Election Overview - Local and State Propositions. Kathy Hayes has over 25 years of Non-Profit Management and Governmental Affairs Expertise. Following her career in Governmental Affairs and Non-Profit Management, she decided that she wanted to work with students in the school system. She spent several years as a substitute teacher deciding whether she was going to go back to school and getting her teaching credential in Math.
Sonoma County Art Trails, by Lucy Liew, Anna Rybat, and Kay Young
The speakers for our October 3, 2024 meeting were artists Lucy Liew, Anna Rybat, and Kay Young speaking about their art and Sonoma County Art Trails. All three are professional artists who work from their studios at Fulton Crossing in Santa Rosa. Lucy Lieu is from Borneo in the rainforest of Malaysia and moved to California in 1996. She paints vibrant compositions of California flora and fauna. After the 2017 fire in Santa Rosa, she has focused on themes of resilience and hope, including fire adaptive subjects like the Fire Poppy. This flower doesn’t germinate until it is subjected to the heat and smoke of a wildfire. Much of Lucy’s work is inspired by her hikes in California open spaces. In 2014, President Obama presented her artwork to the President of Malaysia! Kay Young is a self-described Southwest hippie who moved to San Francisco and ultimately Sonoma County. She has a long artistic history, including work in textiles, embroidery, glassware, and macrame wall hangings. She now creates vibrant artwork on glassware. Anna Rybat is a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy. After retirement, she used the G.I. bill to help obtain a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Her current work includes sculpted colorfield paintings. Much of her work is inspired by one of her passions, marine themes.
Art Trails will celebrate its 40th anniversary on the weekends of October 19-20 and 26-27 with tours of art studios throughout the County. Art Trails was founded in 1985 by a group of local artists who wanted to create an open studio program. In 2014 the program was adopted by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Art Trail’s Collector’s Guide for this year has been published and provides an overview of the 123 participating artists. The Collector’s Guide has a photo of each of the artist’s work, as well as maps of the artists’ studios that will be open for the tour. There will be a pre-event party at Fulton Crossing on October 19 from 12:00 to 4:00. We are invited! Fulton Crossing has won the Press Democrat’s award for best gallery three times. It is open from Friday through Sunday from 11:00 to 4:00.
Thank you to Lucy, Anna, and Kay for their terrific presentations. Art Trails is a Sonoma County gem! By the way, Sunrise has a great history with Fulton Crossing. Our former member, Rami Batarseh, is an owner of the studio and we had a great party there back in 2019! Fulton Crossing is always worth a visit.
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!
Steve Amend, Max Childs, Harry Coffey, Matt Crooks, Dave Lorenzen, Ken Petro, Dan Rosachi, Rob Sanville and Peter Treleaven perspired, persisted in installing the final phase of rehab to the succulent greenhouse.
Leroy Carlenzoli's Golden Hammer Crew wrapped up a multi-month greenhouse renovation for Sonoma County Master Gardeners. Way to get out there, Dan!
Golden Hammer and job boss Leroy starts the curly wire securing phase.
Dave secures the plastic wrap while Max studies the technique.
Leroy mentors Matthew.
Foreground back to camera, Ken Petro and Peter Treleaven spot Max on the ladder.
Dan and Matthew listen to Leroy's guide for venting of the structure.
No - not Caltrans. This front view gives an idea of the structure's design. Sunrise task was to rehab the framing, install the mesh then wrap to roof and sides with plastic to create a greenhouse environment for Master Gardeners cash crop of succulents.
the adage "the job's not done 'til the cleanup's through" applies here. The old, torn sheeting is rolled up. Master Gardener members may have plans to repurpose some of the useable material.
What is next? Succulent plant sales soon! High Fives to Leroy and the Golden Hammers!!
With World Polio Day on 24 October, I’m proudly rooting for Rotary as we team up around the world to End Polio Now.
I had the honor of attending a Strike Out Polio event in July at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates MLB team. The Rotary Club of Delmont-Salem hosted the event, which raised $1.3 million for PolioPlus.
Later in the summer, I joined members of our Rotary family in supporting the Más Millas Menos Polio (More Miles Less Polio) bike ride. Felipe Meza Chávez and his team rode all the way from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to One Rotary Center in Evanston, Illinois, to raise money and awareness. The ride took 12 days, and Felipe and his team collected more than $100,000 to support the fight against polio. It was a joy to greet them as they arrived in Evanston.
And I was thrilled to see Team End Polio raise global awareness around the 2024 Paris Olympics. This world-class roster of athletes, global leaders, and polio eradication supporters came together to advocate for a world where no child has to live in fear of being paralyzed by polio. Some of the athletes on Team End Polio are polio survivors themselves, adding weight to their advocacy.
