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February 9, 2023 |
With the traditional ringing of the bell we bring this meeting to order!
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Welcome to this week’s meeting of the eClub of the State of Jefferson.
I am Bob Gibson, President of the Rotary eClub of State of Jefferson. Welcome to this week’s meeting. I hope this finds you well.
Our Rotary Club is involved in several significant projects. Our project with the Navajo Nation is progressing. A list of supplies has been developed. Plans for procurement are in progress. I suspect this phase of our work with this project will be completed soon. Our support of the Chinle Bookmobile efforts will have a significant positive impact for the children of the Navajo Nation.
eClub Rotarian Dr. Lucinda Kolo is currently doing medical fieldwork in Malawi as part of a Rotary supported Volunteer Training Team. She messaged that they have visited four villages and have three more to go. Their work involves training, as well as providing medical services.
eClub Rotarian Dan Smith is preparing to leave for 30 days in Ukraine to install podcast capabilities with individuals in various parts of that embattled country. He will be working with Ukrainian Rotarians to facilitate the telling of their story. He has introduced me to the President of their eClub and the Editor of their regional Rotary magazine. It is my intention to establish a relationship of cooperation and support with our Ukrainian counterparts.
Every member of our eClub has an important role to play in each of these projects. These projects are examples of how Rotary provides an opportunity for service. There are many rooms in this house. I encourage you to find a room that fits and get involved.
There will be another opportunity for you to meet with other eClub members and share ideas. We are having a Coffee Chat Meeting on Saturday February 11 at 2:00pm PST. You will receive a Zoom invitation. I look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting. Each time we have had a Zoom meeting it has been a rewarding experience. We are trying different times and days to accommodate the range of time zones encompassing our membership.
Thank you for your interest in our Club and your commitment to “Service above Self.”
Enjoy the meeting.
If you have any questions or comments, I am available. My e-mail address is: bob@bluewaterphoto.net.
email president@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org

eClub Coffee Chat Meeting
Saturday February 11 at 2:00pm PST
eClub Board Meeting February 16, 2023
08:00 AM Pacific Time
Recruit Rotary Peace Fellow candidates from your community
Districts and Rotary and Rotaract clubs play a key role in recruiting and recommending Rotary Peace Fellow candidates. Each year, The Rotary Foundation awards fellowships to leaders in peace and development to study at one of the Rotary Peace Centers at premier universities around the world. The fellows can earn a master’s degree or a professional development certificate. The application will be open early February through 15 May this year, and selected peace fellows will begin their studies in 2024. Find out who is eligible and what they need in order to apply.
If you know any mid-career change-makers or any young professionals who have peace-building experience, help them apply for a fully funded Rotary Peace Fellowship. Connect with your district Rotary Peace Fellowship subcommittee chair to learn more about members’ role in selecting peace fellows and get involved.
Since the Rotary Peace Centers program began in 2002, more than 1,600 fellows have graduated from our programs. They are now working on peace and development initiatives in more than 140 countries. Many serve as leaders in government, nongovernmental organizations, education and research institutions, peacekeeping and law enforcement agencies, and international organizations like UNICEF, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Follow the Rotary Peace Centers Facebook page for updates about peace fellows’ work.
February is Peace and Conflict Prevention / Resolution Month

Today, over 70 million people are displaced as a result of conflict, violence, persecution, and human rights violations. Half of them are children.
We refuse to accept conflict as a way of life. Rotary projects provide training that fosters understanding and provides communities with the skills to resolve conflicts.
Rotary creates environments of peace
As a humanitarian organization, peace is a cornerstone of our mission. We believe when people work to create peace in their communities, that change can have a global effect.
By carrying out service projects and supporting peace fellowships and scholarships, our members take action to address the underlying causes of conflict, including poverty, discrimination, ethnic tension, lack of access to education, and unequal distribution of resources.
Our commitment to peacebuilding today answers new challenges: how we can make the greatest possible impact and how we can achieve our vision of lasting change. We are approaching the concept of peace with greater cohesion and inclusivity, broadening the scope of what we mean by peacebuilding, and finding more ways for people to get involved.
Rotary creates environments where peace can happen.
Rotary’s Four Roles in Promoting Peace
Rotary and its members are:
- Practitioners: Our work fighting disease, providing clean water and sanitation, improving the health of mothers and children, supporting education, and growing local economies directly builds the optimal conditions for peaceful societies.
- Educators: Our Rotary Peace Centers have trained over 1,300 peace fellows to become effective catalysts for peace through careers in government, education, and international organizations.
- Mediators: Our members have negotiated humanitarian ceasefires in areas of conflict to allow polio vaccinators to reach children who are at risk.
