Retired Navy Captain Brett Crozier appears to be a man who stands by the choices he made in 2020 to protect his sailors, even though those decisions led to the end of his military career. He was fully aware of the potential repercussions when he sent an email from Guam in March 2020 to higher authorities while commanding the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which was grappling with COVID-19.
In that message, he urged Navy leadership to expedite efforts to evacuate his sailors during the early and uncertain stages of the pandemic. We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die, Crozier emphasized in his correspondence. If we do not act now, we are failing our most valuable asset—our Sailors.
Following the leak of his letter to the press, Crozier accepted his dismissal in April 2020, despite a surge of public support for his concerns that prompted quicker action from the Navy, resulting in accommodations for nearly all 5,000 sailors aboard TR who were stranded on a Pacific island.
Just months after losing his position, Crozier witnessed a significant achievement: from a paddleboard near San Diego, he saw the Theodore Roosevelt and almost all its crew return home safely after their so-called COVID cruise.
Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Garrett Building, Brookwood Ave Entrance, Santa Rosa
Tickets $20 each — No cost to Veterans
Rotary and Kiwanis members are encouraged to host a veteran.
Members should contact your club representative for tickets.
Veterans may contact any Santa Rosa Rotary or Kiwanis Club to obtain tickets.
Our speaker for October 31, 2024, was Brett Gripe, a historical docent for the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery. Brett was educated at Montgomery H.S., SRJC, and Sonoma State University. He worked in city government for 3 different cities and is now “retired.” In addition to his work for the cemetery, he teaches for SRJC and runs a small property management business. Brett is a big history buff, which he demonstrated throughout his talk!
The SRRC was first used as a burial ground in 1854 when Thompson Mize drowned in a creek in Santa Rosa and was buried on the hillside that later became the cemetery. More Santa Rosans were buried on the hillside and it eventually became an official cemetery. The cemetery is 17 acres, with 4 separate sections, each named after the undertaker that used the section. About 5,000 people are buried there. In addition to the rural cemetery, the area includes the Oddfellows Cemetery and Santa Rosa Memorial Park. By the 1950’s, the rural cemetery was in terrible shape and almost overgrown with weeds. Voluntary associations started improving the cemetery and it was taken over by the city and made a public park in 1979. Volunteers like Brett almost completely maintain the cemetery. Docents lead a variety of tours at the cemetery, including a general history tour, veteran tour, McDonald Avenue tour, and a nighttime lamplighter tour.
Brett told us some great stories about several inhabitants of the cemetery. Mark McDonald was a rich guy who owned the now famous McDonald Mansion in Santa Rosa. He had a fruit business and planted fruit trees throughout the area. He brought in trains to move the fruit to the markets in San Francisco and elsewhere. He build the lake at Howarth Park, which he named after his wife, Ralphine. He also told us about the famous 1920 lynching of 3 San Francisco Howard Street gang members. The gangsters fled the San Francisco authorities and tried to hide in Santa Rosa. The gangsters murdered the Santa Rosa Sheriff and two S.F. detectives when they attempted to arrest them. Santa Rosa vigilantes lynched the 3 gangsters from a limb on a Black Locust tree at the cemetery! About 2 years ago they discovered that one of the gangsters had been buried at the cemetery.
Thank you, Brett, for the wonderful presentation. We hope you’ll keep up the great work of maintaining and promoting this valuable cemetery, a window into the early history of Santa Rosa.
Click HERE to view a limited time recording of Brett's tales from the cemetery.
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!
It was a typical noisy Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ home, and Dad was having trouble following the conversations. He kept jumping in with off-topic comments and asking for things to be repeated. I finally told him he needed to get a hearing aid.
Looking at me as if I were crazy, he said, “What would I do with a hand grenade?”
One of Rotary’s greatest strengths is the ability of our members to come together to create lasting change, and The Rotary Foundation helps us transform dreams of change into reality.
From eradicating polio to building peace, much of the work we do around the world would not be possible without our continued support of our Foundation.
The cause of peace is especially important to me, and one of the most effective ways we build peace is our Rotary Peace Fellowship — a product of The Rotary Foundation. The program helps current and aspiring peace and development professionals around the world learn how to prevent and how to end conflict.
Thanks to a $15.5 million gift from the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, we can continue supporting peacebuilders in more regions with the next Rotary Peace Center, at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.
