January 10, 2022

The meeting was opened at 12:10 on Zoom by President Klark Swan.  Klark talked about the need for patience as we navigate COVID needs and are now back on Zoom. Fred Van Vleck led the pledge of Allegiance. Chuck Ellsworth provided the thought of the day.

John Winzler recently passed away.  There will be a memorium for John at Rotary on our 1/24 meeting.

CLUB BUSINESS:

  • District Conference May 20-21 at Fortuna River Lodge. Mark your calendars.  More info to follow.
  • Kim Bauriedel – Talked about the history of the club. The charter was signed in November 1923. Kim gave us an accounting of the initial meetings.
  • Special Board Meeting on Monday Jan 19th via zoom to discuss meeting location. You are welcome to attend or send comments prior to the meeting.
  • No meeting 1/17- Martin Luther King Day

TODAY’S SPEAKER: Fred Van Vleck, Ed.D., Superintendent Eureka City Schools and South Bay School District.

Scholarships from our Club – Fred has headed up this committee for about 5 years and gave his thanks to Colby Smart and others who assisted with this.  These are the scholarships our club give out each year.

College of the Redwoods – Awarded annually.  Amount awarded is based on interest from a trust account.  This year there were 3 winners $700, $478 and $700.

Woolford Scholarships– Recipients have to attend HSU and be a full-time graduate student. There is excess money in this account right now as prior to Fred there was not a chairman awarding the money.  This year there were 4 winners.  3- $2,500 and 1- $1,000. This money is managed by the Humboldt Area Foundation and the amount is also based on the interest earned in the account.

Hegy Scholarships – These scholarships are awarded to graduate students enrolled full-time at Humboldt State University in the fields of engineering, mathematics, science and architecture.

Harvey Harper Scholarship– must attend a trade school or junior college in the automotive field.  Priority is given to EHS students, then College of the Redwoods. There have not been a lot of applicants in this field historically. It’s a $1,000 scholarship.

Eureka High School Eureka Rotary Scholarship – awarded each year and amount is dependent on the year.  There is a bonus of $250 to students who are active in Interact (when possible). Generally awarded to the highest academic achieving students or someone who’s made great improvements.  It’s up to the committee. This year there were 7 winners with awards varying from $500 to $1,250.00

Scott Guild Scholarship – students who live locally wanting to major in accounting.  Must have participated in an athletic program in high school.  There are very few applications because there’s not a lot of majors in this area.

In other news Fred said:

  • The new gym is under construction – 30 million dollar budget. Scheduled to be completed in November.
  • Fred is now the Superintendent of South Bay now as well as Eureka City Schools.
  • COVID in the schools – COVID is very real right now. More students in school testing test positive than ever before.  School is not going to online meetings according to Ian Hoffman. Unless there are so many teachers gone that there’s no choice. Testing during distance learning really showed that learning fell off.

Meeting was adjourned at 12:52pm.