ABOUT THE ROTARY CLUB OF SANTA BARBARA

The Rotary Club of Santa Barbara was chartered by Rotary International on January 1, 1918 and has been serving those in need in Santa Barbara, our region, and the world since. Our Club Members are dedicated to community service projects, both at home and abroad, including supporting foster youth in Santa Barbara County, working with Mayan families in Guatemala, and more. Rotary Club of Santa Barbara members are a diverse group of local leaders in business, non-profits, education, government, and more.

Are you interested in making Santa Barbara, and the world a better place. Join our next meeting and talk with members about how to get involved!
RECENT ROTARY NEWS
The Hub -- April 28, 2025
From President Jim

It’s another Monday in Santa Barbara. I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend, despite a little rain on Saturday.

We have a meeting this Friday. Our speaker will be Connard Hogan, who recently published a book entitled “Barbwire, Brothels, and Bombs in the Night: Surviving Vietnam." He will be discussing his experiences during the Vietnam War. As someone who was in my formative years during the war, and who has traveled to Vietnam, I am really looking forward to his perspective after so many years. It should be an interesting presentation.

We will also be handing out our last Teacher of the Year award of the Rotary Year to Sterling Henken, a special education teacher at La Cumbre Junior High School.

And finally, we will be presenting two more grant awards from our Rotary Foundation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, and to Meals on Wheels.
It should be an excellent meeting to bring guests and prospective members.

By a separate email, I’ll be sending out the recommendations from the Nominating Committee for the Club officers for the 2024-25 year. Please look at this list carefully, as we’ll be having an election at our meeting on May 20. Please also note that additional nominations are welcome, both in writing ahead of May 20 or from the floor that day. Also, note there are still a couple of opportunities available to serve on the Board. Hopefully, some of you will be inspired to throw your name in the hat. Our club is most successful when we have many individuals serving.

Enjoy your week and I’ll see you on Friday.

Jim
Message from President Jim
We had a wonderful meeting last Friday that was action packed. DEspite being Good Friday, we had a great turnout, with several guests. 
 
First, Bob Fatch, Kathleen Blake and Judie Lugo, representing our non-profit Foundation awarded grants to two local organizations.  The first check for $6,000 was presented to Nate Grotenhuis, representing ArtLabbe.  ArtLabbé is a non-profit art gallery and resource center that provides free art workshops, classes, and programs to the most vulnerable in our community.
 
The second check for $5,000 was presented to Michelle Erikson, representing Mothers’ Helpers.  Mothers’ Helpers provides essential baby items to low-income families throughout Santa Barbara County. They gather baby items from families who no longer need them and distribute them to those who do,
 
 
 
We then presented four Paul Harris pins to those members who have made significant contributions to the Paul Harris Fund.  Recognized for their generosity to Rotary were Kathleen Blake, Bob Fatch, Chris Clemens, and Bill Dutton.
 
 
 
Our program, was presented by Past President Chris “Tarzan” Clemens. Chris described his “Anticomfortable” lifestyle which he describes as having three important tenets: physical challenge; live with less; and explore the world. He talked about his journey from being our Club’s youngest President to shedding most material things to challenge his body, live with few possessions, and exploring the far corners of the world.  And also working as an online marketing representative for a local Santa Barbara company. I think everyone who attended considered it one of the best programs of the year.
 
We do not have a meeting this Friday.  Our next meeting will be on May 2nd and the program will be Connard Hogan, to talk about his experiences in the Vietnam War.
Enjoy your week.
 
Jim
Weekly note from President Jim
Happy Friday fellow Rotarians. Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

We have our regular meeting this Friday.  Our speaker will be one of our own, Chris “Tarzan” Clemens, who served as our President in 2008.  He was the youngest individual to serve as president of the Santa Barbara Rotary Club.  Although Chris is member of our club, and also serves as the club webmaster, we rarely see him. That’s because since 2012 he quit his job, hiked the Appalachian Trail and decided he didn’t want to go back to being “normal.” So he moved into his car, built a freelance marketing business, and in 2015 set out to see the world as a homeless digital nomad.  Since that time he’s been traveling the world in his camper, by bus, plane, bicycle and train, working from where ever he can find dependable wifi.  This should be a great program.

Also, we have a Rotary work day coming up on Saturday, May 3 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Boys and Girls Club Camp Whittier. We will be joining with other Rotary Clubs and community volunteers. Even if you can’t stay for the entire, day, it’s a good opportunity to get your hands dirty and help a great organization.  Michael Baker will even serve you a free lunch.  More details to come in the next few days, but make sure you put it on your calendar.

Enjoy your week and we’ll see you on Friday.

Jim
A Message from the Prez
Good afternoon my fellow Rotarians on a beautiful Monday.  Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.

We had an excellent lunch meeting last Friday.  Our speaker was Bill MacFadyen, founder and publisher of Noozhawk, the online local new source that probably has the most comprehensive local news in Santa Barbara.  Bill talked about founding the outlet after the demise of the Santa Barbara News Press in the mid 2000s, and the challenges of publishing online news.  His business model depends on a combination of ad revenues and voluntary subscriptions.  Our community is fortunate that Bill has had the stamina and perseverance to make Noozhawk a success.  Bill also talked a little about the growing influence that Artificial Intelligence will have on news reporting in the future, from reporting sports events and summarizing public meetings. 

Kathleen Blake also made a short presentation to the club about the Paul Harris Foundation, Rotary International’s billion-dollar fund that finances the Polio eradication program, provides global grants all over the world, and provides funding for Rotary Scholarships internationally.  She urged members to become Paul Harris Fellows, who are recognized by making $1000 contributions to RI.  You can contribute by making small sustaining gifts to RI as part of your membership dues. I have made my contributions to RI this way over the years, and it’s an easy, painless way to contribute this important worldwide effort.  For more information, contact Kathleen.

We were also happy to see Jim Carberry attend our meeting last Friday, after having spent a few days in rehabilitation recovering from a “mini-stroke.” Jim looks and feels great, and hopes to be able to regale us with a few Irish jokes very soon.

We mentioned at our meeting last week, that a celebration of Life  for Anne Teller will be held on Saturday, April 12 at 10:00 AM.  The location will be at the All Saints by the Sea Episcopal Church, located at 83 Eucalyptus Lane in Montecito.

We do not have a meeting this week, so enjoy your Friday off from Rotary.  Hope to see you on April 18.

Jim

CLUB MEETINGS

Rotary Club of Santa Barbara Meeting

First and third Friday of each month.


Costa Kitchen and Bar at the Mar Monte Hotel

1111 East Cabrillo, Santa Barbara, CA 
View our Calendar to see upcoming meeting dates.
Time: 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

UPCOMING EVENTS
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