Jennifer Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Hawkins International PR
Jennifer Hawkins is Founder and CEO of Hawkins International PR, an award-winning, bi-coastal agency headquartered in Manhattan, and a recognized leader and global player in public relations, communications and digital strategy for luxury travel, hospitality and lifestyles brands. Since launching Hawkins International in 2002, Jennifer has grown the firm’s global portfolio to 60+ clients ranging from iconic independent properties and travel operators to major hospitality groups. Along the way, she has developed enviable connections and maintained rewarding relationships across print, broadcast and digital media and the industries they service. Jennifer’s combined passion for media, entrepreneurship and travel – she has visited more than 50 countries on 6 continents – continue to drive the firm and its affiliate agency Maverick Communications, which was spun off in 2019. Hawkins International earned a 5-Star ranking as one of America’s Best PR Agencies in 2021 from Forbes, and Jennifer was recently named as one of the Top Women in PR, Entrepreneurs 2021 by PRNEWS. Visit their website HERE.
Our speaker for September 16, 2021, was Tawny Tesconi, Executive Director of Sonoma County Farm Bureau. Tawny joined the Farm Bureau in 2017. Prior to working with the Farm Bureau, Tawny worked for 30 years in fair management and public service, including serving as Director of General Services of Sonoma County. Tawny is the owner and operator of Tesconi Event and Management Solutions. She is a Sonoma County native, was raised on a West County family farm, and has had a life-long interest in agriculture. She is also a member and past president of the Petaluma Rotary Club.
Tawny’s program was “Agriculture in Sonoma County.” The Sonoma County Farm Bureau is 104 years old and one of the oldest non-profits in Sonoma County. The Farm Bureau includes the America Farm Bureau with 50 members, the California Farm Bureau whose members are each of the counties in California, and the various local bureaus. The Farm Bureaus’ main focus is advocating for agriculture, including lobbying, protecting landowner rights, and coming out against taxes and regulations or ordinances that harm agriculture. The Farm Bureau also actively promotes agriculture, including educating children with, for example, Farm Days at the Sonoma County Fair.
Agriculture is one of the leading industries in Sonoma County, with a total production of $958.5 million (2019). In California, agriculture is a $54 billion dollar year industry annually. California ranks number one in the country in agricultural production. If Sonoma County were a state, it would be ranked the 12th largest agricultural producing state in the United States!! Sonoma County produces 40 different crops recognized in our crop report (compare with Napa, that has only 1).Agriculture has a number of significant problems. Overall, farmers receive only 8 cents of every dollar spent on food. Farmers are an aging group with an average age of 61. The world needs to increase agricultural production by 70% to feed the expected population of 2050 but land is at a premium and available farmland is steadily decreasing. Agriculture needs an influx of technology including increased access to broadband. Agriculture also faces significant labor problems, including the need to revise our immigration laws to increase access to foreign workers. In Sonoma County, the availability of water and the prevalence of wildfire are also significant threats to agriculture.
Sonoma County is ground zero for organic farming, especially in the dairy farm industry. However, the enforcement of organic regulations is often lax. For example, the requirement for organic dairies is that a cow has to be able to go into pasture and eat grass for 120 days per year. Dairies with 10,000 cows are unlikely to be able to find enough pasture for those cows, but they nevertheless label their milk as organic. This represents a significant threat to Sonoma County dairies.
Thank you, Tawny for your marvelous and informative presentation. And thank you for advocation for agriculture in Sonoma County!
View Tawny's presentation HERE. It will be available for the next week.
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits 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!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
Are you familiar with angel numbers? If not, they are pure magic. There is a belief that angels communicate with us using numbers and music. This week, I’m focusing on the ultimate angel number: 11:11. Does this number appear regularly in your life? If so, it could mean that you are open to spiritual guidance and self-discovery. 11:11 is a powerful “call to consciousness.” And it also means your angels are protecting you and trying to provide guidance.
When 11:11 appears, it is also an opportunity to express your deepest desires to the Universe. This porthole of time is your prime opportunity to manifest. Your desires will more likely become a reality when 11:11 is involved.
One of my favorite stories about 11:11 involves another Rotarian. We just completed a service project at a Golden Hammer property, and we decided to enjoy a cup of coffee at Starbucks. We were exchanging photographs of our recent travels. Upon viewing a picture of a very fancy toilet from Bali, the clock turned to 11:11.
We both stopped what we were doing and exclaimed, “11:11!!!!!!” Two people vastly different in age and backgrounds connected with 11:11 and a fancy Asian toilet… Can you guess the Rotarian? Do you have an inspiring 11:11 story you want to share with the group?
Mark your calendar for the Greatest Guest Day on September 30th.
Dear Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotarians & Friends,
Our September 30th regular meeting will be a Greatest Guest Day, where we encourage you to invite guests to the meeting. Our guest speaker will be Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotary Club member Scott Holder. Prior to Scott's presentation we will show the video about our Rotary Club. We will start the presentation a few minutes early to allow plenty of time for Scott's presentation and questions and answers.
Scott's talk is about his experience of climbing the highest peak on all seven continents. He was able to complete six of seven climbs, but due to circumstances beyond his control he was unable to complete his climb of Mount Everest. The lessons Scott learned while traveling the world on this mission have served him well in business and his personal life.
