August 30, 2021

The meeting was opened at noon on Zoom by President Klark Swan. Thought of the day was provided by Fred Van Vleck. Mark Fazzone led the pledge of allegiance.

Happy birthday to all those with August birthdays.

On Saturday, September 25th there will be a Blood Drive from 8am to 3pm.  There will be prizes.  All other Rotary Clubs in Humboldt have been invited.

District Conference is happening in October.  Questions for the District Governor?  Want to know more about being a District Governor? Please send your questions to Klark. If you are going to the conference, you must be vaccinated or if you have health reasons and cannot be vaccinated you must be tested.

Rosters are in!  Klark is trying to determine how to deliver them. Let her know if you need one now.

ROTARY MOMENT

In 1968 the first Rotary Club banner to orbit the moon was carried by astronaut Frank Borman, a member of the Houston Space Center Rotary Club.

RECOGNITIONS

Fred Van Vleck – school has started. Enrollment is up by a lot.  Distance learning is not a possibility as the law has been changed. You can do independent learning, there are about 100 students choosing that option.  COVID has made changes.  All students masked when a student tests positive they can still attend school and isolate to their classroom and will be tested weekly until quarantine is ended. Today for example, 250 tests were taken.

GRANT RECIPIENT – Robert Santilli with St. Vincent De Paul.  Rotary funded a $2,000 grant for small houses.  One home was donated and this money will be used to build a second one.  The family who will receive it volunteer a lot of time at St. Vincent. They’ve been staying in a tent in the courtyard so this will be an improvement for them.

PRESENTER

Dr. Samantha Day is with the Humboldt Senior Resource Center(HSRC). HSRC serves 600 people right now and hope to expand that.  Right now their service area is primarily McKinleyville to Scotia.  They would like to expand to all of Humboldt County.

They offer many programs.  Their Activities Program has been difficult to push to virtual meetings as a  lot of the attendees were not interested in moving online.

They offer tax help, commodities distribution, senior home repair, Dial-a-ride tickets, Are You Okay program – (one time fee of $12.99 and then receive a daily call).

The Nutrition services have expanded during COVID.  Last year they served nearly 100,000 meas and are hoping to expand.  Seniors 60 and older can qualify.

HSRC also offers three health programs…

  • Adult Day Health and Alzheimer’s Center – 18 and up with a qualifying disability. State funded.
  • MSSP – medicare waver program. Medi-Cal recipients who are in danger of being placed in Assisted Living and having to leave their home.  State funded.  Helps people remain independent.
  • Redwood Coast PACE – a health plan that provides comprehensive care and support services.

They also offer a housing program that ends on November 30. They have money to spend before the end of November so if somebody needs help staying in their home let HSRC know.

A new program coming soon is a Behavioral Health Services programs.  This program offers depression treatment, suicide prevention, substance use counseling, individual and group therapy and more. Any person in Humboldt County 55 and up can qualify. There will be three full time clinical social workers.

We will be dark on Labor Day, September 6th.  The meeting was adjourned at 12:43pm.