Club members were treated to an insider’s view of NASA’s space program from our March 10 speaker, Cristy Kumasaka, the principal quality assurance engineer for Aerojet Rocketdyne of Redmond, WA, and is part of the A-Team working on both the Orion and Artemis projects for NASA. 

Joining Cristy for our Zoom meeting were her parents Steve and Maria Mathews, longtime members of the Rotary Club of Peoria North and Mill Creek Rotary Club.

Cristy has worked for Aerojet for 22 years, starting with an internship while working toward her degree in engineering. As a side note, Cristy credits her career to the day that she attended a meeting of her mother’s Rotary Club and learned about Aerojet from the meeting’s speaker.

NASA’s Artemis program will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon to explore the lunar surface like never before. This bold endeavor will begin with the Artemis I launch - an uncrewed flight test.

Artemis I is the first integrated test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. SLS and Orion will blast off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to send Orion into a lunar distant retrograde orbit – a wide orbit around the Moon that is farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has ever traveled. The uncrewed mission will validate the design and safety of SLS and Orion for human exploration missions to follow.

SLS is the nation’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket that will carry humans farther and faster into deep space than ever before. Aerojet Rocketdyne provides the four powerful RS-25 main engines used to help propel SLS with over 2 million pounds of thrust, as well as the RL10 engine that propels the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), or the second stage, of the SLS. This engine provides the power to accelerate the Orion spacecraft to speeds more than 20,000 mile per hour and set it on a course for the Moon.

SF Chinatown members Liz Mark and Rhonda Pierce described the joy and rewards of volunteering with H2Open Doors during our virtual meeting on Feb. 10. Each has participated in multiple projects with the humanitarian organization, the most recent at a hospital in Guatemala.

They joined a group from the Santa Cruz Rotary Club, which funded a water filtration system for the hospital. Those volunteers along with H2Open Doors founder Jon Kaufman and local workers to install the system which daily provides 40,000 liters of purified water for the emergency and operating rooms, ICU, pediatric, neo-natal and other hospital facilities. The availability of clean water is expected to drastically reduce infections, sickness and deaths.

In a sister project, Rotary volunteers assisted local physicians to conduct a free eye clinic.”We tested 280 people and handed out 230 pairs of free reading glasses, plus 100 pairs of non-prescription sunglasses,” Liz said.

The two agree that participating in a H2Open Doors project is a life-changing experience. For more information, visit www.H2OpenDoors.org

Central Police Station Captain Julian Ng and Officer Chris Sabella were our special guests for the club’s 7th annual First Responder Recognition. This year’s event, which took place virtually via Zoom, focused on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001,terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and crashed an airliner near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in 2,977 fatalities and over 25,000 injuries.

Captain Ng recalled that on 9/11 he was an officer in the Bayview district and had just gotten off the night shift when he saw TV coverage of the towers falling. “I couldn’t help but think, what if that happened in San Francisco?” he said. “But I know what would happen. Firefighters and police here would do the same — we wouldn’t run away, we’d rush towards the disaster. That’s our job.”

“We have to be prepared, and we are,” Ng said. 

Officer Sabella said he was a high school freshman and vividly remembers the morning of the attacks. “It’s one of the things that spurred me to become a police officer,” he said, adding that his older brother is a firefighter and another brother is an EMT.

Foundation Chair Riki Intner surprised Captain Ng with a special gift from the club, a $1,000 donation naming him a Paul Harris Fellow. He received a lapel pin and certificate from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International what states, “In appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.”

Noticeably moved, Captain Ng thanked the club for this “tremendous honor.” 

Co-President Aline Estournes reported that pastries, goodies and ice cream were being delivered to Central Police Station for all the officers and staff to enjoy. Our hope is that next year, our First Responder Recognition will be an in-person celebration.

Club members enjoyed an evening of conversation, awards, laughter and praise for successfully completing a Rotary year of virtual meetings during the Change Over Dinner on Friday, June 25.

