Rotary Club of Santa Clarita

Rotary District Governor Jay Saltzman Visits Santa Clarita Rotary Club

Rotary District Governor Jay Saltzman, and his wife Ferne, graced our Club with a visit earlier this month. He spoke to us at length about the history of Rotary.

Rotary's first community project was in Chicago in 1907, two years after the organization was founded by Paul Harris and three other men. A preacher's horse had died, making it impossible for him to do his work in the city. Rotary bought him another horse and a tradition of community service was born.

In 1908 a second club was formed in San Francisco, and in 2009 Los Angeles started its club, the fifth one in the country. This club, 'L.A . 5', continues to be a leader in the Rotary community.

In the picture on the left District Governor Saltzman is shown with Past President Jim Lentini, as they agree to take Lentini's Wounded Veteran's Project District- wide and on to the rest of the United States.

Santa Clarita Rotary Begins 50th Year of Service

Our Rotary Club will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. We are off to a great start, with an international project planned to bring clean water to an orpanage in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as a local project to support our returning wounded veterans.

Mike Thomas is our new Club President as of July 1. He will bring a new perspective to what Rotary means for our community. Join us on Wednesday's at noon at Marie Callendar's on The Old Road at Magic Mountain Parkway.

Rotary Luau A Huge Success!

Our 1st annual luau was a huge success, with an overflowing crowd and lots of fun for all. We ran out of chairs because of so many last minute arrivals, and would have run out of food if Chris Ball had not decided to roast a suckling pig right there at the luau. Thanks to Rob and Jackie Werner for opeing up their home to this event, and to all of the people who donated their time and services to make this an incredible and memorable occasion. Take a look at this week's bulletin to see what Linda Pedersen included. Download Bulletin42209

Rotary Santa Clarita Announces The 1st Annual Rotary Luau

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club will hold its 1st Annual Luau as part of our fundraising efforts to assist local non-profit organizations. This fun-filled event will take place on the evening of April 18, and we welcome anyone who would like to attend. Co-sponsored by the Santa Clarita Elk's Lodge, who will also be preparing the food for this event, the luau promises to be an evening you won't soon forget. For more information and to reserve your tickets ($50 per person) contact Connie Ragen Green. This will be the most fun for a worthy cause you will have in this millennium, or your money back! 

Valencia Resident Eric Lowen Visits Rotary To Talk About ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease

We were honored to have Eric Lowen, along with a representative of the ALS Lou Gehrig's Disease Association, speak to our club this past week. Eric is a musician who has written songs for Pat Benetar and others, as well as writing, performing, and producing more than 10 CD's.

Eric was diagnosed with ALS several years ago, and has already beat the odds by living this long. The disease has caused him to lose control of his muscles, and even trying to speak for periods of time can be difficult. John Ondrasik, best known from the band Five For Fighting, has set up a special site where you can view a short video about Eric and his life. Every time the video is viewed, $1 is donated to reasearch for a cure for ALS. Click here to view the video and help make a difference in the lives of so many people.

District Governor Connie Cashin, From District 5260, Rides High In The Rose Parade

For the 29th year, Rotary International has entered a float in the Rose Parade. The theme for 2009 is 'Make Dreams Real', and District Governor Connie Cashin was aboard, along with many women who have been prominent in Rotary over the years. This year marks the 20th anniversary of women in Rotary. The Rotary International President Dong-Kurn Lee and his wife, Young Lee, watched the parade from the stands.

Rotary Club of Santa Clarita Comes Through In Time Of Need

The Rotarians in the Santa Clarita Rotary Club have never been ones to turn away from a challenge. So when the SCV Food Pantry said they had a greater need than last year, due to the downturn in the economy, Rotarians stepped up to help.

This year the Rotary Club gave out 250 turkeys to needy families living in the Santa Clarita area. People were lined up around the block to receive their Thanksgiving turkey and other food items. Albertson's market gave an exceptional price for the turkeys, and Newhall Ice agreed to store them for several days until they could be given out. Each family was given a voucher, and there were enough turkeys for everyone who showed up. You can read more about this in the article published by The Signal and written by Michele E. Buttelman.

 

Rotarian Wayne Archie gets the turkeys ready to be bagged.

 

President Doug Sutton, along with Rotarian Dr. Jeff Willis, assists with the distribution.

