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We had the pleasure of hearing Olivia Kristensen; CEO of Pets Lifeline, share her journey on how she became the leader of this impactful and dynamic non-profit organization, which was awarded 2023 Non-Profit of the Year by the Sonoma Chamber of Commerce. 
Prior to her involvement with Pets Lifeline, Olivia had a lucrative career in the tech industry. She began her climb to success at Yahoo where she oversaw their video production department. She then transitioned to Uber Aviation, a lesser known but extremely fascinating subset of the Uber brand. They worked on creating human flying drones to replace helicopters. This method of aviation engineering takes away many of the dangers associated with flying a helicopter. During the pandemic, Uber sold their aviation division to a company called Joby. Olivia spearheaded the IPO of Joby in 2021, and once that was successfully accomplished, she took an opportunity to use her skillset at Twitter. She enjoyed her tenure at Twitter, but when Elon Musk acquired the company, she was tasked with creating a strategy to cut 25% of the Twitter workforce. The day before she was going to execute her plan, she was laid off. The cut went from 25% to 50%. This event ended up being the best thing that could have happened to her. She decided in 2021 to move to Sonoma and work remotely. Two years of living in Sonoma led her to make great connections in the community, and she was finally able to pursue her calling: animal welfare. Shortly following her layoff from Twitter, she began volunteering at Pets Lifeline. She stocked the pet food pantry and socialized cats regularly. She was then invited to serve on their board of directors, and early this year she was hired to be their CEO. Like many non-profit organizations, Pets Lifeline came from humble beginnings. It was founded in 1982 out of two women's cars who rescued cats and adopted them out of their vans. In 1987 their first brick and mortar center were built. Pets Lifeline continued to grow. In 2021 the organization moved into an 8,500 sq foot building. Their current animal resource center offers dog training classes, a pet food pantry, and has a free clinic for members of the community to spay and neuter their pets, get vaccines for their furry friends, and also get them microchipped. They have vets who volunteer to provide these services. One of their missions is to minimize the impact of over population of animals in our community. From 2021 to 2023, their community clinic has grown 87%, serving hundreds of pets in the Sonoma Community. During the pandemic when the world shut down, there was a large rate of pet adoptions. Sadly, once the world began to go back to normal, and it became necessary for most people in the American work force to report back to the office, animals have been surrendered to shelters in droves. Inflation and our current economic climate have made this even more of an issue. Now that shelters are not horribly impacted, the larger county shelters have no other option than to euthanize pets. Olivia has done tremendous work in her first quarter as CEO. She has worked tirelessly to get the animals out into the community in order to broaden their chances of adoption. She partners with Petsmart, Petco, Brocco's Barn, and Bartholomew Winery. Brocco's and Bartholomew have a large open space to allow animals to romp around and capture the hearts of their future owners. Olivia and her team at Pets Lifeline also understand that due to limitations with transportation, many low incomes pet owners cannot bring their pet to their resource center. With the support and partnership of Homeless Action Sonoma and La Luz, Pets Lifeline can now go to pet owners and provide food, vaccinations, microchipping, spay, and neutering. They use their adoption van to make this happen. They have also expanded their mobile services by collaborating with Sonoma County Animal Control who has a mobile surgery van. Animal Control supplies the van, Pets Lifeline provides the veterinary care and supplies to execute to successful spay or neuter surgery. Pets Lifeline is also working closely with the Boys and Girls Club and Sonoma Mentoring Alliance to provide scholarships for summer camps for low-income kids-Jr. Dog Training for kids 12-17-years-old. Olivia astutely pointed out that the human needs to be trained more than the dog at times. This program will provide these kids the tools to train dogs properly while empowering them and boosting their confidence. There is no doubt that Bob Barker is smiling down from heaven. Besides making sure that your furry friend is spayed or neutered, other ways we can contribute to Pets Lifeline are through grants, sponsorships, donations, and volunteering. For more information, visit: https://www.petslifeline.org/ Click HERE to view a limited-time recording of Olivia's program.
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The Rotary Club of Macau’s meeting place — one of the world’s most profitable casinos — has turned out to be an ace in the hole for the club. Sands China, the operator of The Venetian Macao, sponsors the club’s signature project, a Christmas party for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It supports the gala that is the club’s primary fundraiser. And in December, Sands employees were among about 200 volunteers involved in a club effort to assemble 27,000 hygiene kits destined for the Philippines. The packages were provided to an organization that collects bath items from hospitality companies to be recycled and redistributed. Club President João Francisco Pinto says the club’s projects align with Sands’ philanthropic endeavors.
Nigeria has one of the world’s highest breast cancer mortality rates, a statistic that has not gone unnoticed by the Rotary Club of Ikoyi. “With an incredibly scary rise of the incidence of breast cancer in Nigeria, the club became saddled with the huge responsibility of combating this scourge with every resource available,” says club member Winifred Ebiye Imbasi. The club partnered with the Sarah Ayoka Oduwaiye Foundation to conduct free breast cancer screenings for more than 500 women at Lagos Island General Hospital in July 2023 and for 400 women in the neighborhood of Obalende in December. In January, the club held a Jazz Nite concert and awards ceremony at the Alliance Française theater to raise awareness.