This week’s speaker is Keith Kruetzfeldt, an owner of Suntegrity Solar, a local, family-owned company providing all things solar-related. Keith will provide information on the latest in solar applications, public policy issues regarding solar and current PG&E strategies. Some of the applications Suntegrity designs and installs for clients are residential and commercial solar energy systems, solar pool heating, energy storage, off-grid solar systems and battery back-up systems. Keith has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis. While studying there, Keith assisted in the development of Hybrid Electric Vehicles, working closely with Dr. Andrew Frank, one of the pioneers of the Plug-In Hybrid. Prior to joining Suntegrity Keith was an Engineering Manager with Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies.
Dr. Peter Banks and the International Space Station
Our speaker for Thursday, September 2, 2021, was our own amazing Dr. Peter Banks! His topic was “The International Space Station.” Dr. Banks’ resume includes undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Stanford, a Ph. D in Physics of Earth’s Space Environment from Pennsylvania State University, and many years as a university professor at UCSD, Utah State, Stanford, and the University of Michigan. He moved to Santa Rosa in 1996 and is an advisor to NASA and a Senior Advisor to the National Academy of Engineering.
The International Space Station (“ISS”) is the product of the space race that some of us remember well, but which now seems slightly forgotten. At the end of WWII, German scientists developed 2 pilotless rockets, the V-1 and its successor, the V-2. The V-2 was a longer range, more deadly version of the V-2, and was fired at England, Holland, and France starting in September 1944. The town of Peenemunde in Germany was the home to the research and development of the V-1 and V-2 rockets, and many of Germany’s advanced scientists, including Werner von Braun, worked out of the region around the town. At the end of WWII, the Russians captured many of the V-2 rocket German scientists, but von Braun and other German scientists were captured by, or surrendered to, Allied and U.S. Army groups. Von Braun ended up with other German and American scientists developing the U.S. Saturn project and rocket engineering in general.
A “Space Race” between the U.S. and Soviet Union ensued. The Soviets developed the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka, in 1957, and used it for 35 years. The Semyorka powered the world’s first space launch, the Sputnick 1, in October 1957. At the time, Peter was an undergraduate at Stratford and remembers going out to the field sites next to the school and hearing a “beep, beep, beep” coming from space. The Soviet’s first manned launch was in 1961, propelling the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space for a few days and a single orbit around the earth. The second man in space was Alan B. Shepard, a U.S. Navy aviator turned astronaut. Shepard’s trip into space was part of the U.S.’s Mercury program. Shepard’s flight did not orbit the earth.
The development of manned space stations started in 1986 when Russia developed the Mir Space Station. The U.S. was far behind, although it launched Skylab in 1974, which ultimately disintegrated in 1979. A more recent U.S. program is based on the development of the Space Shuttle. In 1995, the Space Shuttle dropped off American astronauts into the Mir station. They stayed on Mir for about 6 months.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S., Russia, and other countries collaborated to construct and man the ISS. The ISS is the largest artificial object in space. It took 40 missions and 13 years to complete. It is size of a football field, costs $3 billion a year to maintain, and is the most complex engineering project ever developed!
Thank you, Dr. Banks! This was a fantastic and informative program. Thank you for bringing us into the information loop on the history and development of the ISS!
View Peter's presentation HERE. It will be only be viewable 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!
As we continue to progress into Virgo season, I cannot help but think about the mythological Greek goddess Artemis (Roman Goddess Diana): goddess of the hunt. She embodies the raw, primal energy of creatures that roam the forest. She knows where to find drinking water, edible plants, and safe places to rest and recharge. Although she is represented as a virginal maiden, she carries her trusty bow and arrow and at any moment, she is prepared to fend off anyone or anything that threatens her way of being. She is also a protector of pups, cubs, and young creatures that have yet to learn the treachery of predators.
Artemis is also known to be a shapeshifter. She might appear in her human form, a deer, a bear, or a hunting dog. She has no tolerance for people who violate other’s boundaries. Legend has it that she turned a voyeur into a stag and her hounds ripped the peeping tom to shreds. A cautionary tale that the hunter can easily become the hunted. If you were a shapeshifter, what animal or creature would you turn into? A lion, a gnome, a nymph, or a unicorn? The sky is the limit…
A few years ago, one of our Rotarians, Eloise Tweeten, brought a special study on the benefits that musical tapes have for elders – – particularly those confined in a home. I was very impressed by the project which our Rotary club implemented on a small scale, and endeavored to replicate it for my mother-in-law, Fumoiko Tamanaha, in Honolulu, who had recently entered a home.
