Events

Come one, come all, because all of the members of the Rotary Club of Menlo Park are members of the Foundation. Among the star studded cast will be Maya Sewald, John Blake, Bob Andrews, Doug Adams and Jeff Pierce.  The Foundation was established in 1981 with just $5,000, and has grown to nearly $4,000,000; supporting three endowment funds:  Scholarships, Community Service, and International Projects.  This should be an exciting and informative presentation.  Don't miss it.

Joanne Price is a Co-Founder of DignityMoves. DignityMoves works to end unsheltered homelessness in communities by building Interim Supportive Housing as a rapid, cost-effective, and thus, scalable solution.  You can learn more by visiting their website:  https://dignitymoves.org/

Are you interested in learning about impactful storytelling? Or are you intrigued by the power of documentaries in enacting social change? Palo Alto local Annette King, founder of Splicer Films, a social impact production company aiming to spark positive action worldwide, will be joining us to share an alternative pathway for service: impact filmmaking. Her journey as an impact producer began during the pandemic when her journalistic background inspired her to uplift diverse stories of purpose. Through her team of international reach, she aims to spotlight the changemakers, leaders, and beacons of hope who are transforming their communities with the most humane tool of all – compassion. Rotary Club members will be able to listen to this powerful testimony and view a screening of Splicer Film’s recent documentary short, A Divine Journey, the motivational story of Divine Mugisha, a young refugee advocating to provide education access and mental health resources to displaced people at the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. Please join us for this uplifting talk about the power of storytelling to ignite social action. 

Learn more below:

A Divine Journey Website 

A Divine Journey Trailer 

Felicia Marcus was recently interviewed on KQED Political Breakdown about how to make CA water supplies resilient in the extreme droughts and flooding that come with climate change.  https://www.kqed.org/news/11981787/californias-former-water-czar-on-the-states-coming-water-nightmare

Felicia Marcus served as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water and water quality and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure. Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant and member of the Water Policy Group. 

Tom Kemp is a Silicon Valley-based author, Entrepreneur, seed investor, and policy advisor.  He is the author of Containing Big Tech: How to Protect our Civil Rights, Economy, and Democracy.  He will be speaking on the Problematic Ways Big Tech uses AI, one of the themes of his book.

IJM is the International Justice Mission.  Their mission is to end the business of international trafficking and slavery.  Anthony is the San Francisco Bay Area Director of Strategic Partnerships.  Here is their website:

Jeanette Pohlen is an Assistant Coach of the Stanford Women's Basketball Team.  Prior to being named assistant coach by Kate Paye, Pohlen spent the past two seasons as Director of Player Development. 

A 2011 Stanford graduate with a degree in communication, Pohlen returned to Stanford as a coaching intern in 2021-22 before assuming the player development position she held for the last two years.

Playing for the Cardinal from 2007-11, Pohlen was the 2011 Pac-10 Player of the Year and named to the All-America teams of the Associated Press (first team), USBWA and Wooden Award after averaging 14.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game as a senior. She shot 41.7 percent from behind the arc and made what was then a school-record 96 3-pointers.The Cardinal went to four straight Final Fours during Pohlen's collegiate career, including runner-up finishes in the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2010. Overall, Stanford was 137-14 in her four years and dominated the conference, winning the Pac-10 regular-season and tournament titles all four years.

Referencing the 2024 Silicon Valley Index report, Joint Venture Silicon Valley CEO & President Russell Hancock will share trends and analysis of the strength of the Silicon Valley economy and the health of our community.  

Online at www.SiliconValleyIndicators.org, the interactive data hub provides charts and access to the underlying data, links to data sources, and additional related online resources.

Dr. Andrew Reddie, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley, will present National Security in the Era of Artificial Intelligence. Does the future of the human race depend on an algorithm? This question will readily come to mind as Dr. Reddie describes the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into the modernization of nuclear weapons and command and control architecture, and outlines the steps superpowers must take to mitigate the risks posed by autonomous technologies used in war.

Rotary Club Menlo Park strongly supports St. Anthony's by volunteering, donating money, turkeys etc. We recently donated $5,000 to help with the production of a movie to better tell their story.  Max Garcia and Rickey Ono, two key people from St. Anthony's will present their new Video and update us on what is going on at St.Anthony's.

Blair Giffords and Mimi Gordon will describe the work that Global Health Connections does in rural Kenya. 

Global Health Connections was founded to connect, engage, and empower individuals to improve the health and sustainability of their communities. GHC believes in empowering individuals and strives to improve the sustainability of villages through community-led learning, mentorship, and opportunity. GHC's focus is on building Community Health and Empowerment Clubs (CHECs) throughout communities in Western Kenya.  They are currently active in 8 villages in Kisii County and 2 in Homa Bay County. In early fall of 2024, thanks to a large Rotary International global grant and Adopt-a-Village sponsors, they will be entering into 4 more villages--1 in Kisii County, 2 in Homa Bay County and 1 in Kajiado County--bringing their total to 14 active villages. They also have 5 self-sustaining and self-governing CHECs, bringing our total number to 19 villages.

Women in traditional villages in Kenya spend hours scouring the countryside for wood to use in their indoor cookstoves. The Health consequences of smoke inhalation are high, as is the cost to the environment. Adding injury to illness, the women are often attacked on their way home with this precious commodity.

Amy Boggs has identified a variety of sources, supports, and infrastructure that would help us to adopt a village to which we could bring solar stoves, and she will introduce this possible project to the club. Participants would help with installation and training, and would also be able to enjoy game drives in the Maasai Mara.

Jack Lekishon is a Maasai elder and has identified Kolong Village, Kenya as a receptive community to whom we could bring solar stoves in the summer of 2025. His timely visit will allow him to present the views of an elder in Kolong Village as well as those of the women in the village. 

Mark Soltau served as content editor for Tigerwoods.com for 20+ years, TOUR Correspondent for Golf Digest and covered the SAn Francisco 49ers, golf, Stanford Athletics and other Bay Area Teams for the San Francisco Examiner. He is the author of Right Place, Write Time, which tells fascinating first hand stores of some of the greatest athletes of all time.  From early childhood games spent on the San Francisco 49ers sidelines where his dad was a star, to documenting first hand Tiger's career from Stanford through all of his major vicotires, Mark shares unique insights from the perspective of one of the most trusted journalists in sports.

I will be telling fun and interesting short stories about leasing the first ever office space to Facebook and meeting with Mark Zuckerberg.

Former Rotarian Glen Rojas, David Johnson, and I were all Rotarians who had met Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg. Glen Rojas was Menlo Park's City Manager during the process of developing the campus of Facebook. Dave Johnson was the Business Development person for the town of Menlo Park.  Glen and David plan to speak to our Rotary Club next year.

Meet at the Arts in Action warehouse to pack kits.