Estero Bay Kindness Coalition started in December 2017, when founder Bobby deLancellotti met with the principal at Del Mar Ele-mentary school in Morro Bay, CA to inquire about how he could serve the most vulnerable students during the holidays. The princi-pal connected him with 10 families. Bobby bought them 2 gifts each: a fun gift, a practical gift, and a $100.00 gift card to a local su-permarket. In January, the principal sent Bobby a letter thanking him for the impact the gifts had on the families. She also informed him that 64% of the students at Del Mar were living at or below the poverty line. This broke Bobby’s heart, so he decided to do some-thing about it. 

In March 2018, he started Got Your Back, a program that helps feed kids over the weekends, providing 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, healthy snacks, fruit, milk, and juice to each kid enrolled. The kids in this program rely on “hot/reduced lunch” at school to eat during the week and would often go hungry on the weekends. By June 2018, Estero Bay Kindness Coalition was serving 48 students with Got Your Back. The following school year, it jumped to 8 schools and over 200 students in the SLO Unified School District. During this time, our organization became a nonprofit 501 C-3. By the 2019 school year, we were feeding over 200 children in 8 schools. 

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and schools closed their doors in March 2020, Bobby met with local principals to get connected with some of the most vulnerable, food insecure families in the SLO Unified School District. 

The Estero Bay Kindness Coalition went from feeding school kids on the weekends to feeding whole families for the week, virtually overnight. 

To meet the needs of the families referred to us by 1 of our 8 partnered schools, we created Bags of Love, a program that delivers 3 bags of groceries per week to 164+ families in the greater Estero Bay area. The bags of groceries consist of healthy, protein-rich breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, juice, milk, and fresh, local produce. During this time, we also created Sunshine and Seed, a new and gently used kids clothing collective where kids can shop for free. 

When schools reopened in 2021, we reimplemented Got Your Back, sending kids home with healthy meals and snacks to eat over the weekends. 

The Estero Bay Kindness Coalition has built a team of over 80+ volunteers, 2 team leaders, and 2 food pantries. They are currently partnered with 8 schools, 41 for-profits, 18 nonprofits, and 10 churches 

Interact Club members plan various fundraising activities so they can raise money to donate to causes select-ed by the Interactors. In previous years, the club has donated to such causes as high school scholarships, Camp Ocean Pines, HART, Feeding America, Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude’s, Skate Cambria and FFRP. This year we were joined by Interact members President Violet, Ave, Oscar and Robert and their Interact Advisor, Ayan John-son. 

The Annual Interact Bake Sale is always one of our favorite meetings because the baked goods the students make are auctioned off and, invariably bidding wars break out as auctioneer Bob Kasper uses humor to encourage high-er and higher bids. It is just another example of our motto: “If it ain’t fun, it ain’t Rotary”. 

At Friday’s meeting, there were a lot of laughs, we got to enjoy some delicious baked goods and the 2023 Interact Bake Sale raised almost $4,500! 

Thanks to Miguel and Judy, who met with each of the 19 families to find out what the children wanted and needed for Christmas and came up with a detailed list. These two are amazing! 

21 Rotarians agreed to be Secret Santas to the 43 children living in the Oceanside Apt. 

Once again, an anonymous donor purchased a pair of shoes for each of the children. Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Valerie Ratto had the students in her confirmation class at Santa Rosa Church write a note to each of the par-ents, in Spanish, telling them that they are appreciated. What a great idea, Valerie. 

When Del Clegg heard me promoting the Secret Santa project and hearing that 10 or so kids that were still waiting, he offered to give me $200 to purchase gifts for those children. Well, club member did step up and, in record time, all the kids were covered. Nan-cy Carr had suggested that we purchase gifts for the children in Head Start in Cambria. I asked Del if it would be ok to use the money he gave for Secret Santa to buy sweaters and stuffed animals for the little ones at Head Start. Needless to say, he was all for it! Not only that, but he gave us a 10% dis-count on the Cookie Crock gift cards that will be passed out to the Oceanside Apt. and Head Start families. Is there any wonder why Del was recently honored with a Legacy Award from Camp Ocean Pines? 

