What is a Grand Jury and how does it operate in Sonoma County? At our April 13 meeting, retired judge Arnie Rosenfield will educate us about this investigatory body in Sonoma County. Have you ever served on a Grand Jury? If so, please join us and share your experience!
According to Wikipedia, a Grand Jury consists of a group of citizens, empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A Grand Jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify and is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning.
Grand Juries originated in England and are only retained in two countries, the United States and Liberia.
Partners for a Malaria Free Zambia, by Bill Feldt, Eric Liswaniso, Tasha Chongo, and Wongani Zulu
Our speakers for April 16, 2023, were Bill Feldt, Eric Liswaniso, Tasha Chongo, and Wongani Zulu on behalf of Malaria Partners International and the Partnership for a Malaria Free Zambia (PMFZ). Bill is the Chair of Malaria Partners and a Rotarian in Seattle, Eric is the Program Manager, Tasha is chair of the Lusaka, Zambia Rotaract Club, and Wongani is a specialist who supports the effort to improve and maintain data management. Malaria Partners is a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 by Rotarians in Seattle. In 2021, Rotary International, World Vision, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the launch of PMFZ as part of Rotary’s first Program of Scale. (See Programs of Scale at My Rotary for a description of Rotary’s Program of Scale grant system).
Bill Feltz introduced Malaria Partners’ programs by noting that malaria is one of the world’s most deadly diseases. Over 200 million cases are diagnosed each year and over 600,000 children die annually from this disease. Malaria Partners’ efforts have traditionally included the introduction and handing out of insecticide treated bed nets and insecticide spraying, but since 2019 Partners has focused on training, equipping, and sustaining community health workers. Vaccines for malaria are difficult to develop but are on their way. When Malaria Partners found out about Rotary’s new Program of Scale process, they were approached by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision (an NGO) and asked to apply for a Program of Scale. Both the Gates Foundation and World Vision offered to match any contributions offered by Rotary International. RI agreed to contribute $2mm to the cause, and the Gates Foundation and World Vision each contributed $2mm, so PMFZ was originally organized with $6mm! In 2022, the Gates Foundation offered another $10 million, World Vision offered $5 million and RI is now considering its next level of contribution to the cause of the eradication of malaria.
Erik told us that Malaria Partners’ core objective is to inspire a Rotarian campaign to eradicate malaria and mobilize funding for global projects to alleviate the impact of malaria. PMFZ’s efforts focus on the 10 Zambian districts with the highest incidence of malaria. They train local healthcare workers, handle data management, strengthen local healthcare systems, and work towards social behavioral change. Once the community health workers go through the PMFZ training, they are provided with a smart phone equipped with an application that allows for tracking of key data. This data allows PMFZ to focus its efforts on the most important problems and to tailor its interventions more effectively. PMFZ supports 1910 healthcare facilities and is training over 2,500 healthcare workers treating 1.3 million Zambians. Tasha introduced her Rotaract club’s efforts towards supporting PMFZ. Their project is in Luano, a central Zambian district. They call their project “RotarAction.” They seek to address issues around late reporting, data validity, data inaccuracy, and under-reporting, all of which affect decision-making efforts. Wongani provided more detail on the importance of data in PMFZ’s efforts to eradicate malaria.
This is an amazing program and many thanks to all for enlightening us on this important step in combating a dreadful disease. Your work is so appreciated!
Click HERE to see a recording of the presentation. It will be available for a limited time.
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!
Sunrise families Amend’s, Lorenzen’s, Coffey’s and O’Rear/Millar continue their adventures in Japan. On Monday we attended the Hiroshima Center Rotary meeting as their guests and program.
After the program we exchanged club banners. That evening we were guests of honor at a special welcome reception attended by almost all of the Hiroshima club as well as past SRKSEP host families and student. Entertainment was provided by local musicians. Click on the picture for a sample of their performance.
We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and the famous Torii gate at Miyanamacho Island
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On our last evening in Hiroshima we were guests of members of Hiroshima Rotary for Sushi. At the end of the meal, Mr. Megumi Kikkawa of the Rotary Club of Hiroshima Center serenaded members of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise. Click on the picture below for his performance.
