Susan Kealey mentioned the Performing Arts Center which offers nice programs, and encouraged the club to check it out some time. Liz Schuck said that she had been to that center and that they do have good programs, but it was unfortunate that the outside of the building looked rather sad, but she won’t think so in future. Susan noted that the Rotary Club of Pacifica has a little garden area in that center with a lot or plaques.
There were no more announcements, so President Irwin – stepping in for the meeting -- went on to his “cookie time” “Name This Tune” game where he plays a snippet of music and listeners have to guess the name of the tune. (Liz joking declared she knew she was going to win.) After a few moments’ pause to get the technology going, someone guessed “The Sound of Silence” but that was not it – Irwin played brief clip of lively music, to which Drew guessed the theme music to “Peter Gunn” by Henry Mancini. “So smart,” Irwin said, and asked the name of the actor who had played Peter Gunn. Confusion followed; some said they could visualize his face but did not know the name. So he passed the “pig” – the donation bucket – around.
He also asked if anyone had signed up for the Youth Protection program which was not difficult, and that Dianne Bobko could help and we really should participate in the program. He added that Nancy and he had attended the Peace Conference in Rohnert Park and it was “amazing,” and if we ever had a chance to do an “extracurricular program” this was the one, to get you “super charged.” It triggered him to think about the recent big fires that had happened in terms of equilibrium, and how its components were fuel, oxygen, heat which require combustion. If you take away any of these, combustion doesn’t happen. Here, the combustion is hate. So similarly, if you take away fear and anger by educating people, it’s hard to hate.
This was the theme Irwin said he kept hearing, over and over, in the program. One thing that struck him as he walked around different areas hearing different parts of the program, was how this had to do with youth and education. If you educate kids, chances are they’ll grow up not hating. He recalled a big program that impressed him that we had last summer with Richard Goldstein from Saratoga, who spoke on the “Ambassadors of Compassion,” which starts in the second grade. It began in 2010, was written and published, and he cited statistics saying 81 percent of teens 13-17 who suffer stress associated with schooling due to Covid, 58 percent of teens are concerned about their own mental health. Once this program was introduced in the United States, there were 52 percent fewer unexcused absences, 88 percent fewer assertive disciplinary interactions, 30 percent increase in aid, and 48 percent decrease in (didn’t get the word.) How did they do this? They empowered the kids, did breakout sessions with counselors, students were taught to lead and taught emotional strength, forgiveness and release of pain, and the kids were taught to counsel themselves. This nationwide program has been backed by the 49ers. Were schools here implementing this?
Drew spoke of PBIS, a proactive emotional program which, rather than stressing rules and consequences, centers on what we want them to do in their behavior, such as interacting with other students. It starts right at the very beginning (I think he mentioned kindergarten.)
These are directed at problem kids, Irwin asked, and could be sponsored by local businesses? The idea, Drew said, with PCIS is like an intervention that could be used with students having severe problems. The program he’s referring to seeks to reduce that number so that the total number of students needing that intervention would be less.
He said that Nancy had more detail on what she saw. She proposed giving an overview and did so via images on a screen: When you see these, what do you think of? John Lennon, many answered. Most people think of war when seeing these images, she said, but that’s negative peace; what she proposes is positive peace, which Rotary is involved in and which consists of eight colors she was highlighting on the screen. That consists of equitable distribution of resources, good relations with neighbors, high levels of capital, acceptance of the right to vote (?), low levels of corruption and more. We’ve got a lot of work to do. Nancy continued: They say we should apply these eight pillars of peace to all our projects and to our club. In fact, there are peace-builder clubs, and she wants to look into that and see if anyone is interested.
