prior to moving here was the CEO at Providence Healdsburg/Petaluma. His wife is a nurse practitioner with Hospice and they have 2 children.

Darian said since he’s arrived in Eureka Darian said he’s done a lot of listening and has heard common needs from the community that includes needs for timely care, more staffing and help with the drug issues, and more.  Providence St. Joseph are partnering with our local colleges and university to provide training to accommodate an increase in staffing.  In fact, they just graduated the first class in Eureka from the Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka Family Medicine Program which is dedicated to preparing well trained family physicians.

They are also doing a lot of recruiting to bring more doctors and specialists to the area. They are also focused on retention of the current practitioners that live in Humboldt.