Dianna is a fourth generation Sonoma County resident, having lived 41 years in Santa Rosa and over 50 years in Sonoma County. On Dec. 13, 2022, her council colleagues selected her as Vice Mayor of the City of Santa Rosa for a one-year term. A strong advocate for early childhood education, Council Member MacDonald served as president of the California State PTA (CAPTA) from 2017 to 2019. Her service for the California State PTA included serving as a legislative advocate at the state and federal levels and as Vice President for Education.
Locally, Dianna was a county representative for the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women, a past School Board Trustee and served the California School Boards Association as a Delegate Assembly Member. Dianna has served on the Climate Action and Board of Public Utilities as liaison to the council and as a Board of Director for Zero Waste. She currently serves the City as the Violence Prevention Program Chair, and on the Long Term Finance and Audit Committee
The program for Thursday, May 9, 2024, was a celebration of Sunrise Rotary members’ most memorable travel experiences! President Debra divided us into discussion groups and then asked each group to pick a member whose story was the most memorable.
Dave Lorenzen described Dave and Shauna’s 1984 cruise aboard a 96’ sailboat out of Tortola during which they briefly lived the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Dave recalled having a blast eating with the crew at the end of the trip. Steve Olsen told us about a trip he and Lynn took to England with the Carriage Association of America. Prince Phillip (the Queen’s husband) attended the luncheon. Another director of the Carriage Association in attendance, Vicky, mentioned that when she was a kid her mother told her that if she’s a good girl one day she’ll meet a prince. The actual prince responded: “You must have been a very good girl indeed!”
Mark Campbell talked about a trip in the late 1990’s to Morocco. This was not your standard group trip to Marrakech; this trip included a camel caravan to a remote camp. At one point the travelers and staff held an impromptu musical party in a tent, an unlikely and charming event Mark will never forget! Marty Behr had his own story about a royal trip to London in 2011. He visited a Rotary meeting and sat at a table with two ambassadors and a member of the House of Lords! Prince Phillip also attended. The club sang “Hail to the Queen”, “Happy Birthday” to the Prince, and “Happy Birthday” to Sir Marty! Merle Hayes reflected her group’s general consensus the wherever you go people are anxious to help travelers. She told us that she had a UK pen pal ever since she was 12 years old, Moira. As an adult she visited Moira and spent a week at her home in Worcester. Moira also visited her in California. Harry Coffey told us that his most memorable travels were usually with Rotary groups. A great example is the recent trip several Sunrisers took to Japan. They showed up in a hotel lobby at 9:30 a.m. and our Japanese friends took care of all the rest, including meals and travel arrangements to Hiroshima, Kagoshima, and elsewhere. Carolyn Anderson has traveled in 54 countries, but told us about a trip to China about 15 years ago. She needed to contact her broker several times, and it wasn’t too easy in those days. She often had to wait in line at a bar for one of the only available computers with access. During her travel she came in contact with another group whose travel plans often overlapped with her group’s. She met her husband, George, who was traveling with one of the other groups, while she was trying to get access to a computer! He lived in San Jose and they later met in the middle in Corte Madera. The rest is history! Paul O’Rear told us about a trip he and Penny took (during which they got engaged) to Hong Kong. They wanted to visit someplace exotic, so they elected a river cruise on the Lijiang River in Central China. This spectacular river flows through amazing and picturesque mountains. Paul and Penny also met a couple on that trip who it turned out lived very close to them in Santa Rosa!
Thank you to all the speakers for these amazing stories. As usual, Sunrisers have the most memorable lives (or tell the tallest tales!).
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!
"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
Windsor High School students today, May 13, added their support to peace promotion by dedicating a Peace Pole on campus.
Photo courtesy of Rich's daughter, Rebecca Randolph.
Inspired by the International movement for peace, May Peace Prevail on Earth, founded in Japan 50 years ago, this organization partners with local groups including Rotary and New Gen Peace Builders around the globe.