Our welcome at the train station in Kagoshima
On Saturday the 8th, we represented Sunrise at the Kagoshima West 60th anniversary. Steve Amend presented gifts of congratulations to Kagoshima and presented the following speech including thanks for their assistance after the 2017 fires. Click on the photo below for Steve’s speech.
Before next week's District-wide career conference on the Elsie Allen campus, members of our Interact sponsored club have secured landscaping material to brighten the campus entryway. Our support is requested in helping them complete the project. An hour or two this Friday April 14 will be a great opportunity to meet the students and combine our sweat equities.
First it was "Fines". And when that was thought to be "negative" it became "recognitions" and after that "High Five". But Jack has announced a new twist for these moments, designed to fit every celebration as well as sorrowful news. And it does not have to be a "High Five". "Happy Dollars" and "Sad Dollars" can be whatever you want them to be. Or whatever you feel is appropriate.
Happy Dollars
Randy Seeyle is happy to report after his ski accident and broken bones, he has full weight capacity on his leg and will be able to walk unassisted soon!
Marty Behr is happy his daughter, Rose O'Connor was featured as Travel Post Magazine's most influential woman.
Kent Seegmiller was elated he beat Max Bridges in a game of cribbage.
Jennifer Adams gave a shout-out to Kent. Her friend, Candace, shared a social media post about the tour he gave of Hop Kiln Estate in Healdsburg. It went viral!
1. A man describes his daughters, saying, “They are all blonde, but two; all brunette but two; and all redheaded but two.” How many daughters does he have?
2. How far can a squirrel run into the woods?
Send your answers to the editor. Brownie points and answers will appear in next week's bulletin.
Answers to last week's brain teasers:
1. If I am holding a bee, what do I have in my eye?
A) Beauty. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder (bee holder).
2. How can 8 + 8 = 4?
A) When you think in terms of time. 8 AM + 8 hours= 4 o’clock.
None of us will forget how the pandemic altered our world and our lives. Each of us had to traverse this period of uncertainty, and no one had a free pass from the effects.
I personally believe this has created space for a different kind of global leadership — one that is courageous, empathetic, and vulnerable. I met my good friend Anniela Carracedo online in early 2020. She is one such leader, and I'm thrilled to turn this month's column over to her.
— Jennifer Jones
In March 2020, I had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe, and I felt a terrible pain in my chest.
It had been a few days since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and I was in the middle of my year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in the United States. Think about it: an 18-year-old girl stuck in a different country, with a foreign language, with people she had only met six months before. It was scary.
But I am familiar with uncertainty. I was born and raised in Venezuela, which is going through one of the worst humanitarian and political crises in the Western Hemisphere. But my mom always said, "Challenges are nothing more than needs that require a solution."
I called up my Interact and Youth Exchange friends. Together, we organized an online meeting to share projects and get inspired by what everyone else was doing during the quarantine. In that first meeting, we had 70 people, mainly students, from 17 countries.
From that beginning, we built an online platform for Rotary youths worldwide to share their experiences and inspire others with project ideas during isolation. We looked for mentors and supporters who would help our group connect young people, share cultures, and open new collaborative opportunities for international service projects. We called it Rotary Interactive Quarantine, or RIQ.
After only a year, we engaged with more than 5,000 students from 80 countries. Several of our team members became district Interact representatives and district committee members, and some of us even serve on Rotary International councils.
Eventually, quarantine restrictions were being lifted, and the needs of our participants were changing. At our last official meeting as RIQ, Past RI President Barry Rassin inspired us to create even bigger change, so we transformed RIQ into the Rotary Youth Network, or RYN.
A few of our members, including me, were selected to serve on the inaugural Interact Advisory Council, where we presented our vision for youth in Rotary to the RI Board of Directors.
Our presentation to the Board inspired President Jennifer and her team to create a Youth Advisory Council in Rotary International, which I am honored to serve on as a co-chair.
The Rotary Youth Network officially launched during a breakout session at the 2022 Rotary International Convention in Houston. Five of us, who had participated in Interact, Youth Exchange, and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, traveled across continents to launch an organization we had kicked off online two years before. The convention was also the first time we had met in person.
