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Hi-Jinx Bulletin-Feb. 02. 2026 Mtg Posted on Feb 02, 2026 *NEXT MEETING:* *Monday, Feb. 9, 2026* Meal Packing Event-Carlsbad Women’s Club *3320 Monroe Street, Carlsbad 92008* Volume 9, Issue 278 Reporter: Julie Gibbs Photographer: Nancy Starling Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary President Jim Brubaker Pledge of Allegiance, Smile and Welcome Song opened the meeting. Words of Inspiration: Bob Kreisberg: “Alone we are but a drop, but together we are an ocean.” -Japanese writer Ryunosuke Satoro KEY HI-NOON DATES (More details in the text below this list) • Feb. 9 - Meal Packing Event - Carlsbad Women’s Club • Feb. 11 - Brother Benno’s Food Service: 6:00 am • Feb 16 - DARK • Feb. 17 - Special Event - Rotarians Travelogue • Feb. 18 - Rotary Musical Instrument Event at Army Navy Academy Chapel, 7PM • Feb. 19 - North County Food Bank • Feb. 23 - Rotary 4-Way Speech Contest: Carlsbad Woman's Club. • March 5 joint happy hour 5-8 at Discovery Center. Pot Luck picnic style. Bring an appetizer, finger food, to feed 5-7 people. BYOB and dishes (for yourself only) • Mar. 21-22 - Model United Nations Del Mar • April 25 - NAMI Walks, you can donate if you can’t walk, see Bob for details • April 25 - Rotarians at Work Day ANNOUNCEMENTS • Meal Packing Event - Carlsbad Women’s Club 11;30-2:00. • Donating to San Diego Food Bank, see Beth Garrow. Need sign-ups by Fri 6th to volunteer. Joanne Ross: Scholarship Program Drawing April 27. Need to sell by this date $5K first prize $2500 second prize Beach Package third prize $20 each, 6 for $100 Tax Deductible Wants us to each sell 5 more than last year Tommy Hersant Ukraine bought the generator for the hospital, but truck drivers are afraid to drive to the hospital due to the bombing. However, they found a way and are in the process of getting the generator set up and working. Bob Stonebrook This is the 3rd year that the District has been a sponsor of NAMI, see flyer above for details Josh - His daughter is getting married! Mo Taylor - Her mom turns 100, Grandson turns 17, and boyfriend turns 67 all on same lucky Friday the 13th. Mo bought a Rav4 and will surprise her grandson with it on Mom’s 100th birthday party. Mary-Fritz Wilson Feb 13. CHS Interact Club is hosting a babysitting service at Discovery Center so parents can go out for early Valentine’s Day. This is a fundraiser for their international project. Annual Meal Packing Mtg: Our next meal-packing event will be Feb. 9, and the goal is to pack 20,000 meals in less than 90 minutes, via assembly lines, so family and friends can be invited to participate. Because we need a larger site, that meeting will be at the Carlsbad Woman’s Club, 3220 Monroe St., Carlsbad. Volunteers also needed for set-up and teardown. SignUp Genius info has been emailed. Bi-Weekly Meeting Updates Our Feb. 23 regular Monday meeting also will be at the Carlsbad Woman’s Club due to our annual 4-Way Test Speech Contest. While we will be DARK Feb. 16 due to Presidents Day, Pres. Jim is planning a casual Rotarian Travelogue event for Feb. 17. More info to come. WHO AM I? INTRO Tammy Velthoven - Tammy recently moved to Carlsbad from Detroit Michigan to join her boyfriend. She is a fractional project manager consulting with various companies in the area. She has 3 college-age children and wants to get involved with the community. PROGRAM Brother Benno’s Speakers: Dennis Plinick: He was a college level reader at 8 years of age and saw a big billboard that had the 4-way test on it. He thought it was amazing! He became an addict at 8, and later in his life, after he was arrested twice, he was helped by others to get clean. He then embraced Service to Others. He has been at Benno’s since 1999. He had to ask for help with recovery 3 times. Then he came back in 2010 and asked “How Can I Help?” Help the unhoused was the answer. People bring the unhoused to Benno’s when others can’t find housing for them. Benno’s serves hot meals, hygiene, and essentials like medical, dental, and banking. Often everything is stolen. They help to get back birth certificates, ID’s and have mail service so people can get mail delivered. They partner with 40 local grocery stores to stock their grocery. Our club donated $5K for socks and underwear. Benno’s is funded by foundations, individual donors and grants. Gov’t funding is less than 1% of their funding. Benno’s has been in business for 42 years. They call their unhoused “guests” and treat them like a guest in their home. Homeless outreach teams bring people, provide food for 20 other pantries and those people send people from there to Benno’s. Where did