UPCOMING FIXTURES
Tue, Sept 8 - Board of Director's Meeting (Mom's, 7:30 a.m.)
Sept 11-13 - Almanor Weekend - still a few spots open!
Tue, Sept 15 - Scott Dinits, Ability First
Tue, Sept 22 - Beau's Backyard BBQ @ Moretti's, 5:30pm (No lunch meeting; more info below)
Tue, Sept 29 - Tim O'Connell, Rescue 42
Tue, Oct 6 - Llano Seco Ranch presentation
Sat, Nov 14 - Surf & Turf Dinner (Club Work Day)
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TEAM LEADERSHIP 2026-27
THE STARTING LINEUP
- Team in Charge: Trinidad & Tobago Calypso Warriors
- Reporter: Gayle Hutchinson
- Microphones: Jolene Church & Megan Kurtz
- Thought of the Day: Anastacia Snyder
TEAM REPORT
Nick Magers took the mic and asked whether he should keep his game face on while he delivered the report. Beau told him absolutely. August ran long for the Calypso Warriors: blue bag donations, a happy hour at Ally's Pub, the Inspire ribbon cutting, a team meeting at Beatnick's, a shift helping with Chico State move-in, and a scrum at the Oasis.
Offered the exit, Magers asked whether anybody wanted to hear September too, and got waved on — a joint social with the Springboks at Beyond Golf, a night out to hear Robert Delgardo's band play at the Commons, a team meeting, and a hand at Durham Rotary's Harvest Festival. Beau could not come up with the band's name and went looking for it out loud: "Skies out, thighs out — is that right, Robert?"
President Beau's rugby history minute. Trinidad & Tobago made him work. "You guys choosing these random teams, you make me dig long and hard." He came back with four of the national side's best over the years — Selwyn St. Bernard; Adam Frederick, who Beau noted also turns up as Adam Fredericks, for whatever reason; Bola Silverthorne; and Shaquille Dyke. All good players, was the verdict.
VISITING SIDES
- Peggy Kolar, Rotary Club of Durham, Assistant Governor, District 5160
- Mark Thorpe, Rotary Club of Paradise
IN THE GRANDSTAND
- Dean Fender, guest of Kiley Patterson
- Dr. Joan Schumann, guest of Scott Schumann
- Misty Wright, guest of Scott Schumann
- Jason Weinrich, guest of Mark Pierce
- Joantha Guthrie, Waste Management, guest of Annabel Grimm
- Michael Dominick, guest of Rob Reddemann
- Dean Fender, guest of Kiley Patterson
FROM THE SIDELINE
Assistant Governor Peggy Kolar came up from Durham and got put on the spot for district news. A retired educator and, she offered as her other claim to fame, a former Disneyland cast member.
Three things: the pilgrimage to Rotary International in Evanston, Sept 27–29, which Karin and Robb Lightfoot are making; the district-wide virtual event on Saturday, Oct 10, from 9 to 11 a.m., hosted by District Governor-elect Barry Casper of Concord — "you can be in your pajamas"; and Durham's Harvest Festival on the 20th, which she was pleased to hear a good number of Chico members are coming to help with.
David Kim brought the Target Shopping Spree back.
Wednesday, Oct 7, 4 to 7 p.m., and he needs 25 volunteers from the club. Each child gets a $200 gift card, and Rotarians shop alongside them.
Flyers were on the tables with a QR code for the details.
Quick Coaching Update:
- Melanie “Maddog” Bassett is still away.
- Kiley Patterson came off the bench.
- Glen Eaton was out.
- September's matchups were announced — Wallabies v Springboks, Black Eagles v All Blacks, Calypso Warriors v Los Cóndores — which prompted President Beau to note there was something very black about the second one.
Dino Corbin wants his Concourse crew back.
The Chico Concourse is Saturday, Sept 26, at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds — the 47th. Setup starts at oh-dark-thirty, about 5:30 a.m.; cars line up around 6:30 and come in at 7. Front of show is run by your one and only president, Beau McSwain.
Two hours and you are done, you get to see every car come in, and there are points in it. Judging seminars are available for anyone who wants to learn. The Concourse supports Butte College Auto, rugby, and Chico Noon Rotary. Veterans of the front gate should email Dino to say they are in.
Beau's Backyard BBQ - September 22 at the Moretti's
Kiley Patterson provided the update!
September 22
5:30 p.m. - Drinks & Appetizers
6:30 p.m. - Dinner
Menu: Appetizers, Salad Bar, Ribs, Chicken, Portuguese Beans, Roasted Potatoes, Ice Cream
Open Bar: Beer, Wine, Seltzer, Signature drink, sparkling water, water
$30 for Adults, $15 for Teens
FREE for children under 10.
We have a Square reader - bring your credit card or checkbook on Tuesday!
