County of Sonoma Health Officer Dr. Sundari R. Mase, MD, MPH
Dr. Sundari R. Mase began serving as the County’s Health Officer March 2020. Dr. Mase brings local, state, federal and international experience to Sonoma County most recently serving as an independent Tuberculosis (TB) consultant for all aspects of TB clinical, programmatic and research activities; prior to that she was the India Country TB Medical Officer for the World Health Organization (WHO).
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She finished her residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF and, subsequently, obtained her Master of Public Health with an emphasis in Epidemiology at UCB. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Infectious Disease Department at Emory University and served as Associate Clinical Professor at UCSF.
The County Health Officer is responsible for the protection and promotion of the public's health for all in Sonoma County. She will oversee the work of the DHS Public Health Division located at 625 Fifth Street in downtown Santa Rosa as well as work with other departments, community partners and other counties to improve health on both a programmatic and a policy level.
The "Saturday Morning Breakfast With Neighbors" and Craft Talks from Kristine Burns and Willie Billeter
Our Guest Speakers for Thursday, December 8, 2022, were John Ray from the Unitarian Universalist Congregation and newer Sunrise members Kristine Burns and Willie Billeter, who each gave their craft talks.
John Ray is in charge of the Congregation’s “Saturday Morning Breakfast With Neighbors” program. He moved to Santa Rosa about 10 years ago and started helping to serve the breakfasts, and somehow ended up being in charge about 8 years ago! John was introduced by Stacy Drucker-Andress, who is also a volunteer with the program, helps with breakfast, and runs the warm clothing program for the Congregation at the Glaser Center. John mentioned that the program is run entirely by volunteers and private donations. Panera provides the bread products, which they pick up ever Friday evening. They feed 100-150 people every Saturday morning, although the number is increasing this winter. The breakfast is busier toward the end of the month since some people get government benefits at the beginning of the month when they don’t need it as much. He told us about several people who lost their jobs or had personal failures and needed help for a short time to get back on their feet. John was presented with a donation at the meeting from Sunrise. The donation will be used to help provide food for the breakfast program.
Kristine Burns has been a member since June 2021 and was sponsored by Penny Millar. She has taken a windy road to her current profession. For as far back as she can remember she always wanted to be in law enforcement, preferably with a federal law enforcement agency. She studied law enforcement in school and finished at the top of her class. She had an internship in the Coroner’s office but learned that a medical condition would not allow her to pursue a career in law enforcement. She stared going to Sonoma State seeking a science degree to focus on forensic science, but in her first semester she was hit by a drunk driver while returning home from school one night. At the time she also volunteered at the fire department, and that same department helped her at the scene of the accident. She faced multiple surgeries because of the accident and ultimately had to leave school. She then went to work in her family’s business. She also started her own business doing artwork. She finally went back to college, received a degree in business, and started managing her mother’s businesses. She then moved on to work in financial planning and later in tax. She has worked in taxes for over 20 years. She’s an enrolled agent, works at Dillwood, Burkel & Millar, and is thinking of getting her CPA license.
Willie Billeter is a co-owner and CEO of BC Engineering Group, a local civil engineering and land planning office. He was born in Santa Rosa, and attended middle school at Comstock and high school at Piner. While at Piner he took a drafting class as a freshman. He went to work at JDS Uniphase and spent 3 years there. For two of those years, he was in the Intelligent Light department. In that department they cut glass into small components that went into concert lighting units of different colors and sizes. He worked his way up to department lead and was involved in quality control. He also got involved with the engineers and learned that the design work was done with Auto Cad, which he’d learned about in high school! He started with a civil engineering company after JDS Uniphase and later worked with his two brothers with a company in Healdsburg. In 2016 they decided to start their own business and opened up BCE. He was married in 2011. They had their first child in 2016, which made 2016 a very busy year! Willie has been connected with Past President Warren in two different ways; hockey and as co-workers at JDS!
Our thanks to John for all his good work, and for taking care of Stacy for us! Way to go Kristine and Willie! Thank you for sharing your personal and professional experiences! We are happy and excited to have you both!
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!
Those who attended our Holiday Party at the Kenwood Depot on Saturday night know what a very special event it was. The food was beyond spectacular, the location was perfect, and the company was "family."
The outside chill could not dampen the warmth inside.
On behalf of everyone in our club I need to again say THANK YOU to Jeri and Olin for making this sweet evening so memorable! People were saying this was among the best in more than three decades. See the attached photo! :-)
Kindest Regards,
Jack Strange, President
And to extend the Holiday spirit, several dishes of Jeri's lasagna were auctioned off with proceeds going to the schools in Thailand which sent our club a note of gratitude last week.
Mary Banks and Molly Hoberg enjoyed a more quiet corner, and the exceptional chocolate cake home made by Jeri Leasher!
Mike Kelly Continues to Warm Hearts and Hands, & ...
Guarded by her well clad Lab Bella, Stacy's trove is safe.
This is your response to the coats and warm clothing drive so far. The bags are stuffed!!! I can't begin to show you everything. With the cash I have received, I am buying hats, gloves, underwear and more....distribution starts this Saturday... I will continue this through the cold winter months. It is never too late to help out.
Dubbed The Annual Warm Coat Drive by local Real Estate celebrity and late Sunrise Past President Mike Kelly, his compassionate legacy continues. This year again organized by Stacy, the warming call went out weeks ago to gather in-kind or cash donations to protect climate at risk Sonoma County residents.
As is apparent from the above photo, the response has been very generous. Contact Stacy stacydruckerandress@gmail.com for additional participation.