Fumiko Tamanaha with her grandchildren
However I encountered a major difficulty -- accessing the music that she would have listen to in her youth. The study had used familiar music from the participant's background. And which one of us doesn’t come alive when we hear those tunes from the '50s and '60s that bring back the joys of our teenager years?
There was no available family member or elder of Japanese ancestry who could provide this information. So, while I was doing more research, my mother-in-law passed.
This morning I encountered a significant study in the healing power of music that involves opera signet Renée Fleming, a drummer from the Grateful Dead and an Indian musician skilled in using drone music in native healing practices. The healing power of music is not a new concept. However with advances in MRI imaging, scientists are now able to actually see how the brain lights up and responds to music. And which kinds of music are most successful.
The episode I watched was on the September 5, 2021 PBS NewsHour broadcast. And can be accessed at this link.
Renee Fleming has also produced A podcast on Music and the Mind. And there is even a book about the phenomenon.
Being an amateur musician myself. And having experienced the talents of many of our club club members – – including Rob Sanville, Ross Jones, Mike Kelly and many others, I was most pleased to revel in this Discovery – – one that one of our Rotarians had picked up on years ago. And, at my tender age, warding off Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with music sounds fantastic!
This vintage 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 is owned by new member Kristine Burns, shown here with sponsor Penny Millar (who else?). Which of these statements are true and which are false?
The brake lines on this car broke James Bond-style while Kristine was driving on a mountain road and it went off a cliff.
The Galaxie 500 has a 427 cubic inch engine and cruises at 34 mpg on the highway
Kristine built this car from two hard tops and two convertibles that were stored in a creek bed for several years.
CELEBRATING WITH A BIG SPLASH - Culver City Observer
Family of Sunrise Rotary in the News!
At last week’s meeting, Past President Marty Behr did a High Five recognizing his daughter Ajae Clearway for celebrating her 50th birthday with an epic swim from Catalina Island to the mainland. Rotary wasn’t the only one to hear about the swim, as one of her neighbors alerted the Culver City Observer; here is a link to the article recently in the Observer:
For those who have not met Ajae, she was a key participant in the Sunrise Rotary trip to Nicaragua in February, 2020. Congratulations Ajae, and Happy Birthday!
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
September Song…the month of transition from the Dog Days of August to cooler evenings with still rather hot days in store. Autumnal sightings soon to arrive, harvest, changing colors and the threshold of the holiday season.
This Sunday’s Roots of Rock will concentrate on the songs of summers past, featuring tunes that reached the top of the charts as we vacationed and enjoyed our youthful pleasures, camping, traveling and recuperating from the previous winter.
The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Mommas & Papa's, Elvis, Journey, just to scratch the surface. So many hits to tickle the memory and set a smile upon your face. During these difficult times it’s good to take a break and reminisce, to let loose the heavy load we all must carry.
Specific request can be made at mj@mcn.org anytime.
I am sure you are having an enriching experience as you Serve to Change Lives. One of the ways you can make the greatest change in a person’s life is to help them learn to read. Literacy opens up the world to us. It makes us better informed about life in our own communities and opens vistas to other cultures. Reading and writing connects people and gives us another way to express our love for one another.
September is Basic Education and Literacy Month in Rotary. Enhancing literacy skills is critical in our pursuit of reducing poverty, improving health, and promoting peace. In fact, if all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, it would result in a significant cut in global poverty rates.
Without education, illiterate children become illiterate adults. Today, 14 percent of the world’s adult population — 762 million people — lack basic reading and writing skills. Two-thirds of that group are women. Literacy and numeracy skills are essential to obtaining better housing, health care, and jobs over a lifetime.
Especially for girls and women, literacy can be a life-or-death issue. If all girls completed their primary education, there would be far fewer maternal deaths. And a child is more likely to survive past age 5 if he or she is born to a mother who can read. Improving outcomes for more people worldwide is possible only if countries remove barriers to education for girls. The economic argument for doing so is clear: In some countries where schooling is geared toward boys, the cost of missed economic opportunity is more than $1 billion per year.
Empowering people through education is among the boldest goals we have as Rotarians. We don’t have to travel far from our homes to encounter those whose lives are being curtailed because they struggle with reading, rely on others to read for them, or cannot write anything more than their own name.
Starting this month, consider how your club can Serve to Change Lives through literacy: Support local organizations that offer free programs to support adult literacy or local language learning, or that provide teachers with professional development centered around reading and writing. Become literacy mentors, or work with an organization like the Global Partnership for Education to increase learning opportunities for children around the world. Have conversations with local schools and libraries to see how your club can support their existing programs or help create needed ones in your community.
