Host and D5160 PR Chair Bill Randall interviews a panel of Rotary of Zone, District and Club Rotarian’s including: Rosemary Aragon Zone PR Coordinator, 5160 DGE Laura Day, DGN Steve Lack, Chief of Staff Vic Georgiou, PR Committee members, Edi Birsan and Joe Hackman. Topic was the current state of Rotary PR from RI to Zone to Districts to Clubs to Rotarians.
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Host Bill Randall interviews a panel of Rotary Foundation subject matter experts including Candy Pierce, Melanie Prole, Alex Glass, Gary Vilhauer, Judith Glass, and Dave Dacus. Support and production provided by Beth Randall and Joe Hackman.
Join host Bill Randall and a host of “younger” Rotarians as they explore what about Rotary appeals to the younger generations.
Having Budd MacKenzie speak to us about Trust in Education is almost an annual event. We have been supporting TIE for several years, and did so again this year with a donation.
Budd founded TIE in 2004, and has gone to Afghanistan twice a year for six years. He started by raising funds to build a school. But as he became more involved, his mission expanded. These are just a few of the projects.
Several years ago, local school children asked Budd where the play ground equipment was, and now TIE funds playground equipment, such as swings, slide, jungle jims, and soccer field goal posts. And even athletic shoes and shin guards after seeing a photo of girls playing in sandals.
In 2009, Budd was approached by Zoira, a young lady born in Afghanistan but who had been raised in California. After a visit back to her hometown in Farza, she was inspired to build a girl’s school. There was already one for boy’s. The new school will be 2 stories with more than 10 classrooms.
After receiving approvals from the Ministry of Education, they had a groundbreaking ceremony in 2010. The village men are volunteering their services and started digging the foundation immediately. They are on their way, with disbursements of materials only given after they have shown that progress has been made. TIE hopes to have the school completed at the end of 2011.
This article was originally posted on dsvrotary.com
Candy Pierce and Laura Day: Once upon a time, Rotary was for men only; but that time was long, long ago! Listen in now as two of the most powerful, influential, and industrious local female Rotarians, Past District Govenor Candy Pierce and District Govenor Nominee Laura Day, describe the ins and outs of Rotary, from the female perspective. PR Chair Bill Randall chats with Candy and Laura about all aspects of women’s involvement in Rotary, the history, the accomplishments, the promises and the opportunities, locally, nationally, and internationally. Is Rotary an “equal opportunity” organization? Do “Romeos” still hold sway? How do modern women balance home, family, work, and Rotary and still remain sane? Give a listen to the comments, ideas, and dreams of these two extraordinary women and learn what strides Rotary has made and continues to make toward gender neutrality. As Laura said,
“It’s not necessarily your father’s Rotary club anymore, because it might be your mother’s Rotary club as well!”
Candy and Laura rock!
Mr. Mehran delivered an amazing presentation for club members this week! Mr. Mehran has a lifetime of experience living and working in the San Ramon Valley. He shared that he attended Green Valley Elementary School and enjoyed riding his horse to downtown Danville as a child. Sunset Development was founded by his father in 1951 and currently there are 3 generations managing the family owned company. Sunset purchased the Bishop Ranch property in 1978 and originally wanted to build a mixed use business park, retail and housing development on the land. However, that was not popular with the existing residents, so the company developed the business park instead.
Bishop Ranch has changed and evolved over the years. In the 1980′s the park was considered a cost savings location and 3.5 million square feet was leased to about 70 tenants. However, as the area grew many smaller companies found San Ramon a great place to locate because so many of their employees lived in the area. Currently Bishop Ranch leases the same 3.5 million square feet to 550 tenants! They offer many programs for small and medium size companies. As well as start-up program called BR Ready that allows companies to move in to plug and play office space.
Mr. Mehran also discussed his perspective on the economy from a national and local perspective. He shared his belief that the recession is not over and that the current housing industry will continue to experience problems until the housing supply is decreased causing higher demand in the marketplace. He also believes that on the federal level, we will likely see some cuts in spending as well as some inflation.
In San Ramon we are very blessed to have an affluent community with quality infrastructure, schools and solid businesses. However, we have also been hard hit by the housing industry problems because we were in such a high growth period when the crash hit. The new stricter underwriting for housing loans will ultimately prove to be a good thing, helping to stabilize the market. And the really good news is that there is once again some buoyancy in the retail market, not enough to see the opening of new stores (AKA the City Center project still is on hold) however this is good news for our economy.
Mr. Mehran’s son Alexander also shared some exciting news. He has been leading the BR Eco program helping Bishop Ranch become LEED certified! The companies goal is to have 3.2 million square feet certified by this summer. With the addition of Chevron’s commitment to certification, San Ramon will have the largest certified business area (5 million square feet) by the end of 2011.
Thank you to both Alex Mehran and Alexander Mehran Jr. for this informative presentation!
Thanks to financial support from Danville Rotary, a wall graphic at Del Amigo High School has been completed. Visible from the west bound direction on Del Amigo Road, and from the entrance of the school campus, the large graphic reads: ‘Like the eagle, I set myself free, to soar the skies my way’. This message is meant to reach out and inspire Del Amigo’s students. The wall art also includes a quote from a Robert Frost: ‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference’.
In August, Danville Rotary installed three raised planting beds in the front yard of the campus. After selecting several different types of plants appropriate for this time of the year, Del Amigo’s science class planted a winter garden. All of the plants were generously donated by Sloat Nursery. For this project, the class separated into three teams–one for each planting bed. The results have been outstanding; so much that the home economics class is now using vegetables from the garden for its cooking projects. This spring a new garden will be planted.
Danville Rotarians also served breakfast to the entire student body on October 29th. The menu included custom quesadillas, fruit and Mexican chocolate. After breakfast the teens attended a career day and had the opportunity to learn about different careers they might wish to pursue in the future.
Danville Rotary is committed to providing Del Amigo High School with on-going support of the students and programs to enrich the campus. We think it is making a difference for the kids. Drive by and see for yourself!
We completed our very first RITV podcast today! District PR Chair Bill Randall did a great job picking David Behring, President of the Wheelchair Foundation, Area Governor and Member of the Danville Sycamore Valley Rotary clubs brain on all things Rotary.
If you would like to know what Rotary is all about, what Rotarians do, and why anybody would want to join Rotary, just listen to this conversation between these two local Rotarians: District PR Chair Bill Randall and District Assistant Govenor and Wheelchair Foundation President Dave Behring. Bill gets Dave talking all about Rotary and just sits back and lets Dave’s vast knowledge and eloquence roll! This is a real primer on the what’s and why’s of Rotary, the largest and most powerful non-profit service organization in the world! It’s all you need to know about Rotary and more to convince you to join up, or if you are already a Rotarian, to sign up for more and more service opportunities. Dave Behring embodies the heart and soul of Rotary! Listen in! Dave rules the airwaves!
On July 27th, 2010 the Danville/Sycamore Valley Rotary donated $25,000 to the Veteran’s Hall renovation project. Read more at dsvrotary.com.
