Susan Maronde, Michael Clark, Betsy Winsett, Kathy Reed and Dee House
Congratulations to Betsy Winsett and Michael Clark for completing all the steps on the journey toward their Blue Badge!
What’s Rotary?
Rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change.
Rotarians at Work Day at Nativity Prep Academy
Mark Barry Receives Major Donor Award
Our Newest Paul Harris Society Members
Klaus Gubernator and Miles Fleming receive their Paul Harris Society pins from James Morrison, the District 5340 Paul Harris Coordinator. Also pictured are Past District Governor, Marty Peters and Pat Caughey, Club President.
Betsy Winsett gave her “Who Am I?” presentation at the October 9, 2025 meeting- the last step toward her Blue Badge. Betsy was born in Ohio during one of the worst snowstorms of the 20th century. Betsy grew up in North Canton, Ohio, where her father worked for the Hoover Company. She went to Hoover High School and enjoyed summers at Lake Erie. Betsy went to Miami University and earned a BS in Applied Science. Her undergraduate work included learning BAL, COBOL and APL, all run on key punch machines.
After graduating, Betsy worked for the Hoover Company as a market research analyst, but saw little opportunity for advancement. She earned an MBA from Kent State and went to work for Black & Decker household products where she led marketing for small appliances like the Dustbuster. Betsy then moved to San Diego to head marketing for the Thermoscan Instant Thermometer (click HERE to watch one of their effective ads), which was eventually acquired by Gillette with a 190 million dollar return to investors.
In 1997 Betsy founded her consultancy Mainspring Marketing and then bought the San Diego Bridal Bazaar, which is now the fifth-largest show in the United States. On the personal side, Betsy recently reconnected with a classmate she dated at Hoover High School. They enjoy traveling together with annual fly fishing trips to Montana and trips to Tyree Island near Savannah.
Enjoy a day at the races. In the upper left, members of the Rancho Santa Fe Club (Jerah Payne, Paula Shaw, District Governor Luis Carranza, Susie and Eamon Callahan with Area 4 Assistant Governor Greg Day on the right) supported our event. Upper right are Betsy Winsett, Dee House and Garrie Rhodes. Mary Savoy (lower right) monitored the silent auction progress, while the four horseman (lower center), Matt Kurth, Don and Donna Fipps, Michael Clark posed in the paddock with DG Luis Carranza and President Pat Caughey
Our inaugural Gallop4Rotary was a fantastic success! Thank you to all our members and Rotarians from across District 5340 who joined us in the Stretch Run box seats at the Del Mar Racetrack for a day of fun and fellowship. This event was the brainchild of member Linda Saville, and she, along with her hard-working committee that included Mary Savoy, Susan Maronde, Beth Westburg and Michael Clark, made it a reality. Thank you to all our members who donated items for the silent auction: Linda Saville, Craig Fravel, Mary Savoy, Pat Caughey, Brett Mattei, Lorelei Nielsen, Dawn Cox, Beth Westburg, and Marty Peters. We’re also grateful to Rotary Club of La Jolla (Nick McLoota); Rotary Club of Del Mar Solana Beach (Charles Koll), Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club; and Rotary Club of Borrego Springs for donating auction items; 100% of the proceeds from these items went straight back to their clubs. We hope you’ll join us at the track next year! Click HERE for a link to a Google Photo album for pictures from the day.
Our club’s Annual Day at the Races is Thursday August 14. We’ll return to the Il Palio restaurant, in the Turf Club, high above the track. Gentlemen must wear a sport coat, and ladies should wear a dress or other smart casual wear. No jeans, please. This year we’ll have table service rather than a buffet. Remember that this event is ONLY for members. Email Marty Peters to sign up to attend. The gates open at noon and you can pick up your ticket at our table right near Will Call. Thank you as always to our honorary member, Joe Harper, for hosting this special event. Click HERE to see more details at the event page.
Humble Design Executive Director Laura Lavoie (upper right) and examples of homes furnished for clients
Items on the Humble Design San Diego wish list (and some items that are not)
Laura Lavoie, Executive Director of Humble Design San Diego, was our speaker at the July 17, 2025 meeting. Founded in Detroit in 2009, Humble Design helps change the lives of their clients who are transitioning out of homelessness by tailoring custom designs to their tastes and making those designs a reality by fully furnishing home interiors. All of Humble Design’s clients are referred by partner organizations including the Alpha Project, East County Transitional Living Center and San Diego Rescue Mission.
