The Program for March 2rd - Alan Silow - Santa Rosa Symphony
Alan Silow has been Executive Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony since July of 2002. During his tenure, the Symphony has returned to a fiscally sound basis that has produced surpluses in both operations and endowment annually for 15 years. Silow played a leadership role in the public/private partnership with Sonoma State University to build a new world-class symphony hall that opened in Fall 2012 where the Santa Rosa Symphony is now the resident orchestra of the Green Music Center.
He also currently sits on the Board of the Santa Rosa Convention & Visitors Bureau to provide better cross-cultivation between the arts and tourism. Silow’s accomplishments were recognized with a nonprofit leadership award for innovation, community engagement and growth given by North Bay Business Journal in October 2012.
Silow graduated Phi Beta Kappa with an undergraduate B.A. degree in Economics with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs. He is married to a lovely and talented university professor, with one son who currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He lives in Oakmont.
The anchor feature of downtown Santa Rosa's Courthouse Square reunification is the restoration and upgrading of the 1908 landmark Empire Building. A signature property of early 20th Century Bay Area Architect John Galen Howard, the Empire Building was the first major project following the devastating 1906 earthquake. Completed, it was the first elevator-equipped three story building. The Beaux-Art Style office originally housed the Bank of Italy, later becoming Bank of America. The building's now well recognized clock tower was an after-thought add on, which remains to this day.
Owned now by local Developer Hugh Futrell, the hotel-to-be's new interior will feature three, thirteen room floors, designed to compete with higher end Marriott and Hyatt brands. Comfortable rooms with well planned space, 100% Valet parking, wine bar lobby with cafe seating into Courtyard Square are featured. Giles also commented on the BIA or Building Improvement District which will compliment the newly configured downtown, providing surrounding merchants support for client safety, property maintenance and social service needs for the needier transient population. As Giles described this element, " a helping hand rather than a wrecking ball."
Simultaneous to the building activity, Giles gave anticipation to the opening of museums in the previous AT&T building. Modifications to State Liquor Laws are pending which can give wineries and Not For Profit organizations benefits from the donation of excess inventories. TOT or Transient Occupancy Taxes will also benefit the City and County. Giles described the forecast change in traffic patterns as robustly used. Indeed the long standing Empire Building, witness to over a century of local lore, will continue to be a central eye on city commerce.
Above, Sunriser's L-R Steve Amend, Olin Leasher and Jim Moir discover Jim's Greeter duty didn't stop at the door.
Accustomed to blinding blizzards on snow covered peaks, incognito, Scott Holder challenges Warren Smith's photographic prowess.
The post lady cometh: President Merle Hayes digs into her birthday and anniversary recognition bin and . . .
Jim Gray receives congratulations for his and Sheena'a anniversary and celebration travel to Asia. Sunriser Frank Cercone was absent, enjoying his birthday adventure, while President Elect Doug Shureen's wife Barbara was on assignment, teaching in Windsor.
Max Bridges delights President Merle with a treasure from his India-Dubai trip.
Sgt at Arms Lorenzo Dueñas keeps an attentive ear tuned for recognition receipts.
Jim Kirkbride accepts the white marble disappointment. Next week odds move 1:11 for $275+!
Posted by Rich Randolph & John Jones on Feb 26, 2017
Sabalos- Nicaragua. Above, Sunrise member John Jones delivers the latest in progress and background for newer members regarding the Surgical Center Sunrise Rotary has been planning the past six years.
THEN 2014
INTERIOR WALLS & PUMBING TAKING FORM
During Strategic and Visioning sessions in 2009, then Sunrise President Don Floriani proposed a long term approach to eye surgeries then available only intermittently in the remote Rio San Juan region of southern Nicaragua. A Task Force composed of John, Steve Zwick and Peter Hoberg began compiling feasibility data based on unmet emergency care and resources needed to match those needs. Those studies have led to cooperative ventures within and beyond Rotary, building financial and planning partnerships now possessing the funds to commence construction (Ground-breaking January 6, 2017) of a 1,900 sf surgery annex to the existing regional health center in Sabalos.
