Abraxas Student of the Month - February 2011

The Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary club welcomed their student and teacher of the month at breakfast today.

"Your donations are the lifeblood for students at Abraxas High School," said Teacher of the Month Jabette Caterina at this morning's meeting. She added "Your money is well invested, and we appreciate it more than you can ever know. You truly make a major change in their lives."

Said Student of the Month Linda Villanueva of her Abraxas experience and plans to become a Pediatric nurse, "Going to Abraxas has really helped me. I never had the kind of education and teachers as I have had here. Thank you for making a difference."


Abraxas Teacher of the Month Jabette Caterina and Student of the Month Linda Villanueva joined Abraxas Liason Joe Giamanco as the RB Sunrise Rotary honored Linda for her hard work and success.

Helping Mary's House

Open since summer 2003 and located in rural Escondido, Mary’s House is the first North County program that provides transitional housing for young women who have outgrown the county’s foster-care facilities. Mary’s House helps these women, ages 18-24, with their ongoing educational needs, job placement and life skills - from chores to household budgeting. The facility has room for six women, each of whom can stay up to 18 months as they shift to independent, self-sufficient lives.

Here we have Krista Creighton picking up a check for $2,500 from Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Community Chair Rod Weiss. Just another way our club does the right thing for those most in need.

Military Outreach Ministry

Today the club donated $1,000 to the Military Outreach Ministry, because RB Sunrise Rotary wants to do right by members of the armed services who are based in San Diego.

Matthew Guillory Speaks on Facebook

Matt Guillory - President at Mission Valley Sunset Rotary Club and Vice President at Comerica Bank - came in to yesterday's meeting and taught us more than we ever realized we wanted to know about using Facebook to grow our club, our businesses, and our personal lives.
Not surprisingly, a full third of the club doesn't use Facebook due to privacy concerns, lack of time, lack of interest, or fear that it'll become a huge time sucker (okay - that lasts about two weeks until the novelty wears off. Then it becomes a useful tool, right?)

The facts and figures this guy came in with were truly astounding. And though there was a small technical glitch (which nobody noticed, because they were all on their blackberries playing Farmville), he carried everything off with aplomb!

Thanks, Matt, for broadening our worlds. We appreciated your taking the time to join us and to keep it all very interesting. Maybe one of us can return the favor sometime.

Steve Redd Does Good...Again!

Congratulations to Steve Redd for getting his second Paul Harris award. The Paul Harris award is given when $1,000 is contributed to the Rotary Foundation, either by the individual being honored or in their name. The money is used for helping to defeat polio, develop clean water projects, electrifying Africa, helping those who have never walked to acquire wheelchairs, and a host of other worthwhile programs for which Rotary International is known.

Well done, Steve!

Man of the hour - Carl Kruse

Past president and future district 5340 governor Carl Kruse (right) is awarded yet another Paul Harris award.

I've heard of generous, but c'mon, Carl - you're putting the rest of us to shame!

NICELY DONE!

Our board of directors, hard at work

And reporting back to us about all the cool stuff our club is doing.

Meet the hardest working team in Rotary. From left are president Al Watson, Rod Weiss, Rick Coburn, Joe Giamanco, Phil Schneider, Jana Markley, Jim Dunny and Nasrin (Naz) Barbee.