Thursday, June 6th we will meet at Canine Companions for an offsite meeting.
We will be in West Training Room #4 and there is parking close by.
Their address is 2965 Dutton Avenue, SR.
The meeting will start at 7:15, so please be on time. We will have breakfast (everything except for quiche). There will be a short meeting and then Kristin Dambrowski, the Executive Director of Canine Companions will give us a short presentation on the program. She will be followed by a demonstration by one of their trainers, which is always fun to see. Then we will be given a brief tour of their new building (not fully completed yet) and see one of the kennels of which has or will be named after our club.
Stacy, Peter T. & Harry will be your breakfast crew for the 6th.
The Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway, by Katharine Anderson
Our Speaker on May 30, 2024 was club member, Katharine Anderson. Katherine earned a master’s degree in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She has more than 30 years of professional architecture experience. She also teaches at the School of Landscape Architecture at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. The subject of Katharine’s talk was Santa Rosa’s Southeast Greenway.
Last week Cal Trans agreed to sell the Southeast Greenway to the City of Santa Rosa for $1.86 million. The Greenway consists of 49 acres and is 100’ wide and 2 miles long. It starts at the corner of Farmers Lane and Highway 12 and runs near Hoen Avenue, across Summerfield Rd., and up to Spring Lake park. The original idea was to use it to continue Highway 12 to Spring Lake and build a bridge over the lake, but the Santa Rosa public helped convince Cal Trans to scrap that idea. The original path of the Highway 12 extension (the Greenway) has remained fallow ever since. The Greenway will eventually become Santa Rosa’s newest park. As a result of community visioning efforts, the Greenway will be zoned in large part as a park rather than housing or commercial land, resulting in the relatively low price of the Greenway in the sale to the City. The visioning included 200 people working in 20 small groups to determine the best uses of the Greenway. Once a Master Plan is developed, the Greenway is likely to be used for bicycle and pedestrian trails, open space and habitat, community gardens and gathering spots, recreation, education, public art, culture, and to address climate adaptation. Some of the Greenway may also be used to develop housing, most likely in the Highway 12/Farmers Land area, since that area is central to public services, shopping, and transportation.
The Greenway will become an “urban park,” similar in some respects to the D.C. Mall, New York’s Central Park, and a major park in Toronto. It may also connect to the Bay Area Ridge Trail and even the proposed Taylor Mt. Park. Turning the Greenway into a park would also be very attractive to residents who live in its lower reaches, since those residents tend to have lower income, live in apartments, and live further from other parks than the residents further to the east along the Greenway. The residents to the east along the Greenway more frequently own their homes, live in less dense environments, and have greater access to parks, such as Spring Lake and Howarth. The Greenway is also a realistic slice of the ecology of Santa Rosa: going from the western end towards the eastern end, the land starts as lowland oak savannah and increases in elevation as it heads eastward, with ecological changes to mixed oak, riparian woodland, grassland, and marshes/wetlands on the eastern end.
The future of the Greenway will be determined by the Master Plan, which will likely take between 2 and 4 years to complete. The build-out will follow. The City will own and manage the park. Katharine says that there are plenty of volunteer opportunities with the Greenway campaign, including writers, advocates, social media experts, and fundraisers.
Thank you Katharine for all of your hard work in helping the Santa Rosa Southeast become a reality, and for giving us this comprehensive and thoughtful presentation!
Click HERE to see a limited-time recording of Katharine's presentation.
This week in 2008 - New Member Stacy Drucker-Andress
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!
Several thousand, young and much younger came Saturday to Sonoma County's Pride parade on Santa Rosa's Fourth Street. 100 entries from across the county, public and private groups marched, sang, danced, even demonstrated Olympic style gymnastics in support of LGBTQ + friends, co-workers, spouses, siblings and children.
Congressman Mike Thompson rode in style shaded by an apparent 10 gallon Stetson, atop a cherry champagne colored Cadillac convertible.
Among the many entrants were our local employing businesses: The Press Democrat, Exchange Bank, County office of Education, Santa Rosa Police and Fire Departments and energizer Sonoma Clean Power. The Living Room, a Sunrise supported recovery center was also represented.
