The meeting of April 3 was opened by President Ramesh at 7 pm. Jerry Avila led the Pledge of Allegiance and Bob Mange gave the Invocation.

 

Get to Know Your Fellow Rotarian member spotlight featured Doug Burton. His profile can be accessed here.

 

Secretary Jim Padgett introduced guests and visiting Rotarians. A get-well card addressed to Rich Pepin was passed around the room for everyone to sign. Rich is doing well although his knee hurts as he is recovering from a knee replacement.

 

President Ramesh announced that our club will have a fireworks booth again this year. The Rotary Club of Historic Folsom will also have a booth.

 

Justin reminded everyone of the Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday, April 5 at 9 am, Frank Woods encouraged members who were not paddling to join in the fun and encourage our team to win.

 

Assistant Governor Ryan Jantzen announced that Rotary District 5180 awards will be presented on Monday, June 9, 2025 as follows: 

Jim Ortega levied fines.

 

Assistant Governor Ryan introduced our speaker, Dr. Art Pimentel, President of Folsom Lake College. Dr. Pimentel gave us an update on what's happening at the college along with the latest numbers of enrollees.

 

President Ramesh presented a chocolate Rotary Wheel from Snook’s to Dr. Pimentel for speaking to us. 

 

 

Subbanna and Usha Chenna are sponsoring, along with our club, scholarships to students attending Folsom Lake College. These scholarships come from funds the Chennas donated to the Folsom Rotary Foundation. 

 

 

 

 

The Second Annual Dragon Boat Festival fund-raiser for Powerhouse Ministries was held at Black Miners Bar on Saturday, April 5. The Rotary Club of Folsom was one of the sponsors of the event and entered a team to race in a Dragon Boat. The Rotary Club of Folsom Team are the Gnomies.

 

The Dragon Boats have 16 paddlers and a drummer. Monika Reyes was our drummer again this year. Paddlers were Will Kempton, Khari Nelson, Olga Garton, Chris Marsh, Justin Raithel, Christie Watrous, and Ramesh Dontha. Colnn Miguelgorry was signed up but had another engagement so Miles Marsh (Chris's nephew) substituted for him. Non-Rotarians on the team were James Snook, Erick Snook, John Lane, Ray Ofina, Alex Snook, Ed SoLIVEn, and Anne Orneias.

 

There were 10 boats in the competition. They raced in two heats where two or three boats raced against each other. The better time was selected out of the two heats to determine the ranking of the 10 boats from first place to tenth place. The Gnomies were third and raced against the teams in first and second place to determine the final top three boats. The Gnomies came in third place which was their finish last year as well. This year there were also five competitive boats who competed in separate races. The team that came in first place in their competition will be going to Germany to race in July.

 

Photos of the event can be viewed at Dragon Boat Gnomies on our website. Rich Rider made a video of the second heat which can be viewed at Gnomies second race. Olga Garton created a really fun video of the day which can be viewed at Olga’s videos.