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Welcome to Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club!

The Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club (CHNR) welcomes Rotarians and other visitors to its Monday meetings. The club meets at the Holiday Inn (Bressi Ranch at Innovation Drive) the 2nd and 4th Mondays each month. A buffet lunch with salads and hot entrees is open at noon, with the business meeting beginning at 12:20 pm. Please check this page for scheduling or the website for specifics: carlsbadhinoonrotary.org.

The Club, chartered in February 1980, has 52 members. The membership is very active and committed to the Rotary principle of "Service Above Self." The club sponsors an energetic Interact Club at Carlsbad High School and each year sends both facilitators and students to the annual RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) conference for high school juniors and the Rotary LEAD symposium for eighth graders.

Additionally, CHNR also supports our Carlsbad students via the AVID program at Carlsbad High School with a business and ethics conference and initiates a scholarship raffle to raise funds for college and trade school scholarships, a literacy project and book fair at Jefferson Elementary School, Junior Achievement and What Grown-Ups Do For Work, music instruction and a competition for middle school students, an essay contest for middle school students and a speech contest focusing on the Rotary Four-Way Test for high school students. Yes, we have a major focus on our young people.

CHNR members provide extensive community: once a month at Brother Benno's to serve breakfast to the homeless; once a month to the North County Food Bank; and a massive 20,000 food packaging event to assist the Food Bank. Additionally, the club provides financial support (resulting from our fundraising events) and personal service to a variety of nonprofit organizations in Carlsbad affecting youth programs, food insecurity, homelessness and seniors. A club committee also deals with international service projects supporting water projects, school rehabilitation, mental health, refugee assistance and equipment.

We are People of Action.

During the 2025-2026 Rotary year, club members provided over 2,400 hours of volunteer service to the local and international communities. Completing 50 projects, club members assisted:

1. Food insecurity - 24 projects for 555 hours delivering, packaging, serving, or organizing food products for the needy.

2. Schools - for elementary schools the club provided a book fair for 500 students; for middle schools provided speakers to open eyes to What Grown-Ups Do For Work on a routine basis throughout the year and taught the Junior Achievement curriculum; for high school students coordinated the Interact Club at Carlsbad High School, created two competitions (speech and music); designed and implemented an AVID conference, raised $52,000 for scholarships for college and trade school students; and analyzed and interviewed students for those scholarship awards.

3. Seniors and Families: designed and implemented Oktoberfest #43 together with the Carlsbad Rotary to raise $20,000 for Carlsbad projects; and bought gifts for 14 needy families during the holidays.

5. International: Bought desks for a school in Kenya, Africa; provided funds for gardens at three schools in Cape Town, South Africa; provided funds for solar energy generation and wastewater treatment in Poland; distributed funds for food supplies and music therapy for mental health of PTSD refugees at a peace shelter in Ukraine; helped rehabilitate a school in El Salvador; helped fund gifts and special needs supplies for disabled children in Tijuana, Mexico; continued work on a water project in Kibera, Uganda; and helped the club's CHS Interact Club gather and ship books to schools in Africa.

Making a difference is important to each member of Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club . . . if YOU want to make a difference too . . . come JOIN US. For further information look at carlsbadhinoonrotary.org for membership information. CHNR meets the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month at the Holiday Inn, Bressi Ranch, at noon. Lunch is $34. Come check us out . . . you'll like what you see.

Hi-Jinx Bulletin of 9.14.26 Mtg

Posted on Sep. 14, 2026

NEXT MEETING:

Monday, Sept. 28, 2026

Holiday Inn / Bressi Ranch

Volume 10, Issue 6

Reporter: Julie Walker

Photographers: Nancy Starling

and Beth Garrow

Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary

President Kori Dolkas

President Kori Dolkas opened the meeting, George Sullivan led the Pledge, Pres. Kori had Words of Inspiration, we sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and guests were introduced.

KEY HI-NOON DATES

• Sep. 17 – North County Food Bank

• Sep. 24 – Happy Hour, Coyote Grill

• Sep. 28 – Regular Monday Meeting

• Oct. 5 – Regular Monday Meeting*

• Oct. 14 – Brother Benno’s Food Service

• Oct. 15 – North County Food Bank

• Oct. 26 – Regular Monday Meeting

* Meeting date changed to first Monday

MONDAY CLUB MEETINGS are normally the second and fourth Mondays of the month, at the Holiday Inn in Bressi Ranch, beginning at noon. However, our first meeting in October, above, will be the 1st Monday. Casual meet-up events may be scheduled for the remaining Mondays.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR NEW FUNDRAISER

for our many 2026-2027 service projects!

(Remember, no more Oktoberfest)

Today at our club meeting, we launched a small fundraiser that is a fun and easy way to support our club’s many projects. It's called Football Mania and involves selling e-tickets that will give buyers a chance to win cash prizes during the final 10 weeks of the current NFL football season. You don’t have to know about football to play or have to watch football to play; you don’t even have to like football to play! The online program randomly generates the teams on your card (see below) and tracks everything for you. If you win after each week’s games, you will be notified. You also can track it online.

It's a lot like getting multiple bingo cards, one for each week remaining in the 2026 NFL season, with 3 teams listed for each week via random selection. As in bingo, you hope for winners, but this will be based on your 3 teams’ total scores each week. You will have 3 new teams each week, as indicated by the date on your card. The e-program keeps track of everything.

For each $20 e-card, $14 comes back to the club to support our programs. Participants can purchase as many e-cards as they like. The more e-cards, the more chances to win!