- Advocates: Our members have an integral role as respected, impartial participants during peace processes and in post-conflict reconstruction. We focus on creating communities and convening groups that are connected, inclusive, and resilient.
4 ways to be a disruptor for peace

By Rebecca Crall, Areas of Focus Manager, Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
In a conversation recently with a group of professional peacebuilders, one of my colleagues (and a new Rotary member) surprised me when he referred to Rotary as a “disruptor for peace.” A disruptor for peace? That was something new and unexpected.
Disruption signals great change – change that’s happening fast. It often feels like it’s taking place at a dizzying pace, and it’s associated with chaos and displacement. It’s not something we often imagine wanting more of. But my colleague’s comment got me thinking of disrupting for good: using our platform as Rotary members to disrupt violence and create peace. Can we apply this idea to build a future where peace is our norm?
When we think about the future now, we don’t seem to feel the same optimism as past generations did. People feel fear, dread and a deep sense of skepticism that change is even possible. This is logical given what we see in the news: the climate crisis, toxic political polarization. No wonder we feel unsure about the future.
But as we begin 2023, I’m challenging myself to disrupt this way of thinking: to look at our challenges as opportunities for growth and change.
In his famous book “The Moral Imagination,” John Paul Lederach challenges us to use our creativity in peacebuilding. He describes this creativity as understanding current situations – such as destructive behaviors and violence – but then pushing past them to imagine a world that transcends existing reality.
This may seem trite. But if you truly think about how much we take for granted in our day-to-day lives, you can see how much room there is for improvement.
As you think about the future, try to find creative ways to build more inclusive and resilient societies. Use Lederach’s four disciplines as a guide.
- Recognize the importance of relationships. Peace is fundamentally about relationships. As we acknowledge our interdependence and connection to one another, we can understand the context in which violence happens – but also imagine a context in which we can transcend violence and build peace.
- Practice paradoxical curiosity. While this sounds complicated, paradoxical curiosity is a matter of respecting contrasting truths. Acknowledge different sides in every situation and look for what lies beneath the face of things. By looking beyond appearances, you can discover new opportunities for healing and peace.
- Provide space for creativity. Respect creative acts and believe that humans can create something new. This attitude is typically grounded in everyday interactions. Use your creativity to imagine and eventually love things that are new and unexpected.
- Take a risk. When we risk, we step into something unknown. While it may seem counterintuitive, many communities subconsciously stay in conflict because that’s what they know. Building peace is about taking the risk to journey into something unknown. It’s also about letting go of what you know.
Moral imagination is ultimately the capacity to conceive and generate something different without denying our current realities. This may seem impossible at times. But by applying these four principles, you can ask the right questions and hopefully find the right answers.
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The Board of Trustees manages the business of The Rotary Foundation, the charitable arm of our organization that funds service activities.
The RI president-elect nominates the trustees, who are elected by the RI Board to four-year terms.
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Ian H.S. Riseley
Chair 2022-23
Trustee 2019-23
Rotary Club of Sandringham
Victoria, AustraliaWhile RI president in 2017-18, Ian H.S. Riseley challenged every Rotary club to plant one tree per member as a way to increase Rotarian involvement in environmental issues. He estimates at least three times that many were planted, likely more than 3 million trees. “I was really thrilled at the way in which the Rotary world embraced my request,” he says. “Everywhere we went, they were planting trees.”
Riseley is a chartered accountant and principal of Ian Riseley and Co., a firm he established in 1976. His honors include the AusAID Peacebuilder Award from the Australian government in recognition of his work in East Timor and the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the Australian community, the Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award, and the Service Award for a Polio-Free World.
Riseley and his wife, Juliet, a past district governor, are Rotary Foundation Major Donors and Bequest Society members. They live on seven hectares at Moorooduc, where they practice their personal philosophy of sustainable and organic living.
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Barry Rassin
Chair-elect 2022-23
Trustee 2020-24
Rotary Club of East Nassau BahamasBarry Rassin is a director and former president of Doctors Hospital Health System in Nassau, Bahamas, where he retired after a 38-year career. He was the first fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in the Bahamas and was honored with the National Award of Health Hero by the Bahamas Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organization.
