President John Lemmon (Knox, Lemmon & Anapolsky, LLP) welcomed a boisterous crowd. Ted Kappel (Kappel Mortgage Group) and Jerry Haley were our greeters. Gabriel Gendron (Lyon Real Estate) gave us the thought for the day, which centered on the importance of relationships. Callee Setzer (Setzer Forest Products) handled the introductions of guests Bob Sanford, Greg Briscoe and Pat Pathipati. Lauri Wright was introduced as a prospective member and Tom Engle, the President of the West Sacramento Centennial Club, was our lone visiting Rotarian. Eduard Goffart is a current RYE student from Belgium, and was introduced by John McIntyre (Mercy Foundation).
Past President Frank Poelman (Poelman Company Ltd), who launched the YIP program during his presidency, sponsored the meeting and donated his time to current YIP Chairman, Eric Solis (Solis Financial Strategies Group of Wells Fargo Advisors). Eric ran through a slide show of current and past YIP enrollees. 100 % have graduated from high school. Eric explained that our YIP Committee has spent $154,000 of the $300,000 originally raised by the program. Our Committee plans to spend a further $192,000 during the next 10 years. Eric read a nice letter from Doug Crumley’s YIP student praising him for the help when he needed it. Fritz Engle, an original YIP mentor, passed away a few years ago and his mentee flew from Atlanta to speak at his funeral.
Jeanne Reeves (Jeanne Reaves Consulting) recognized two Rotarians, John Dowdell (Dowdell Financial Services) (15th) and Jim Leet (Boutin Jones Inc.) for their generous Eddie Mulligan contributions.
Todd Andrews (Andrews Construction, Inc.) "Mr. Biker", declared, “Weather will be great on Saturday! Warm at 85 degrees and sunny!” Our Sac Century Challenge Bike Ride kicks off at daybreak on October 7. Come out, volunteer and join the fun. John McIntyre said Kings tickets for the December 10th game, at which our own Four-Way Test will sing the anthem, are still available but going fast. Joe Grant (Vantage Points, LLC) and Tom Bacon (Kidder Mathews) are leading “Brown Bag Day” on October 24th and would like a few more hosts. President John Lemmon passed along an invitation from the East Sacramento and Pocket Greenhaven Clubs to attend their joint meeting at the Casa Garden Restaurant on October 12, at 11:30am. Past President Skip Lawrence urged blood donations next week to help our sister blood bank in Las Vegas after the recent shooting tragedy. On behalf of our Literacy Committee, April Javist (Sacramento Public Library Foundation) urged Members to show up for the upcoming “Walk for Literacy” on October 21st.
Dr. Barbara Arnold (Barbara J. Arnold, MD Inc.) announced she will have a painting at the upcoming KVIE Gala available for auction. Elfrena Foord (Foord, Van Bruggen, & Pajak) donated in recognition of Dr. Arnold’s continued support of local community programs including a scholarship Barbara has funded benefitting students at Delta High School.
President Elect Diane Woodruff introduced our speaker, Nancy Sanford Hughes, President of StoveTeam International. Nancy is a Rotarian in Eugene, Oregon. She has been featured on PBS NewsHour, CNN and National Geographic and has been invited to the White House for her work in bringing Ultra Clean Cook Stoves to the people of the world. Millions around the world cook on an open fire. This leads to health problems, deforestation, and keeps kids out of school as they are looking for wood to keep the fire stoked.
Nancy showed a video produced by NOVA, which further explained the problem of smoke inhalation, child endangerment, risk of injury and other pitfalls that can happen with an open flame in a small-contained home area.
Nancy was originally a reluctant participant. She went to Guatemala on a surgical rounds/medical care Rotary trip for indigenous people. She ran the kitchen and continued to sign up for multiple years. However, Nancy felt she could do more and was committed to help. Her “Aha” moment came when an 18-year-old girl came into the kitchen asking for an opportunity to thank the doctors. She had fallen into an open fire and burned her hands into permanent fists. 16 years later, doctors were able to “open” her hands and restore their function. Determined to find a way to help prevent such injuries, Nancy came home and learned how to write a $35,000 grant for fuel efficient stoves.
The original version of Nancy’s stove solution used 300 lbs. of concrete! Ten people from Oregon went to Central America and installed 120 stoves. Nancy knew this was not enough. The need for these stoves exceeded 6 million. Then she met and became great friends with inventor Larry who refined the stove design. She got $10,000 in seed money from Carlos Santana. Before she knew what was happening, Nancy was on a plane to El Salvador.
Nancy demonstrated how to use the stove with a life size mockup. A 3/4” thick bucket of concrete surrounds a combustion chamber made of roofing tile. A unique elbow shape creates complete combustion by mixing hot and cold air. Tortillas, rice, beans are the main meals in Central America and they are easy to cook on this type of stove. Nancy wrote a grant for 1 million new cook stoves and refined the product.
Factories in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico were soon established. These self-sustaining businesses continue to thrive today.
Sergeant-at Arms Callee Setzer closed by announcing that our next meeting on October 10th will showcase our Sac Century event and recognize the Members who organized, staffed and made the largest fundraiser of the year possible.