Bob Stonebrook has emailed the information for obtaining tickets and for sharing with your family and friends or contact him at bob@aesynergy.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Pres. Kori is still seeking a programs director. Programs have been scheduled though December, BUT she really needs assistance with this for the rest of the 2026-27 Rotary year.
A club Happy Hour will be Thur., Sept. 24, at Coyote Bar and Grill, beginning at 4:30pm. Maureen Taylor announced that Coyote will be making a donation to our club.
Thank you to Richard Weston and his wife, Maria, for offering to host our annual Christmas Party in their home on Dec. 12.

MEMBER PROPOSED

The CHNR Board has approved Timothy Evanson for membership. Evanson, sponsored by Bob Stonebrook, is executive director of pupil services for Carlsbad schools. Anyone wishing to comment needs to contact Pres. Kori before our Sept. 28 meeting.

YOUTH SERVICE

• Jefferson Christmas Shopping: Wendy Wiegand said this shopping project for Jefferson Elementary families in need is being expanded this year. We will be helping 20 families, and this year will include a festive delivery event for the families that will include Santa. She will need shoppers and wrappers, plus a team to deliver gifts to the school event on Dec. 16. Each shopper will receive wish lists from a family and shop on their own schedule. Shoppers can wrap their gifts or bring the gifts to a planned wrapping party.

Anyone who wishes to actually adopt one or more of these families is invited to do so, covering the family’s shopping costs themselves instead of using club project funds. Wiegand is emailing details for this program that begins in November.

• CHS Interact Club: Mary Fritz-Wilson is looking for someone to assist her with this club of dynamic and service-minded high-school students. Our Interact club had several successful service projects last year, and the students have some great ideas for this year.

• What Grown-ups Do for Work: Bob Kreisberg is seeking members, including retired members, to speak to CHS middle school students this school year on a date of the speaker’s choosing. Speakers share their career-path stories with the students, a program that has proved to be very popular with the students.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• North County Food Bank, Thur., Sept. 17, 1-4pm:

Contact Mark Stenoien to sign up: mark.stenoien@gmail.com

• Brother Benno's Food Service, Wed., Oct 14:

Use SignUp Genius to sign up, or contact Paul Kartzke with questions: prkartzke@gmail.com

• Advance notice: Harvest Food Packing, Mon, Feb. 8, 2027. This is the meeting where we pack 20,000 meals in about an hour, with the help of family and friends.

Tom Applegate, Joy Biggens, Sholeh Stenoien, Beth Garrow, Mark Stenoien and Paul Kartzke at Brother Benno’s Sept. 9

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

Maureen Taylor has connected with a Rotary club in Africa for a joint project providing resources for blind students in a special school, including Braille reading materials. Rick Huenefeld said another of our projects involves rehabbing a lunchroom for a school in El Salvador.

ROTO ROOTER – Yvonne Finocchiaro

George Porter celebrated 60 years married on Sept. 1, and has 53 years in Rotary.

Ed Rouquette’s birthday was last Thursday. We sang the abbreviated birthday song to him.

Rick Huenefeld will celebrate 15 years in Rotary on Sept. 22.

Finocchairo then continued her “One Fact We Don’t Know About You” game, in two segments, calling up four members for each segment and asking the club to match an informational sign with the correct Rotarian.

First, we learned Bob Kreisberg’s first date with his wife was at a bowling alley; LeAnn Rytz gave birth at home, as planned; Rocco Ciesco has climbed Mt. Whitney two times; and Jim Brubaker won a golf tourney at age 15.

Rocco Ciesco, Bob Kreisberg, Jim Brubaker and LeAnn Rytz

In the second group, we learned Mary Fritz-Wilson is all Austrian; Nancy Starling is distantly related to Charlemagne, Queen Anne Bolyn and Zachary Taylor; Eric Lodge is the son of a track coach who also coached in an Olympics; and Paul Kartzke worked in oil exploration on every continent except one, Antarctica.

Yvonne Finocchiaro, Eric Lodge, Nancy Starling, Mary Fritz-Wilson and Paul Kartzke

PROGRAM

Andrea Norman, Ed.D., Superintendent

Carlsbad Unified School District

CUSD Supt. Andrea Norman

and CHNR Pres. Kori Dolkas

Bob Stonebrook introduced Dr. Norman, a San Diegan who has spent almost 30 years in education, from teaching to district leadership. She thanked CHNR, “for all you do, on behalf of our schools.”

The goal of CUSD educators, she said, “is to provide choices and opportunities for our students.” How a students feel when they are in school is critical to how well they learn and for their overall well-being. There is an emphasis on removing barriers to learning and engaging all students.

Per one of her slides, CUSD strives to provide every student an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment, with career pathways to help students discover their interests and strengths, explore careers, learn technical and employable skills, and work with community and industry partners.

Norman said the district recently switched for being state-funded to being supported by property taxes, and the Carlsbad district has a citizen oversight committee that oversees how funds are spent and manages the money. She discussed several recently completed projects at the various sites: completed on time and on budget.

Projects completed or in progress include upgrades at Buena Vista Elementary, the Carlsbad Village & Seaside Academy, and at Sage Creek High and Carlsbad High.

She noted that CUSD now offers full-day kindergarten at five schools, after a successful pilot program at two schools last year. A facilities master plan update, done every five years, is in the pipeline now, with community outreach meetings to begin in mid-October. She also discussed a technology audit.

Norman also discussed new positions in the district, including a special education coordinator, and she used slides to introduce new principals and assistant principals.

NEXT MEETING: Monday, Sept. 28

We Belong Institute

at Bressi Ranch Holiday Inn

KORI DOLKAS, PRESIDENT

NANCY STARLING, ROTARIAN OF THE YEAR

MARK STENOIEN, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

BOB STONEBROOK, KULCHIN SERVICE AWARD

BETH GARROW - DISTRICT POLIO PLUS AWARD

Service Above Self

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