A Rotarian since 1980, Rassin served as RI president in 2018-19, when he advocated for closer partnership between Rotary and Rotaract clubs and presented the measure that broadened the definition of membership in Rotary International to include Rotaract clubs at the 2019 Council on Legislation. He has served RI in many other capacities, including as RI director, Rotary Foundation trustee and vice chair, chair of both the Finance and the Shaping Rotary’s Future committees, RI training leader, and seminar trainer. In 2010, Rassin coordinated Rotary’s disaster relief efforts in Haiti after a devastating earthquake. That included supervising the completion of 105 relief and development projects throughout Haiti that were made possible by the $6.5 million raised by Rotary members worldwide. He is currently active on the Bahamas Rotary Disaster Relief Committee and working on relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Outside of Rotary, Rassin chairs Volunteer Bahamas, a national program to create a culture of volunteerism in the country. He also helped found the Haiti National Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Strategy (HANWASH), a collaborative program to bring potable water and adequate sanitation to all the citizens of Haiti. In 2018, the government of the Bahamas named him as an Officer of the Order of Distinction.
Rassin has received the Service Above Self Award. He and his spouse, Esther, are Rotary Foundation Major Donors, Benefactors, Paul Harris Fellows, and members of the Paul Harris Society.
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Jorge Aufranc
Trustee 2019-23
Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur
GuatemalaJorge Aufranc is a chemical engineer and director of Corporación Instatec, which designs and builds networking telecom systems. He first saw the power of The Rotary Foundation in 1995, when he led a project to bring clean drinking water to an orphanage using matching grants. Today, he is the primary contact for the $600,000 WASH in Schools competitive grant program in Guatemala, which is bringing water, sanitation, and hygiene to 48 schools in the country.
Aufranc has served Rotary in many roles, including as RI director; founder and president of Rotary en el Corazón de las Americas, the Rotary regional magazine for Central America; and director of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group. He and his wife, Débora, participated in a National Immunization Day in Moradabad, India, in 2009.
He is a Rotary Foundation Benefactor, Major Donor, and Bequest Society Member, and is a recipient of the Citation for Meritorious Service.
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Marcelo Demétrio Haick
Trustee 2021-23
Rotary Club of Santos-Praia
São Paulo, BrazilMarcelo Demétrio Haick is president of Sologic South America, a division of a global company that provides root cause analysis methods, technology, and expertise to help companies reduce risk and solve problems. Haick performs investigations and manages the company’s training and consulting services throughout South America.
He graduated from Santos Medical College in 1982 with a focus in occupational medicine. His professional background includes environmental, health, and safety management systems; strategic planning; and ergonomics consulting.
A Rotarian since 1991, Haick has served in many roles, including End Polio Now coordinator, PolioPlus national advocacy adviser, and vice chair of the Cadre of Technical Advisers. He has also served as district governor, a committee member, and a training leader.
He and his wife, Maria Silvia, are Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation and Major Donors.
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Martha Peak Helman
Trustee 2022-26
Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor
Maine, USAMarty Helman is president of the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, a nonprofit that has helped build schools in developing nations, provided scholarships for at-risk youth, and supplied humanitarian aid to Holocaust survivors, among other initiatives. The Walter Foundation made history in 2021 when it announced plans to completely fund a new Rotary Peace Center in the Middle East or North Africa, which is expected to welcome its first class in 2026.
She worked as a writer for business executives and as a magazine editor at McGraw Hill and the American Management Association.
Marty and her spouse, Frank, both joined the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor in 2003. She has served Rotary as chair of the Peace Major Gifts Initiative and has was on the diversity, equity, and inclusion task force.
A keen fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation, Marty put together a group to support the Sakuji Tanaka Rotary Peace Fellowship, which raised $1 million for the Rotary Peace Centers.
Frank, who died in 2022, and Marty chose to support the Foundation as Major Donors, Paul Harris Society members, and inaugural members of the Legacy Society of The Rotary Foundation.
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Holger Knaack
Trustee 2022-26
Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln
GermanyKnaack is the owner of Knaack KG, a real estate company. He was previously a partner and general manager of Knaack Enterprises, a family business founded in 1868.
He is a founding member of the Civic Foundation of the City of Ratzeburg and the founder and chair of the Karl Adam Foundation.
A Rotary member since 1992, Knaack has served Rotary as president, treasurer, director, moderator, member and chair of several committees, representative for the Council on Legislation, zone coordinator, training leader, and district governor.
He was an endowment/major gifts adviser and was co-chair of the Host Organization Committee for the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg.
Knaack and his wife, Susanne, are Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation and members of the Bequest Society.
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Hsiu-Ming Lin
Trustee 2020-24
Rotary Club of Taipei Tungteh
TaiwanHsui-Ming “Frederick” Lin is managing director of Continental Worldwide Enterprises Co. Ltd., a company that designs and integrates satellite communications systems. Lin is active on the boards of organizations outside of Rotary, including as director of the Taipei Lifeline Association.
A Rotarian since 1988, Lin has served Rotary as a regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, Rotary coordinator, RI president’s representative, committee member and chair, and director and treasurer on the RI Board.