The meeting will be a hybrid meeting. We can accommodate up to 40 individuals at the meeting if you chose to join the live presentation. If not you can join by Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/i/658267980 .
So, mark you calendar and share this email with friends and family and please join us to hear Scott's presentation of "Lessons Learned from the Mountains of the World".
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
Here in the northern hemisphere, we are about to experience the subtle changes from summer to early Fall, also known as Autumn. Not as striking as our neighbors on the Eastern Seaboard regarding color change, we still have the harvest season upon us, wineries busy, early shopping for gifts to avoid the frantic rush, thoughts of how the previous nine months settled.
One of my favorite seasons, the other being Spring, where our world wakes up from the Winter slumber. We are so fortunate to live in an area blessed with four distinctive seasons.
As a celebration of this change, I have lined up some of the more popular songs associated with the Autumnal transition, Nat King Cole, Neil Young, Earth, Wind and Fire, Willie Nelson, Jose Feliciano, Roy Orbison and a host of others.
The holidays are about to fall forth…preparing ourselves by checking around our homes, and dusting off the decorations, the last quarter of every year just seems to whizz by…Be safe whenever you’re gathering amongst others…Life is Precious!
A man wrote a letter to a small hotel in a Midwest town he planned to visit on his vacation. He wrote this short letter:
"I would very much like to bring my dog with me. He is well-groomed and very well behaved. Would you be willing to permit me to keep him in my room with me at night?"
An immediate reply came back from the hotel owner, who wrote:
"Dear Sir ...I've been operating this hotel for many years now, and in all that time, I've never had a dog steal towels, bedclothes, silverware or pictures off the walls. I've never had to evict a dog in the middle of the night for being drunk and disorderly, and I've never had a dog run out on a hotel bill.
Yes indeed, your dog is very welcome at my hotel and if your dog will vouch for you, you're welcome to stay here, too."
African region marks one year since being certified wild polio-free
by Ryan Hyland
Rotary joined its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to mark the first anniversary of a historic public health milestone: the World Health Organization’s African region being certified free of wild polio.
The anniversary was celebrated on 25 August during a WHO Regional Committee for Africa meeting, which also addressed current challenges to eradicating polio and new tactics to achieve a polio-free world.
Africa’s milestone has already benefited children’s health and public health across the continent. The infrastructure and innovations that helped the African region become free of wild polio are playing an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic response and are available to use in future public health emergencies. Polio workers also now conduct other routine immunizations, deliver medicines, and provide other health care services.
The achievement in Africa is the result of a decades-long effort by millions of Rotary members, health workers, government officials, religious leaders, and parents. Since 1996, when wild polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children across Africa, health workers have administered more than 9 billion doses of oral vaccine, preventing 1.8 million wild polio cases.
Rotary members have contributed nearly $920 million toward eradicating the virus in the region, advocated for support from their governments, mobilized communities around National Immunization Days, and conducted events to raise funds and public awareness.
Five of the WHO’s six regions, representing more than 90% of the world’s population, are now free of the wild poliovirus.
Africa’s success in eliminating wild polio proves that the virus can be eliminated under complex circumstances and provides a blueprint for eradicating wild polio in the last two countries where it’s endemic: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee, says the certification of the African region is a monumental public health achievement, but the ultimate goal of global eradication remains.
“Our job is not done,” says Funsho, a member of the Rotary Club of Lekki Phase 1, Nigeria. “Africa still has a vital role to play in ending polio globally and must continue to reach children everywhere with polio vaccines.”
“We also face a final hurdle in ridding Africa of all forms of polio,” he adds, citing outbreaks of the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) variant. These outbreaks, he says, “continue to harm under-immunized communities across the region and paralyze children.”
Health officials confirmed 609 cases of cVDPV2 across 20 countries in Africa in 2020, a sharp increase from a year earlier. One factor in the increase in polio transmission was the unprecedented pause in polio vaccination campaigns from March through July 2020 in more than 30 countries in order to protect communities from COVID-19. According to the WHO and UNICEF, 23 million children missed out on basic vaccines in 2020, including polio vaccinations.
Although the African region’s anniversary is evidence of what can be achieved, the two countries where wild polio remains endemic are evidence that as long as polio exists anywhere, it is a threat everywhere.
The GPEI’s new 2022-26 polio eradication strategy aims to overcome the remaining hurdles and finish the job by introducing innovative tools and tactics to reach more children with vaccines. The strategy includes the broadening distribution of a new vaccine to address outbreaks of cVDPV2. This novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) protects children against polio while being more genetically stable and less likely to regain strength and cause the vaccine-derived polio. It has already been introduced in several African countries, including Benin, Chad, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone.
The new strategy will expand the regional rapid response teams that quickly start work in areas with outbreaks. Health workers will also have more access to electronic surveillance technologies, which expedite the detection of cVDPV2.
The program will broaden an initiative that has helped more than 250,000 health workers access digital payments for their work in as little as two days. And the program calls for digitization with real-time data and automated dashboards that will help health workers plan more effective campaigns.
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