Sunrise has a history of peace promotion: Past President Mike Kelly with Leroy Carlenzoli designed and built a peace wall, offering a display opportunity of personal peace messages. Jack Strange, another Sunrise Past President coordinated NewGen Peacebuilders and inspired some SRKSEP (Santa Rosa Kagoshima Student Exchange Program) outbound students.
Rotary is a sentinel advocate for internatiocannadian bordernal peace. Have you visited Glacier National Park or Water Lake? An International peace park buffers the USA-Canadian border, established to protect the area's ecology ~ since its founding~ in 1932!
An older man is on a gurney waiting entry to the cardiovascular operating room. He has insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. He is about to receive the anesthesia when he asks to speak to his son.
"Yes, Dad, what is it?"
"Don't be nervous, do your best, and just remember, if it doesn't go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife."
I am deeply gratified by the enthusiasm shown across the world in the past year to better support the mental health needs of each other and the people we serve.
In January 2023 when I first spoke about the need for Rotary to become more engaged on this crisis, I noted that the global mental health system couldn't be described as broken only because it didn't exist. But I also offered a highly aspirational wish that Rotary could help build that system.
The first glimmers of this vision have been brought to light by you in dozens of mental health projects. But just as important is the invitation many of you have given to fellow Rotary members to share their stories.
I am impressed by the leadership young Rotarians and Rotaractors have shown and by the brave, inspiring stories they have shared. Former Rotaractor Freddie Almazan, a survivor of gun violence who refused to give in to despair, has an especially powerful personal narrative that you can hear firsthand at this month's Rotary International Convention in Singapore.
To create lasting change, the work we do needs to have a sustainable impact on the people and communities we serve. One great example of that kind of impact: Rotary clubs in Colorado endowing a pediatric mental health fellowship at Children's Hospital Colorado.
At the convention, you can also hear from 2024 People of Action honorees lauded for the impact they and their clubs have made through mental health initiatives. Bindi Rajasegaran will talk about a Rotary-led project in Malaysia helping children develop skills to cope with mental health challenges and building capacity for support throughout the country.
In addition, Rita Aggarwal, an officer of the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives, will be recognized for her success in applying the Wellness in a Box framework, a mental health literacy approach for adolescents, in her hometown of Nagpur, India. This highly scalable and clinically backed framework can be adapted for use just about anywhere — reach out to the action group if your club would like to support or implement it.
As we look ahead, the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives will play a critical leadership role in promoting proven, measurable projects. In doing so, it will empower clubs to focus on initiatives that drive scalable, sustainable impact.
I invite you to go to the Learning Center on My Rotary and check out the Increase Your Impact series, which includes a wonderful short video explaining impact. When we focus on impact, we bring Rotary's vision statement to life, creating lasting change across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves
You can find all prior "RI President's Messages" at this LINK
There is something magical about Rotary. Even after all these years of being a member, I continue to be amazed by it.
Take successful leaders from various backgrounds and professions and bring them together under a set of core values with service at the center. Add networks and friendship and then watch the magic start happening.
It’s you — Rotarians and Rotaractors — who make that magic happen. You are the business and community leaders and the entrepreneurs who bring your passions, skills, and interests to everything we do. It’s you who think outside of the box and apply what you know to serve others.
I see the same magic in Rotary Foundation grants that are funded by you and led by you.
It’s present in the partnership between Rotary clubs in Canada and Uganda that supports economic and community development vocational training at the same time. This global grant-funded initiative trains Ugandan youths in welding and related skills to make wheelchairs for a children’s home serving people with disabilities. Technicians receive training in Canada and return home with valuable skills to start enterprises, helping meet the need for wheelchairs in the community.
Another global grant-supported project that reflects Rotary’s entrepreneurial spirit is in Guatemala. To address the challenges of limited internet access for rural schools, a host club in Guatemala partnered with Irish members to initiate a project that is equipping six schools and three community centers in the rural Sololá area with plug-and-play servers containing educational materials like books and videos. The grant also furnishes laptops and uninterruptible power supplies and trains teachers, benefiting about 1,800 individuals as it leverages technology for literacy and education.