He and his wife, Chen-Yi, are members of the Arch Klumph Society. Lin is also a Benefactor of The Rotary Foundation and a Paul Harris Fellow.
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Larry A. Lunsford
Trustee 2021-25
Rotary Club of Kansas City-Plaza
Missouri, USALarry A. Lunsford, a certified public accountant, is senior vice president and chief financial officer of Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Inc. A recipient of bachelor’s and master's degrees in accounting from Truman State University, he has served his alma mater on its National Alumni Association Board and its Foundation Board. He also served as treasurer of the Epilepsy Foundation for the Heart of America.
His passion for Rotary and his invitation into the family of Rotary began during his college years, when in 1982, he was selected as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar to Australia. Lunsford joined Rotary in 1991. He served RI as director, and aide to RI President Mark Daniel Maloney. In addition, he has served as RI president’s representative, zone institute chair, Rotary Public Image Coordinator, Rotary Foundation alumni coordinator, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, training leader, International Assembly leaders’ seminar trainer, RI committee chair and member, and chair of the Rotary Peace Centers Committee of The Rotary Foundation.
Lunsford and his wife, Jill are Major Donors, Benefactors, and Bequest Society members. He is a charter member of the District 6040 Paul Harris Society. He has been awarded the Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service and the RI Service Above Self Award.
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Mark Daniel Maloney
Trustee 2021-25
Rotary Club of Decatur
Alabama, USAMark Daniel Maloney is a principal in the law firm of Blackburn, Maloney and Schuppert, LLC, with a focus on taxation, estate planning, and agricultural law. He represents large farming operations in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States and has chaired the American Bar Association’s Committee on Agriculture in the Section of Taxation. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Alabama State Bar Association, the Alabama Law Institute, and is a past president of the Morgan County Bar Association.
He has been active in Decatur’s religious community, chairing his church’s finance council and a local Catholic school board. He has also served as president of the Community Foundation of Greater Decatur, chair of Morgan County Meals on Wheels, and director of the United Way of Morgan County and the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.
Maloney served as RI president during 2019-2020, when he presided over the first virtual RI Convention that was organized during the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized strategies to grow Rotary. A Rotarian since 1980, he has also served as an RI director; Foundation trustee and vice chair; and aide to 2003-04 RI President Jonathan Majiyagbe. He also has participated in the Council on Legislation as chair, vice chair, parliamentarian, and trainer. He was an adviser to the 2004 Osaka Convention Committee, chaired the 2014 Sydney Convention Committee, and chaired RI’s Operations Review Committee for four terms. Prior to serving as a district governor, Maloney led a Group Study Exchange to Nigeria.
He also served as Future Vision Committee vice chair; Foundation training institute moderator; Foundation permanent fund national adviser; member and vice chair of the Peace Centers Committee; member of the International PolioPlus Committee; and adviser to the Foundation’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Schools Target Challenge Committee.
Maloney’s wife, Gay, is an attorney in the same law firm and a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Decatur Daybreak, Alabama, USA. Both support The Rotary Foundation as Paul Harris Fellows, Major Donors, and Bequest Society members.
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Geeta Manek
Trustee, 2020-24
Rotary Club of Muthaiga
KenyaGeeta Manek, a second-generation Kenyan, graduated from business school in the United Kingdom before returning to Nairobi to join the family retail and property management business, which she still runs.
Manek joined Rotary in 1997. Her roles have included Rotary coordinator, chair of the Health Major Gifts Initiative and of the Joint Committee on Partnerships, member of the Major Gifts Initiative Oversight Team and the Rotary Institute Host Organizing Committee, RI training leader, lead facilitator at the Regional Leaders Training Institute, and RI president’s representative. She was also the only female governor of District 9200 before it was divided into Districts 9211 and 9212 in 2012-13. She also served as her district’s coordinator of the Kick Polio Out of Africa Campaign.
Manek is passionate about initiatives that help women and improve education. She was a charter member of Lohana Ladies Circle, a women’s club dedicated to community service, social welfare, and cultural heritage. She’s also helping lead a Rotary literacy initiative in Kenya and the region. Manek has volunteered as a first responder during national crises, including in post-election violence and after terrorist attacks. She has led teams of Rotarians to collaborate and coordinate initiatives with organizations such as the Red Cross, the United Nations, and community-based institutions. In recognition of her humanitarian work, Manek was awarded an honorary doctorate of humanities in 2019.
Manek has been honored with the Service Above Self Award. She and her spouse, Kaushik — who served as governor of District 9200 in 2008-09 — are Rotary Foundation Major Donors and Benefactors, as well as Bequest Society and Arch Klumph Society members.