Thanks to Karen and her helpers, we had a fun evening at the Holiday Party. Everyone was in a festive mood and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The poinsettia centerpieces were auctioned off with the proceeds going to Polio. A total of $175 was raised! The each table was asked to sing a holiday song and everyone happily participated. We heard holiday songs, Christmas carols, a Hannukah song and, yes, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by you know who. 

Branna Still joined the SLO Food Bank team in June 2020 and is excited to be a member

of a phenomenal organization that offers relief to those who are finding themselves

in the most challenging situations.

Branna was born and raised in Missouri. After graduating high school, she studied at

the University of Missouri—Columbia (MIZZOU) while also serving in the US Army Reserve.

After a year-long deployment overseas and a six-month course at the Defense

Language Institute, she graduated from MIZZOU with a duel degree in International

Studies and Business, emphasis in Marketing. After living in a few different states and

working in various for-profit roles, Branna shifted her career in 2014 to fundraising

and community development for the American Cancer Society. After four impactful

years serving Monterey County communities, she followed the sunshine and landed in

San Luis Obispo. Branna was honored to join the Woods Humane Society as the Development

Manager and, after a month, her family grew by adding a sweet canine

stray found in Paso Robles. As the “normal day” in the life flipped upside down amid

the global pandemic, an opportunity to help those at risk of hunger came forth, and she was excited and grateful

to become part of the solution. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and fur babies, listening

to music, enjoying the great outdoors, and traveling the world.

Branna told us that 26% of households in SLO County do not earn enough to afford an essential cost of living and

1 in 6 children may experience food insecurity in the US this year! The SLO Food Bank serves over 31,000 individuals

each month. 28% are children and 25% are seniors. Community Service Chair, Sandy Cha, was pleased to present Branna

and the SLO Food Bank with a check for $500 to help families and individuals

during this holiday season.

Paula was born Glendale Ca. in 1952. She moved to Africa in 2003, Mwandi Village in 2005 to concentrate their efforts on building homes for those most in need in the village, With the help of volunteers, they have built 199 

homes. They have been involved with education since 2007. Donors have sponsored over 35 

students through colleges many of them now have good paying jobs and a future. There are 9 

still in college and are always looking for sponsors to help. In 2017 they started working on a 

community school we started classes in 2019 and now have over 300 students from pre school 

through 4 th grade. 

In October 2020, Paula and her daughter formed a 501 c-3 American corporation, Compass Zambia, 

to help support Home For Aids Orphans. Survival and growth all these years has been 

fueled by volunteers coming to work on the projects. With covid this went away leaving them 

vulnerable, the new corporation has given us a much-needed boost and allowed them to continue 

working on the school, as well as to keep the staff employed. Paula took that time to finish writing a 

book about my life called Wings on My Heels- a life unraveled – By Paula Van Zyl. All proceeds 

go to Compass Zambia, to help Home For Aids Orphans. 

This year volunteering has picked up and they are again working in the village. But the school 

remains the most important aspect of our organization. They need to continue building as they 

have no place for the 5 th grade students. 

Paula joined the Rotary Club of Livingstone in 2009 served as Secretary for 2 years 2011-2013 

President 2013-2014 International Projects chair 2014 -2022. In June 2022 she resigned from that 

club and joined Mosi-oa-tunya Rotary club in Livingstone. 

Paula and Matt, her business partner since 2007 live in Mwandi most of the year. She returns to the US 

every year to raise funds and awareness as well as to visit my family. 

Laurie passionately believes that everyone deserves to have

a fun, meaningful life. A Harvard-educated Jersey girl, she is

the close advisor and coach to country and state leaders,

mayors, education and business pioneers, and other top

movers and shakers worldwide. Starting as an inner city high

school teacher and the youngest

principal in Boston, Laurie became

disillusioned with the state

of public education and spent

two decades spearheading a

global school reform movement, founding and directing an internationally

acclaimed charter school nonprofit and helping thousands of

education and other leaders to start and run successful organizations.