Humble Design San Diego is on pace to help two clients every week and are looking to expand to help 3 clients per week. All clients are referred by partner social service organization. Furnishings used in the designs are donated and are stored at their new warehouse in Logan Heights. Their work has a quantifiable impact. A study by the UCSD Homelessness Hub found that clients served by Humble Design are 10-fold less likely to return to homelessness and most clients report an increased sense of self-worth and mental stability. Children of clients have strengthened friend networks and are more likely to bring friends home. You can help by donating items that can be used to furnish new homes for Humble Design clients. Click HERE to learn more.
Michael Clark was born in the Washington DC area as the son of a dentist and a vet and grew up in New Jersey. His parents were from Ohio, and Michael chose to attend Ohio State University where he studied industrial systems engineering. He began his career working for Rockwell before shifting to the insurance industry. His work for AETNA took him to Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, San Franciso and Philadelphia. He moved back to Kansas City to run sales for Delta Dental Kansas, eventually becoming CEO. He stayed within the dental industry, but shifted focus to buying dental practices. In 2013 he was recruited to San Diego to work for Argen, which specializes in dental alloys, digital dentistry and dental laboratory resources. Michael helped the company expand by adding over 500 employees with global locations. He retired in 2023, but got bored with retirement and started an employee benefit brokerage firm.
Michael enjoys weightlifting and has competed in more than 50 natural body building competitions. He also likes off-roading in his Jeep. His wife Andrea taught for the San Dieguito School District and is now retired. His son Max played rugby at Torrey Pines High School and then played for Ohio State. He’s now plays for a San Diego Legion feeder team.
Michael had been a Rotarian in Kansas City, missed it, and reached out to our club in February 2024. Since he joined, Michael has jumped right in, playing a key role in organizing our Gallop4Rotary.
Here's the latest edition of our video newsletter, TL;DR, which summarizes recent happenings at our club.
Here's a quick summary of our club's activities over the past few months.
In May we inducted Marilyn Christopher, Jim Kohn, and Patrick McGrath. Marilyn is a real estate professional with lpt Realty and Patrick is financial advisor with Allworth Financial. Jim Kohn is already familiar to many members: he’s Sharon Schendel’s husband. Jim is a consultant in the aerospace sector.
Craig Fravel with Club Secretary Susan Maronde (center) and Membership Chair Dee House (right)
In April, we inducted Craig Fravel. Craig is a partner and senior advisor for Brown Advisory and he previously held positions as Executive Vice Chair of 1st Racing, President and CEO of Breeders' Cup Limited, and President and General Manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
Club President Toni Mecaro receives Best Medium Club Award from District Governor Dianne Crawford (left) and Pat Caughey is sworn in as the new club president (right)
Janice Kurth receives Service Above Self Award from Dianne Crawford (upper center panel); President-Elect Steven McDowell and Jennifer McDowell attended (upper left). Jenny Caughey, Bob Muller, Pat Caughey, Dee House and Suzy Wagner rounded out one of our tables (lower center panel) with (l to r) Val Myers, Jeff Matthews, Toni Mecaro and her friend Janine Gossett. Sharon Schendel was sworn in as Assistant Governor (lower left) and will be chief of staff for District Governor Luis Carranza (upper right)
On June 7, 2025 members attended the Governor’s Dinner in Mission Valley to see Pat Caughey be sworn in as our newest club president. Janice Kurth received the Service of Above Self award and Sharon Schendel was sworn in as Assistant District Governor for Area 1 and will also serve as Chief of Staff for District Governor Luis Carranza. We were honored to be named Best Medium-Sized club in the District. Thank you to Dee House for arranging the table reservation.
In the upper left is the "press conference" that Jim Davies hypothesizes leads to all sorts of global events.
In the upper left- Toni celebrates with Susan Maronde and Beth Davidson, whom she named co-Rotarians of the Year
We celebrated Toni Mecaro’s successful term as Club President on June 10, 2025. Matt and Janice Kurth hosted Toni’s demotion party at their home, and the theme followed that for the Rotary year: The Magic of Rotary. We were entertained by magician Skyler King and of course Jim Davies gave one of his patented talks that revealed the timeline of events that followed Toni’s interview at the Jallikattu contest in January (click HERE to watch the video of her interview- Toni's part starts around 1:35). Toni joined the “tiara club” comprising women who’ve served as club presidents and then passed the giant gavel to Pat Caughey. Congratulations to Susan Maronde and Beth Davidson on being named Rotarians of the Year!
