Caroline Fowler is a Deputy District Attorney with the County of Sonoma, in the Environmental Consumer Law Division. She has been in that position since 2016. Prior to joining the District Attorney’s Office, Caroline was the City Attorney for the City of Santa Rosa for approximately 7 years and prior to that was an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Santa Rosa for 8 years. Before joining the City Attorney’s office, Caroline was in private practice in both Los Angeles and Sonoma Counties practicing in a variety of areas for 18 years.
Our speaker for Thursday, January 18, 2024, was Kathryn Nelson, the Station Manager for KRCB-FM in Rohnert Park. KRCB-FM is part of Nor Cal Public Media. Kathryn is a native Californian and has managed commercial music and new stations for many years. Prior to joining KRCB, Kathryn was the Operations Manager at KPBS in San Diego.
Kathryn’s talk focused on KRCB's program called One Small Step created by StoryCorps. This program seeks to bridge the gap that divides American by putting two people with different political views together to discuss their common issues. The goal is for the people not to discuss their political views but to get to know each other as people and find their common ground. These are typically video-taped 50-minute conversations. Some of these conversations are edited for brevity and broadcast on KRCB. The concept is largely based on the “contact theory,” which suggests that intergroup contact under controlled conditions can effectively reduce prejudice and stereotypes among people with divergent political and social views. KRCB is actively seeking participants to engage in these discussions. Kathryn noted that it has been difficult to recruit conservatives, many of whom have concerns about such participation. KRCB partners with several community groups, including SSU, Braver Angels, and the Sonoma County Library, on this project.
Thank you, Kathryn, for bringing this interesting and imaginative program to our attention. Good luck!
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!
As printed in The Lark provided by MJ Girard at our meeting last week, the Mark West Area Community Fund continues to move forward with purchasing property for the new mark West Area park located near the intersection of Old Redwood Highway and Mark West Springs Road. The fund will officially take title of to the property in spring 2024. The fund has been busy working with Community Soils, a local non-profit, to design the park thanks to the great ideas of local school children and the community. Stay tuned for a ribbon cutting celebration announcement. To stay updated on the park, please visit www.markwestarea.org/park.
Also featured in The Lark newsletter, is a full page introduction and interview with MJ Girard for joining the Chamber Board of Directors, and a 1/3 page New Member Spotlight featuring William Billeter. Did our fine master, Kent, collect?
Rotary members are working with the Finnish Environment Institute to collect, categorize, and measure trash in the Baltic Sea. “Scientists have little time for this kind of work,” explains Liisa Stjernberg, a past governor of District 1420 and a member of the Rotary Club of Helsinki City West. Stjernberg, the Finland country coordinator for the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group, leads a group of volunteer members from her district who monitor blue algae blooms, raise funds for research, and promote marine conservation. In September the group enlisted 22 Rotary Youth Exchange students to join a measurement outing off the islands of Suomenlinna. They fished out trash including polymer fibers and shock tube detonators used in construction, Stjernberg says. Afterward they took up their oars for another cause: the Rotary-led “Rowing for Herring” longboat regatta, which drew 300 participants.
Nepal
Dr. Anand Jha, a pediatrician and past president of the Rotary Club of Birganj, noticed that many children in his region of Nepal, about 50 miles south of Kathmandu, were underweight. “Most parents would feed only [cow’s] milk to their children,” says Jha. “As a result, the children were mostly iron-deficient,” a condition easily addressed with an improved diet. Since 2018, Jha has conducted 11 conferences on child nutrition, attracting as many as 80 parents at each session. The events include discussions of problems parents face, including, he says, the challenge of steering children from junk food. “I try to give them practical solutions. The biggest mistake that parents make is that they do not plan the diet” and fail to consider the nutritional value of foodstuffs, he says. Members of the Birganj club assist with the logistics and the management of the sessions.
This story originally appeared in the January 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.
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Rotary members are working with the 
Dr. Anand Jha, a pediatrician and past president of the Rotary Club of Birganj, noticed that many children in his region of Nepal, about 50 miles south of Kathmandu, were underweight. “Most parents would feed only [cow’s] milk to their children,” says Jha. “As a result, the children were mostly iron-deficient,” a condition easily addressed with an improved diet. Since 2018, Jha has conducted 11 conferences on child nutrition, attracting as many as 80 parents at each session. The events include discussions of problems parents face, including, he says, the challenge of steering children from junk food. “I try to give them practical solutions. The biggest mistake that parents make is that they do not plan the diet” and fail to consider the nutritional value of foodstuffs, he says. Members of the Birganj club assist with the logistics and the management of the sessions.