Laurie received graduate and undergraduate degrees in education,

psychology, and world religions from Harvard University, where she

also taught quantum physics. An avid world explorer and former Outward

Bound wilderness instructor, cultural exchange guide, and service-

learning leader, she has traveled to 60 countries and 40 states

and speaks five languages. She is a master practitioner in over two

dozen body/mind/spirit wellness techniques, including intuitive coaching.

While successful on the outside, by her late 30s, Laurie felt empty and exhausted on the inside.

She decided to try a nontraditional approach to get perspective on her life, unexpectedly writing

a book while fasting in the desert on a vision quest. Her book, The Road to Shine, is receiving all

5 stars on Amazon and has been featured on nationwide media. The sequel, The Road to Joy, is

pending publication shortly.

After her quest, Laurie quit her workaholic job, broke up with Mr. Almost, and dedicated herself

to a new education path, helping people find the courage to live lives they love and be happier,

more effective leaders. Anyone seeking to be their truest, best self or who wants to help their

communities or the world is someone she is honored to learn from and serve.

Laurie’s website is https://shineyourlight.life 

Tony’s job title is Head of Planetary Science Formulation which means he leads teams coming up with ideas for the next two decades of exploring our solar system. Tony hold a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, both from the University of Manchester in England. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engi-neers for his work on radar observations from space and is a 35 year veteran at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. 

Tony was inspired by Neal Armstrong and his predecessors at JPL. explained that his job is to look at new mis-sions. He treated us to a slide show that will be attached to this newsletter. You could hear a pin drop during his presentation. It was fascinating and I am sure we will be asking him back to update us on what is happening in our solar system. 

Hailed by 805 Living magazine as the Maestro of California’s Central Coast, Brian Asher Alhadeff has been Artistic and General Director of Opera San Luis Obispo since 2011. He is also the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lompoc Pops Orchestra, and Principal Conductor of State Street Ballet and Civic Ballet San Luis Obispo. An internationally celebrated conductor, Alhadeff was Artistic Director and founder of the Hradec Kralove International Summer Opera Festival which took place in the Czech Republic, and also conducted the Albanian premier of Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 with the Albanian National Radio and Televi-sion Orchestra. Guest conducting highlights in-clude Marina Del Rey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Tulsa Ballet, South Florida Opera, Long Beach Opera, Ballet Tucson, Bourgas Opera Ballet, and Pra-gue State Opera Ballet and Chorus, in addition to many other orchestras and opera companies throughout the U.S. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alhadeff and OperaSLO commissioned the first entirely produced “virtual” opera: Quarantine The Opera for OperaSLO’s Children’s Summer Opera Camp, in addition to conducting and co-producing the first complete virtual production of a standard repertoire opera with or-chestra; Puccini’s Suor Angelica, alongside Valley Opera Performing Arts and Mission Opera. Alhadeff studied conducting at the Peabody Conservatory and Janacek Academy of Music. A California native, Alhadeff holds a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount University, Masters of Music from California State University of Los Angeles, and Doctorate of Musical Arts from UCLA 

PDG John Weiss introduced our speaker, Gary Stoner who he has known for a number of years. He told us that Gary called him one time to find out about the Lions Club. After explaining that, while the Lions are a great organization, Rotary is the club he should join. Gary, John explained, was born in Paradise, Alaska and is a master auto mechanic. He has a passion for Grizzly and is life motto is “It is in giving that we receive.” 

Gary told us that he was tasked with finding a local charity and discovered Grizzly. The most common misconception, he explained, is that the program is court mandated and that those attending are criminals or juvenile delinquents at best. In order to be eligible to attend, one must be 15½ - 18 years old, a legal resident of the United States and California, be credit defi-cient or At-Risk of dropping out of high school. Students must be free from any serious involve-ment with the law and have no felony convictions. Students must also be drug-free or willing to be drug-free. It is a 100% volunteer program. 