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Aziz Memon
Trustee 2020-24
Rotary Club of Karachi
PakistanAziz Memon is chair of the Kings Group, a conglomerate of five companies that is one of the leading textile and ready-made garment manufacturing and exporting groups in Pakistan. He is also chair of the board of the Karachi Garment City, a project of the government of Pakistan. Memon’s other roles include honorary consul general of the Republic of Suriname in Karachi, president of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan, and president of the United Memon Jamat of Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to community development and helping the underprivileged.
Since he joined Rotary in 1995, he has been widely recognized for his leadership in polio eradication. Memon has served as member of the International PolioPlus Committee and chair of the Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. He has worked closely with Rotary’s partners and stakeholders, including UNICEF, WHO and its Expanded Programme on Immunization, government officials, religious scholars, celebrities, business leaders, and Rotarians from around the world. He was one of four polio eradication activists to receive the Louis Pasteur Medal by the Institut Pasteur. His other RI leadership positions have included training leader, committee member, and RI president’s representative. Memon says his favorite Rotary project was working with his club to raise over $285,000 to fund an English-language instruction school for 4,000 children.
Memon has received the Service Above Self Award, the International and Regional Service Awards for a Polio-Free World, and The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award and Citation for Meritorious Service. In recognition of his community and humanitarian services in the health sector, the president of Pakistan conferred the Pride of Performance Award on Memon in 2011. He and his wife, Samina, are members of the Arch Klumph Society.
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Akira Miki
Trustee 2021-25
Rotary Club of Himeji
JapanAkira Miki, a dentist with his own practice, dedicated himself to disaster recovery projects after the January 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, one of the worst earthquakes to hit Japan in the 20th century. Miki worked on building a children’s home and supported children who needed emotional care.
Miki joined Rotary in 1981. He served on the RI Board of Directors from 2018 to 2020 and a special advisor for the Foundation Trustees in 2020-21. Previously, his leadership roles in RI have included serving as RI president’s representative, training leader, governors-elect trainer, committee member, assistant Rotary coordinator, Council on Legislation representative, and sergeant-at-arms for international conventions and assemblies. He is director of the RI Japan Youth Exchange Committee. He visited Washington, USA, as a short-term youth exchange student. He has been a strong advocate for youth development. Since 1985, he has led the district RYLA seminar, the All Japan RYLA Institute, and the All Japan Interact Institute.
Miki is a former Interactor and a recipient of The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service. He and his wife, Chiharu, are members of The Arch Klumph Society, Benefactors, and Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation.
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Bharat S. Pandya
Trustee 2022-26
Rotary Club of Borivli
Maharashtra, IndiaBharat Pandya is a practicing general and laparoscopic surgeon. He and his wife, Madhavi, a gynecologist, own a private hospital in Mumbai. He is a fellow of the International College of Surgeons and has served on the board of the Jan Shikshan Sansthan vocational training institute, sponsored by the Indian government.
Pandya joined Rotary in 1989 as a charter member of his club. During his year as governor of District 3140, his district contributed over $2 million to The Rotary Foundation, making it the top contributor worldwide for 2006-07. He has led numerous projects, including water and sanitation projects funded by Foundation grants that installed check dams so that villagers no longer needed to walk up to four miles per day to collect water.
Pandya has served Rotary, as Director, RI Treasurer, regional RI membership coordinator, training leader, and member of Rotary’s Membership, Strategic Planning, Leadership Development and Convention Promotion committees and on the India PolioPlus Committee.
He has received the Service Above Self Award, the Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service, and the Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award. He and Madhavi are Level 2 Major Donors to the Foundation.
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Greg E. Podd
Trustee 2022-26
Rotary Club of Evergreen
Colorado, USAGreg is a retired certified public accountant and personal financial specialist who opened his own firm in 1979. During his career, he wrote four professional continuing education accounting and finance courses and was a keynote speaker at five national conferences. Greg has taught many courses as a guest professor in the master’s degree in taxation program at Arizona State University and has made presentations to more than 20,000 CPAs and chartered accountants worldwide. He was also president and owner of a firm that specialized in metal fabrication for the telecommunications industry and of an international health care software development firm.
Greg joined Rotary in 1982. He has served Rotary International as vice president and director. During his time on the Board of Directors, he chaired committees including the Audit Committee and the Board Council on Legislation Advisory Committee. He also served on the Operations Review Committee and The Rotary Foundation’s Investment Committee, among others. Other roles he’s held include training leader, RI president’s representative, and representative to the Council on Legislation.
