A fifth generation Sonoma County resident, Marrianne McBride, President & CEO of Council on Aging since August 2009, was previously the organizations Development Director with the responsibility of raising up to four million dollars annually. In 2006 and 2007 she put together the strategic plan and led the effort to raise an additional 3.5 million to build the new Meals on Wheels Kitchen. 

Prior to Council on Aging, she was with United Way of Sonoma – Mendocino – Lake serving as Vice President of Resource Development with the responsibility of running a four to five million tri-county annual campaign.  From 1992 – 2001 Marrianne also served as the Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Cloverdale, rebuilding the clubhouse after a 1995 fire and running the capital campaign to add a full size gymnasium.

Marrianne is a 2012 recipient of Northbay Business Journal’s Nonprofit Leadership Award and Council on Aging was chosen by North Bay Biz magazine as the “Best Nonprofit for 2013. In addition to running Council on Aging, with a budget of $5 million and 84 employees, Marrianne is a seated member of Sonoma County Health Action and was chosen as one of a five member team from Sonoma County to the 2014 National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health to create a “Healthy Aging” plan for Sonoma County. Currently, Marrianne serves on the leadership team of Aging Together Sonoma County and Council on Aging is responsible for the implementation of Age Friendly Sonoma County.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pros Warren Smith and Jack Strange submit pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren and Jack! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!

It was long ago, 1875, when Kanaye Nagasawa of Kagoshima, Japan, arrived in Santa Rosa as one of his country’s first-ever visitors to America. 

The young samurai settled at Thomas Lake Harris’ utopian colony at Fountaingrove, and in time oversaw construction of the round barn and became a wine king. 

When the firestorms of last October ravaged Fountaingrove and the round barn, people in Kagoshima sent Santa Rosa more than $75,000 in relief and recovery funds and expressed great sorrow for the city’s losses. 

And just last Friday, the mayor of Kagoshima visited Santa Rosa as head of a delegation of adults and students. They toured what remains of Fountaingrove and nearby Coffey Park and Mark West-Larkfield. 

In the afternoon, the visitors met at City Hall with Mayor Chris Coursey and City Manager Sean McGlynn.  

Both mayors praised the transpacific friendship that over the past 30 years has seen scores of Santa Rosa students visit Kagoshima, and Kagoshima students visit Santa Rosa, through an exchange program sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise. 

A team of Japanese teens followed intently the mayors’ conversation across a table in the City Council chambers. 

Mayor Mori told Coursey his city of 600,000 mourned the deaths and destruction dealt by the fires, and is pleased to see that Santa Rosa is coming back. The two city leaders exchanged gifts and posed for photos. 

For Ray Anthony, it simply doesn’t sit right when winter festivals are held indoors. So when the Rotary Club of Shenendehowa in Clifton Park, New York, was looking for a fundraiser, he told his fellow club members about his time in Alaska in the 1990s. During the long winters there, he says, “there was always an outhouse race” to ease the seasonal doldrums.

The “Poop Happens” team won the race, collecting $500 and a gold-painted toilet seat.

The club embraced his proposal for a commodious competition, and in February it held its second annual outhouse race. Six teams of five competitors propelled their themed wooden outhouses on skis along a 100-yard course. “Pushing and pulling an outhouse on the snow around a cone can be a little more difficult than you think,” Anthony says. The potties – which are unused – are built by the participants; some use $100 kits sold at cost by a Rotarian-owned lumber supplier. There are certain specifications: “You have to have a seat inside with a hole in it. Someone has to sit on the seat. Each house also must include a roll of toilet paper.” Unlike real outhouses, these faux loos have no doors, so the occupant can see where the team is going.

Some 200 spectators lined the town common and cheered entries including the Shrek-themed “Princess Fiona’s Royal Throne,” sponsored by a local insurance company. “The team members all came in costume; one gentleman was juggling toilet plungers,” says Anthony. The fan favorite, “Poop Happens,” was pulled by a squad garbed in shirts and caps featuring the poop emoji. It won the race, collecting $500 and a gold-painted toilet seat. The Southern Saratoga YMCA was No. 2, yet remained flushed with pride over its victory in 2017.

This year’s race raised over $2,000 for the club. Proceeds help provide dictionaries to every third-grader in the area, among other projects. “We have a college scholarship,” Anthony says, “and we also do Ronald McDonald House breakfasts once a month,” cooking and covering the cost of meals for the families of ill children. The Mohawk Towpath Scenic Byway, along the historic Erie Canal, also benefits from the club’s regular restoration work.

Anthony’s garage stores two latrines built to help promote the race, and they’re available for rent on race day in case any teams come unprepared. He’s delighted at the success of the Winter Outhouse Races. “I really appreciate how much fun the people who come out have,” he says. “Our club really gets excited with this one.”

– Brad Webber

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