Welcome to the Sunrise Spirit –
the Weekly Newsletter of The Rotary Club of Arcata Sunrise
We hope that you will attend one of our lively Friday meetings,
whether or not you are interested in joining Rotary.
We meet most Fridays at 7 am in the Plaza View Room at Arcata’s historic Jacoby Storehouse.
The Calendar …
RISE: “Rotary Involvement Strengthens Everyone“
Monday, August 19 – RCAS Fellowship at the Griffin! (The third Monday of each month)
Sunday, September 8 – Out Of The Darkness Walk for suicide awareness and prevention. Meet at 10 am on the Plaza.
Friday, September 27 – Fundraiser for RCAS Guatemala House-Building Project! More details to follow.
Additional Important Stuff
The Arcata High School Interact Club meets every Friday at 12:20 pm during the school year.
The North Bay Rotaract Club meets in the Plaza View Room at Jacoby’s Storehouse at 6 pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month.
Updates from RCAS Scholarship Recipients
We heard from three young women who were awarded four-year RCAS Memorial Scholarships – Hannah Henry, who was the 2018 winner; Brooke Chalker, who won in 2017; and Carrie Wolski-Gainer, the 2016 recipient. The scholars talked about their experiences to date as college students.
The RCAS Vocational Award
RCAS presents its Vocational Service Award to individuals and businesses who embody the Rotary ethic in their working lives. The catch is that they cannot be Rotarians – at least not yet! Our most recent recipient was Vanessa Vrtiak, who serves in many roles in our community. She is an artist, an activist, and a poet. Crystal Perez introduced Vanessa to the Club, and told why she deserves the recognition. Terri Clark also presented Vanessa with a Paul Harris Fellowship.
About the Northern California Community Blood Bank
Sunriser John Gullam is the Director of Donor Resources for the Northern California Community Blood Bank, and he told us the latest info from his organization at the August 2, 2019 RCAS Meeting.
John said that there are two major “lean” times during the year, when donations tend to drop. These are in the summer, when many people are on vacation, and in January, when folks are exhausted from the holidays. One of the ways the Blood Bank tries to offset this is by introducing new ideas, such as the recent “Battle of the Badges”. This program is a friendly competition among the various law enforcement organizations to see who can donate the most during the summer.
John also told us that the Blood Bank needs to recruit about 2,500 new donors eacy year to offset the those who become ineligible to donate.
Don’t miss a minute!
(Click on the 2019-2020 Rotary Theme Logo to view the video of the full meeting.)