Grizzly Youth ChalleNge Academy is a quasi-military operated by the CA National Guard in partnership with San Luis Obispo County Office of Education. Grizzly is a free 5½ month residential leadership academy for students seeking to gain valuable life skills, up to 70 transferable high school credits and a second chance at life. Grizzly Youth Academy’s mission is to intervene and reclaim and lives of 16 to 18 years old at-risk high school students; to produce program graduates with the values, life skills, education and self discipline to succeed as productive citizens. 

For more information about Grizzly, check out their website at www.grizzlyyouthacademy.org. 

Grizzly Academy 

Randy Schwalbe and his wife Mary have been full-time residents her in Cambria since 2010. They bought a small cottage in Lodge Hill in 1996 and contracted Rick Low to design a craftsman-style home to replace it, a first for Rick. Then they hired Mike O’Sullivan to build it. 

Randy has directed musicals since the 90’s, both in various theaters in Southern California and here at CCAT and Coast Union High School. How he has taken the helm for the Annual Follies, a part of the Pinedorado Days celebration. 

Randy has been retired now for ten years after spending 30 years as the Lean guy at Boeing Satellites in El Segundo, CA. However, he started out as a high school band director after earning a Bachelors of Arts degree in Music Education from UCLA. How’s that for a career path? Randy and Mary are active members of the Unitarian Universalist Community of Cambria and enjoy weeklong back-pack excursions high up in various mountain ranges. 

Barbara Owen is an international expert in the areas of women and imprison-ment. Most recently, her work in SE Asia centers on implemtation of the Bangkok Rules and other human rights protections for imprisoned women. A Professor Emerita of Criminology at California State University, Fresno, she received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkley in 1984. Prior to returning to academia, Dr. Owen was a Senior Researcher with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Along with Barbara Bloom and Stephanie Covington, she co-authored the policy initiative, Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders (National Institute of Corrections, 2003). She also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Thailand Institute of Justice and on the Advisory Board of the Safe Alternatives to Segregation II initiative with the Vera Institute of Jus-tice. 

Dr. Owen currently volunteers with Friends of the Elephant Seals in San Simeon and is working toward illustrating her interviews with women serving life terms. 

Barbara told us that there are 200,000 men in State prison but only $12,000 women. And, women are sentenced to State prison for crimes such as shoplifting (3-5 yrs) and marijuana (5-7 yrs). Men are sentenced to State prison for much more serious crimes and almost never for crimes like shoplifting and marijuana. 

2021-22 Community Service Committee Recap: Community Service Chair, Sue Rob-inson presented a slide show highlighting all of the ways our club contributed to pro-grams benefitting out community. She thanked the committee members for their work this year and encouraged anyone interested in serving on Community Service next year to contact 2022-23 Community Service Chair, Sandy Cha at scmumper@gmail.com. A copy of the Community Service presentation can be viewed at Community Service recap.pptx 

2021-22 International Service Committee Recap: International Service Chair, Julie Jenkins told us that the International Service Committee chose the following pro-grams to fund this year: Home for Aids Orphans, Whisper & Thunder, Lords Meade, Grace Center, Kristina Health Clinic, Saving Little Hearts in Romania, Oxygen Gener-ating Systems to India, Pace Universal and Shelter Box. Julie thanked Nancy McKarney for putting together the slide show that highlights the many accomplish-ments of the International Service Committee. The slide show can be seen at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/emjhoy3seskivmq/JuliesPresentation.pptx?dl=0 

Is there any doubt we are People of Action??? 

Youth Services Chair, Cynthia Woodruff-Neer gave a quick recap of what Youth Services accomplished this

year. Interact raised $6,000 and made donations to numerous programs such as Doctors Without Borders,

American Cancer Society and Ukranian relief. The 4-Way Test was expanded this year to include the high school. The 1st place essay winners at each level went on to the District level and were awarded 3rd place. W sent 7 students to RYLA this year. Books were donated to all 3rd grade and 5th grade students this year. A summer Volleyball Camp is being set up with high school students doing the coaching thanks to funding from our club.