the Brother Benno’s name originate? Brother Benno was a Benedictine Monk who would come down in a pick-up truck and take furniture left outside and give it to the unhoused. He got a house donated to use in San Diego. He had to move because they were in a neighborhood, but now they are in an industrial area. He’s had a nun come with him once. They were going up the hill to the Abbey Prince of Peace, near the Oceanside airport and the truck caught on fire. He joked to the Nun, well, we better get out of the truck! Was 42-year board member from the Abbey which is not a Catholic organization but started by Catholics. It’s difficult to service mental health issues because the mental health system is broken, Dennis exclaimed. Their library had to be closed down but we donated books to their resale store and that helps fund them. Now they have a free grocery-style market for those in need. It’s kept temperature controlled, not on pallets like it used to be. They have a men’s recovery program, and are hoping to start a women’s program also. Benno’s rescues 150,000 lbs of food that would otherwise be discarded. He thanked Hi-Noon for helping with breakfast monthly. Alex Kauna (Support Services) went through the program in 2023 and he came back to work there. NEXT MEETING Mon, February 9 Carlsbad Woman’s Club - Harvest Meal Packing Event	Hi-Jinx Bulletin-Feb. 02. 2026 Mtg	Maureen Taylor	2026-02-02 08:00:00Z	0
CHNR Reminders Posted on Jan 26, 2026 POLIO PLUS PIGGY Got spare change? Drop it into the Purple Piggy bank at each meeting, and the total funds will be sent to Rotary International's End Polio Now campaign at end of this Rotary year. ROTARY ELEVATOR PITCH Share Rotary with others! Here is an example: We are a group of your neighbors and professionals who want to make the world a better place. We put food in kids' tummies, shoes on their feet and books in their hands. We feed seniors and homeless, and deliver it with a smile. We provide Christmas gifts for families, do improvement projects in our community, and provide clean water to communities without. We provide shelter for war widows in The Ukraine, support youth behavioral health at home and abroad, and send youth to leadership camps. Last year, we raised $42,000 for scholarships, and we are going to eliminate polio from the world. And we have fun doing it! We are your premier non-governmental, non-political action group in the world. There are 1.4 million Rotarians worldwide, and we are people of action. We would love to have you join us at a meeting.	CHNR Reminders	Julie Walker	2026-01-26 08:00:00Z	0
Welcome to Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club 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) two Mondays per 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 58 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. The club sponsors Oktoberfest a Family Fall Festival--Oktoberfest 2025 is Number 42 and will be held on September 20 at The Strawberry Fields in Carlsbad. It includes German food, German music, costume contests, games and a beer garden. Check out the website for event specifics: www.RotaryOktoberfest.org. This event has been designed and implemented since its inception by BOTH Rotary Clubs in Carlsbad: Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary and Carlsbad Rotary. Proceeds from Oktoberfest are shared with Carlsbad charities and used by each club for its many local community service projects. Additionally, CHNR also supports our Carlsbad students via the AVID program at Carlsbad High School with a business and ethics conference plus 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. CHNR members provide extensive community: service every weekday, all year, through meal delivery to seniors; once a month to 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) to a variety of nonprofit organizations in Carlsbad assisting food insecurity, the homeless, Solutions for Change, the Carlsbad Educational Foundation, Hospice of the North Coast, Casa de Amparo, the North County Food Bank, the Veterans Association of North County, La Posada, Stand Up for Kids, the Carlsbad Boys and Girls Club. We are People of Action. During the 2024-2025 Rotary year, club members provided over 5,400 hours of volunteer service to the local and international communities. Through over 60 projects club members provided: 1. Food insecurity - 24 projects for 1,308 hours delivering, packaging, serving, or organizing food products for the needy. 2. Schools - for elementary schools built/gave away 40 bikes and 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 $45,500 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 #42 with the Carlsbad Rotary to raise $117,575 for Carlsbad projects; bought gifts for 14 needy families during the holidays repaired elements of two seniors' homes. 4. Environmental: Worked at the Buena Vista Lagoon Nature Center to clear trails and separate wood pulp from debris for 107 hours. 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 Mondays, noon, at the Westin Hotel (above the Flower Fields); buffet lunch is $25. Come check us out . . . you'll like what you see. Read more...	Welcome to Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club	Yvonne Finocchiaro	2025-01-06 08:00:00Z	0
