The Wheel – January 27, 2021

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Due to the recent concerns about the COVID-19 virus and a desire to follow the suggestions of health care professionals, the club will be having virtual meetings until further notice.

“The Rotary Club of Stockton Begins the 2nd Century of Service to the Stockton Community”
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Activities

• Call to Order and Welcome! President Gary Frush welcomed members and guests to the Virtual Rotary Club of Stockton 2021 meeting!
• Pledge of Allegiance & Four Way Test – Past-President Don Barry.
• 

  Past-President Gary Putnam

  Thought for the Day – Past President Gary Putnam: Gary made an analogy with the children’s story of “Chicken Little” children’s story. The chicken in the story was scared that the sky was falling when only a single acorn was falling from the tree. Similarly, in spite of all the falling acorns, like things falling on us, the world has not come to an end. We should not be hopeless. Hope is a state of mind and heart. Hope gives birth to courage and courage sets us into action. He made another analogy where he asked all of us to be thermostats and not be the thermometers. Thermometers can only check the weather while thermostats set the climate. Set the climate of hope in our community and nation. Be hopeful.

• 

  Greeter Corie

  Special Thanks Today to – Matthew Grizzle for orchestrating these meetings and Corie Stewart who is now our official greeter, Dudley Drake for his work on speaker recruitment, Leena Mittal for continuing to taking notes (thank you Leena), and Eric Duran’s role of keeping The Wheel rolling.

• Visiting Rotarians – Aguilar Sylvester from Sunrise Modesto Rotary.
• Guests of Rotarians – Wendy Frush, President Gary’s wife and Gillian Murphy, wife of Past-President Gary Putnam.

• Rotary News – January issue “The Future”.  Well worth reading.
• Rotary Direct – Total members registered in Rotary Direct for Foundation giving are 15! Please consider signing up; it’s easy to do! Please call President Gary (209-601-3631) or Linda Guinn (209-639-1482) to sign up. Van Young is the newest sign up.
• Club Service & District Calendar for 2020-2021 – Click HERE for the latest list! Don’t miss out on some great activities that may or may not happen in the near future (due to the COVID-19 virus.)

Directions for members on how to make a payment to Rotary Club of Stockton: Click on “$ Online Payments” in the blue bar at the top (or click the blue box)

Club Announcements

• 

  ADG Waqar Rizvi

  Foundation Fund Raiser –  Assistant District Governor Waqar announced the upcoming Rotary Foundation dinner. Please save the date for March 20, 2021. Rotarians will be able to pickup a dinner between 4:30 – 6:30pm. The dinner would be very special with the food option of Crab. People will take the food home and enjoy the foundation dinner at home over the zoom meeting. Some of the funds from this foundation dinner will come back to the club since all the clubs are struggling with the funds this year.

• 

  Kathy Hart

  Scholarship Team Review Committee – Kathy Hart announced that the last day to file an applications was January 31, 2021. They have received almost 30 applications already. Kathy is looking for some help in reviewing these applications. Ann Johnston, Gary Putnam, Corie Stewart, Terry Hull and Karyn Johnson volunteered to help. Matthew and Kathy have modernized the application process by allowing applicants to submit their application online. People who are participating in reviewing the applications will also be able to access online. Kathy will have a session with the team and they would start scoring the applications around Feb 15th, 2021.  If you are interested in helping Kathy, please mail Kathy or Matthew Grizzle.

When (if) we (ever) resume regular meetings..

• Use That Credit Card at The Meeting – You may now pay for lunch, raffle tickets (minimum Credit Card Purchase of $5.00) and other purchase at the Club meetings with a credit Card.
• Potential Members – To encourage Club members to bring a potential member to the Wednesday meetings the Rotary Club of Stockton will pay for the 1st meal of a potential member brought by a Club member. For the proper procedure when proposing a new member, read this document.