As a Rotary Foundation major gifts adviser, Greg organized his district’s Million Dollar Dinner, which raised more than $3.1 million in one night. He enjoys applying his professional knowledge and skills to help Rotary’s club, district, and zone leaders resolve funding questions. He says, “There is an education gap out there dealing with the finances of Rotary at all levels, and I’m glad to have served as a go-to person for questions.”
Greg has also been active in numerous local, regional, and national professional organizations, community groups, and charities, including as a treasurer and board and committee member.
Greg has received the Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service. He and his spouse, Pam, are Major Donors and members of the Arch Klumph Society, Bequest Society, and Paul Harris Society.
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Hendreen Dean Rohrs
Trustee 2020-23
Rotary Club of Langley Central
British Columbia, CanadaDean Rohrs is an owner and administrator at Rhide Technologies Inc., which supplies soil stabilization products used in road construction. Earlier in her career, she had been a nurse in Cape Town, South Africa, on Christiaan Barnard’s heart transplant team.
From 1959-90, she was active in Red Cross in South Africa. She served on the board of the West End Seniors’ Network in British Columbia and is currently on the board of a girls school in Malawi.
Dean Rohrs has been a Rotarian since 1989 and has served RI as vice president, director, Rotary coordinator, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, and district governor. She is a Rotary Foundation Benefactor, Major Donor, and Bequest Society member.
She and her husband, Reinhold, are Paul Harris Fellows.
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John Hewko
General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer
Rotary Club of Kyiv
UkraineJohn Hewko is the general secretary and chief executive officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. From 2004 to 2009, Hewko was vice president for operations and compact development for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency established in 2004 to deliver foreign assistance to the world’s poorest countries.
Read General Secretary Hewko’s full biography.
Follow @johnhewko on Twitter. Visit John Hewko on Facebook

Save the Date! June 7th, 2023 to participate in Navajo Solar light installations.
Housing is limited. Contact John Allman to reserve your space and to get more information.
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We have two programs this week:
If you’ve ever given or received a fancy Valentine’s Day card, you may have Esther Howland to thank. Known as the “Mother of the American Valentine Industry,” Howland is credited with turning Valentine’s Day cards in the United States into big business. Her elaborate cards are now highly prized among collectors.

It was the 1840s, and Esther Howland was living in Massachusetts. Her father owned a bookstore and sold Valentine’s Day cards imported from England. Exchanging friendship cards on Valentine’s Day was a tradition that dated as far back as the 1700s. With her artistic talent, Howland wondered if she could design cards to rival European imports. Fresh out of college, she gave it a shot.
Lithography was in its infancy, and small, colored pictures were highly valued. Howland bought an assortment of images and several fancy envelopes embellished with elaborate scrollwork in the corners. She cut out the scrollwork and pasted pictures and other artistic elements on the cards. She then scalloped the edges and penned verses of love. The cards sold quickly.
Howland’s brothers and father took an assortment of her cards to New York and Boston and, within a couple of weeks, received orders totaling several thousand dollars for the following season. Realizing there was a market for her cards, Howland gathered a large assortment of embellishments, including lace, satin, and silk. The family turned a small room in their home into a workshop and hired four young women to help make the cards.

The following year, the orders more than doubled. Howland expanded operations to the third floor of the Howland residence and hired a workforce of young women, many of whom were family friends. The women sat around a large table, recreating Howland’s designs in assembly-line fashion. She paid her employees well, and the work was pleasant, making the job very desirable. In time, Howland added additional ornamentation to her cards, like enameled colored pictures and embossed lithographic design elements. She began stamping a red ink “H” on the back to distinguish her cards from others. Some of her more intricate cards reportedly sold for $35 – more than $1,000 in today’s dollars.
Before long, the card business was bringing in $100,000 a year and became known as the New England Valentine Co. Howland diversified, creating cards for other holidays and May baskets. An accidental fall on the ice in 1866 left Howland with a severely injured knee. She spent several years in a wheelchair but continued to build her successful business.

In 1880, Howland decided to step away from her thriving business to care for her ailing father. She sold the New England Valentine Co. to George C. Whitney, one of her former employees. Esther Howland died in 1904 at the age of 75. She is remembered as the originator of the fancy valentine industry in America. To learn more about Esther Howland and the country’s first commercial Valentines, search Newspapers.com™ today!
and Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations of the year among East and Southeast Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities, among others. The New Year celebration is usually celebrated for multiple days—not just one day as in the Gregorian calendar’s New Year. In 2023, Lunar New Year begins on January 22. China’s Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival or Chūnjié in Mandarin, while Koreans call it Seollal and Vietnamese refer to it as Tết. Tied to the lunar calendar, the holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. The New Year typically begins with the first new moon that occurs between the end of January and spans the first 15 days of the first month of the lunar calendar—until the full moon arrives. (Image by Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-03-24)) Each year in the Lunar calendar is represented by one of 12 zodiac animals included in the cycle of 12 stations or “signs” along the apparent path of the sun through the cosmos. The 12 zodiac animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. In addition to the animals, five elements of earth, water, fire, wood and metal are also mapped onto the traditional lunar calendar. Each year is associated with an animal that corresponds to an element. The year 2023 is slated to be the year of the rabbit. The year of the rabbit last came up in 2011. In Vietnam, 2023 is the year of the cat. (Vietnam and China share 10 of the zodiac calendar’s 12 signs, but the Vietnamese honor the cat instead of the rabbit, and the buffalo instead of the ox.) Each culture celebrates the Lunar New Year differently with various foods and traditions that symbolize prosperity, abundance and togetherness. In preparation for the Lunar New Year, houses are thoroughly cleaned to rid them of inauspicious spirits, which might have collected during the old year. Cleaning is also meant to open space for good will and good luck. Some households hold rituals to offer food and paper icons to ancestors. Others post red paper and banners inscribed with calligraphy messages of good health and fortune in front of, and inside, homes. Elders give out envelopes containing money to children. Foods made from glutinous rice are commonly eaten, as these foods represent togetherness. Other foods symbolize prosperity, abundance and good luck. China Chinese New Year is thought to date back to the Shang Dynasty in the 14th century B.C. Under Emperor Wu of Han (140–87 B.C.), the tradition of carrying out rituals on the first day of the Chinese calendar year began. “This holiday has ancient roots in China as an agricultural society. It was the occasion to celebrate the harvest and worship the gods and ask for good harvests in times to come," explains Yong Chen, a scholar in Asian American Studies. Beginning in 1949, under the rule of Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, the government forbade celebration of the traditional Chinese New Year and followed the Gregorian calendar. But by the end of the 20th century, Chinese leaders were more willing to accept the tradition. In 1996, China instituted a weeklong vacation during the holiday—now officially called Spring Festival—giving people the opportunity to travel home and to celebrate the new year. Today, the holiday prompts major travel as hundreds of millions hit the roads or take public transportation to return home to be with family. Among Chinese cultures, fish is typically included as a last course of a New Year’s Eve meal for good luck. In the Chinese language, the pronunciation of “fish” is the same as that for the word “surplus” or “abundance.” Chinese New Year’s meals also feature foods like glutinous rice ball soup, moon-shaped rice cakes (New Year’s cake) and dumplings (Jiǎozi in Mandarin). Sometimes, a clean coin is tucked inside a dumpling for good luck. The holiday concludes with the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated on the last day of New Year's festivities. Parades, dances, games and fireworks mark the finale of the holiday. Vietnam In Vietnamese celebrations of the holiday, homes are decorated with kumquat trees and flowers such as peach blossoms, chrysanthemums, orchids and red gladiolas. As in China, travel is heavy during the holiday as family members gather to mark the new year. Families feast on five-fruit platters to honor their ancestors. Tết celebrations can also include bánh chưng, a rice cake made with mung beans, pork, and other ingredients wrapped in bamboo leaves. Snacks called mứt tết are commonly offered to guests. These sweet bites are made from dried fruits or roasted seeds mixed with sugar. Korea In Korea, official Lunar New Year celebrations were halted from 1910-1945. This was when the Empire of Japan annexed Korea and ruled it as a colony until the end of World War II. Celebrations of Seollal were officially revived in 1989, although many families had already begun observing the lunar holiday. North Korea began celebrating the Lunar New Year according to the lunar calendar in 2003. Before then, New Year's was officially only observed on January 1. North Koreans are also encouraged to visit statues of founder Kim Il Sung, and his son Kim Jong Il, during the holidays and provide an offering of flowers. Among both North and South Koreans, foods like sliced rice cake soup (tteokguk) and a dish made from five different grains are prepared to mark the Lunar New Year holiday. Rather than giving money in red envelopes, as in China and Vietnam, elders give New Year's money in white and patterned envelopes. Traditionally, families gather from all over Korea at the house of their oldest male relative to pay their respects to both ancestors and elders. Travel is less common in North Korea and families tend to mark the holiday at home. Cultures celebrating Lunar New Year have different ways of greeting each other during the holiday. In Mandarin, a common way to wish family and close friends a happy New Year is “Xīnnián hǎo,” meaning “New Year Goodness” or “Good New Year.” Another greeting is “Xīnnián kuàilè,” meaning "Happy New Year." Traditional greetings during Tết in Vietnam are “Chúc Mừng Năm Mới” (Happy New Year) and “Cung Chúc Tân Xuân” (gracious wishes of the new spring). For Seollal, South Koreans commonly say "Saehae bok mani badeuseyo” (May you receive lots of luck in the new year), while North Koreans say "Saehaereul chuckhahabnida” (Congratulations on the new year). —huiying b. chan, Research and Policy Analyst on the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative team at the New York University Metro Center, edited this report. "Lunar New Year origins, customs explained," by Laura Rico, University of California, Irvine, February 19, 2015. "Everything you need to know about Vietnamese Tết," Vietnam Insider, December 3, 2020. "Seollal, Korean Lunar New Year," by Brendan Pickering, Asia Society. "The Origin of Chinese New Year," by Haiwang Yuan, Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR, February 1, 2016. "The Lunar New Year: Rituals and Legends," Asia for Educators. Lunar New Year 2023

Zodiac Animals
Lunar New Year Foods and Traditions
Lunar New Year Greetings
Sources
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Nope, coffee won’t give you extra energy. It’ll just borrow a bit that you’ll pay for later.