Santa Clarita Rotarians Visit Club In Beijing, China

 Earlier this month, Past District Governors Ed Bolden, seen on the left, along with Glendale Rotary Past District Governor Chuck Reinhart and Santa Clarita Rotarian Connie Ragen Green, visited the Rotary Club of Beijing, China.

The three were in China as part of a trip sponsored by the Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce. They managed to leave the tour for a few hours in order to attend the meeting. The two Rotary clubs in China (the other club is in Shanghai)  have only been chartered since 2006. Chinese citizens are not permitted to join, so the group is comprised of those working and living in China who are citizens of other countries throughout the world, as well as visitors to China.

Santa Clarita Rotary Recognized By The Library Of Congress

Our Club was recently recognized for our weekly bulletin. Prepared weekly by our own Linda Pedersen, this publication was assigned an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. This is similar to the ISBN number assigned to books.

Our weekly bulletin is available in both print form and as a digital PDF download here on our site. Just visit here to see all of our bulletins from 2008.

This is a great honor to both Linda and to our Club. It is important that people from around the world can read about our local projects, activities, and functions, as well as our international involvement in Rotary. In the above picture, Rotarian Connie Ragen Green is presenting the approved documents to Rotarian Linda Pedersen at last week's meeting.

President Doug Sutton - Was This The Last Time He Ever Had The Bell?

Santa Clarita Rotary Club President Doug Sutton, in happier days, when he still knew where the bell was. Since this photo was taken in August, President Sutton has only received messages from the bell, but has not had it in his possession for any extended period of time.

 

New Rotarian Trish Grinnell Gets Involved Immediately

Welcome to our newest Santa Clarita Rotarian, Trish Grinnell. Trish was inducted just two weeks ago, and has already volunteered at two Rotary community functions, including the latest pancake breakfast. Rotarian Grinnell is pictured here with President Doug Sutton, left, and Rotarian Tony Inderbitzen, right, involved in yet another activity, the Santa Clarita Rotary Club's weekly Ace of Spades drawing, which benefits our horse, Rotary, who serves the special needs children who receive equine therapy at Carousel Ranch.

Santa Clarita Rotary Endorses Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

Today is Blog Action Day around the world on the internet. It is the one day of the year where bloggers and others involved online have a chance to make a positive change in a big way. This year the topic is poverty.

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club works diligently to help people in need from around the world, and helping to end poverty is just one of our areas of focus. We are proud to endorse this idea.

Welcome To Dr. Jeff Willis - Our Newest Rotarian

We would like to extend a welcome to our newest Rotarian, Santa Clarita chiropractor Dr. Jeff Willis, D.C., who was inducted last week into the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita. Jeff was inducted by our membership chair, Jim Lentini, in a short but memorable ceremony. Jeff told us that he is looking forward to becoming active in the club right away by working on projects and getting to know our other members. Dr. Willis got involved immediately when he volunteered his chiropractic clinic, Aligned Health Chiropractic and Wellness Center, as the business of the month.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Mentioned In Rotarian Magazine

For the second time in 2008, the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita has received mention in the Rotarian magazine. Our club had never been in this international publication during our almost 50 year history, so we are very proud of this.

In the September issue the Rotarian's theme was on mentoring, the idea that people need others to guide and advise them in various aspects of their life. The article mentions club members Connie Ragen Green, an online writing and technology mentor, Farmer's Insurance agent Greg Nutter, and dentist Dr. David Golberg.

Connie is the club's publicity chair, and during the past year has made regular contributions to the club by having the members featured, or at least mentioned, in various publications throughout the Santa Clarita area and beyond.

Rotary Club In Santa Clarita To Host Rotary Foundation Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club is proud to announce that we have been selected to host a Rotary Foundation Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar. Her name is Yuka Matsuhashi and she lives in Sapporo, Japan. Yuka will arrive on October 19 and study here in Santa Clarita until the end of April, 2009.

While she is here, our Rotarians will provide assistance and guidance, including her in our club's activities and projects, as well as bringing her to meetings at our club and throughout District 5260.

Rotary Santa Clarita President Doug Sutton Has Craft Talk Wednesdays

Tom Christianson, a newer Rotarian, shares his life story with us at a recent meeting. President Doug Sutton has initiated craft talk Wednesdays on the last Wednesday of every month.

