A seasoned nonprofit director experienced in working with vulnerable communities has been tapped to run Sonoma County’s Family Justice Center, a hub of services for domestic violence and sexual abuse survivors.
Marsha Lucien, 46, had worked for eight years as director of Volunteers of America’s Northern California and Northern Nevada District in Sacramento. In that position, she oversaw reentry programs for people getting out of drug treatment facilities and transitional housing for homeless veterans, among other responsibilities.
Previously, Lucien worked as a grant administrator and case manager at Mission Solano Bridge to Life Center for two years.
Our special guest speaker for June 10, 2021, was Dan Pulcrano, CEO and Executive Editor of Weeklys, a newspaper group that includes the North Bay Bohemian, Metro Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz Weekly, Pacific Sun, and the East Bay Express, among others. Dan is also a member of the San Jose Rotary Club and a ‘sort of’ in-law of our own Bulletin Editor and club member, Max Childs! Dan started his journalistic career working for the San Diego Reader at age 16. He has been working in weekly newspapers and publications ever since!
His Weeklys was recently given 47 awards, including the award for General Excellence for “Good Times,” a Santa Cruz newspaper, as the best weekly newspaper in California. The Weeklys group includes 13 weekly newspapers, five of which are “alternative” papers, such as the Bohemian. The main idea behind the Bohemian and other alternative papers is providing free information about cultural events, literary issues, and different perspectives. The Bohemian provides a very different view of the world than an ordinary newspaper, e.g., it is much more “rock and roll” than mainstream papers.
Dan bought the Sonoma County publication “The Sonoma County Independent” in 1993 and changed its name to “The Bohemian.” His staff thought the name was nuts, but he reasoned that Sonoma County has always had its own individualistic ethos; we do not always follow trends and are not a mass culture area. 1994, when he started publishing the Bohemian, was a pivotal time in the industry. Many of the old newspapers had been purchased more than 50 years before and had not evolved. The digital wave was just starting and he was able to stay slightly ahead of it by, for example, using an artist in Holland to send art files to Sonoma County! Dan was able to get ahead of many publishers by recognizing and adapting to digital publishing.
Dan pointed out some amazing differences between digital and paper publications. Generally, complete understanding of complex subjects is less likely with digital publications than with the written word. Children are not learning as well in the digital classroom as they did in the traditional classroom, and this lack of complete attention when reading digital news and information also seems to have taken place as well in our political and cultural understanding of events. Clearly, digital is here to stay but written newspapers maintain an important place in our communities and the nation.
Dan’s presentation also included a pitch for a program sponsored by his club. The San Jose Rotary Club developed the practice of installing adaptive swings to allow accessibility for all children, including children with special needs, in city parks. Take a look at the https://www.sanjose.org/listings/rotary-playgarden for an explanation of one of the main adaptive park projects.
Many thanks to Dan for the thought provoking and interesting program. And, good job on The Bohemian; it is always worth a read!
Click HERE to view a recording of Dan's presentation. The recording started after the introductions and will be available for the next week or so.
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!
Take a close look: Flanking that shiny gold shovel are Golden Hammer Leroy on the left and Hooten Hary Coffee. *F YOU CAN READ THE INSCRIPTION ON THE SHOVEL HARRY
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
Totally devoted to the studio now, no more touring! The final live concert was at Candlestick Park in the City. San Francisco was in the height of the “Summer of Love”. The Haight was a buzz…..literally!
Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the eight studio release was considered as The Finest pop album ever produced.
The brainchild of Paul McCartney, conceived as a fictional Edwardian brass band transported into the psychedelic age. Those who experienced this brief period of Free Love and the hippie ethics recall that all was well and “getting better all the time…”.
The wafting fragrance of marijuana, incense…beautiful flowers and the sound of bells tinkling amongst the hordes of youth that invaded San Francisco.
The lyrics were intentionally from an older style of high English, as if this was an actual Edwardian band. However, the underlying spirit of the spirit of 1967 prevailed throughout the album in significant ways, challenging the concepts that there were limitations to ones imagination imposed by society.
Artistically, this collection of music presented the heretofore impossible…possible!
To wit, on the selection “A Day In The Life” the climactic frenetic notes were only audible to the range of canines!
This album turned conventional concepts upside down; gatefold album, printed lyrics, free gift all within an elaborate photographed cover. One of the first albums to present itself as a complete, coherent collection of songs.
McCartney’s total concept from start to finish. Lennon was lost in a foggy haze of drugs and attempting to extinguish his ego. John did collaborate with Paul on the final cut, considered the absolute finest song on the album. Lennon contributed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” saying it was inspired by his four year old son Julian’s drawing.
Reaching number one on all of the major charts in America and worldwide, remaining number one in the United Kingdom for over half the year.
Considered the Greatest Rock Album of all time.
Tune in Sunday morning and let your mind float back to the Summer of Love…it will be worth it!
God Bless stay safe as we return to a more normal existence here in the Golden State and Worldwide.
In January 2020, when I announced my presidential theme, Rotary Opens Opportunities, and spoke of the changes that Rotary needed to embrace, none of us had any idea how quickly change would arrive. But I am a longtime believer in seeing challenges as opportunities. This year, we seized new opportunities to reimagine what Rotary could be. For years, we had discussed ways to make Rotary flexible and adaptable, and we had tried a few experiments. This year, we all experimented — and succeeded! Online meetings are a regular fixture now as clubs invite guests from across the globe.