These are just a few examples of the many ways Rotary has teamed up recently to End Polio Now. It is vital that we continue to seek out and recruit teammates in polio eradication, especially after the challenges our eradication efforts have faced this year.
The Rotary world was heartbroken to learn about the tragic passing in August of Aidan O’Leary, director for polio eradication at the World Health Organization.
I knew Aidan and worked with him directly. He was a tireless advocate in the fight against polio and a kind, genuine man. We will remember him both for his advocacy and his warmth.
But where there is hardship, there is also hope. I feel hopeful whenever I consider the countless ways Rotary supports the fight every day to eradicate polio.
As people of action, we don’t have the luxury of giving in to despair, even in the face of tragedy. The best way to honor Aidan’s memory is by teaming up and reaching our goal to End Polio Now.
We made a promise to the children of the world and their families. It is incumbent upon us, together with our global partners, to end this threat once and for all.
There are so many ways we can team up to eradicate polio. You can donate to the End Polio Now campaign, join or initiate a PolioPlus Society in your club or district, or take inspiration from the fundraisers I mentioned above.
I encourage Rotary members around the world to continue to seek out new teammates, so that together, we end polio.
You can find all prior "RI President's Messages" at this LINK
World Polio Day, on 24 October, is a time to celebrate progress and rededicate ourselves to finishing the job of eradicating the disease. Let’s also honor the countless Rotarians and Rotaractors who have championed the cause. One such hero was John Sever.
Sever, who died in April at age 92, was a member of the Rotary Club of Potomac, Maryland. An infectious disease specialist at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Sever recommended in 1979 that Rotary make polio eradication a global goal, expanding what began as a national vaccine campaign in the Philippines.
It is hard to imagine where we would stand today without Sever’s decades of leadership, expertise, and advocacy. In August, I was honored to present his family with the International Service Award for a Polio-Free World and a crystal recognition piece in Sever’s name.
What he helped initiate, PolioPlus, became an example of implementing an action plan in Rotary. Thanks to him — and the volunteerism and generosity of countless others — polio cases have decreased by more than 99 percent since 1988.
The path to our goal could not have been predicted and may take longer than expected. There are sometimes setbacks, as we experienced with increased cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan this year.
But we get back on our feet. This year, we ended an outbreak of wild poliovirus in Malawi and Mozambique that was caused by an importation from Pakistan in 2021, and we decreased variant poliovirus cases. Rotary and our partners stay flexible, developing new tactics while staying focused on the long-term goal, with optimism.
Delivering a polio-free world with stronger health systems and communities is not only right for humanity but also a smart investment in future generations. It will be Rotary’s greatest gift to the world.
Countless heroes have followed Sever’s lead — from the club president who organized her first End Polio Now fundraiser to the advocates, donors, and volunteers. We are all part of this story.
With your support, this year’s World Polio Day will be the greatest ever. Donate to End Polio Now at rotary.org/donate. Your gift will be tripled, thanks to the 2-to-1 match by the Gates Foundation. Join or initiate a PolioPlus Society in your club or district. Raise awareness in your community about how we will eradicate a human disease for only the second time in history.
Whatever you do, do it for future generations who will live without this debilitating disease. Let us deliver on our promise to the world’s children and end polio forever.
You can find all prior "Messages from the Foundation Trustee Chair" at this LINK
In 1997, Ezra Teshome traveled from his home in Seattle to a Rotary peace conference in Ethiopia, where he was born and raised. Rotarians there were organizing National Immunization Days. In one village, Teshome met a man and his 8-year-old daughter, who had polio. The man thought the visitors were there to cure her. He asked Teshome for help.
“For the whole day, it really bothered me that the child was crippled for the rest of her life, for the loss of two drops of vaccine,” says Teshome, a member of the Rotary Club of University District of Seattle. “When I came back to the United States, I said, ‘I will come back every year to participate in National Immunization Days with my Rotarian friends.’”
Image credit: Monika Lozinska
The next year, about 24 people came with him. Almost every year since, he’s taken anywhere from 60 to 80 people at one time to administer vaccinations.
Ethiopia’s mountainous terrain and hot weather make transporting vaccines difficult. “When you walk three, four hours without any refrigeration system, the vaccine could start to spoil,” Teshome says. “We have built clinics and asked people to bring their kids there.” These clinics are also equipped to meet other public health needs in the communities.
The impact of Teshome’s trips has spread in other ways too. Rotarians attending his trips have helped install nearly 100 water projects throughout the country, provide 120 shelter homes, and donate ambulances.
Time magazine named Teshome a global health hero at the 2005 Time Global Health Summit. That year, Ethiopia’s national immunization campaign reached 16 million children. Looking ahead, Teshome wants to continue providing clean water access in Ethiopia, contribute to peace in the region — and see a worldwide end to polio.
This story originally appeared in the October 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.
.png)
.png)
