Speakers

Seas are rising and the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (SFCJPA) is considering ways to protect the East Palo Alto and Menlo Park shoreline communities, and critical shore area habitats. The Strategy to Advance Flood Protection, Ecosystems and Recreation along San Francisco (SAFER) Bay Project will include engineered and natural flood protection features, habitat restoration, and recreation improvements. The SFCJPA has initiated its environmental review process. We want you to know about the project and we want your input.    

Few people realize that prior to the Hindenburg, airships transported thousands of paying passengers millions of miles without a single casualty. And they did so, for more than 20 years--a safety record unmatched by any other form of transportation. John's talk focuses on the true but little-known story of the USS Macon (ZRS-5), a U.S. Navy Zeppelin that was the world’s largest, most expensive, most technologically advanced aircraft of her day. He reveals for the first time anywhere how the American Zeppelin came within a hair’s breadth of replacing planes, trains, and ocean liners as the dominant form of long-distance transportation–a tale of physical courage, ugly politicking, two egregious disasters, and a Navy coverup.

Historian and writer Noah Griffin will present "The Tulsa Race Massacre 101 Years Later". When race riots were renamed massacres, America began to come to grips with the unnverving nature of its disturbing past. Dozens of heretofore justificed mob shootings, killings, lynchings, and wholesale destruction of Black cities and towns across the nation and across centuries took on a new meaning. No massacre encapsulates that untold story better than the Tulsa Massacre of 101 years ago. 

Noah is a longtime Marin County Rotarian currently serving as president of Central Marin County in Larkspur.

The Karat School Project's mission is to educate to help eradicate poverty and inequality in a sustainable manner. We are breaking the cycle of poverty for children and women through skills-based education and training programs. The project has been making a great impact in the Ivory Coast and right here in the Bay Area through the work that we are doing with children living in RVs since COVID-19 started. Founder Evelyne Keomian will provide an update on the impact of the Karat School Project and new opportunities they have.