Our guest speaker for July 30, 2026 was Alex Hailey, President of the Board of Directors of Santa Rosa Women for Good, an organization dedicated to collective giving to Sonoma County charitable organizations. In her spare time, Alex works for Ross Recreation, where she helps design, market, and build playgrounds. Alex also serves on the board of Our Village Closet.

Women for Good was founded in 2022 and currently has 179 members. It is a giving circle, where multiple people come together, pitch in money, and donate those contributions to worthy 501c3 local organizations. The members also socialize at monthly happy hours and casual coffee meetups, as well as at volunteer opportunities and nonprofit gatherings. Women for Good is a great way for women to build friendships, support local causes, and be a part of something meaningful. There are no membership fees, required attendance at meetings or events, or required contributions. And, as membership grows, the money available for donation grows. Since inception, Women for Good has contributed $89,606 to local causes. The process for selecting charities for donation is relatively simple; a member nominates a worthy charity, three finalists are selected, and the members vote on the three finalists. The charities do not have to fill out forms and there is no formal vetting process. Donations are made quarterly and consist of 1 $6,500 impact grant and 2 $1,500 seed grants. Some notable examples of charities which have received donations include Chops, Forgotten Felines, and Ceres.

Beyond grants, Women for Good also “Grows the Good”  by working at the local food bank each quarter, volunteering with Ceres to help prepare meals, launching a back-to-school supply drive for children served by Catholic Charities, and a variety of other local activities. Women for Good provides women a way to aggregate their funds to make more meaningful donations, volunteer on projects, meet people, and establish connections.

Thank you Alex for introducing us to Women for Good and for all the work you do in our community.

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!

Peace does not happen by accident. It must be pursued deliberately, built strategically, and woven intentionally into everything we do. That is the challenge I am placing before the Rotary world this year.

Rotary recognizes peacebuilding as one of our areas of focus. But I believe peace must be more than a category of work we set aside for certain projects. It must become a lens, one we choose to look through every time we plan, every time we serve, every time we ask what kind of impact we truly want to leave behind.

The Institute for Economics and Peace has identified eight Pillars of Positive Peace: well-functioning government, a sound business environment, equitable distribution of resources, acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbors, free flow of information, high levels of human capital, and low levels of corruption. These pillars describe the conditions that make lasting peace possible. And when I look at them carefully, I see enormous potential for Rotary. Not because our work automatically advances peace but because it can when we are deliberate about it.

That is the key word: deliberate.

A water project does not build peace on its own. But a water project designed with the Pillars of Positive Peace in mind — one that asks how equitable access to resources strengthens community trust — can begin to lay that foundation. A vocational training program does not guarantee reconciliation. But one that intentionally brings divided communities together around shared economic opportunity can start to build it. The project does not change. The intention does.

In Colombia, Rotary's Pathways to Peace and Prosperity program shows us what this looks like in practice. Working in communities shaped by decades of armed conflict and displacement, the program combines economic empowerment with conflict resolution training and community-led reconciliation. Peace was not a hoped-for side effect. It was central to the design. That is the standard I am calling all of us to follow.

As you plan your next project, whatever the focus area, I want you to pause and ask one question: How does this create the conditions for peace? Consult the Pillars of Positive Peace. Find where your work connects. Then, make that connection intentional. Share what you discover with your club, your district, and your community. The more we talk about peace as a practice rather than a destination, the more naturally it will shape everything we do.

This is not about doing different work. It is about doing our work differently, with greater awareness, greater purpose, and a clearer vision of the world we are trying to build. Every Rotary project carries potential. Our task is to unlock it, not by chance but by choice.

As I sat beside my father in the hospital, listening to the quiet rhythm of machines that now spoke more steadily than his own voice, life felt stripped down to its essentials. Serious illness has a way of doing that. It reveals what matters most, and it reminds us — sometimes gently, sometimes painfully — of what should matter to all of us.

My father was facing advanced cancer. The path was uneven and often cruel, yet even in that difficult space I was struck by a simple truth: Every person, everywhere, deserves access to care that honors their dignity. Not just treatment but compassion. Not just medicine but the assurance that their life holds value.

Watching nurses move with practiced grace and doctors offer both honesty and hope, I was struck by the thought that millions will never experience this level of support. Not because their lives matter less but because access to care remains uneven across countries and communities. This is not a political argument; it is a human one.

Every family deserves the same chance at healing. Through my years in Rotary, I have come to understand that The Rotary Foundation shows us how this belief is shared across cultures and nations.

At a time when international development funding for disease prevention and treatment is contracting, vital health projects risk losing momentum. Our Foundation — and you, our members — provide the community-driven support needed to keep that from happening.

We are funding vaccines in Pakistan, training health workers in Mozambique, and strengthening fragile health systems in Guatemala. Through the Foundation, international cooperation is not an abstract ideal. It is a responsibility, achievable when people choose to act with generosity, partnership, and shared humanity. I am so proud of our collective leadership.

Sitting there, holding my father’s hand as he drifted in and out of sleep, I was reminded of how fragile and precious life is. The measure of a just world is not found in its wealth or its power but in how fiercely it protects the vulnerable.

My father’s fight was personal; sadly, he died in June. But the fight for equitable, compassionate health care that honors every life equally is universal. It belongs to all of us. Through your generosity and commitment to our Foundation — and through the simple act of caring across borders — we move closer to a world where no one is left behind.