Posted by Dora Dye on Aug 10, 2022
Past President JT ForbusPast President JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) called the meeting to order at 12:16 PM and welcomed everyone attending either online or in person inside the Anzu Restaurant. President Christopher Wiseman (Nonprofit Management | Glaucoma Research Foundation) was on vacation and will return at our next luncheon.
 
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Today's Visiting Rotarians were Terry Chu from the Rotary Club of Shanghai and Sandhya Jaiprakash of the Rotary Club of Bangalore. Our guests were Rex Vokey; Derick Yih - guest of Jeff Yih (Retired); Dan Carico - husband of Esther Lerner (Law: Family | Lerner Poole & Stewart, LLP); Georgie Evans - guest of Bill Gregory (Educational Services | Retired); and today's speaker - Kevin McCormack.
 
Meeting Volunteers
Past President JT thanked today's meeting volunteers (listed at the end of this story).
 
August 2022 Birthdays
Dan Davies (Information Technology: Consulting | North American Lighting) was asked to lead the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to members celebrating a birthday in August. 
 
 
A Member's Experience in Japan
Dan Davies shared his recent experiences living and working in Japan. While there, he visited the Rotary Club of Fukue in Gotō, Nagasaki and compared that Rotary club to ours.
 
 
Heidi KuhnAn Update from Roots of Peace
Heidi Kuhn (Peace Building | Roots of Peace) shared a video entitled "Footsteps for Peace" filmed on February 24, 2022, the day that Russia invaded Ukraine. She also talked about life in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021. Her organization, Roots of Peace, celebrates its 25th anniversary, and Heidi invited us to the anniversary celebration on September 8, 2022 in Napa Valley, California.
 
 
RYLA 2022
Past President JT shared his experience while visiting the 2022 RYLA camp on August 6, 2022. He was thoroughly impressed to meet students who were ready to make an impact on the social issues that we now face. Todd St Vrain (Education: Administration | University of Melbourne) chimed in to share his experience as a first-time RYLA facilitator and encouraged others to consider this role.
 
Thank you again to these Rotarians from our Club who served at this year's RYLA Camp: Lynn Luckow (Development | LikeMinded.org), David Dye (Management Consulting | Retired), Steve Lindstrom (Software Engineering | Chairish.com), Lisa Christian (Development), Todd St Vrain, and John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates).
 
There was a drawing for two RYLA bags of camp goodies. The winners were visiting Rotarian Terry Chu from the Rotary Club of Shanghai and Sally Swanson (Engineering, Architecture, and Construction | Sally Swanson Architects).
 
 
Club Calendar and Events for Rotarians
Check the Club's calendar for upcoming meetings and events. At the end of today's meeting was the first of several Rotary 101 sessions.
 
New Member Inducted
Past President JT and our Vice President of Membership Margaret Miley (Hospitality: Hotels | Retired) inducted CJ Albano (Insurance: Life | New York Life) as the newest member of our Club. Her mentor is Brian Lan (Information Technology: Financial Services | DocuSign). Welcome to CJ!
 
 
Guest Speaker
Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing | GRANTdog) introduced today's speaker - Kevin McCormack. Kevin and Rhonda are coincidentally neighbors, and Rhonda shared the amusing story of how she found out that Kevin would be today's speaker.
 
Kevin is the director of patient advocacy at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). He shared some fascinating cases of how stem cell treatment turned life around for those afflicted with debilitating illnesses. Past President JT thanked Kevin and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in his name.
 
 
Door Prize
Immediate Past President Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales | JM Real Estate Group) announced the winner of today's door prize: Margaret Miley won a bottle of champagne.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 1:33 p.m.
 
 
Editor's Note: Thank you to Dora Dye (Education: Elementary and Community College) for serving as scribe at this meeting; to Jim Patrick (Retail: Office Supplies | Patrick & Co.) for serving as photographer; to Dan Davies for managing the microphone; to Kurt Burdick of the Academy of Art University for managing the audio-visual equipment during our in-person meeting; to Maureen O'Shea (Governmental Relations | Retired) and Margaret Miley for serving as greeters; to Scott Plakun (Management Consulting | The Plakun Group) and immediate past president Mary Liu for managing those who were attending via Zoom; and to Gary Dales (Accounting | Fly Leasing) for doing check-in at the Hotel Nikko.