She showed illustrations of ideas and examples: This requires action, and it takes little to change a life. At the program, they talked a lot about empowering girls; if you do that, you empower a community. Rotary is successful because it is not political or religious. She was amazed to see Rotary’s involvement in removing land mines in Afghanistan with help from the Taliban, or around polio in Pakistan with help from the Taliban. She mentioned a woman named Heidi in Petaluma, involved with the effort through Roots of Peace. “If not you, then who?” she asked, noting that we all need to step up to our individual responsibility for peace. Paul Harris said, “Ignorance is a nemesis to peace.” True and lasting peace begins in our heart and soul … This is the greatest crisis of our time, and she mentioned the Ambassadors of Compassion program.
She spoke of a Hollywood producer who got sick of Hollywood and, thinking he was losing resilience, looked at students. He discovered a lot of them weren’t resilient, but found parents were changing things they didn’t like. Without resilience, we can’t survive and thrive; and can’t have peace in the world.
She mentioned practices for building peace: that involves inspiration, purpose, researching the problems, setting up committees, collaborating with others, creating strategy and an action plan, and using Eight Words of Peace (?) and the Four-Way Test as guides. She had a question for all of us: What is missing on the coast, if change would promote peace? Where are the areas (on which) we can focus in our club? On the coast, that if we could change them, would promote greater peace?
Stacy Trevenon suggested, perhaps a deeper understanding of the cultural background and the cultural makeup of the people, as many people here have different backgrounds, see things differently – which is the way it is in our world – so, perhaps trying to step into deeper understanding of different people? Understanding why they choose war, conflict, as opposed to choosing more peaceful means of gaining their ends.
Rosi Fontana suggested that, since the newspaper (Half Moon Bay Review) went away, we’ve lost contact and connections with (local people, like neighbors), such as the Mayor, the City Council, their actions and decisions. We can go online to find out what’s going on, she said, but she really misses the newspaper, (Stacy Trevenon happily hissed “Yes!” and pumped her fist in the air) and, Irwin continued, supplanted by online.)
Susan Kealey mentioned that we can get a daily update via the newspaper (online,) through a subscription. Asked about the local educational system, Drew observed how what we are dealing with is how all the news out of Washington is putting part of our population in a state of terror. Attendance at the adult school is “way off,” because people are scared to leave their homes. So at the adult school, they are currently restructuring. The curriculum is set; they’re looking to change where and how they provide service.
Just this morning, Rosi had spoken with Senor Madrid, the person in charge of volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club, offering her services through a program; he had said right now the children are starting reading and English through a free online program, called storyrule.us. Children can access it either by phone, laptop or ipad; they hear the words being said, and the words light up; they can toggle back and forth for English and Spanish or Mandarin; and there is an assessment tool, to show them how they’re progressing. The children can go at their own pace, which is empowering. She will start this next week. She mentioned that she and Hal have parted ways, but she is very excited about having more time for herself. She can be reached through storyrule.us.
This is food for a later program, Irwin said. But for now, there was an announcement about a good book, “Peace in the Ancient Chaos,” by Steve Kiluaea, if you want to take a deep literary dive.
Rosi had some happy/crappy news: She spoke of her and Hal’s parting ways, for mental, physical and psychological reasons; he is very strong in his views, including about immigrant issues, which she found challenging. He needs his family and she needs hers, in different locales, so they parted ways very calmly. She will continue to give time to her involvement with causes such as Rotary’s Breakfast Brigade, Coastside Hope and as a literacy tutor with the Boys and Girls Club. And, as per the wishes of her kids, she is getting a chair lift. And she offered ideas for a club recipe book, mentioning that many Rotarian offered recipes to share, and she offered to collect the recipes and can take them all to Kinko’s to bind them into a book.
She shared her email – rmgfontana@yahoo.com – and invited collecting recipes for this very tempting book, which will include many categories, including appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and of course, tamales!!
Stacy suggested a few words of wisdom from each contributor, along with a recipe. That could involve food, the recipe, Rotary, general wisdom, or whatever. Liz suggested that it would be great to include family recipes.
