Santa Paula Rotary honored as Chamber Member of the Quarter
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Published: November 28, 2012
The Santa Paula Rotary Club was recognized as the Chamber of Commerce’s Member of the Quarter for all the organization does for the community.
And that includes stimulating the local economy by raising the profile of Santa Paula.
Rotary received the award at the November Good Morning Santa Paula. The Chamber-sponsored breakfast meeting, held at Garman’s Pub, was hosted by Ventura County Medical Center/Santa Paula Hospital.
Chamber President John Chamberlain, also a Santa Paula Rotarian, said the Chamber was “delighted to recognize the Rotary Club.... It’s an amazing organization.”
The club had just wound down the 5th Annual Pumpkin Patch, an event Chamberlain said is staged every weekend in October, with private tours and activities for schools on Fridays. “It was so exhausting... Rotarians are there every weekend. It’s the best Pumpkin Patch in the entire world,” drawing a crowd of more than 20,000 visitors from throughout Southern California to the historic Faulkner Farm, now the home of the UC Hansen Trust.
“Some come every year, some come for the first time,” and Chamberlain said no matter how many times they have attended the Rotary Club Pumpkin Patch, visitors all have one thing in common. “They all love Santa Paula, and many say they would like to live here. It really is a wonderful place to live,” with great weather, a rich arts community, and numerous museums, shops and restaurants as well as the city’s vintage architecture and scenic beauty.
“Santa Paula is really a wonderful place to live,” and Chamberlain said it is events such as the Pumpkin Patch that show off the area to its best advantage. Chamberlain noted that such an ambitious event “takes a field marshal to put it on and pull it off,” and Rotarians Ginger Gherardi and Maria Bombara are very involved, among other Rotary supporters who ensure every aspect of the multi-weekend event is not only planned for, but also covered.
All proceeds from the Rotary Club Faulkner Farm Pumpkin Patch benefit the wider Santa Paula community through donations made by the club to those other nonprofits that help at the event, as well as those that are later awarded grants. The club meets each Monday at the Glen Tavern Inn, the same location where Rotarians met when the club was first founded in 1923.
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