In India, the TEACH program, a successful collaboration between the country’s Rotary clubs and its government, has demonstrated how to scale up literacy efforts to reach millions of children. And at a time when schools across India were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program’s e-learning component reached more than 100 million children through national television.
Literacy is the first step out of poverty. As Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has noted, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.”
Malala Yousafzai is a young Pakistani activist for the education of girls and women. As a teenager, Malala, whom the world knows by her first name, courageously spoke out for the rights of girls to learn. Extremists in her country disagreed with Malala, and she was shot by a Taliban gunman on her way home from school.
But the attack didn’t dissuade her; it made her more determined. As soon as she recuperated, she resumed her mission of education activism. Today the Malala Fund supports education through projects around the world.
Not only is Malala an inspiration for Rotary members, we also have some commonalities: a drive to do what is right, a passion for literacy, and the power to transform dreams into reality.
One of my life mottos is: If you can dream it, you can do it. This applies to everything Rotarians do, particularly with The Rotary Foundation. We literally make our dreams happen.
Like Malala, we know that literacy is, for many, the first step out of poverty. To put our vision into action, we first understand a community and the unique problems of its members, and then form a partnership with them. Next we join forces with others — exchanging ideas with clubs in other districts, and working with people and organizations outside of Rotary.
Our solution, in the form of a district grant or global grant, will be tailored for that community. And if it’s a Rotary grant, you can bet it will be well-planned, strategic, and most of all, sustainable. We want that gift of literacy to not be a one-time book donation but a plan to transform a community over time.
Over the years, I have seen countless literacy efforts in Rotary, from national programs to local projects. When the global COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, many clubs took action to help communities adjust to online schooling, including providing laptop computers. Rotary’s solutions are endless, our volunteers tireless. And if I know Rotarians, I know that more solutions are being created as I write these words.
Rotary’s passion for literacy and education projects is well-known. So is our commitment to make them happen. You, through Rotary, are a big part of helping people take their first step out of illiteracy, out of poverty, and into something much better. Remember, if you can dream it, you can do it — just like Malala.
A group of former Rotary Youth Exchange students in District 3054 (India) was selected in April as the winner of the 2020-21 Rotary Alumni Association of the Year Award. The award, which was established in 2011, honors an alumni association that displays heightened awareness of the role that alumni play in Rotary and demonstrates the significant impact of Rotary’s programs. The 35-member Rotary District 3054 Rotex Alumni Association (Rotex 3054) was recognized in part for its ability to adapt to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As COVID-19 cases spread throughout India in April 2020, Rotex 3054 members organized a fundraiser for frontline workers in their district, which covers parts of the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. By tapping into their networks of Rotarians and friends, they managed to collect $5,150 within two weeks. Combined with a $2,000 district grant, the funds allowed the association to purchase 1,100 PPE (personal protective equipment) kits and masks, which members distributed to hospitals, health centers, police, and public health authorities. The group also purchased 100 grocery kits for low-income workers whose livelihoods were affected by the nationwide lockdown.
Rotex 3054 members helped fight COVID-19 in northwestern India by providing protective items to frontline workers.
Rotex 3054 was formed in 2018 by Rotary Youth Exchange alumni in District 3054. Members coordinate the orientation of outbound exchange students in the district and host inbound students in a short-term exchange program that they help facilitate. They also serve as ambassadors for Rotary Youth Exchange at district events and club meetings as well as at schools.
Since its inception, the alumni association has led a number of community-service projects. In 2019, members celebrated Christmas with children in a cancer hospital, distributing blankets and providing games and entertainment. As the COVID-19 crisis worsened in India earlier this year, the association launched a crowdfunding campaign to provide oxygen concentrators to those who needed oxygen at home. Other service activities have included clothing drives, a tree planting, and an art competition for children at a school near Ahmedabad.
The association collaborates with Rotary and Rotaract clubs in the district and is advised by Bhanu Gupta, a member of the Rotary Club of Ahmedabad West. Members meet for skill-sharing sessions, bike rides, and weekend brunches.
Rotary alumni associations are organizations of people who have participated in any of Rotary’s programs, including Rotary Peace Fellows, Ambassadorial Scholars, Group Study Exchange participants, Interactors, Rotaractors, and others. Associations may include alumni from various Rotary programs or be exclusive to alumni from one program, and most are organized within a Rotary district. Rotex 3054 is one of 37 Rotex (Rotary Youth Exchange) alumni associations found throughout the world.
This story originally appeared in the August 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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