While sitting with a group of Rotary leaders outside of Lusaka, Zambia, I ask a question: “How many of you have ever had malaria?” Every hand in the room goes up. They even begin to tell me about the first, second, or third time they experienced the disease, one of the main causes of death and sickness in many developing countries.
They are fortunate. They have access to medical treatment and lifesaving medicines. For the people of rural Zambia, their story is very different.
On a wooden bench in a small village, I sit with Timothy and his young son Nathan. With a camera crew capturing our conversation, he tells me of the time Nathan showed signs of malaria. He brought the boy to the nearby home of a community health worker, where Nathan quickly received medicines that in all likelihood saved his life.
Calmly, Timothy tells me about his other son’s bout with the disease a few years earlier. He had to race that son to a medical clinic more than 5 miles away. Riding a bike and carrying his child on his back, he tells me, he could feel his son’s legs turn cold and then his little body go limp. As he finally entered the clinic, he screamed for help, but it was too late. The camera stops rolling, and we sit in silence. He begins to weep, and I hold him tightly. “I lost my son, I lost my son,” he says.
This story is all too familiar for the families we meet over the next few days. And yet there is hope. Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is Rotary’s first Programs of Scale grant recipient, and it is saving lives. Across two provinces of Zambia, 2,500 volunteer health workers have been selected by their communities. They are trained to bring medical care closer to those who need it, and they are able to diagnose and treat malaria and other ailments. Rotary partnerships create lasting change.
We all make hundreds if not thousands of decisions daily. Whenever I need to make an important decision, I remember the words of Roy Disney, who co-founded what became the Walt Disney Co.: “It’s easy to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
Each of us brings a set of personal values into our clubs. Rotary also unites by a set of core values — service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership — that guide our decisions and galvanize us to take action and, by doing so, change the world.
Another value is inextricable to Rotary: our giving spirit. From the club members who volunteer their time for service projects to the Rotary leaders in the Arch Klumph Society who sustain our Foundation, Rotary members are among the most generous people I have ever met. Combining our personal generosity with the countless ways Rotary affords us to give back makes us a global force for good.
In Rotary, we take it a step further. We also value good stewardship, planning, and sustainability. Not only do we give, but in Rotary we also give smart. We know that building sustainability into our projects means their impact will be felt over the long term.
In short, through the Foundation, your gifts keep on giving.
This is why donating to The Rotary Foundation is one of the most intelligent decisions you can make. You know that your gift will align with those values you hold dear and that it will be administered by your fellow Rotarians, who share those values.
It is quite an understatement to say that in giving to Rotary, we also receive. As someone who has been privileged to visit hundreds of Foundation projects around the world, I can tell you that the gift we get in return is priceless.
I hope you, too, will be as lucky I have been, to see the look of amazement on the face of a person at an eye clinic in Chennai, India, who now sees clearly. The proud smiles of Guatemalan children who learned to read thanks to Rotary. Or the grateful tears of a parent in Pakistan whose child has received two drops of polio vaccine. Then you will understand what I’m talking about. We are so fortunate to be able to serve humanity by supporting our Foundation.
During this season of giving, I thank you for your generosity to The Rotary Foundation and for all the ways you give to our great organization. Juliet and I extend our warmest holiday greetings to you all.
A project by the Rotary Club of Rosenheim-Innstadt serves as a reminder that the simplest of gifts can bring joy to children — and delight to the givers. For the past five years, the club has taken up a collection among members, raising about $1,500 each year to buy Christmas presents. The gifts, delivered to 33 youths during the 2021 outing, included toys and clothing — “whatever you can imagine on a child’s wish list,” says Hans-Georg Schmidt, immediate past president of the club. A local aid organization selected the recipients. “One girl asked for a skirt, which otherwise the family would never have been able to afford,” Schmidt says. Another girl requested and received perfume. A dozen club members coordinate the shopping, packaging, and delivery.
Italy
Up to 169 million tons of unused food is wasted in the European Union every year, and only about 40 percent of Italians take home their uneaten restaurant food. Working with the office of agriculture and food in the Piedmont region, the Rotary Club of Acqui Terme launched a project in April to encourage people to take home their leftovers. It offers recyclable and compostable boxes and wine bags to restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and farmhouses. Rotarians enlist members of the hospitality industry to reduce food waste and develop awareness of the value of quality foods produced by local farmers, says Giacomo Guerrina, immediate past president of the club.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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A project by the Rotary Club of Rosenheim-Innstadt serves as a reminder that the simplest of gifts can bring joy to children — and delight to the givers. For the past five years, the club has taken up a collection among members, raising about $1,500 each year to buy Christmas presents. The gifts, delivered to 33 youths during the 2021 outing, included toys and clothing — “whatever you can imagine on a child’s wish list,” says Hans-Georg Schmidt, immediate past president of the club. A local aid organization selected the recipients. “One girl asked for a skirt, which otherwise the family would never have been able to afford,” Schmidt says. Another girl requested and received perfume. A dozen club members coordinate the shopping, packaging, and delivery.
Up to 169 million tons of unused food is wasted in the European Union every year, and only about 40 percent of Italians take home their uneaten restaurant food. Working with the office of agriculture and food in the Piedmont region, the Rotary Club of Acqui Terme launched a project in April to encourage people to take home their leftovers. It offers recyclable and compostable boxes and wine bags to restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and farmhouses. Rotarians enlist members of the hospitality industry to reduce food waste and develop awareness of the value of quality foods produced by local farmers, says Giacomo Guerrina, immediate past president of the club.