AVID Seminars AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a college prep program targeting students who will be first generation college attendees in their families. Students and parents make a commitment to participate in the program for all four years of high school by choosing to take the AVID Class as an elective all four years of high school. The AVID class supports students in succeeding in challenging academic programs using peer coaching strategies and study skills designed to support student learning and achievement. Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club (CHNR) began their support of the AVID program in 2008. Working with other Rotary Clubs, a Conference was put together for Senior AVID students from Carlsbad, Oceanside, El Camino and Vista High Schools. Students joined Rotarians for breakfast and panel presentations from Rotarians and representatives from potential career areas. The next year, CHNR decided to focus on Carlsbad High students. The Club invited the Junior and Senior AVID students and followed this format until 2013. At that point, the event was renamed the AVID Seminar and the focus was changed to engage the students in an interaction with successful Rotarians and successful former AVID students. Rotarians became facilitators during Breakfast and talked to students about their goals and shared their struggles and successes. Then, in smaller groups, selected Rotarians and former AVID students shared their experience and offered ideas for building success in life through a small-group format. A debrief of the small group work and a keynote presentation on a specific leadership skill closed the seminar. A highlight of the event is the recognition of the top Senior AVID Students by their teachers. March 22, 2019 marked the Twelfth Seminar. This year Hi-Noon Rotary reached out to Sage Creek High School to involve their AVID Juniors and Seniors. There were 44 students from Carlsbad High and 24 from Sage Creek. The 68 students were supported by their teachers, school and district administrators, counselors and 20 Rotarians. To support the student experience, the Club began to collect “Words of Advice” from members in 2016. A group of students created a set of questions that were then asked of all members of the club. The responses were recorded and presented to the students. The documents are used as reference materials in the AVID classes and have documented the variety of experiences that Rotarians bring to our Club. Each year the students select a different set of questions to ask the members. April 3, 2020 was to be our 13^th AVID Seminar. Unfortunately, 13 did not end up to be our lucky number. Along with many other activities, this event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and a wonderful experience for students and our members was lost. However, we did continue to recognize the Top 5 AVID Seniors for 2020 from each school. Their pictures are attached as are several years of pictures of the Top 5 and group pictures from past events. We want to take a moment and express our deep appreciation to the AVID Teachers on each campus. They are: Jeff Spanier and Laurie Britton at Carlsbad High School; and Aida Salah and Allison Williams at Sage Creek High School. For 2021 we are going to move forward to the 14^th Seminar! Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club Top 5 AVID Seniors Class of 2020 Carlsbad High School Analaura Flores Makella Nordquist Jasmyn Lemus Christen Opp Bianca Herrera Sage Creek High School Angelica Venancio Cavaughn Higgs Destini Perkins Hayat Sherif Roxana Dominguez The Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary Club would like to thank the following people for their continued support of the AVID Program: AVID Teachers, Jeff Spanier, Laurie Britton, Aida Salah and Allison Williams, Principals, Dr. Brian Brockett and Jesse Schuveiller, Superintendent, Dr. Ben Churchill, the District Leadership Team, and the Carlsbad Unified School District Board of Trustees	AVID Seminars	Ken Clark	2020-10-13 07:00:00Z	0