Meeting Note takers needed for the New Year! Thank you Leena Mittal for volunteering to continue taking notes! Your help is much appreciated! Now it’s time for someone else to step up! PLEASE Consider volunteering (Like Leena has done) for a once a month (or more) opportunity to keep the Wheel rolling along. Our Wheel editor will appreciate you stepping up to assist! What’s a better way to know what’s going on in your club? -editor. Contact Corie Stewart at corie@gemcorp.com

Guest Speaker

Speaker: Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones
Introduced by: Past-President Dudley Drake

Past-President Dudley Drake

Introduction:
Chief, Eric Jones. Eric Jones began his career with the Stockton Police Department in 1993 as a Police Officer. He became a Departmental Trainer and Instructor and then promoted to Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Deputy Chief, and Assistant Chief over the decades. He was responsible for numerous police programs such as the Explosive Ordnance Detail, Critical Incident Investigations, Mobile Command Post Team, SWAT, and the Crisis Negotiations Team. In March 2012, Eric was appointed as the 49th Chief of Police for the Stockton Police Department.

Chief Eric Jones
Police chief Eric Jones says that he loves the city of Stockton. He spent the initial years of his life in Ripon. They later moved to Stockton since their mother used to teach English to the students at the Delta college.

Eric attended public schools for all his school education. He became the Police Chief in 2012. He explained that the Police officers work hard under difficult and dangerous circumstances. There are high expectations from a police officer but the reality is quite different. They are always walking on a tight rope. They need to be approachable to be public but their head is always on the swivel because of the dangers. For the fire fighters, the fire bell goes off and alarms them of the upcoming danger. A Police officer does not know if they would be ambushed in their 12 hour shift.

The Chief talked about some of the unique challenges they have on hand right now. In the year 2020, Stockton city did okay with respect to crime. As compared to 2019, there was 10-20% decline in over all crime and 23% decline in property crime, which makes sense since people were mostly home last year, resulting in fewer burglaries. However, the homicides went up last year. There was a dramatic increase in domestic homicide. Almost 16 murder suicide were reported related to family and child abuse. The police department is working with the District Attorney’s office and shelters to bring awareness on domestic abuse. Societal anxiety and other issues related to pandemic are causing more crimes related to gang conflicts.

During the year 2020, the police department also experienced issues related to the “George Floyd” case. Eric worked with the State Attorney General to get training for the police officers. This was a unique training where police officers and community workers were together and had some uncomfortable discussions around the “George Floyd” topic. The training helped them understand each other’s limitations. The other challenge that the police force is facing is around Covid related public health order enforcements. The health orders keep changing and it is hard to keep track. The other challenge is the safety of Police officer as they are first responders. While enforcing the health orders, they give warnings before taking any actions against the violators.

Next Meeting: February 3, 2021
Dr. Alan Carpenter, “9 Ways to Boost Health and Well Being”

Like many of you, Alan Carpenter was living a good life. But that almost ended on June 16, 2013 when he suffered a life-threatening accident. In spite of the pain and ensuing incapacitation, the accident turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While recuperating from his injuries, Alan realized that he had taken his life for granted—especially his health and well-being.

To learn how rejuvenate his health and well-being, he spent more than six years combing the scientific and medical literature. He synthesized what he found into nine simple, evidence-based, practical healthy lifestyle choices. His newly published book, Choose Better, Live Better, presents the scientific case that making healthy lifestyle choices can rejuvenate your life.

You can get the whole story in Alan’s award-winning new book, Choose Better Live Better – Nine Healthy Choices that Nurture Body, Mind, and Spirit.

Upcoming Speakers

(Virtual unless otherwise noted)

February 2021

• 10 – Peter Jaffe, “A Musical Valentine”
• 17 – Kevin Lincoln – Mayor of Stockton
• 24 – Chuck Myers, “The Hornet Aircraft Carrier”

March 2021

• 03 – Port Director
• 10 – PDG Robert Deering, Jr., “Human Trafficking”
• 17 – TBD
• 24 – TBD
• 31 – TBD

Birthday Celebration Challenge!!!

July finals 14/15 or 93.3%
August Wrap up – 10/11 or 90.1%
September Birthday Celebrations: 15/15 for 100% participation!
October Finals 14 of 14 = 100%
Both September and October were 100 percent participation.
November birthday challenge was 87.5%.
December Challenge Wrap Up: 90% Participation

2020 Challenge Total:  76 of 81 for 93.8% – Thanks!

January Birthday Challenge: 10 of 10 for 100%!
Third month with 100% participation!

Birthday Recognitions

January Week 4&5:

• $100 – Rod Place – 1/18 to SRE

February 2021 Birthdays…

Photos…