Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa

Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa The Rotary Club of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa meets on Wednesdays at noon in the Garden Room of the historic Madonna Inn.

Check the website at rotarydetolosa.org for details.

Shelley Northrop joined Rotary de Tolosa in July 2022, looking for what many of us missed after Covid and remote work: r...
06/19/2026

Shelley Northrop joined Rotary de Tolosa in July 2022, looking for what many of us missed after Covid and remote work: real, face-to-face community connection.

She found that — and more — in Rotary.

Shelley says what she loves most about our club is that it feels like a second family, full of energy, purpose, and support.

This year, Shelley serves as Club Service Director, helping keep the club running smoothly behind the scenes — communications, logistics, internal operations, and supporting the president. Basically, the club’s COO, minus the corporate retreat. 😉

After a career as a marketing executive, Shelley entered retirement this past December. But slowing down? Not quite.
She’s now training with the Central Coast SurviveOars Dragon Boat team and taking French lessons as she prepares for the International Breast Cancer Dragon Boat Festival in Aix-les-Bains, France this summer.

We’re lucky to have Shelley’s energy and leadership on our board! 💙💛

What an amazing year at Rotary de Tolosa with Mary Verdin as President. Today was our last meeting before Mary’s demotio...
06/18/2026

What an amazing year at Rotary de Tolosa with Mary Verdin as President. Today was our last meeting before Mary’s demotion next week (the following week begins the Idler reign of terror). We started out be delivering our annual speaker’s gifts in the form of a $5,000 check to Paul and Bridget Ready of Jack’s Helping Hand. Mary unveiled 3 beautiful new Rotary banners thanks to the amazing design skills of Pierre Rademaker. Mary received an outstanding leadership award from our District Governor Mike Dutra. We honored more Community Service Heroes with colorful capes. We also celebrated our club’s accomplishment of distributing over $115,000 to local, district, and international organizations! Mary recognized and thanked her amazing board of directors and delivered the following awards to club’s members: Lifetime Achievement Award to Ali Jansen and Gay Spenser, New Rotarian of the Year to Brian Whitaker, Board Member of the Year to Ron Regier, The All In Award (aka Stoked on Rotary Award) to “The Dude” Brian Metcalf, Behind the Scenes Award to Laura McKinley, Spirit of Rotary Award to Sara LaForest, Trailblazer Awards to Don Maruska for Environmental & Climate Leadership and to Michele Murfin the Peace Builder Award, and our Rotarian of the Year Award to our own Shane Williams. Thank you so much Mary for your leadership that has taken Rotary de Tolosa to even greater heights. We honor you. We love you!

Wow, what an amazing meeting today at Rotary de Tolosa. First of all. President Elect Bryan Idler was at the head table ...
06/11/2026

Wow, what an amazing meeting today at Rotary de Tolosa. First of all. President Elect Bryan Idler was at the head table as a photo. President Mary was awarded one of her own “Guardians for Good” capes by “The Dude” and she is a most worthy recipient. Sarah Mason thanked the club for our series of grants to her amazing non-profit, Infinite Music. We heard from 3 of our 10 RYLA participants and their experiences were quite moving. Rotary de Tolosa’s key commitment is to support youth in our community and everyone in the room today could clearly see the difference RYLA makes the our youth. We also had one of the best, maybe the best ever, Craft Talk from our new member Kris Yetter. How fortunate we are to have such an amazing new member. Our Seargent at Arms Jim Dantona raised a LOT of money as the year is close to the end. He even coaxed John Salvini, who’ll be transitioning to the Passport Club, into stepping up to a 2nd President’s Club. Our program today was George Dom, former Blue Angels Commander, who spoke on “Undaunted Leadership.” Wow, just wow. We captured most of his slides in this post so follow along and transform your life through cultivating and focusing your energy.

If you want to know what is going on, join our Rotary de Tolosa meetings on Wednesday at noon. Jim Brescia offered ticke...
06/03/2026

If you want to know what is going on, join our Rotary de Tolosa meetings on Wednesday at noon. Jim Brescia offered tickets to the play “The Sorcerer” this weekend at Cuesta College CPAC. He even sang us a sample song! We were happy to see Kyle Rizzoli and get an update on his daughter, Quinn’s health. Quinn is now 12 pounds and may be able to come home from Stanford by June! Seargent at Arms Jim Dantona updated us on the election. Jim is running for District 2 County Supervisor and is trailing by a few votes with only 50% of the vote counted. That being said, there is a long way to go. To liven things up, someone fixed the Rotary “wheel” to have Allen Settle pay $15 for all 14 numbers around the wheel. Our program today was Matt Cole from Cal Poly speaking about “Beer & Tarrifs.” The numbers show that the tariffs have increased the price of beer 😞.