Irwin called for a drum roll for the Magic Stone time, but John Evans had something to say: a suggestion as to what our club could do that could make a difference. He has seen the school district from multiple sides, but it’s difficult to know what’s happening in the schools, and if we could change that, it could make a difference. Drew indicated that just living here helps keep the community connected to the schools; Irwin mentioned algorithms. Finally Drew spoke of Ed helping to get two carloads of office and school supplies to the local schools.
Warren announced that about 150 dictionaries are on the way. And even though there is no Interact club, a sticker-pasting party is planned. In March, delivery of the books and presenting to the three schools – Farallone View, El Granada and Hatch -- will take place, as a team of Rotarians will visit the schools, talk about who we are and what we do, show the dictionaries, add For-Way Test stickers to the dictionaries and then pass them out. And don’t forget the fun parts, like suggesting a word for the kids to look up, like “fair,” a word right out of the Four-Way Test. Kids and grown-ups alike have a lot of fun doing this.
Speaking of magic stones, Warren went on to say that there is a Rotarian who is due for a new pin: Ed Daniels, a pin with two red stones, for his contributions to the Foundation.
Liz introduced the day’s speaker: Harish Khurana, from District 3090, zone 4, of the Rotary Club of Fatehabad, India. Liz had met him the previous day at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Foster City, which he was visiting with his wife. He was the District Chief Administrator in District 3090; she invited him to speak at our club, telling about his club and his town. Saying that she was jealous that he had already spoken at Foster City, Liz warned us all to get ready as we were going to be “blown away by what they’ve accomplished.”
Noting that he was “very happy to be here” since yesterday at the Foster City club, Harish began with sharing a little about himself: he is Jordanian and “joined the Rotary family” as a Rotaractor, serving as District Rotaract Rep from 1988-89. As such, he led 116 clubs in their district, and joined Rotary in 1992. Since becoming a Rotarian he has held various roles. He congratulated Mitone on, as Liz noted, being our District Governor next year.
District 3090 covers three states: Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. In those, there are some 135 Rotary clubs, with around 3,500 members; according to Harish, his district sponsored 27 new clubs in 2024. It has distributed artificial limbs. His own club has 40 members. For the Rotary Foundation, the district has collected $3 million dollars.
He mentioned CSA, which says that if you are running a business, you have to spend 10 percent of your club profits toward community service. One of their members contributed money toward CSA and supported an eye hospital. He wanted to know more about our club’s work in similar involvements.
He said he loves to come here and be with Rotarians, and wants to know more about what our club is doing, and mentioned interest in our distribution of polio vaccine to children. He mentioned that his club is supporting a community center in their area.
He said again how happy and thankful he is to see us, and supported our efforts to bring peace – something his community, and the youth in it, support. Spreading peace through the community and regions near it, is something “our kids like,” and “that is the best way I can think, to bring peace.” He looks forward to “telling about our club” when he gets home.
Great applause followed his talk. Lia gave him a flag from our district, and photos were taken. She told him about our club’s participation in helping to build this library.
Kevin asked, how many women are in his club? He said, out of 40 members, 12 are women. And he said that in their district, there was a club of all women, no men.
One more thing came up about their community center, in which they have invested $50,000 to get the land. We can get involved.
Liz proposed a quick update and invitation to send money to L.A. to aid in recovery from the fires. The president of Shelter Box USA spoke, of the vast scope of evacuation in the area, including 2,000 people and many small businesses. The entire community -- thousands of structures – in Altadena. Behind her she showed an image of a burned post office, which gives the idea of the fire’s impact on residents.
At Shelter Box, they are working to provide the basics for misplaced people. There is no power in the community. Shelter Box is partnering with Rotary districts in 5300, and districts in 5280. She thanked those who have already helped.
A guest testified to how hard the wildfires have hit him, as well as other Rotary members in affected areas, such as in Los Angeles who are seeing members in the Palisades area, perhaps all Rotary members, who have lost their homes in the last three recent days. That includes a member of the Altadena Club, District 5300, which reaches up to Las Vegas. He said, never in a million years did he expect to be a disaster victim, “but now I am,” and he feels for those who have lost everything. The best thing about all this is, seeing people come together, which Shelter Box does everywhere. He mentioned three evacuation centers in Los Angeles County that were triggered by the wildfires, and he is representing Rotary in responding. Shelter Box items, such as comforters, solar lights or lanterns, help restore a sense of normalcy. Sometimes we take these things for granted, he said, something that provides comfort and warmth to an evacuation center.