Join the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita for lunch anytime. We meet at the Marie Callendar's restaurant on The Old Road at Magic Mountain Parkway every Wednesday at noon.

Rotary Santa Clarita - President Doug Sutton...President '08?

Santa Clarita Rotary President Doug Sutton decides to take the next logical step.

Rotary 5260 District Governor Connie Cashin Visits Santa Clarita Rotary Club

Rotary District 5260 Governor Connie Cashin visited our Club last week, as part of her tour of the District's 36 Clubs.  She joined Santa Clarita president Doug Sutton at the podium as she spoke of "Making Dreams Reality" during the 2008-2009 Rotary year. She also spoke about the role of women in Rotary, and how it has changed since women first became members of Rotary Clubs throughout the world.

We were also honored to have District Governor Cashin present as we inducted our newest member into the Club. He is Chris Clark, the director of the YMCA here in Santa Clarita. Rotarian Ed Bolden sponsored Chris, and presented him with his Rotary pin and plaques. Chris responded enthusiastically when he was inducted and looks forward to serving our Club, and continuing to live by the 4 Way Test.

Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar Joins Rotarians For Freeway Cleanup Project

The Rotary Club of Santa Clarita adopted a section of Highway 14 several years ago. Every few months a group of Rotarians meet at the Park and Ride on the Golden Valley exit and begin our cleanup of the parking lot and the sides of the freeway between Golden Valley and Placerita Canyon.

This past Saturday we were pleased that Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar decided to join us for this community project. We worked side by side with the Mayor, collecting almost thirty bags of trash and debris. The Mayor spoke to us about the importance of keeping our community clean, including the area along the side of the freeway. We want people to know that we care about Santa Clarita, even if they are just passing through at 60 miles an hour.

In the photo above, Mayor Bob Kellar is joined by Rotarian Wayne Archie on the left, and Rotarian Bart Aikman on the right.

Santa Clarita Rotary President Says "Where'd They Go?"

Santa Clarita Rotary Club president Doug Sutton looked up from his salad at the meeting today to find that he was almost all alone. While he was separating the avocado from the bleu cheese in his salad, almost all of the Rotarians had disappeared. Now he is without the bell, which has been missing since the demotion party on June 21, and without anyone to fine. This does not look good for the coming year, Doug.

Santa Clarita Rotary President Doug Sutton Begins His Year

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club has a new president. Doug Sutton officially began his year on July 1, and held his first Board Meeting soon after.

It appears that Rotarian Greg Nutter will be keeping a watchful eye on Doug this year.

Doug has many plans and goals for his year as the Rotary president, including his desire to complete a medical clinic in the Philippines and to raise money for the foundation at next April's Luau, to be held at the estate home of one of our members. Mayor Bob Kellar and Kathy Keysor Smith will reside over the festivities as the emcees for the evening.

Santa Clarita Rotary July 4th Pancake Breakfast - Patriotism Is The Theme

Starting at 7 am on Friday, July 4, the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita will once again hold its annual pancake breakfast. Join us in the parking lot of Roger Dunn's Golf Shop, on Main Street in Newhall, as we serve up buttermilk pancakes with a patriotic theme - strawberries, bluberries, and a dollop of real whipped cream.                                                          

   4th of July with the Rotary Club

We dedicate this year's pancake breakfast to the Reverend Bob Bingham, a Rotarian for 40 years.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Read here what KHTS AM 1220 said about this event.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Has A New President!

We are proud to welcome Doug Sutton as our 2008-2009 Rotary Club President. Doug has been waiting with anticipation for his year to begin, and now the time has arrived.

Doug Sutton and his wife Jeanne at the Rotary Disrict Conference in May, 2008.

Doug is in charge of circulation at the Santa Clarita Free Classifieds. When asked if he has ever been interested in anything else, he replied that his career has always involved circulation.

This represents Doug Sutton's life for the past 25 years. It's all about circulation.

Santa Clarita Rotary Remembers Reverend Bob Bingham

This past week we lost a 40 year Club member, the Reverend Bob Bingham. Bob was sponsored into our Rotary Club back in 1968 by Ed Bolden. This was when the Club met at Tip's Restaurant, formerly at the intersection of Sierra Highway and Via Princessa. It was also called the Newhall Rotary Club at that time.