Don’t forget: Foundation global grants also support scholarships. One such scholarship, sponsored by Italian and German clubs, focuses on artificial intelligence in disease prevention and treatment. Italian scholar Salvatore Galati conducted research at a university in Bonn, Germany, using AI algorithms to analyze vast datasets for innovative drug development. Such computer-aided approaches can reduce costs and research time in the development of lifesaving drugs.
It’s fantastic to see us innovating and incorporating new approaches and technology into our Foundation grants.
I look forward to meeting many of you at the 2024 Rotary International Convention in Singapore in a few short weeks, where we will learn about new opportunities to serve and innovate. It will be a chance to celebrate that Rotary magic and the many ways we Create Hope in the World.
You can find all prior "Messages from the Foundation Trustee Chair" at this LINK
Thousands of Rotary members celebrated the centennial of Rotary in the Netherlands in 2023 in typical Dutch fashion: with a bicycle tour, specifically a yearlong, 3,100-mile journey on an electric cargo bicycle. Cyclists taking turns in the relay-style tour visited most of the roughly 500 clubs in the country. Past RI President Holger Knaack, district governors, and about 1,000 other revelers were on hand for the start of the relay in January at Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. At the end of the ride in December in the province of Zeeland, Rotarians planted trees for a food forest, a type of food cultivation based on woodland ecosystems. “With the electric bike and the forest, we made many people aware of Rotary’s environment area of focus,” says Madelon Schaap, of the Rotary Club of Amsterdam-Zuid, immediate past governor of District 1580. The project made Rotary visible to the public. Schaap adds that “connecting the clubs and unifying them is a great achievement that we did not expect at the beginning.”
Albania
In December the Rotaract Club of Durrës delivered care packages to 30 families in need in the city on the Adriatic coast. Each package was tailored for the recipients, an approach that was important to the project’s success, says Club President Geri Emiri. Rotaractors gathered information on the number of family members, their genders, and their health needs before assembling the packages, which were supplied using monetary and in-kind contributions. The club distributed food packages, along with panettone (a Christmas sweet bread), lemonade, fruit and vegetables, hygiene goods, detergent, children’s books, toys, clothing, household appliances, and furniture. The aid “was modest and does not solve the problems of these families,” Emiri says, “but it aims to strengthen the relationships.”
This story originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary projects make a difference in communities around the world.
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Thousands of Rotary members celebrated the centennial of Rotary in the Netherlands in 2023 in typical Dutch fashion: with a bicycle tour, specifically a yearlong, 3,100-mile journey on an electric cargo bicycle. Cyclists taking turns in the relay-style tour visited most of the roughly 500 clubs in the country. Past RI President Holger Knaack, district governors, and about 1,000 other revelers were on hand for the start of the relay in January at Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. At the end of the ride in December in the province of Zeeland, Rotarians planted trees for a food forest, a type of food cultivation based on woodland ecosystems. “With the electric bike and the forest, we made many people aware of Rotary’s environment area of focus,” says Madelon Schaap, of the Rotary Club of Amsterdam-Zuid, immediate past governor of District 1580. The project made Rotary visible to the public. Schaap adds that “connecting the clubs and unifying them is a great achievement that we did not expect at the beginning.”
In December the Rotaract Club of Durrës delivered care packages to 30 families in need in the city on the Adriatic coast. Each package was tailored for the recipients, an approach that was important to the project’s success, says Club President Geri Emiri. Rotaractors gathered information on the number of family members, their genders, and their health needs before assembling the packages, which were supplied using monetary and in-kind contributions. The club distributed food packages, along with panettone (a Christmas sweet bread), lemonade, fruit and vegetables, hygiene goods, detergent, children’s books, toys, clothing, household appliances, and furniture. The aid “was modest and does not solve the problems of these families,” Emiri says, “but it aims to strengthen the relationships.”