Opening yet another peace center is a monumental achievement that we will celebrate at the 2025 Rotary Presidential Peace Conference in Istanbul.
The three-day conference 20-22 February will highlight the many ways our family of Rotary advocates for peace. Keynote speakers, panel discussions, and breakout sessions will allow us to share ideas about building peace and foster meaningful conversations about promoting peace everywhere.
Registration for the Presidential Peace Conference is open. I hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it, our Foundation offers so many ways to change the world for the better. November is Rotary Foundation Month, a great time to get to know your Foundation better and pursue causes that appeal to you.
Global grants support large international activities with sustainable, measurable outcomes in Rotary’s areas of focus. By working together to respond to pressing community needs, clubs and districts strengthen their global partnerships.
District grants fund small-scale, short-term activities that address needs in your community and in communities abroad. Each district chooses which activities it will fund with these grants.
Our Foundation can even help you support our wonderful youth programs, including Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and Interact.
Your gifts to our Foundation also make Programs of Scale possible. These are long-term projects that seek to solve otherwise intractable problems.
To ensure these good works continue beyond our lifetimes, it is up to us to reach our ambitious Rotary Endowment goal of $2.025 billion by 30 June 2025.
TheMagic of Rotary does not appear out of nowhere. We create the magic with every new member inducted, every project completed, and every dollar donated to our Foundation.
Please join me in supporting The Rotary Foundation, and together, we will change the world for the better.
You can find all prior "RI President's Messages" at this LINK
There are as many reasons to join Rotary as there are members. Most join for experiences — new friendships, expanding professional circles, or putting Service Above Self into action to create impact.
Rotary delivers on all of these, often simultaneously. Through our Rotary Foundation, Rotary also has a knack for offering unexpected experiences and new opportunities that open doors and change lives.
I learned this firsthand at age 30 when I served as president of the Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama. That year, my wife and I sought out the chance to try something new: attending the 1985 Rotary International Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. There, we witnessed the dawn of PolioPlus and met members from different backgrounds, realizing we were part of a global family.
Later that year, I learned that a Rotary Group Study Exchange team from Nigeria was scheduled to visit Alabama, but Decatur was not on the agenda. After making a few calls, we soon welcomed the Nigerian team into our home. It was an incredible and unexpected experience.
Before the group departed, the team leader recommended me to lead the six-member team from Alabama that would visit Nigeria the following year, which I did. There, I met people whose lives had been impacted by polio, including several family members of our hosts. I learned that polio reaches its victims across borders, economies, and religions.
That Foundation program — Group Study Exchange — opened my eyes to what Rotary is and what it can do. Taking part in the exchange set me on a path for new friendships and opportunities to serve on multiple continents.
Just as The Rotary Foundation has enriched my Rotary life, it can do the same for you. This month, during Rotary Foundation Month, I invite you to explore new Foundation experiences.
Look for ways you and your club can support Foundation-led efforts like polio eradication, disaster response, or the Rotary Peace Centers. Get involved in global grant or district grant projects. And if you have never had the experience of giving to our Foundation, I invite you to join other Rotary members as a Foundation donor. Your support will mean the world to both Rotary members who want to help and to the individuals and communities who need it.
The Rotary Foundation is not a place or a building. It is an experience, one that lives in our hearts and hands as we do good in the world. The Rotary Foundation is all of us.
You can find all prior "Messages from the Foundation Trustee Chair" at this LINK
Rotary Foundation receives highest rating from Charity Navigator for 16th consecutive year
By Rotary International
For the 16th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.
The Foundation earned the recognition for adhering to sector best practices and executing its mission in a financially efficient way, demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency.
“We are delighted to provide the Rotary Foundation with third-party accreditation that validates their operational excellence,” said Michael Thatcher, president and CEO of Charity Navigator. “The Four-Star Rating is the highest possible rating an organization can achieve. We are eager to see the good work that the Rotary Foundation is able to accomplish in the years ahead.”
Charity Navigator analyzes nonprofit performance based on four key indicators, referred to as beacons. Currently, nonprofits can earn scores for the impact and results, accountability and finance, culture and communities, and leadership and adaptability.
Charity Navigator is the largest and most utilized independent charity evaluator in the U.S. Since 2001, the organization has been an unbiased and trusted source of information for more than 11 million donors annually.
— Oct 2024
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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