No noon meeting that day; the Barbecue is the meeting of record.
Get Ready: Surf & Turf is Right Around the Corner.
Last count: 34 tables total, 26 table sponsors, 6 partner sponsors, and the event sponsor. Saturday, Nov 14, Silver Dollar Fairgrounds. There are still tables to sell, so pass along names. The website is being built and should be live within the week or so.
Multiple sponsorships and table sponsorships remain — see Evan Markey or any committee member. Alex DuBose, Rental Guys, has already claimed Title Sponsor.
On the difference between the $1,500 and $3,000 tables: more wine, better location, bar runners, and some branding. And this year the club has hired a professional auctioneer.
Logistics: November 14, Saturday, 5:00 PM at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds — same date and structure as last year, same band, same food.
TRIBUTES
Trish Dunlap was called up on the strength of some photos she had sent in.
It had been a boring summer, she said — her grandson made All-Stars, the trip they planned around it fell through, and then the team lost anyway. What she did have was a Mississippi river cruise with Lauren last fall, wall-to-wall music from the Preservation Band through Zydeco and swing, and Graceland, which she went to expecting not to care for and 
came away liking.
Her grandson is 12 and at middle school in Durham, where her daughter is the counselor.
Asked for something the room did not know, she gave the real answer: 19 years as a CASA, a court-appointed special advocate, in a retirement now past 20. An amazing program, and she has been proud to serve that way.
Bill Chance came up next, described as Trish's cohort in crime for the Almanor run, with his bodyguard along to keep him in line. Harvest wrapped Sunday — light, but done, and done is what matters.
His photos: he and Kathy in Akumal, Mexico last January, which they 
do every year for the diving, and they are going back to the same condo, now with a hired driver so he never has to take the highway again. His granddaughter, now 4, driving the boat, which he was sure was entirely legal. Wyatt, the 3-year-old grandson, who bangs into things, gets up, and goes again — Bill has a sport picked out for him already, and thinks he will fit.
Asked what he is famous for, he thought for a second, then announced: he and Kathy celebrated 40 years of marriage on July 19.
Toni Scott collected her Black Badge, and Beau kept her on her feet a few minutes longer.
Her photos ran the year: her husband Nick with his parents, Jeff and Chieko-san; an award for California women in agriculture, which she was honored to receive and which is going to be the Christmas card.
In March she and a best friend who lives next door took their families to Japan and Okinawa, where Chieko-san grew up before coming over at 19 — they saw the house, ate very good sushi, and the boys were incredible on the Tokyo subway, six levels down and all of it in symbols. Okinawa she loved: tropical like Hawaii, an independent kingdom until Japan annexed it.
Then baseball. She went to school in Boston, became a Red Sox fan, but moved back and has since migrated to the Giants; this was their year of it, spring training and a game deep in enemy territory with her brother Felipe the night before he graduated from USC Dental School — a brother she met five years ago after reconnecting with biological family, and who grew up in Southern California a Giants fan anyway.
And the thing most of the room did not know: she and Nick are having a baby in March who will be surrounded by “a hundred aunts and uncles and tías and papas.”
RUGBY KIT BAG
It was National Forgiveness Day, and Beau could think of no better way to forgive somebody than with a Schubert's ice cream gift certificate.
Ticket 433-7707 took it — Dane Bracewell.
No pin, though, which came up immediately: "Did you have a pin on?"
He did not, so the club's donation did not trigger, and Beau told him there is one waiting whenever he wants it.
MATCH OF THE DAY
Dr. Joan Schumann — founding executive director of the International MTSS Association, CEO of Leading for Learning, and board chair of the Northern California Literacy Collaborative.
Introduced by Scott Schumann, who walked her doctorate from the University of Utah, the classroom-to-principalship career, Singapore and Beijing, and closed with "of course, she's also my wife."
Her opening line: "How many of you have had the pleasure of being introduced by your spouse?"
The Northern California Literacy Collaborative is a new 501(c)(3), started by about 13 women out of Chico State. Third-grade proficiency in some Butte County districts runs under 20%, a few near 10%. Four of the five or six California counties with the highest imprisonment rates are in the rural north. No coincidence, Schumann said. The fix is known — one vendor calls itself the 95% Group because 95% of people can be taught to read. Chico Unified's better sites run 55%. "Are we happy with even 1 out of 2?"
The ask: a part-time staffer, a documentary screening, and a training hub in Chico for every Reading Pals and library volunteer who wants it.
Questions ran until time ran out. Robb Lightfoot thanked her for the science, after years of making his dyslexic daughter's case to teacher after teacher. Gayle Hutchinson asked whether the data breaks out by school type, and got recruited to help run a community data session. Luke Milliron asked whether the incarceration link is causation: decades of randomized controlled trials.
Photographer: Fritz Schulenberg
