Robert founded The Geek Squad in 1994 with $200, along with a crazy idea and a love for all things technical. In 2002, The Geek Squad joined forces with Best Buy and grew the business to become the largest tech support company in the world, with over 24,000 agents. After 10 years as Best Buy CTO, he moved to San Francisco with his family. In 2017, he and his family became full-time residents of Sonoma County. He will share his excitement for why he thinks the North Bay is the place to be in the Bay area, along with his intensions to start another business here.
Our Speaker for Thursday, April 4, 2019 was Iona Heacock, Executive Director of the North Coast Resource Conservation and Development Council (NCRC&DC), a grass roots non-profit organization whose mission is to perform environmental educational and action with youth and the community. NCRC&DC is a small organization with 3 employees, a $60,000 budget, and lots of amazing projects and programs. They developed the composting program at Steele Lane School (Vicki’s Garden). They work with 30 schools on composting projects and have helped at least 10 schools become “zero waste.” They’ve worked with students helping Paradise Ridge design habitat on property after the fire, a farmer in Bodega (water conservation), fire resiliency in Willits, and are in the process of working with their new community in the Moreland Avenue area of Santa Rosa. NCRC&DC’s key areas of focus include pollinator diversification, water conservation, sustainability, habitat restoration, and education of children about all these issues. Their programs include the Compost Club, Bee Patches, Rain Catchers, Cultivation Commerce, and Worm Wizards! Thank you, Iona, for the great presentation and for the fantastic work you are doing.
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, as well as Club Public Relations-Image Director 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!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
If my pen doesn't run out of ink before recording this story, it will be a miracle! A week full of fulfilling activity, recognitions and inspiration: Hold on, scroll down > > >
Above, the 49'er spirit to Go For It, Eureka inspired by Past President Harry Coffey's rallying headgear gave me a real push forward, needed for the upcoming offensive action.
The Magnificent Seven poised at the weekend District Training Assembly. Photographer Jim Gray missed his mug, but gave his voice liberally, wisely keeping us on track.
Rubbing elbows with his upcoming Presidents, Marty Behr mingles briefly as his year rapidly approaches!
President Elect Nominee Jen Adams dazzled four clubs with her poster promoting Sunrise' Action and Engagement at Steele Lane School.
From Sunday's Press Democrat, five elsie Allen High School students were recognized as Sonoma County Youth Service Award Winners! Three, including Trinity Laney, Interact President for Community Action, Jaden Kegney for Environmental Science and Elena Wilson for Health Science. 10 students from each category will be awarded $1,000 scholarships at a dinner honoring all recipients. Sunrise Interact Advisor Merle Hayes and Faculty Advisor Doug Gibson may be contacted for further details. Your support of Sunrise helps these exceptional students gain confidence and inspiration to guide their achievements.
Our members didn't skip a beat either, investing 20 Rotary hours of power and (semi) skill in assembling and stacking ove a ton of food at the Redwood Empire Food Bank.
Del labels at laser speed and Don tapes like a rocket-bot!
The Food Line must roll on!!
Evan, Owen and Cielo from Elsie Allen Interact help ready Vicki's Garden for it's next season of crops, and students!
And last, but far from least engineers Leroy Golden Hammer Carlenzoli and Jim, Tall Dude Moir assemble planters for a new host of resident plants.
And that fellow Rotarians and friends is how we work together, earn and express our brand People of Action!
Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, a woman dies from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. And babies whose mothers die within the first six weeks of their lives are far more likely to die themselves than babies whose mothers survive. As I've traveled around the world as president of Rotary, I've met families for whom these aren't simply tragic statistics. But I've also met people who are devoting themselves to helping mothers and children — and because of them, I'm hopeful. And because many of those people are Rotarians, I'm also proud. April is Maternal and Child Health Month in Rotary, so it's a perfect time to tell you about some things Rotarians are doing that will make you proud too.
Last fall, I paid a visit to a hospital in the town of Jekabpils, in Latvia. It's a modern hospital, and the doctors and nurses there are caring, dedicated, and skilled. But despite all their hard work, the maternal mortality rate at the hospital had remained stubbornly high, due to a factor that was beyond their control: a lack of vital diagnostic equipment and even basic items like incubators.
And that's where Rotary came in. Twenty-one clubs from around the world joined forces for a global grant that provided what the hospital required. And in September, when I walked into the maternity ward there, I saw state-of-the-art equipment, and I met patients who were getting the care that they needed — and that every mother and child in the world deserves to have.
In Brazil, club members worked with fellow Rotarians in Japan on a global grant project that dramatically increased the capacity of an overstretched neonatal intensive care unit. New incubators, monitors, and other equipment have enabled the local hospital to save many more babies' lives each year.
And in Mongolia, a vocational training team from New Zealand organized instruction in emergency response techniques for doctors and midwives, set up a program that taught midwives modern best practices, and researched and wrote a culturally relevant childbirth education manual. Between 2013, when the team first went to Mongolia, and 2017, the neonatal mortality rate in the country fell from 11.2 to 9.1 per 1,000 births, and the maternal mortality rate has decreased as well.
That's what I mean when I talk about transformational service, and it's what Rotarians do best. Because of our networks, which span the globe; our community presence, which allows us to see what's most needed; and our expertise, which encompasses countless skills and professions, we're able to serve in a manner that has no equal. And we're able to Be the Inspiration as we help those who need us most.
When Dianne Moore read an article about how expensive hockey and swimming lessons were for kids in Toronto, she knew exactly what to do.
“I thought, ‘Pingpong is not expensive,’” recalls Moore, a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto Bay-Bloor. “So I took my idea to Toronto Parks and Recreation, and I said, ‘What about having outdoor pingpong tables in parks?’ They said, ‘That’s a great idea. Go for it.’”
Pingpong tables have caught on from Canada to France to Pakistan.
Photo by City of Windsor
Having grown up playing the game with her dad nearly every day, she knew it was a fun, physical activity that didn’t require a lot of costly equipment.
The concrete tabletops are set on four large, ball-shaped legs, a clear invitation to play. Each 2-ton table is equipped with a permanent steel “net,” so players need to bring only paddles and balls.
The first table was installed in 2013 in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square. Now they number more than 100 throughout Toronto, funded partly through donations and partly by the city. Each costs $3,700 to $4,500, Moore says.
The tables have caught on elsewhere too. For instance, in 2015, the Toronto-Forest Hill club donated two of them to the First Nations community in Cross Lake, Manitoba, a remote area that has been plagued by youth suicide and drug use. And in 2016, the club sent a table to France, where it was installed near a memorial to Canadian soldiers who fought in World War I.
Faiza Arshad Alavi, a member of the Rotary Club of Lahore Crescent, Pakistan, learned about the project and brought the idea to her club. She hoped to encourage children to engage in physical activity and thought the tables, designed to endure the extreme cold of Canadian winters, would also withstand Pakistan’s heat. In Lahore, she says, summer temperatures can soar to 114 degrees Fahrenheit.
The first of four tables manufactured in Lahore was installed in February 2017 at Friends Public School. The club planned to identify more sites in the future.
Moore knew the pingpong tables would provide enjoyment for Torontonians. Now that vision has expanded around the world. “It’s for people of all ages — children, adults, it doesn’t matter,” she says. “It’s just to have fun.”
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