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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 Westin Carlsbad Resort and Spa, 5480 Grand Pacific Drive, Carlsbad, CA 92008. A buffet lunch with salads and hot entrees is open at noon, with the business meeting beginning at 12:20 pm.

The Club, chartered in February 1980, has over 60 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.

Hi-Jinx Bulletin 11.10.25 Meeting

Posted on Nov. 10, 2025

NEXT MEETING:

Monday, Nov. 17

Volume 9, Issue 16

Reporter: Julie Walker

Photographers: Nancy Starling

and Wendy Wiegand

Carlsbad Hi-Noon Rotary

President Jim Brubaker

President Jim Brubaker called the meeting to order and welcomed guests, including the Carlsbad Army/Navy Academy’s Color Guard. George Sullivan led the Pledge, after recognizing the CHN Rotarians who are veterans. “Mr. Spoons” Ed Rouquette led the welcome song. This meeting, the day before Veterans Day, was a special salute to club members and their guests and family members who are veterans. In addition to Veterans Day, it also was a recognition of the 250th birthday of the US Navy and the US Marine Corps.

George Sullivan reads the names of CHNR veterans before leading the Pledge of Allegiance

KEY HI-NOON DATES

• Nov. 17 - Regular meeting / Westin

• Nov. 20 - North County Food Bank

• Nov. 24 - Regular meeting / Westin

• Dec. 1 - DARK / Thanksgiving

• Dec. 6 - Holiday Party

• Dec. 8 - DARK due to holiday party

• Dec. 15 - Regular meeting / Westin

• Dec. 22 - DARK for holidays

• Dec. 29 - DARK for holidays

• Jan. 6 - Regular meeting

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jefferson Elementary Christmas Shopping: Wendy Wiegand said the club will be helping 20 in-need families this year. She’s seeking members to be shoppers for a family, using club-designated funds and family wish lists. Anyone wishing to “adopt” a family, using your own funds to make the purchases, will enable the club’s funds for the other families to go further. Shopping is to be completed by in early December, and there will be a gift-wrapping party at Mary Fritz-Wilson’s home, date still to be announced. Several SUVs or trucks will be needed to deliver the wrapped gifts to the school. Wiegand has emailed detailed information, or contact her at wendy@wendywiegand.com.

CHNR HOLIDAY PARTY, Dec. 6

This year’s event will be hosted by Richard Weston and wife, Maria. White elephant gift exchange and potluck, with attendance, volunteer and potluck signups going on now. Wendy Wiegand has sent out signup info by email. Or contact her at wendy@wendywiegand.com.

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

CHNR’s Membership Drive continues through November. Each new member brought in through this November will earn the sponsoring member a $50 credit toward their 2025-2026 Q3 dues.

CHNR BIRTHDAYS

Pres. Jim recognized Rotarians with birthdays this month: Paul Katrzke, Beth Garrow and Ray Jacobus, as well as guest Tom Garrow, whose birthday actually was on this day, Nov. 10.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• North County Food Bank:

Beth Garrow will be leading a CHNR crew at the North County Food Bank’s North County site on Thurs., Nov. 20. She is sending out sign-up info or contact her: bethgarrow@comcast.net

PROGRAM

SALUTE To VETERANS

Speaker: Rick Huenefeld (Colonel, USMC, Ret.)

Rick Huenefeld

Carlsbad Army/Navy Academy Color Guard

CHNR Veterans and guests at the Nov. 10 meeting

Rick Huenefeld, retired USMC colonel, coordinated and led the day’s Salute to Veterans program, beginning with the Presentation of Colors by the Army/Navy Academy’s Color Guard and concluding with a photo being taken of all the veterans in the room.

The US Army, Navy and Marine Corps all are celebrating their 250th birthdays this year, with the Navy and Marines celebrating this week.

Huenefeld said Veterans Day is one of America’s three military holidays: Veterans Day honors those who have served; Memorial Day honors those veterans lost; and Armed Forces Day honors those who are serving. Veterans Day originally was called Armistice Day, recognizing November 11 as the day WWI ended. President Eisenhower changed it to Veterans Day to recognize all who have served in the US Armed Forces.

Veterans, Huenefeld said, have set aside their own needs and pledged to serve the United States. “Their oath of service speaks to the supremacy of the Constitution, the importance of lawful behavior, and most importantly, an obligation without limits.”

He shared some statistics, including that today, 79% of veterans are over age 65; 42% older than 72. Later, he shared a video that featured recruiting messages from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.

Then he introduced three CHNR veterans who shared what their service meant to them:

• Bob Stonebrook (US Army) said his service “really shrank the world for me, culturally and geographically.” He said he “knew going into the military meant you were going into ‘the service’...you did know you could be called upon for the ultimate sacrifice.” He and everyone else were “just a bunch of kids who didn’t know what they wanted to do....the military was a great trainer,” he said.

• Jim Brubaker (US Navy) ended up joining the Navy “when my career direction in the medical field wasn’t working for me.” He joined the Navy because he desired some direction. “I loved boats, the water, travel, and I got all that.” He, too, said the training he got was “tremendous. The Navy taught me discipline, direction in my life, time-management, goal-setting.”

• Kevin Shin (US Marines) joined “because I was a knucklehead and needed some direction in my life.” He and his family were Korean immigrants, and he shared stories about getting to the US and finding a new life. He had always heard stories about the Marines for his father and uncle. “I realized I wouldn’t even be here today if it wasn’t for the Marine Corps and the Navy.”

Huenefeld then introduced two CHNR members who are veterans with a different perspective: as family members waiting at home:

• Linda Wolf said her son, at age six, told her he had a life plan: to join the Marines, then to go to college, and finally, to be a police officer. Despite her misgivings, at age 18, he joined the Marines, and she learned what she calls “Semper Gumby”— She had to be flexible. “Having my son in war definitely changed me.” She was active on the homefront, including working with Purple Heart families who had lost family members. Then her son called from Afghanistan to tell her his best friend had been shot by a sniper. Two months later, on Nov. 17, 2010, her son stepped on an IED: a 40-lb improvised explosive device — that did not explode, a miracle for sure. Military families, she said, “don't have the excitement (their family members) get when they go off to war, but we certainly get the worry.”

• Yvonne Finocchiaro came from a military family, with her father in the Navy in WWII, husband Carm a Marine who did two tours in Vietnam, a son in the Navy, a nephew still active. She talked about life when the military member is on active duty: “Honey stays home” and has to learn to handle finances, conflict resolution, to be stalwart and strong, to have endurance...” At times, “I didn’t hear from him for months. I didn’t know where he was, what was happening. You just keep going.” Support for the military has improved, she said, but those at home still have to carry on. “I'm a Marine at heart because that’s what I am, too. It’s a team effort.”

Huenefeld concluded the day’s program by naming the CHNR veterans:

Jim Brubaker, Ken Clark, Nate Cobb, Dave Dana, Rick Huenefeld, Ray Jacobus, Bruce Jordan, Danny Quisenberry, Ed Rouquette, Kevin Shin, Bob Stonebrook and George Sullivan.

NEXT MEETING:

Mon., Nov. 17, at the Westin

PROGRAM

Larry Kesslin, author of

“The Joy Molecule & Success Redefined”

Jim Brubaker President 2025-2026

Mike Metts, Rotarian of the Year 24-25

Christian Chapman, Rookie of the Year 24-25

Bob Kreisberg, Kulchin Service Award 24-25

Oktoberfest 2025

Army/Navy Academy Award

Service Above Self

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