"Creating Harmony Through Rotary," Kristine Redko, District Governor
On October 9, 2025 Sunrise Rotary was pleased to host Kristine Redko, District Governor for Rotary District 5130. Kristine has been a Rotarian since 2007, when she co-founded the Rancho Cotati club. She’s held a number of positions in that club, including twice as president. She also helped found the Rotary Club of Sonoma Mountain Twilight. She is a Client Account Executive with Ministry Brands and holds degrees from Georgetown and Johns Hopkins. She is the mother of 15 year old twins, has been married to Dr. Peter Redko for 24 years, and is the lead singer for The Pickled Beets!
District 5130’s theme this year is “Rotary: The Music in our Hearts.” Music plays a huge part in her life. She started her presentation by asking us to think about what our own personal walk-up song is and how it makes us feel. Her question is: “Does Rotary ignite the same passion in you?” She suggested that if Rotary no longer ignites that passion we should consider how to change that. She asked us what keeps us coming to our Rotary meetings. Our overall response was friendship and fellowship. Kristine is an advocate for setting goals and recording them in Rotary Central. She spoke about our club’s goals and suggested that we could try to increase active participation by members by setting a goal for the number or percentage of members who work in at least one key activity. She also suggested goals for increased financial participation (automatic monthly withdrawals work great!) and membership, and strategic planning. One interesting idea is to create a satellite club in Roseland, an idea that is in the works at the District level.
District 5130 has 6 priority goals; (1) building better friendships, (2) providing mental health resources to our communities, (3) understanding and preventing human trafficking, (4) protecting the environment, (5) working together in harmony to make our world a better place, and (6) focusing on youth. Another key goal is to increase membership. Kristine believes that the quality of the Rotary experience is key, so increasing membership by 2-3 people per year is a reasonable goal. One idea is the “Spirits of Rotary.” We can each call or text 1-3 past members and try to reestablish a relationship with them.
In discussing how to combat human trafficking, Kristine mentioned that the best way to protect minors from trafficking is to teach them how to protect themselves. The Rotary Action Group Against Slavery (RAGAS) is working to help educate people about the risks of trafficking. RAGAS publishes an awareness program designed to teach youth about trafficking and is available on the RAGAS website. The Polly Klass Foundation is another valuable resource; it provides a 1-hour youth-based training program. A new idea for fighting food insecurity is called “A Simple Gesture.” The idea is to hang flyers on residential doors asking folks to leave a bag of groceries on the doorstep. Rotarians and others pick up the bags and take them to food pantries. Rotarians are tasked with running the events and managing the drivers’ program. This project is supported by Rotary International and Redwood Credit Union. Kristine cited NorCalMentalHealth.Org for information on local mental health resources. She also mentioned the District 5130 Film Series, including “Climate Stories” and “Soldiers of Song”.