Scenes from the field trip followed up with an al fresco lunch.
Dawn Cox arranged a field trip to the EDCO Resource Recovery center to see their variety of recycling activities. EDCO is a family-owned business and they pride themselves on supporting both their employees and their community. We watched the rapid sorting of recyclables and saw the huge anaerobic digesters that produce fuel to power the EDCO fleet. Afterward, we relaxed over lunch at Vintana restaurant.
In late April, our members hosted 10 Rotarians from District 3000 in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Our guests had a packed 10-day trip that included tours of the Monarch school, Midway, Old Town and the Safari Park. They also attended the Lakeside Rodeo, a Padres game and enjoyed performances at the UCSD Wow festival. The women in the delegation cooked a fabulous Indian feast at Janice and Matt Kurth’s home, and the tour wrapped up with a delicious paella dinner hosted by Philippe and Dugan Lamoise. We’re grateful to Janice Kurth for all her work coordinating both halves of the exchange and to Suzy Wagner, Don and Donna Fipps, Kathy Reed, Klaus Gubernator, and Sharon Schendel and Jim Kohn for opening their homes to our guests.
Sharon Schendel and Steven McDowell were facilitators, and Greg Harris (inset) is a member of the organizing committee (always recognizable in red shirts)
A thank you note from one of the four RYLArians we sponsored to attend.
Sharon Schendel visited an Open House at North County Tech High School at the invitation of one of her RYLArians
In late April, members Greg Harris, Steven McDowell and Sharon Schendel were in Idyllwild for the District 5340 RYLA camp. Greg is a member of the RYLA organizing committee, and Sharon and Steven were facilitators. The weekend was chilly and wet, but the RYLA enthusiasm wasn’t dampened. We had a nice note from Ava Barrientos, one of the students we sponsored, and Sharon Schendel was invited by one of her RYLArians to visit an Open House at her high school, North County Trade Tech in Vista.
On April 26 we had our annual Rotarians at Work Day. Our group was large, strengthened by not only our members, but members from the Rotary Club of Del Mar Solana Beach, Rotary Club of Downtown San Diego, and University of San Diego Rotaract (click on the link to view their Instagram post with more pictures from the day) who worked alongside students from St. Augustine and Cathedral Catholic High Schools on projects at the Nativity Prep Academy campus. Nativity Prep Alumni returned to help as well. Thank you to Marty Peters for organizing, and for the Mona Lisa sandwiches!
The weekend of March 22, our club hosted the District 5340 Model United Nations. Delegates from nearly 20 high schools from around San Diego county represented over 40 nations to debate resolutions related to clean water and digital safety. This year the delegation included students from Costa Rica and Honduras. Thank you to Youth Services Chair Klaus Gubernator and Club Treasurer Kathy Reed for helping organize the event. Click HERE to see a video with photos from the day.
Our recent blood drive at the Del Mar Civic center on March 6 was a great success. Thank you to all our members who donated. You are truly a special minority. According to the American Blood Centers, an organization representing blood centers across North America, only 3% of eligible donors in the United States donate blood. If you couldn’t make the March 6 drive, click HERE to schedule an appointment at a San Diego Blood Bank donation center near you. Thank you to Mary Savoy for organizing the drive.
Karen Lare, Chair of the Del Mar Lagoon Committee spoke at our March 6 meeting about the San Dieguito lagoon. The Lagoon committee works to preserve and enhance the areas of the San Dieguito and Penasquitos Lagoons that lie within Del Mar. Nearly 50 years ago, the San Dieguito Lagoon was designated as a sensitive resource area that qualified for protection under the Coastal Act. Later, focus grew to encompass the full watershed in the region with groups like the San Dieguito River Valley Land Conservancy and the Friends of the San Dieguito River Valley forming and working with government entities like Joint Powers Authority to acquire and manage lands in the newly-designated San Dieguito River Valley Park. A key milestone was the selection of the lagoon for a mitigation restoration plan that was part of permitting for the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant. Restoration work began in 2006 and mitigation is ongoing. Now, the health of the lagoon is robust, and the area provides a range of recreational activities with the Dust Devil Trails east of the I-5, and areas that are part of the Coast to Crest Trail that will eventually include 71 miles from the shores of Del Mar to Vulcan Mountain near Julian.