These are quick updates from Shelter Box, about our response to this and similar disasters such as the recent hurricane. Shelter Box, Mitone said, is responding down in Southern California, and we’ve already distributed solar lights to places that have no power. We can’t use tents because, in this country, there are strict rules about where you can put a tent, such as not on your property, and Shelter Box always coordinates with local and disaster relief organizations. There is a whole team that is responding. And Shelter Box items are lights, and blankets, to help in shelters. We saw a video which featured Coastsider Renee Lewis who said more about the aid items. It’s heart-wrenching, and Mitone told how some of her District Governor classmates had to evacuate family members and themselves. From what she has heard, up to 11 fellow Rotarians so far, have lost their homes or are still evacuating. It is devastating – but Shelter Box and Rotary continue to partner together. You can give directly to Shelter Box.
She noted that Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay recently received the Hero Award, for clubs that make ongoing contributions to Shelter Box. That’s on our Web site. She thanked us for continuing to support Shelter Box.
In answer to Kevin’s question about the FEMA ruling about tents not going up on one’s own property, Mitone said that local ordinances may prohibit it, and there is need to clean up the sites first. Liz said that we will send a check to Shelter Box, specifically for fire victims. The money we send to Shelter Box annually from our foundation cannot have a designation as to where it goes.
Did Irwin pass around a link as to where we can contribute directly to districts in Los Angeles? Irwin and Nancy sent a link.
Mitone gave an update: the district leadership conferred as to, what if this happened to us? Or an earthquake – ? Mitone answered that the procedural manual has disaster response procedures outlined. We’re close. We need to be sure the district charitable foundation is ready to accept donations. Who will be the recipients? How do we help members first? And our communities -- ? These considerations are happening, so that if something happens, we have an immediate way to respond.
Liz mentioned that the speaker at the previous day’s Foster City Club meeting is a Rotarian and is also the emergency management person for Foster City/Belmont, and he wrote their plan, so he would be a good person to pull into that conversation.
Stacy pointed out that it is not if, but when.
Mitone added, we are a small district near other small districts, so how do we work together in coordination with each other? These are all things that the Rotarians in touch with these matters are talking about.
John Evans reminded us of the CZ fire which burned 11,000 homes and to date, only 900 have been rebuilt. We think it’s an immediate problem but we need to reach more forward in time.
Irwin mentioned that if you haven’t completed the Youth Safety procedure, please talk to Liz or Dianne. We gotta get it done.
He further commented that this was an ad hoc meeting, and look at the power we showed, at the good ideas here. And he called the marble game. But we didn’t have the marbles!
Conversation focused on what our club does when and if there is need. Irwin recalled the farmworker shooting two years ago in which seven people were killed, and our club sought to get beds for the families affected, which spotlighted the fact that some fieldworkers do not have proper homes. Susan Kealey mentioned two monthly projects: cooking breakfast and packing toiletries and household necessities for those in need. Our club has also pitched in to aid after floods damaged farmworker housing south of town, cleaning up the community center, purchasing gift certificates from Safeway for those in need, cleaning local creeks so salmon could swim up them to spawn, helping local seniors with gardening, donation of $10,000 to the Boys and Girls Club, supporting the library with $175,000 – Dianne pointed out that one Rotary International focus is education – and this is something that benefits all of the community and that broadened visibility for us. Kevin reminded us of the dictionary project and Drew mentioned our Life Skills program for students. Today’s speaker Harish discussed poverty and illness in his community, and the disparity of wealth, those who “cannot afford” and the importance of education.
Mitone said she and Liz went to an area close to him to do the polio drops. Irwin rang the bell at 1:30.