The club returned in person to Fisherman’s Wharf ––  at Swiss Louis Italian Seafood Restaurant on Pier 39 –– where Co-Presidents Suzanne Varacalli and Roger Kaufman passed the gavel to  Aline Estournes and Erk Scheller, now serving as Co-Presidents for the 2021-2022 year. Pictured l-r: Roger, Erik, Suzanne and Aline.

Suzanne and Roger reported that despite the Covid pandemic, our club gained three new members, Yvonne Curley, Bettie Grinnell and Randall Scott, and created a successful online fundraiser.

Janelle Estournes, the Americorps Disaster Services Coordinator for Sonoma and Napa Counties, presented a Red Cross program on “How to Prepare for an Emergency or Disaster” for our April 15 online meeting. She is a niece of club member and Co-President Elect Aline Estournes.

Noting that every county in California last year was struck by wildfires and other disastrous fires, Janelle focused on what should be included in an emergency kit and how individuals and families should plan and practice escape from a building or residence.

Members attending our March 18 via Zoom got a primer on the Magnolia Collection at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, a 55-acre living museum within Golden Gate Park that showcases more than 8,000 different kinds of plants from around the world. Our knowledgeable speakers were  Steve Gensler, the Garden’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Manager, and Victoria Stewart, Plant Records Manager.

We learned that there are 7,300 species of magnolias, one-third of which are located in China, and more than 300 species are considered threatened. Eric Walther, SF Botanical Garden director from 1937 to 1957, introduced magnolias, and trees located throughout the Garden are now the premier collection in the world outside of China. The blooming season is January-March.

The Garden’s oldest magnolia tree, at 99 years, is this Magnolia Campbelli.

Our February 11 speaker was John McNulty, a founding principal and architect of MBH Architects.  He and two other self-described “ambitious” architects founded the firm in 1989, and it continues to be headquartered today in Alameda with offices in NYC, Denver, Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

John is a member of the advisory council for SPUR and serves on the board for the Good Tidings Foundation.  As a former board member of the SF Chapter of AIA, he is a frequent guest lecturer at UC Berkeley, where he received his degree in Environmental Design.

Club member Aline Estournes said John is a dear friend of 32 years. They first met soon after she began her property management career with the Northpoint complex and he was involved with work there following the 1989 earthquake.

John said that “Reimagine” is a core mission of MBH Architects. He showed slides and described the evolution of various projects around San Francisco, including the recently completed building at Grant and Sutter, Harbor Lofts, North Beach Malt House, Northpoint Apartments, Wax Museum, Epic and Waterbar. 

More information and project photos can be found on the firm’s website, www.mbharch.com

Guest speaker for our Nov. 12th meeting was Lt Jonathan Baxter, Homeland Security Operations and Public Image Officer for the San Francisco Fire Department. He passed on fascinating facts about the department as well as helpful advice on how we should prepare our homes and work places for disasters like earthquakes and fires.

Thanks to Lt. Baxter, we now know that the SF Fire Department has 47 fire engines, 22 ladder trucks, 55 ambulances, 3 fireboats, 1,780 firefighters and 47 fire stations, including 3 at the San Francisco Airport.

He urged members to become involved with their local NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team), which will be essential in saving lives during a major disaster. Included in his virtual presentation were these “be prepared” and “make a plan” tips.

Speaker for our Aug. 13 meeting was Keith Axtell, Past President of the Rotary Club of Marin Evening who has been a leader in organizing international humanitarian projects through Rotary. He described the COVID-19 Project in Guayaquil, Ecuador, which our club supports. The project will provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to doctors and nurses in 15-17 hospitals, including 20,000 face masks and 800 uniforms, all produced in Ecuador.

Keith also updated us on other Rotary projects in Ecuador, including a water well for the Henry Davis Orphanage in Quito, and a micro-credit lending program for new businesses and training center in the Esmeralda Province.