In Old Courthouse Square exhibitors provided answers to FAQ's, even cool protective sunglasses ~thank you Sonoma Clean Power! Harm reduction education was offered by LEAD Law Enforcement Against Drugs. Professionals with Pride Chamber of Commerce promotes networking, building relationships and support with other professionals.
Observing the diversity and inclusiveness surrounding this event gave a welcome reminder of Sonoma County's creative and engaging breadth of character.
Last Saturday eight Sunrisers, a like number of East/West Rotarians and two SRJC Rotoracters finished off their bowls of Wheaties and spent the morning shoveling soil and compost into wheelbarrows and filling new metal garden beds at the Stony Point Community Garden in the Roseland district. When you call in Rotarians they pretty quickly sort themselves into a well oiled machine, and this project was a good example. A parade of wheelbarrows stopped for soil refills by Mary and Peter Banks and son Mark, tried not to run into each other passing through the Garden gate and shoveled 22 new 18-inch tall beds to readiness for vegetable starts, before returning for more dirt.
At 10 wheelbarrows full per bed, that’s 220 trips back and forth. By noon the team was sweaty, beat and feeling the satisfaction of a job well-done.
Stony Point Community Garden, established in 2010, has 35 neighborhood beds which provide places for families to grow healthy food, and 10 new 28’ long Donation Beds, the produce from which goes to the F.I.S.H. Foodbank on Sebastopol Road. Sunrise Rotary supports F.I.S.H. with direct community grants and indirectly through volunteer time at the Community Garden.
It’s customary for a Rotary president in the final month in office to recap the past year on this page, and I am proud of all we have achieved together. But I want to focus on our future, and that begins with polio.
We have reached an astonishing 3 billion children with the polio vaccine, and we have averted an estimated 20 million cases of paralysis. But it’s not enough. We must continue supporting the End Polio Now campaign to reach zero cases and keep our promise to the world’s children.
Polio is not our only global commitment. In fact, Rotary has been working toward global peace even longer. Spreading Positive Peace through service projects and Rotary Peace Centers around the world is more important than ever.
We must also continue to build peace from within, and that begins with supporting mental health and wellness among our fellow Rotary members and the communities we serve. Rotary has an opportunity to help build a global mental health system that currently does not exist, and I urge all members to consider joining the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives to keep up the momentum we began this year.
It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve as your president. You have given Heather and me memories we will cherish forever. I look forward to our continued friendship and our collective commitment to Create Hope in the World.
You can find all prior "RI President's Messages" at this LINK
Every June, we in Rotary look back at our accomplishments and plan for what’s next. For me, this month is the end of seven years in Rotary leadership that began as president-elect of RI.
It’s remarkable how far we have come during that time, and how much we’ve done through The Rotary Foundation. We wouldn’t be where we are without your support and without you dreaming big.
A few months back, I saw these big dreams when I visited a hospital in India where doctors perform 4,200 pediatric heart surgeries a year thanks to a global grant. I will never forget the hospital in Taiwan where ambulances funded by another Foundation grant have doubled the survival rate for heart patients. And these examples barely scratch the surface; your Foundation awarded 1,098 global grants during the 2022-23 Rotary year. Think about the scale of that work — the magnitude of our impact.
Our Programs of Scale initiatives around the world are more proof of how big dreams are becoming reality. We have grant recipients working to end malaria in Zambia, reduce the mortality rate of mothers and infants in Nigeria, and eliminate cervical cancer in Egypt. Soon, our fourth program of scale will get started, dedicated to sustainable farming in India.
Through your support, our dream of spreading peace is growing, with the Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center set to welcome its first students at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul next year. And if we hadn’t envisioned a better world and supported PolioPlus, would it have been possible that Nigeria would be declared polio-free, as it was in 2020?
This is why your support of the Foundation is so critical. We set an ambitious fundraising goal of $500 million this year. We are well on our way to reaching the goal, and with the support of everyone reading this we’ll make it. I’m especially counting on Rotary members who have not yet contributed. Whatever you give, know that your gift will make a difference, whether it’s for polio eradication, literacy initiatives, peace education, or any other area in which Rotary excels.
