March 8, 2021

President Mindy Sehon opened the meeting at noon

Southwest Rotarian, Cindy Denbo talked about a program Rotary District 5130 is holding called Northcoast Ethics in business awards.  Ethics in Business honors those organizations and individuals who have demonstrated ethical business practice in the workplace, the marketplace, the environment, and the community. There will be 4 awards… large, medium and small businesses and one non-profit. Open to Rotarians and non-Rotarians.  All are open to be nominated.  The awards will be presented on October 9th at the District Conference.  Hopefully  it will be an in-person event.  They need Rotarians to nominate deserving businesses. Sponsors are welcome and needed. To nominate or get more information go to:  https://northcoastethics.com/.  A $1,000 competitive scholarship will be provided this year by Rotary North Coast Ethics in Business Committee through a donation made by one of our Corporate Sponsors.  ELIGIBILITY The student has maintained an unweighted 3.25 G.P.A. while attending high school in Sonoma, Humboldt, Napa, Lake, Del Norte, or Mendocino counties, and must be planning to attend college or University in Fall 2022. Please note for the Spring of 2021: The student must be a current high school junior and a Rotary Interact Club member or a current Rotary Youth Leadership Awardee and have a desire and interest to learn about ethics in their field of study and to learn about the work going on in Rotary District 5130 and Rotary International. Apply online, the deadline to apply is July 15th, 2021. Scholarships will be announced by August 31st, 2021 and presented at the October 8th event.

Inspirational moment: Dennis Hunter.  Today is International Women’s day.  Celebrating women’s rights throughout the world.  For the first time in our club’s history we will have three consecutive women presidents… Carly, Mindy and next year, Klark.

  • Olivia Kernen from the Humboldt County of Office of Education will be our presenter today.
  • March madness auction will be next Monday 3/15. Blind pool will be $10 per square.  More information will be coming by email.
  • World Rotaract week is this week 3/8-3/14.
  • Anniversaries – Carlton Nielsen is celebrating 20 years as a Rotarian!
  • Klark Swan completed her President-elect training over the weekend.

Olivia Kernen talked about the Humboldt County Office of Education’s Early Literacy Partners Program (ELP). Their purpose is to help struggling readers in K-2nd grade in Humboldt County.  This includes helping with math skills as well as reading skills. Trained tutors are placed in classrooms for one hour twice a week.  These tutors work with the same 3 students for 20 minutes each.  Prior to COVID-19 they had over 30 tutors.  They found that in addition to helping with learning positive relationships between tutors and students helped students build confidence and academic skills as well. Volunteers are trained by learning specialists.

When COVID arrived they had to re-imagine ELP in 2020.  They surveyed teachers and as a result created 20 videos geared to help parents, caregivers, etc. learn the same tutoring techniques that they taught to volunteers.

There have been many collaborations and partners.  Humboldt State University has been very helpful, local Rotary Clubs and more.

Meeting was adjourned as 12:28pm