Home Page | Rotary Club of Fair Oaks

We meet Mondays at 6:45 pm

Fair Oaks

Community Clubhouse

7997 California Ave.

Fair Oaks, CA 95628

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Dennis Dunbar

I am proud and honored to be given the opportunity to be the President of the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks for the 2019-2020 year! I am looking forward to a great year as we work together to make the world a better place, both locally and internationally.

The new President of Rotary International, Mark Daniel Maloney, has set the theme for this year: “ROTARY CONNECTS THE WORLD.” Our District Governor, Ray Ward, has amplified that theme for our District: “CONNECT AND INSPIRE.” The Rotary Club of Fair Oaks has further expanded the theme more locally: “CONNECT TO TRANSFORM LIVES.” Working in tandem, through our connections to each other and the citizens of the world, these themes ensure that the lives of thousands of people locally and internationally are improved! Rotary truly connects us all.

Chartered in 1946, we have been supporting community organizations for 74 years. We are a diverse group of community and business leaders working together to create lasting, positive change in the world. The Rotary Motto is “Service Above Self,” a motto that is enthusiastically embraced by the members of this Club.

The Club has been involved in many service projects in our community, including:

distributing holiday food baskets to families in need at Northridge Elementary School;
supporting grade school literacy programs through distribution of dictionaries to 3^rdgraders;
supporting teen leadership development at Bella Vista High School;
assisting in the annual luau lunch for seniors;
supporting the Women’s Empowerment program;
renovating school dormitories in Mexico;
contributing to polio eradication efforts globally;
participating in foreign school youth exchanges;
assisting with the safe Halloween program;
conducting high school speech and photography contests;

and conducting many more projects that improve the quality of life in Fair Oaks and globally. We are very proud of the changes we help facilitate to improve lives.

Thank you for visiting our website. If you are interested in learning more about our Club and the work we do to improve our community, please join us at one of our weekly meetings. We meet Monday evenings at 6:45pm at the Fair Oaks Community Center (7997 California Ave., Fair Oaks, CA 95628). Please see our event calendar on this website to see upcoming projects, events, and speakers scheduled for our meetings. Come join us and have FUN doing good in the world.

Yours in Rotary,

Dennis Dunbar
President, 2019-2020

Battle for Oak 2019

Posted on Nov 01, 2019

Same-Old, Same-Old

At Fair Oaks Rotary's

Battle for The Oak

Somewhere in that mass of Del Campo High School Cougars is Bev Purcell, widow of Jim Purcell, the Rotarian who many years ago dubbed the Bella Vista-Del Campo football game, which is essentially the Fair Oaks championship, the Battle for the Oak. Fair Oaks Rotary now gives to the winning school a perpetual trophy and a $1,000 graduation award to present to the student of their choice; in addition we pay for the entry of all who identify themselves as a military veteran. I've lost track of when Bella Vista last won the game, but at 34-13 it was closer than usual this year. Keep your hopes up, Broncos!

Meraki Mentoring 2019

Posted on Oct 15, 2019

Fair Oaks Rotary Begins

Leadership & Ethics Mentoring

At Meraki High School

Fair Oaks Rotary kicked off a year-long one-on-one mentoring program at Meraki High School with a day-long workshop to match mentors and mentees and get to know one another. This will be followed by monthly meetings between the twenty mentors and their students. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we're looking forward to a productive program.

Center Point Project

Posted on Oct 12, 2019

Fair Oaks Rotary

Landscapes Center Point Facility

On two nice Saturdays in early October, a bunch of Fair Oaks Rotarians, helped by a few Bella Vista Interactors and a Center Point resident or two, provided muscle (?) and landscaping expertise, and fancied up the area around Center Point, a facility for folks recently released from prison. This will make for a much nicer environment when their families and kids visit on weekends. Fortunately, after the second work day, there was adequate recovery time for all the aching backs before our next meeting.

Best of Fair Oaks 2019

Posted on Oct 10, 2019

Rotary Wins 2019

Best of Fair Oaks Award

It's not clear who the competition was, but the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks was voted the best association or organization in Fair Oaks for this year; this means that we are almost certainly a pretty darn good club.

RYLA Presentation 2019

Posted on Sep 30, 2019

RYLA Grads Tell All

About Their "Summer Camp" Experience

Well, we did it again. We sent six outstanding Bella Vista juniors to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awakening (RYLA) camp in the Sierras last summer, while only paying for three spots. How did we do that while meeting the 4-Way Test, you might ask? Well, by having alternates ready when other clubs failed to fill their spots, or had campers drop out, that's how.

Tonight, those six (L to R, Thida Mommaitri, Celene Aridin, Evan Manley, Tafari LaBrie, Jun Seo and Amanda Drew) told us how it went and what it meant. In the most personal way, they described challenges, teamwork, trust, vulnerability, deep friendships formed in a matter of six days, and, um... oh yeah, FUN! At the end of their presentation, they attempted to teach the audience a dance to the Justin Timberlake song "Can't Stop The Feeling" (a signature RYLA dance taught to all campers for years); although their efforts might be regarded objectively as largely unsuccessful, there was lots of laughter and applause when the music ended. It's always one of the best meetings of the year, and this was no exception.

Chicken Festival 2019

Posted on Sep 21, 2019

Fair Oaks Rotary Hydrates the Masses

At the 2019 Chicken Festival

Temps in the high 80's and some great music makes for thirsty Fair Oaks Chicken Festival attendees. That sounds like a job for the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks, who once again arranged for plenty of beer and wine... and water too, just for the health of it. The money is still being counted, but it seems like we'll have some good funding for the many service projects we do. It's starting to look like this is an annual tradition, so look for us next year again.

Women's Empowerment Graduation 2019

Posted on Sep 13, 2019

Fair Oaks Rotary Sponsors

Women's Empowerment Graduation

That headline would make many wonder what Women's Empowerment is, and what exactly it means to "sponsor" a graduation. Well, the website of this 18 year-old program probably says it best: "The mission of Women’s Empowerment is to educate and empower women who are homeless with the skills and confidence necessary to get a job, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and regain a home for themselves and their children." As they graduated their 76th class, consisting of 21 women, what that "sponsor" business meant was that we bought, prepared and served the lunch following the ceremony. Of course, that also included setting up and cleaning up, and making sure that no left-over dessert went to waste. We've been doing this for several years and there's a good chance we'll be back next year, because it's a real feel-good experience... and the dessert is always yummy. For more pics of the crew in action (?), click "Read more..."