These seven years have been a fantastic run for me. I have met so many passionate leaders in Rotary, Rotaract, Interact, and other members of our Rotary family. You have all inspired me with your drive and the big dreams you dare to dream.
All I can do is say thank you. I can’t wait to see how far those Rotary dreams will take us in the years ahead.
You can find all prior "Messages from the Foundation Trustee Chair" at this LINK
Rotary International Convention in Singapore concludes with optimism
Messages of peace and progress, anticipation for 2025 convention in Calgary inspire attendees
By Etelka Lehoczky and John M. Cunningham
After five days of friendship, excitement, and cultural connections, the 2024 Rotary International Convention in Singapore ended with a focus on the future. Speakers emphasized Rotary’s continuing mission to promote peace and goodwill and previewed next year’s gathering in Calgary, Canada.
Fostering understanding was a central theme of the day, as Rotary Peace Fellows María Antonia Pérez and Clara-Valentine Tigenoah celebrated the 25th year since the Rotary Peace Centers program was announced.
“To believe in peace is to have hope, and to do so, one must be both stubborn and optimistic, and be eager to persist and make a difference,” Pérez said. Rotary International President R. Gordon R. McInally emphasized Rotary’s long-standing commitment to building peace and noted that the topic has been a key interest almost since Rotary began.
“Our dedication to building a more peaceful world has its ups and downs, but it has been a critical part of how we define ourselves, going back even before the First World War,” McInally said. “From our earliest days, we have always had a vision of our organization as something more than just the people we see right in front of us and the direct results of our service projects.”
The day’s breakout sessions included even more discussion of peacebuilding, with topics such as Innovating Peace Education in Times of Crisis and Understanding the Global Peace Index.
Two breakout sessions focused on starting new clubs. During the session Rotary Your Way: Form the Club You Always Wanted, people learned key steps in the process, from finding a champion to help organize the club to choosing the club’s leaders.
RI President R. Gordon R. McInally addresses the closing general session of the 2024 Rotary International Convention in Singapore.
Speakers emphasized that cause-based and interest-based clubs are a popular way to attract new members, noting that clubs can be formed among alumni of the same school, professionals in similar fields, or people who want to address a particular problem.
“Look in your own community for where Rotary is needed,” advised Virginia McKenzie of the Rotary Club of The Pacific Northwest Ending Sex Trafficking, which is in Washington, USA. Yvonne Kumoji-Darko of the Rotary Club of Accra-South, Ghana, helped charter more than a dozen Rotary clubs as a district governor in 2020-21. She suggested inviting friends, relatives, community leaders, and local media outlets to a club’s charter celebration to help it launch successfully.
Krishnan Chittur of the Rotary Club of Hudson Valley, New York, USA, offered another approach during the session We Formed a New Club in One Week, And So Can You!
Chittur described how he generated enthusiasm for a project to increase access to new technology that detects breast cancer. After he explained Rotary to community members who were interested in the project, they decided to form a club to help implement the initiative.
As the 2024 convention ended, people began thinking about when the global Rotary community would gather again to share experiences, get ideas, and connect with friends. “There are few moments more magical in Rotary than attending a convention,” said Bryn Styles, chair of the 2025 Calgary Convention Committee and a member of the Rotary Club of Barrie-Huronia, Ontario, Canada.
Calgary is home to people of more than 240 ethnicities who speak 165 languages, Styles said. He also touted the world-famous Calgary Stampede, which will begin several days after the convention ends.
“While in Calgary, you will be mere moments away from the stunning Rocky Mountains, soaking in the majesty of the natural beauty all around you,” Styles said. “Within driving distance of Calgary, you can find not one, but six UNESCO sites, including Waterton-Glacier [International] Peace Park,” which Rotarians helped establish.
In the House of Friendship, visitors shared their anticipation for the next convention.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what Calgary is about,” said Ken Montville, a member of the Rotary Club of Salisbury, Maryland, USA. “I’ve got my hotel reservations and registration. All I need is the airline ticket.”
Aniello Giugliano, a member of the Rotary Club of Canelli-Nizza Monferrato, Italy, called attending the convention “addictive.” “I’m going to Calgary because I’m a Rotarian, and the Rotary convention is all about meeting other Rotarians,” he said.
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