Scholarship Winners: There were 57 graduates from CUHS and Leffingwell this year and 54 applied for schol- arships. 36 from CUHS and 10 from Leffingwell applied for Rotary scholarships. Donna Crocker, Paula Porter and Cynthia reviewed the applications and, based on their academics, extracurricular, essays and interviews, selected 10 students to receive $1,000 scholarships and 3 students to receive $1,100 Service Above Self Schol- arships in honor of Sue Oberholtzer.

Alexandra Aguilar will be attending Cal Poly majoring in Political Science with the goal of becoming a Public De- fender.

Emmy Johnson will be attending Santa Barbara Community College majoring in Biology and hopes to become teacher.

Marlem Cambron will be attending cooking school with the goal of becoming a chef in one of Cambria’s resta rants.

Alexander Mercado was accepted at Cal Poly where he will be majoring in Civil Engineering.

Emiliano Pena will also be attending Cal Poly majoring in Aerospace Engineering.

Shaidy Placencia is headed to UC Davis to study Neuroscience.

Isabella Weaver will be at UCSD studying Political Science with a possible minor in Creative Writing.

Sue O. Service Above Self Scholarships were awarded to:

Jannah Al Defaaei who will be attending UC Davis majoring in Applied Chemistry.

Jonathan Cleave will be studying Business at Cal Poly.

Lisi Happel with be working towards becoming a doctor after majoring in Chemistry at UC Berkley. Congratulations to all!

Janet Meyers explained that today was “Senior Ditch Day” so the students were unable to attend

to read their essays. However, their essays are attached to the email with this newsletter. Janet did read the guidelines for the essay as presented by their teacher:

Using your open-ended questions, your research and the power of inquiry from last week’s unit, develop an ess on the topic of “Peace”.

How can the power of peace help us channel our moral fury in constructive ways? Discuss this excerpt from The

Art of Waging Peace:

“When people tell us about a truly unjust problem they are having, the moral fury within us can erupt like a bur ing flame. A flame is calm, but it is also intense. It is soothing, but also fierce. The flame of moral fury can be calm and soothing to those treated unjustly, while intensely and fiercely opposing the forces of injustice”. 

Moral fury is an emotion, and people with empathy and conscience often instinctually feel this emotion when they witness injustice. This is a good thing. But moral fury is not a strategy. It is not a plan or roadmap for over coming the root causes of injustice. When people criticize activists for being outragted by injustice and trying to solve problems with emotions rather than reason, we should keep in mind that feeling moral fury about injustic is not the problem, and the world would be better off if more people felt outraged by the injustices that so man ignore. Instead, the problem is when people mistake the emotion of moral fury for a strategy. Moral fury is fue that can propel a strategy toward practical solutions for reducing and ending injustice.

Peace is not the absence of war but is a state of mind: individual or collective, peace is social, cultural, political, and economic harmony, Peace can also be seen as a way of being and a way of living. Intellectual dialogue should be among civilizations and should empower the youth of today. Therefore, use the prompt(s) below and support your ideas with concrete proposals to the questions at hand. But also recognize the number of existing obstacles for the realization of a true culture of peace.

In this essay, you will develop the following open-ended questions:

1. What does the word “peace” mean to you and how does one promote peace in one’s community?
2. Do you think humans are naturally peaceful? Why or why not?

1. How can the power of peace help us channel our moral fury in constructive ways?
2. How can you promote peace within your community?

Mark Ober told us that it was his privilege to work on

the 4-Way Test Essay project. He thanked Whit Donaldson,

Middle School Language Arts teacher and

Laura Weaver, CUHS English teacher for encouraging

their students to participate. This was the first year

that the high school participated and, even though it

was a voluntary assignment, 18 students participated.

He also thanked Donna and Julian Crocker, Lorienne

Schwenk and Nancy McKarney for reading all 43 essays

and selecting the 6 winners. It was not an easy

task! The students had to expose themselves by telling

about mistakes they have made and how they

might have done things differently had they known

abut and followed the 4-Way Test. Each student did a

commendable job. When the students were reading their essays, you could hear a pin drop in the room.

These kids sure made us proud.