Susanne and I love to meet members of the family of Rotary around the world, and we’ve missed seeing you in person over the past year. But for me, it was a new way of experiencing Rotary. We traveled the world virtually. I definitely met thousands more of you than I would have otherwise. I never set foot in my office in Evanston as president, yet we found new ways to get the job done while cutting travel costs.
This is the Rotary we experienced in 2020-21: nimble, adaptable, and creative. The next step is not to go back to the way things were before the pandemic. We must move forward. Let’s apply what we have learned in order to offer new experiences and opportunities for our members, such as online attendance as a regular option.
We need a younger, more diverse Rotary at every level to keep our clubs strong. What diversity means is different from region to region, but I encourage you to welcome people from all backgrounds. Another step we can all take is to increase the number of women and amplify their role everywhere.
I am glad that many now see Rotary and Rotaract clubs as equals. Let’s keep going in this direction by inviting Rotaract clubs to be a part of everything we do. Let’s not squander any opportunity to reach young leaders, but partner with Rotaract and invest in our many new approaches.
I am very proud of the work Rotary is doing to fight COVID-19 by supporting vaccination campaigns through advocating for fair distribution and combating misinformation. But we must also continue to do everything we can to end polio. And we now have opportunities to work in a new area of focus: the environment.
The world is a different place today from when I first announced that Rotary Opens Opportunities. We can all be proud of how we updated what Rotary can be this year. Let’s continue on this path, always taking care of our clubs and of our friends in those clubs. They are precious, and they keep Rotary alive and thriving.
Susanne and I are thankful for all the opportunities to serve the organization during this special year, a year of finding new meaning in Service Above Self. We see Rotary as a community of people who live their values by putting them into action. In these extraordinary times, there is no doubt that we must place increased emphasis on service. This is our opportunity to show the world what Service Above Self means for Rotarians.
There are so many opportunities waiting for us that will help us change the world. Let’s seize them together and get ready to open doors to achieving greater things. And as we open these doors to new ideas, our minds and our hearts also open. Remember that everything we do in Rotary opens another opportunity for someone, somewhere.
“I have no fear of the future,” Winston Churchill once said. “Let us go forward into its mysteries, let us tear aside the veils which hide it from our eyes, and let us move onward with confidence and courage.”
Churchill used the phrase “let us go forward together” in some of his most famous speeches. He had no other choice but to look forward as he led his war-battered nation with courage.
Each generation inherits its own share of challenges; we are living through ours, never once stopping in the face of this challenge. In a year when people were unable to meet, families stayed secluded, and businesses struggled to flourish, we still managed to go forward together in many areas. Through Rotary Foundation grants, clubs and districts brought creative solutions to their pandemic-hit communities. Since March 2020, the Foundation has awarded over $34 million in grants to initiatives related to COVID-19.
The demand for our global grants was high. They were so popular that we had to make adjustments to grant funding policy that will begin 1 July in a prudent effort to balance demand with resources, so that more districts can participate.
This year, The Rotary Foundation took bold steps forward, breaking new ground: The Foundation expanded its reach with recognition of the environment as an area of focus and awarded our first Programs of Scale grant to a Rotarian-led program that aims to greatly reduce malaria for severely affected communities in Zambia.
Even though our polio immunization activities paused for a few months in 2020 because of the pandemic, they began to resume in midyear. We also were finally able to celebrate a huge step forward in our journey together to a polio-free world: the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration that the African region is now free of wild poliovirus.
And the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation signed an agreement with us to fully fund the establishment of a Rotary Peace Center in the Middle East and North African region. This welcome development gives Rotary the opportunity to make a tangible contribution to an area where lasting peace has been so elusive.
Our accomplishments are a reminder that Rotary is a great force for good everywhere and that you are the reason we did not stop. At this writing, we’ve raised more than $282 million, putting us on track to reach our $410 million fundraising goal. The great work we have done this year, and the work we will do next year and in the years ahead, is all thanks to your support. On behalf of The Rotary Foundation Trustees, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for keeping the Foundation — one of our greatest gifts to the world — thriving.
In a time of separation, our winning photographers used their cameras to make connections
It was a challenging year for photographers. Once the pandemic hit, travel plans had to be changed or canceled. That was reflected in many of the submissions for Rotary magazine’s 2021 photo awards: Many more photos than usual were taken close to home, sometimes as close as the backyard. We did see breathtaking images of some photographers’ journeys, many from the days before the pandemic limited travel. Others took this year to experiment with extreme close-ups of a flower petal or a bird in flight. Many photos captured the way COVID-19 has transformed our world and our daily lives. And, perhaps reflecting the fundamental optimism of Rotarians, there were many images of hope, joy, and simple beauty.
Our judge, photojournalist Barbara Davidson, evaluated the photographs with an exacting eye. “I look for use of color as an element of composition, I look for degrees of tones in black-and-white images, and I look for strong composition and an advanced level of photography as craft,” Davidson says. But the technical achievement has to be in service of something. “The images that stand out invite one to linger on the photograph and successfully inspire an emotional response.”
In addition to the winners and honorable mentions that appear in this issue, the magazine will feature more of the photos submitted by our readers throughout the coming year.
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