2014 THE CLINIC IS STILL A DREAM TRYING TO AWAKE
2017 WITH RIBBON CUTTING ANTICIPATED BY SEPTEMBER
As Rotary does not fund construction projects, the building costs have been raised without Rotary International support. In order to equip and supply the clinic with new staff, Sunrise Rotary is partnering with the Managua-Tiscapa Rotary Club to apply for a Rotary International Global Grant. This funding leverage will provide diagnostic equipment (ultrasound & xray) operating tables, anesthesia machine, all that is needed to provide the 31,000 residents served by the clinic with essential treatment services to improve outcomes and reduce childhood mortality. Occupational accidents, fractures, serious lacerations as well will now receive timely, local attention, avoiding river-based, painful and life-threatening delayed transportation to the nearest hospital over two hours away.
As construction continues, our Nicaraguan partners will be sending photos and progress reports. Stay tuned, with ribbon cutting anticipated late summer, early fall, ahh, Autumn!
On a regular basis, our resident photo pros Warren Smith and 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 and Ross! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
Manitoba honors Rotary Peace Fellow for public achievement
Refugees who come to Winnipeg often end up living in areas that are predominantly inhabited by indigenous people.
“Newcomers do not know much about the indigenous life and heritage and, without that knowledge, the first thing they encounter is people who are poor and stereotyped by the mainstream community,” says Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg. “Indigenous people may see immigrants as encroaching into their neighborhoods. There is tension between both groups.”
Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed, a 2011-12 Rotary Peace Fellow and immigration partnership coordinator for the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg.
Ahmed works to smooth relations, helping them see they have more in common than what divides them. “Integration is a two-way process,” he says.
In recognition of his work, Ahmed received the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, one of the highest honours for public achievement issued by the Manitoba legislature, in January 2016.
“I never thought what I was doing had this significance,” he says. “But I don’t look at what I have done. I look at what needs to be done to bring about better living standards for people.”
Ahmed, 37, may understand the needs of immigrants better than most.
Originally from Somalia, he and his family fled the conflict there and settled in Kenya when he was a child.
My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change.
Abdikheir “Abdi” Ahmed
As a young adult, he moved to Canada as part of the national resettlement program. He began working with refugee children who were struggling in school while attending the University of Winnipeg, where he earned a degree in international development in 2007.
After graduation, Ahmed began working at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba.
He learned about the Rotary Peace Centers program from Noëlle DePape, a colleague who had earned her master’s degree at the University of Queensland, Australia, through the fellowship.
After Ahmed completed his own peace fellowship at Queensland, he and DePape worked together to develop a curriculum for a summer course that they teach to high school students at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, part of a Rotary District 5550 (Manitoba and parts of Ontario and Saskatchewan) program called Adventures in Human Rights.
“We help them view the world from the perspective that everyone’s rights are equal and understand the idea of building a community where everyone’s rights are respected and each person is given a fair opportunity,” he says.
In addition to his work in Winnipeg, Ahmed serves on the board of Humankind International, an early childhood learning center that he co-founded at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya with two Somali friends who also immigrated to Winnipeg. He says it serves 150 children with four teachers, and he hopes to expand it to accommodate the many children who have to be turned away.
Despite the suffering he has witnessed and the daily conflicts he works to resolve, Ahmed is optimistic about the prospects for peace and the potential of the peace centers program.
“My hope is that in the next 20 to 50 years, if we have more Rotary Peace Fellows around the world who are speaking the same language and taking on a leadership role to create an interconnected world, things will change,” he says. “I also hope we can find an opportunity for Rotarians and past peace fellows to collaborate on projects in a more defined way.”
Ahmed and his wife, Saadi, have three sons. He says their oldest, Mohamed, 9, dreams of playing in the NBA and says that with the money he earns, he will build houses for the homeless people he sees on his way to school.
Ibrahim, 7, wants to be a firefighter so he can save people. One-year-old Yussuf has not announced any career plans yet.
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