The winners from the Middle School were: Kevin Merced, 3rd place; Weston Gustafson, 2nd place and,

Dereck Quintero, 1st place. At the high school, the winning essays were Ethan Wade, 11th grade, 3rd

place; Shanyra Cardenas, 11th grade, 2nd place andSean Schalk, 9th grade, 1st place. Ethan Wade was unable to attend because he was at RYLA

Janet Meyers told us that we were here to celebrate Suzette

Morrow, art teacher at Santa Lucia Middle School and Coast

Union High School. Suzette holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s

degree in Fine Arts and has been teaching for 30 years.

Suzette told us that students 10-18 years old in her art classes

participated in the project. As part of the curriculum, they discussed

what peace is and what peace means to them. Students

were then asked to design a picket with that in mind.

Some chose to design their pickets with scenes that they see as

peaceful while others used animals to show how different species

get along.

Suzette thanked Rotary for the opportunity to participate in

this project saying that Rotary has contributed more to the student’s

education by getting them engaged in school and creating

a culture for our school and community.

Paula Porter, on behalf of the Peace Builders Committee presented Suzette with a

certificate of appreciation and announced that the committee made a gift to the

Rotary Foundation in her name and presented her with a Paul Harris pin.

Mark your calendars: We will be honoring and congratulating the students for their

outstanding work promoting art and expressions of positivity and celebrating art

teacher, Suzette for her outstanding lesson plan and guidance at a Peace Picket

Kickoff Celebration on Saturday, April 9 from 11 to 1 at the Cambria Historical Museum.

Suzette told is that the students and their parents are really excited about

this since they have not had a public showing or their artwork for a couple of years

due to COVID.

Paula also told us that the Peace Pole on the stage is from their home and, if you are interested, you

can purchase one online at PeacePoleProject.org.

Thanks to Suzette for what most of us thought was one of the best presentations we have had in a long

time. And thanks to the Peace Builder’s Committee for a project that is getting tons of attention all

around town and beyond.

Pres. Patty told us that she sat with Heide for about 3 hours putting together the slide show and she learned so much about this amazing woman. Some words come to mind: resilience, creativity, determination, curiosity. 

Heide told us that her family was from Berlin and had to escape during the Russian invasion when their home was destroyed. Heide’s mom took her older sister Hel-ga (14 years older than Heide) and sister Doris (10 years older) to Marienbad, a town on the border of the Czech Republic and Germany where, shortly after, Heide was born. Heide’s mom was dealing with health issues at the time so older sister Helga basically raised Heide. 

When she was 4, her family returned to Berlin to reunite with her father. He was an amazing man who served in WWI where he was shot 8 times and was exposed to mustard gas. They lived in a small town where her dad was in charge of a camp for Russian soldiers. At the time, there were only women in town because the men were off fighting so the fields could not be planted. He had the Russian soldiers plant the fields so the women would have food, which they shared with the soldiers. He also used to ride around on his bike collecting pinecones from which he collected the seeds so the forest could be replanted. He also collected apples and pears during the summer, had them made into juice so children would have access to fruit in the winter. 

Sadly, when Heide was 10, her dad passed away leaving her heartbroken. To help her take her mind off the loss of her father, she was sent, by train, to school in Sweden where she got to see the Alps and experience live in another country. When she was 12, she returned home and the family relocated to the larger town of Hano-ver where Heide could receive a better education, learning both English and French. To help with expenses at the time, her mother would rent out rooms in their house to students from Turkey. One of the students was a boy named Engin. After he returned to Turkey, he sent a letter to Heide and her mom inviting them to visit he and his family in Turkey. Engin came from a large family who had a beautiful home and a large ranch. Heide and her mom were treated like family while they were there and 4 years later, she and Engin married. They moved to Munich where Heide was first exposed to computers. She read about classes being offered and read-ily took them and became quite good at computer programming. Engin always dreamed of moving to the Unit-ed States. At the time, the wait for a German to immigrate was years. However, since Heide was born in Mari-enbad which at that time was part of Czechoslovakia, she was considered Czechoslovakian and was issued a visa. After spending some time in Rochester, NY, Heide finally came to California. 

Thanks for a very interesting presentation, Heide. We look forward to hearing more about your amazing life.