Bob Bingham was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Westminster College and the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. He was first called to California in 1954 by the 1st United Presbyterian Church in Salinas. In 1958 Bob and his wife Janet moved on to the Victoria United Presbyterian Church in Riverside, and in 1968 he joined as the Pastor of the Fist Presbyterian Church of Newhall, where he stayed until retiring in 1968. After the earthquake in 1971, Bob asked Ed Bolden to come on as the civil engineer to oversee the building of the new church.

Bob frequently gave the invocation at our weekly Rotary meetings. If someone was late to the meeting, and was asked who had given the invocation, the answer was always 'Bob Bingham', even if he was not present that day. He was a kind and compassionate man, always willing to lend a hand. We will miss you, Bob, and you will always be remembered for what you did for our Club and its members.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Project Featured in the Rotarian Magazine

Santa Clarita Rotary Club is featured in the Rotarian magazine!

The Rotarian magazine featured the Santa Clarita Rotary Club in the February issue. On page 29, writer Harriet Modler wrote a story about Nick Lentini's Old Orchard School Project. The group funded a play area and equipment for the special needs students at Old Orchard Elementary School. To see pictures from the project go over to our Projects page.

The picture chosen by the Rotarian magazine features Past President Ken Petersen, Club Secretary Bart Aikman, Past President Jim Lentini, and Past President Nick Lentini, who also chaired the project. The photograph was taken by Connie Ragen Green.

District 5260 Conference Coming Up This Weekend

Rotary District 5260 will hold its annual conference on May 16 and 17 at the Grand Vista Hotel in Simi Valley. It's not too late to sign up for what looks like the event of the season for Rotarians throughout southern California's District 5260.

On Friday there will be a golf tournament at the Moorpark Country Club, followed by a recognition dinner later that evening. Larry Jernigan, our District Governor, will recognize Club Presidents and Officers for their service during this year.

Saturday will include a full day of activities, starting with a tour of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and concluding with the prsentation of the coveted "Silver Bell" for outstanding service from our Clubs.

Larry and I will be in attendance at this event - will you be joining us?

Santa Clarita Rotary Club cleans up

Under the direction of Rotarian Mary Ann Colf, Santa Clarita's Rotary Club helped to clean up the Park and Ride at Placerita Canyon last weekend. Our Club adopted the section of the 14 freeway between Placerita and Sierra Highway. We picked up more than 20 bags of trash, paper, and other debris. New member David Hoshaw, on the right, was an eager participant with this project.

At one point in the morning, two passersby mistaked our group for detainees from the Lancaster prison on a work detail.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club - President David Goldberg presented with gift

Rotary Club President and Santa Clarita dentist Dr. David Goldberg was surprised with a gift from Rotarian of the Year member Phil Delavan at last week's meeting. Delavan had been visiting friends in Colorado and decided to bring pack a gift in lieu of paying a hefty fine. President Goldberg was quite pleased and spared Delavan from paying the fine.

TimBen Boydsten Sings Theme From Man of La Mancha at Santa Clarita Rotary

City Councilman TimBen Boydston, recently presented with the Roberta Gillis Most Controversial Newsmaker Award at the Santa Clarita Valley Press Club's 12th annual event, sang the theme song from his upcoming play Man of La Mancha at the Rotary club's weekly luncheon.  Boydston is co-directing the play with Patti Finley. This will be the first time that Man of La Mancha has been performed in Santa Clarita.

Ruth Klein speaks at Santa Clarita Rotary Club

We were pleased to have Ruth Klein as one of our speakers this past week. Ruth is a marketing mentor, public speaker, and the author of 6 books. She talked to us about 3 strategies to become a thought leader in your field, and discussed how she gets her clients booked on shows like Larry King Live. Ruth's articles have appeared in Oprah's "O" magazine as well as Reader's Digest and others.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club ~ Jim Lentini entertains us with his weekly jokes

Santa Clarita Rotary Club member and past president Jim Lentini entertains the club with his weekly jokes.                                                       

Jim Lentini tells a joke while Club President David Goldberg listens attentively.                                                                                                                                                   

The Rotary Float

This is what our Rotary float will look like this year in the Rose Parade.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

The theme is 'Sharing World Literacy Day".

Rotary Goes To The Rose Parade

On New Year's Day, the Rotary float will make its appearance once again in the Rose Parade. Here is a video that tells about this event. It is about 7 minutes long, but is very well done and features Wilf Wilkinson and Bill Boyd. Watch it when you have time and think about how fortunate we are to be part of Rotary. Visit the official Rotary Rose Parade Float website by clicking here.