Many of us want (or should I say need?) our morning coffee to give us our “get up and go”. Altogether, the people of the world drink more than two billion cups of coffee each day.
You might think coffee gives you the energy to get through the morning or the day – but coffee might not be giving you as much as you think.
The main stimulant in coffee is the caffeine. And the main way caffeine works is by changing the way the cells in our brain interact with a compound called adenosine.
Getting busy, getting tired
Adenosine is part of the system that regulates our sleep and wake cycle and part of why high levels of activity lead to tiredness. As we go about our days and do things, levels of adenosine rise because it is released as a by-product as energy is used in our cells.
Eventually adenosine binds to its receptor (parts of cells that receive signals) which tells the cells to slow down, making us feel drowsy and sleepy. This is why you feel tired after a big day of activity. While we are sleeping, energy use drops lowering adenosine levels as it gets shuffled back into other forms. You wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. Well, if you get enough sleep that is.
If you are still feeling drowsy when you wake up caffeine can help, for a while. It works by binding to the adenosine receptor, which it can do because it is a similar shape. But it is not so similar that it triggers the drowsy slow-down signal like adenosine does. Instead it just fills the spots and stops the adenosine from binding there. This is what staves off the drowsy feeling.
No free ride
But there is a catch. While it feels energizing, this little caffeine intervention is more a loan of the awake feeling, rather than a creation of any new energy.
This is because the caffeine won’t bind forever, and the adenosine that it blocks doesn’t go away. So eventually the caffeine breaks down, lets go of the receptors and all that adenosine that has been waiting and building up latches on and the drowsy feeling comes back – sometimes all at once.
So, the debt you owe the caffeine always eventually needs to be repaid, and the only real way to repay it is to sleep.

Timing is everything
How much free adenosine is in your system, that hasn’t attached to receptors yet, and how drowsy you are as a consequence will impact how much the caffeine you drink wakes you up. So, the coffee you drink later in the day, when you have more drowsy signals your system may feel more powerful.
If it’s too late in the day, caffeine can make it hard to fall asleep at bedtime. The “half life” of caffeine (how long it takes to break down half of it) is about five hours). That said, we all metabolize caffeine differently, so for some of us the effects wear off more quickly. Regular coffee drinkers might feel less of a caffeine “punch”, with tolerance to the stimulant building up over time.

Caffeine can also raise levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that can make you feel more alert. This might mean caffeine feels more effective later in the morning, because you already have a natural rise in cortisol when you wake up. The impact of a coffee right out of bed might not seem as powerful for this reason.
If your caffeinated beverage of choice is also a sugary one, this can exacerbate the peak and crash feeling. Because while sugar does create actual energy in the body, the free sugars in your drink can cause a spike in blood sugar, which can then make you feel tired when the dip comes afterwards.
While there is no proven harm of drinking coffee on an empty stomach, coffee with or after a meal might hit you more slowly. This is because the food might slow down the rate at which the caffeine is absorbed.
Read more: Does coffee burn more fat during exercise? What the evidence tells us
What about a strong tea or fizzy cola?
Coffee, of course, isn’t the only caffeinated beverage that can loan you some energy.
The caffeine in tea, energy drinks and other beverages still impacts the body in the same way. But, since the ingredients mostly come from plants, each caffeinated beverage has its own profile of additional compounds which can have their own stimulant effect, or can interact with caffeine to change its impacts.
Caffeine can be useful, but it isn’t magic. To create energy and re-energize our bodies we need enough food, water and sleep.



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