Rotary de Tolosa does function while President Mary is away. Today Past President Ken Long generously came out of retire...
05/20/2026

Rotary de Tolosa does function while President Mary is away. Today Past President Ken Long generously came out of retirement to run the meeting, and it was great! We had our annual Mezcal Auction with proceeds to be sent to our sister club in Morelia, Mexico and our members were generous. Thanks to Auctioneer Jim Dantona. Our program today was presented by attorney Shannon Bio with the firm Toews Bio and Abram. Shannon educated our members on the estate settlement process. Big Lesson: Do Not End Up In Probate! Work with a professional to make sure your estate is set up properly to make things easier and less expensive for your beneficiaries. Pay attention!

Each week, we find anew that Rotary de Tolosa is the hub of activity on the Central Coast. We had the pleasure of welcom...
05/13/2026

Each week, we find anew that Rotary de Tolosa is the hub of activity on the Central Coast. We had the pleasure of welcoming Stacy Salome, Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, as the recipient of this month's raffle ticket revenue. Don Maruska delivered an update on the latest ESRAG news, highlighting a collaborative effort to support the conservation of Monarch Butterflies. Ranelle Baldwin shared the encouraging news regarding the success of Teen Track, with expectations of even greater achievements next year. Additionally, we extended a warm welcome to Whitney McDonald, San Luis Obispo City Manager, as a member new of our club. We also welcomed Jay Ciulla as a full “Blue Badge” member. Out program today was presented by Doreen Wetzel, wife of Ron Regier, who told the amazing story of her father during World War II and the friendships that extended until the present day. Doreen and Ron honored her father, a Rotarian, after the presentation by awarding him a Paul Harris Fellow.

Meet Tom Zehnder — a dedicated Rotarian since 2002 and someone who truly believes in giving back to the community that h...
05/13/2026

Meet Tom Zehnder — a dedicated Rotarian since 2002 and someone who truly believes in giving back to the community that has given so much to him.

As our Youth Service Chair, Tom coordinates many of our club’s youth-focused programs, including RYLA and Interact, helping inspire and develop the next generation of leaders throughout our community.

By profession, Tom is a Civil Engineer, but around Rotary de Tolosa he’s known for his steady leadership, thoughtful perspective, and genuine appreciation for people. In fact, when asked what he loves most about our club, his answer was simple: “It’s all about the people.”

Tom says he feels blessed to live on the Central Coast surrounded by wonderful family and friends — and we feel lucky to have him as part of our Rotary family. 🔵⚙️

✨ Board Member Spotlight: Geoff Straw ✨Geoff joined Rotary de Tolosa in 2022, inspired by both family ties to Rotary and...
04/30/2026

✨ Board Member Spotlight: Geoff Straw ✨

Geoff joined Rotary de Tolosa in 2022, inspired by both family ties to Rotary and a desire to give back.

He’s especially passionate about supporting youth and promoting peace—and loves the camaraderie (and humor) of the Club.

This year, Geoff serves as President-Elect Nominee, learning from Club leadership and taking on the challenge of planning the Demotion Party.

Professionally, he’s the Executive Director of the SLO Regional Transit Authority, leading a team of ~100.

Outside of work: travel, Giants games, and vintage car projects.

We’re grateful for Geoff’s leadership and spirit of service!

Today at Rotary de Tolosa we basked in the joy of seeing our community efforts and grants in action. We recognized 5 Gua...
04/29/2026

Today at Rotary de Tolosa we basked in the joy of seeing our community efforts and grants in action. We recognized 5 Guardians for Good, Rotarians who are involved in 4 or more projects. We recognized Ranelle Baldwin, Bernadette Bernardi, Bill Herreras, Ed Harris and Laura McKinley. We are excited about serving 1000 junior high students for Teen Track this Saturday. We welcomed our amazing member Amy Kardel back in person after a long cancer journey. Amy’s announcement of being 100% cancer free brought a standing ovation! We welcomed 5 Rotary de Tolosa grant recipients today; Michelle Cavalletto from Big Brothers Big Sisters, Coralee Macias from Cal Poly Arts, Montse Cross from The Children’s Museum, Molly Kern from The Food Bank and Kendra Belch from Transitions Mental Health. Rotary makes a huge difference in our community and our world. Join us!

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100 Madonna Road
San Luis Obispo, CA
93405

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