Santa Clarita Rotary Member Wendi Lancy of the Hunger Defense Fund

Santa Clarita Rotarian Wendi Lancy, of the Hunger Defense Fund, is shown here with a group from Synergy, a professional netwrorking group in Santa Clarita. This local group adopted two families here in Santa Clarita to make sure they enjoyed a festive holiday season. Wendy has become an active member of Santa Clarita Rotary and we are fortunate to have her in our club.

Connie and Connie - They Just Wanted To Ring The Bell

Santa Clarita Rotary Club member Connie Ragen Green and District Governor Elect Connie Cashen tried to get close to the bell on this firetruck last Saturday at the Bouquet Center holiday celebration in Santa Clarita. They were nabbed just before they rang the bell on this vintage firetruck.

Take a Look at Our Award Winning Bulletins

Find out what we are doing here at the Santa Clarita Rotary Club by reading our past bulletins. These bulletins are prepared weekly by our own Linda Pedersen, a talented journalist. Click here to read all about what we are doing.

Michele Edmonson from College of the Canyons Comes to Santa Clarita Rotary Club

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club welcomed Michele Edmonson from College of the Canyons as our guest speaker last Wednesday. Michele brought Nicole, a former student at COC and a past recipient of a scholarship donated by the Rotary Club. Nicole is now an assistant Social Worker here in Santa Clarita and expressed her gratitude to the Rotary Club for its ongoing donations.

Michele announced that, since 1985, the Santa Clarita Rotary Club has donated more than $37,ooo to the scholarship program at COC.

Phil Delavan Named Rotarian of the Year

Santa Clarita Rotary Club member Phil Delavan has been named the Rotarian of the Year by the Santa Clarita Rotary Club's Board of Directors. Phil was recognized for his outstanding service to the Club, as well as his position on the Board as the Program Chair. Phil makes sure we have a new program every week, with interesting and educational speakers and information. Thank you, Phil, and congratulations on being named Rotarian of the Year.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Welcomes Dr. Marc Benard

On Wednesday, November 7 we were fortunate to have Dr. Marc Benard as our speaker. Dr. Benard is a Rotarian in Del Amo, California and a podiatrist. Years ago he began traveling to Mexico to do surgeries on children with deformities and diseases that affect the lower extremities, such as cerebral palsy and club foot. This project is now known as the Baja Crippled Children's Project, and Dr. Benard and his team of volunteers now go to the Honduras and El Salvador as well as Mexico.

They have treated thousands of young people over the years and will continue their work. They have recently recruited doctors and nurses in these countries to screen the people who come for help. This increases the time Dr. benard and his team have to do the actual surgeries. He told us that the incidence of things like club foot is the same all over the world; we are just not aware of it here in the United States because of the high level of medical care that is available to all of our citizens. Our thanks to Dr. Marc Benard for what he does and for sharing his story with us.

Santa Clarita Zonta Roasts Mike Berger

Santa Clarita Rotarian Mike Berger was honored by the Zonta Club. The event, held at the Odyssey  restaurant in Granada Hills, drew a crowd of over 250 people who were there to help roast Mike. The emcees for the night were Jim Lentini and Don Rodriquez from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The highlight of the evening was when Mike finally took the stage and read us a letter, supposedly written by his mother. We roared with laughter as he read his mother's thoughts and opinions about the people who had just been telling us about him. Congratulations on being roasted, Mike.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Goes On Bishop Safari

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club sent about 25 members, along with about 50 boxes of books, to the 50th anniversary of the Bishop Safari this past weekend in Bishop, California. Over one hundred Rotarians from clubs throughout southern California participated in this annual event.   

