San Ramon Valley Unified School District

Danville Sycamore Valley Rotary’s Annual Dictionary Project!

For the past several years the Rotary Club that I have been a member of since it was chartered in 1989 has distributed dictionaries to the 3^rd-graders of the San Ramon Unified School District. There were over 30 of our Rotary club members who participated in the distribution last week.  David Behring, president of the Wheelchair Foundation, and myself assisted with the dictionary distribution at Tassajara Hills Elementary. David and I went into the 3^rd-grade classrooms to the delight of the students.  As we were distributing them we had them help us look up words so they could learn how to navigate through the beautiful hardbound dictionary.  Some of the words were “service”, “Gila monster”, and “impertinent”..  As a student would find the word they would raise their hand, then stand up and read the definition.  I hope you agree with me when I say the love of reading is one of the most important skills a young student can learn.  Dictionaries are intended to bring words to life, and as a resource for students to use for many years. Read more

San Ramon Valley Unified School District

Another Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Community Service Project Is Completed!

Jim Walberg and his fellow Rotarians completed another map of the USA on the playground of Tassajara Hills Elementary School – 40 feet long and 25 feet high!  It is part of our continued support of education projects in our community.

Since our local Rotary Club was founded in April 1989 it has been serving the many needs of our East Bay communities.  During the past 20 years, we have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of people hours to address these local needs.  Many of our Rotary Club’s community projects have been focused on educational needs of our school districts.  We call one of them “The Maps Project”.  Several years ago we learned of a map painting kit that was painted on elementary school playgrounds to assist kids with their understanding of our country’s geography.  It sounded as if it was a winner of addition to any school. Read more

San Ramon Valley Unified School District

Mayor H. Abram Wilson Addressed The East Bay Real Estate Community!

The Realtors Marketing Association welcomed Mayor Wilson to a packed house as he updated the membership on the issues of San Ramon.

Mayor Wilson has been the mayor of San Ramon for almost six years, and a member of the San Ramon City Council for nine years.  His leadership and direction of the future of San Ramon was recognized this year with the recognition of being named the 2008 “Citizen of the Year” by the East Bay Leadership Foundation.  At the weekly RMA meeting today he updated the audience on the quality of life issues facing the city of San Ramon and the Tri-Valley region.  Here is an outline of some of his remarks as written by Jim Walberg.

1. The Tri-Valley Realtors are the banner carriers of this community because they have their ear to ground as to what is happening on a daily basis within their communities. They are the “Yes We Can” community resource centers for the consumers.
2. Regarding budget issues; “Romance without the finances doesn’t make it!” He updated us that the San Ramon budget for up coming fiscal year was passed last Tuesday for $93.8 million. He also let us know that San Ramon has set aside a reserve fund of over 50% of the budget for any fiscal issues that show in the future. Most cities have a 5% to 10% reserve, but San Ramon’s fiscal responsibility to the citizens for to make sure when “rainy days” show up there are reserves to cover any deficits.
3. The two critical issues for San Ramon are: Safety and quality of education. San Ramon now has their own city police force instead of contracting those services with the County Sheriff’s office. Regarding the quality of education in our Valley, it is one of the best in the country. We are all so blessed to be a part of a community that has such high standards in all aspects of community life.
4. The San Ramon City Center Plan: WOW! Mayor Wilson dazzled the audience with the plans for the City Center; Theater Arts Center; 5-star hotel; shops; restaurants and cafes; living lofts, and much more. It will be a 2.1 million square feet of mixed use commercial and residential living. His opinion, and from what he showed us today, it will rival Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills as a place to spend time in an elegant atmosphere. He even let us know that the fountain area will become an outdoor ice rink during the winter months as one now finds at the Rockefeller Center in New York City. ( I did ask him how one gets on the waiting list for one of the live-in lofts.)
5. The future management of the build-out of the City Center was discussed because Mayor Wilson is running for the State Legislature. Mayor Wilson assured us that Sunset Development and Alex Mehran – the developers of Bishop Ranch, are the developers of this project. Mr. Mehran will be investing more than $800 million into this project so be assured the project will completed with Mr. Mehran at the helm.
6. Tassajara Valley sphere of influence area from Finley Road to the Alameda County Line; San Ramon is positioning itself to be the city influencing this section of a very sensitive development area in our region. Mayor Abram’s vision for this area is to have it focus on vineyards, country inns/restaurants, and spas – similar to what has unfolded in the Napa Valley/Livermore Valleys.
7. Future development behind Home Depot; It was very interesting to learn that there are 830 homes planned for this northeast corner of San Ramon by 2011. It is being developed by Art Lorenzini. That was all the information Mayor Wilson had on this project.

We are all so blessed to live in a region that has such a high quality of life, world class education for our kids, and safe communities in which to live – plus, having community leaders like Mayor Wilson.

San Ramon Valley Unified School District

Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary & Jim Walberg Welcomes Kirk Bailey As New Member!

The Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club has been a key supporter of community service in the East Bay for almost 20 years!

Rotary International is a worldwide community service organization that addresses both local and international community service needs. The Danville/Sycamore Rotary Club was chartered in April of 1989. Today it has a membership of about 55 business and professional people who have a keen interest in Service Above Self as a personal value statement. Over the past years, Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary has raised over $500,000 in funds in order to give back to local and international service projects – from providing dictionaries to all of the third graders in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, to delivering hundreds of wheelchairs to non-walkers in Mexico with the Wheelchair Foundation headquartered in Blackhawk. It has won the Community Service Award several times from The Town Of Danville.

Service Above Self is a “virus” that is caught because of the modeling of parents and friends during a person’s life time. Jim Walberg caught this virus from his parents who were constantly involved in local and worldwide service projects as long as he can remember. Kirk Bailey is also one of those people who caught the “virus” at a young age. His roots are in Northern Nevada, but he grew up in Walnut Creek. After his college studies, Kirk moved to Tahoe and started a real estate publishing company in the Reno/Tahoe area. That launched a very successful career in the publishing business. He was a member of the Reno Rotary Club because of wanting to give back to those less fortunate. What he didn’t know when he joined the Reno Rotary Club was his grandfather was a former president of the club. His dad is also a long time Rotarian, and Kirk continues the tradition of Service Above Self.

Kirk moved back to the East Bay several months ago to launch a new and innovative real estate magazine that will be delivered to the homes in Alamo, Diablo, Danville, Blackhawk and San Ramon in just a few weeks. Since he arrived back he has been checking out local Rotary Clubs in which to continue his community service. Yesterday, May 13th, the Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club inducted Kirk as their newest member. Jim Walberg was his sponsor and Jim’s real estate company is already one of the charter members of Kirk’s new real estate publication, HomeFolio.

Kirk not only has been a member of Rotary for several years, he has walked the talk of service by participating in Rotary International’s Polio Plus program that has vaccinated the children of the world since 1985 against polio. As of today over 99% of polio cases have been eliminated from the world because of their commitment to this project. Two years ago, Kirk traveled to Africa to participate in one of the inoculation projects, which profoundly changed his life and intensified his commitment to Service Above Self. The Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary Club is honored to welcome Kirk to their club and looks forward to his contribution to improving the quality of life within our East Bay community and the world.

If you would like more information about Rotary and how you may get involved in this important group of professionals who are giving back to their communities in significant ways, please contact Jim Walberg and he will provide information for you. Congratulations, Kirk!