When my friends and I finished our talk, we realized more than 500 people were giving us a standing ovation. Tears filled our eyes, and the feeling of excitement and accomplishment took over.
Who would have thought that a panic attack would lead to this?
In a letter to his brother Theo in 1874, Vincent Van Gogh wrote: “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”
You can see Van Gogh’s love of the natural world in his paintings: luminous sunflowers, gnarled olive trees, and the starry night sky over a Provençal village. When you see nature through Van Gogh’s eyes or through your own, such as during a trip to the park or a beach, you can’t help but stop to appreciate it. And when you love nature, you also want to take care of it.
April is Environmental Month for Rotary, and Earth Day is the 22nd. Marking the occasion with local projects such as roadside cleanups is fantastic and makes a difference. Consider also thinking big about protecting the environment — one of Rotary’s seven areas of focus — by partnering with other clubs and districts on a larger-scale project funded through The Rotary Foundation.
The more our clubs work together on larger projects, the more we accomplish. Supported by a Foundation global grant, Rotary clubs in Pennsylvania and Brazil teamed up to provide plastic-processing equipment for a waste pickers cooperative in the city of Rio Claro. The workers, who recover recyclables from trash, increased their income by 50 percent and expanded the cooperative, while contributing to a cleaner environment.
Acting big is also one of the main ideas behind the Foundation’s Programs of Scale. With each $2 million grant distributed over a program’s three- to five-year duration, the work done on the ground scales up to fulfill the potential for long-term sustainable change. The 2021-22 Programs of Scale recipient, Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria, is hard at work right now on solutions aimed at reducing the country’s maternal and neonatal mortality rates.
Programs of Scale grants are among the most exciting developments of Rotary and its Foundation in recent years. They will have a big impact on the world. Remember that Programs of Scale grants take nothing away from your Foundation grant projects; the money invested is a relatively small portion of the Foundation’s total. In addition, The Rotary Foundation designed Programs of Scale to foster greater partnerships, which can include co-funding the initiative.
So, think big this month — about the environment and about global grants and Programs of Scale — and you will see that, when it comes to the good we can do through our Foundation, the “starry night” sky’s the limit.
Members of the Rotary Club of Kaka‘ako Eco, Hawaii, tossed 5,000 mud balls filled with beneficial organisms into the Ala Wai Canal in Waikiki as part of a rehabilitation effort to make the waterway fishable and swimmable. The healthy bacteria in the genki balls — made with soil, molasses, rice bran, and water — digest and oxygenate sludge at the bottom of the canal (genki means healthy in Japanese). In March 2022, more than 200 volunteers, including club members and friends, made the balls, advised by the Genki Ala Wai Project. Three weeks later, they threw the fermented genki balls into the waterway. Donors paid $5 per ball to defray some of the cost. “A lot of kids came out and we had canoes come through the canal to help throw the balls,” says Club President Jenny Do. “We blew the air horn and then hundreds of balls just went into the Ala Wai Canal.”
Canada
Guelph, Ontario, is one of 25 Canadian municipalities to sign a pledge with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to welcome people who have fled countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. In December, the Rotary Club of Guelph Trillium launched a drive to collect winter clothing donations for refugees. “People were so generous,” says Club President Anne Day. The club placed a bin at a mall, and donors loaded it up with more than 70 coats, 109 hats, and 52 scarves — many of them with the price tags still attached. The club also teamed up with appliance company Danby to collect furniture and household equipment for the newcomers.
This story originally appeared in the April 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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Members of the Rotary Club of Kaka‘ako Eco, Hawaii, tossed 5,000 mud balls filled with beneficial organisms into the Ala Wai Canal in Waikiki as part of a rehabilitation effort to make the waterway fishable and swimmable. The healthy bacteria in the genki balls — made with soil, molasses, rice bran, and water — digest and oxygenate sludge at the bottom of the canal (genki means healthy in Japanese). In March 2022, more than 200 volunteers, including club members and friends, made the balls, advised by the 
Guelph, Ontario, is one of 25 Canadian municipalities to sign a pledge with the United Nations refugee agency,