                                                   

District Governor Larry Jernigan takes center stage

at the musical portion of the dinner on Saturday night at the Laws

Railroad Museum.                                                                                                                              

The trout were swimming fast but some of the Rotarians were lucky enough to catch a few in the clear waters of the Owens River.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Inducts New Member

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club inducted Alyssa Janney into the club at today's meeting. Alyssa works at Remo Drums and first came to our club when we had a Drum Circle, led by Christine Stevens, back in July. Alyssa's first introduction to Rotary was back in high school, when her singing group sand a rendition of Bye, Bye Blackbird for the club members in her hometown in West Virginia. We are pleased to have Alyssa Janney in our Santa Clarita Rotary Club and look forward to involving her with projects as quickly as possible.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Drums to the Beat

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club will be adding a new member in the next couple of weeks. We are pleased that Alyssa Janney, of Remo Drums, will be our newest member later this month. Alyssa was over at College of the Canyons this afternoon, leading a drum circle that is open to the community. These drum circles will be on the first and third Saturday each month and all equipment is provided. We had so much fun drumming at our Rotary Club during July that the Rotarians are likely to take up drumming on a more serious basis.

Alyssa Janney, center, drums with Cindy Calabro, left, and Dylan.

O.K. Tony, where's the bell?

Tony Inderbitzen claims to have no knowledge as to the whereabouts of the bell. Can we believe him?  The Santa Clarita Rotary Club has now misplaced their precious bell. President David Goldberg is beside himeself with worry and Tony Inderbitzen just keeps on smiling.

If there really is "no place like home", shouldn't the bell have the same rights?

Turn up your speakers and visit Tony (and the bell, most likely) at

Auto Collision Center.

Santa Clarita Rotary President David Goldberg Meets Rotary International President Wilford "Wilf" Wilkinson

At the Rotary Conference in San Jose, held on August 17 and 18, 2007, our Santa Clarita Rotary Club President David Goldberg met with Rotary International President Wilford "Wilf" Wilkinson.

David Goldberg meets with Wilf Wilkinson

This was the 7th of eight conferences held across North America during the past few months. Topics at the conference included membership, international service, and the question "Who touched you?", referring to the person who initially invited you into Rotary.

Also in attendance was our District Governor,

Larry Jernigan, and his lovely wife Sandy.

Santa Clarita Rotarian Visits Rotary Club in Riihimäki, Finland

This week Connie Ragen Green, Santa Clarita, California Rotary Club member, will be attending a meeting in District 1420. The club is located in Riihimäki, Finland, about 65 kilometers from Helsinki.
This club has over 70 members and is active with projects locally, as well as internationally. Connie will give her Santa Clarita Club a complete report when she returns home at the end of August.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Drums With UpBeat Drum Circles

Rotarians were drumming to the beat as Christine Stevens led the first Rotary Drum Circle. Christine is the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, and has drummed her way around the world using her skills as a muci therapist, or musicologist, as she refers to herself.

Drumming up some fun at Santa Clarita Rotary Club

The Santa Clarita Rotary Club will be drumming up fun, joy, excitement and good health when Christine Stevens brings her drum circle to our meeting on Wednesday. Drumming improves your mood and stimulates brain cells while you have a great time. Marie Callendar's will think an earthquake has hit when the Rotarians hit the drums. Check out Christine at Upbeat Drum Circles.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club and the Blueberry Pancake Breakfast

Once again the Santa Clarita Rotary Club held its annual pancake breakfast. For the first time in many years blueberry pancakes are back! Along with traditional buttermilk pancakes, the blueberry pancakes were prepared with blueberries mixed into the batter and blueberry compost on top for good measure. We also provided sugar-free pancake syrup for anyone with diabetes or on any type of restricted diet. The sugar-free syrup did not contain any high fructose corn syrup so it was a healthy choice with the pancakes.

Past President Ken Petersen pours the batter for the first serving of traditional buttermilk pancakes.

Rotarian Chris Ball prepares the facilities for weary parade watchers.

Santa Clarita Rotary Club Demotes President With Style

Saturday night marked the end of Rotary president Ken Petersen's reign as president of the Santa Clarita Rotary Club. He was "flushed away" in style at a party held at the Elk's Lodge on Sierra Highway, with almost 100 Rotarians and their spouses in attendance.

The hosts for the evening were past presidents Theresa Stern and Nick Lentini, both dressed as pirates for the mutiny theme of the evening. Ken was "arrested" at his home in Castaic and he and his lovely wife Kathie were brought by patrol car to the Elk's Lodge. Ken was in the back seat for this ride, while Kathie sat up front with the sheriff.

When they pulled up to the door Ken was blindfolded and led to the front of the room, as the rowdy crowd made some noise to welcome him. He was then brough on to a raised platform where he was tied up. He had also been dressed as a pirate at some point prior to his arrival, and not a happy pirate, I should add.