News

American Cancer Society

On February 9th. David Leon of the American Cancer Society and Kara Fortney, Senior Manager of Relay for Life held the floor.

As to the disease, statistics show that it cannot be ignored. It was cited that one in three females and one in two males will face it in some form in their lifetimes. The ACS, in its mission to lead the fight for a world without cancer, espouses these principles:

  • To increase colorectal cancer screening rates to 80% by 2018.
  • To reduce lung cancer age-adjusted mortality by 50% in a decade.
  • Ensure that nobody dies due to non-access to care.
  • Eliminating HPV-related cancers
  • Equalizing outcomes for all facing breast cancer.
  • Ensure that all cancer survivors can access care.
  • Enable communities to fight cancer by addressing the true determinant of health.

They averred that the above, plus the cost of research, is expensive. Donations are vital in this work. The dollars are put to work in Washington via.

  • Care and empathy, to wit, information lines, rides to and from treatment, navigation of patients through the healthcare system, management of treatment side effects, free or reduced cost lodging.
  • Courage, to wit, funding to reduce the unequal burden of cancer, visits to cancer.org, grants to help low-income patients to receive screening.
  • Determination, to wit, rallying communities and creating partnerships to help save lives.
  • Innovation, to wit finding cancer’s causes and cures.

Relay for Life

This is an opportunity to gather with people in the community in order to raise funds and awareness. Globally, it is the largest fundraising event.  It is a way of celebrating the survivors and to remember those lost. It will take place at Cal Anderson Park on Saturday, 8/12, from 10AM to 6PM. The various competitions and awards have been described. Entertainment and speakers are scheduled. Last year, there were 21 teams, 119 participants, and $34,657.63 raised. This year there will be a Bark-for-Life event, honoring the canine caregivers.  Survivors will receive a shirt and a medal.

 

 

Know your Rotarians: Dave and Pam Mushen

Rotarians come from all walks of life; always understanding that our strengths are what gets us through. That strength is what connects us with human beings as we acknowledge ourselves as human beings. David and Pamela tell how they got through her cancer together.

Dr. Donn Charnley: NW Geology

 

On January 12th, a zip-fast lesson in NW geology was rendered by Dr. Donn Charnley, Professor Emeritus at Shoreline Community College.

 

 

Some of the facts expressed in his talk were:

  • Lithosphere is the outer, rigid, rock girdling the planet. It consists of movable plates
  • Some collide with each other, i.e, Pacific and South American plates, or diverge, i.e. Mid-Atlantic Ridge
  • Layers of the earth are core, mantle, crust
  • Speeds of plate movements are up to 1 inch per year
  • The newest rock is being formed at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; oldest is at the continents
  • Some plates move past each other
  • Smaller rock fragments are called Terranes, some of which date back to a billion years
  • The Yukatat terrane is moving northward and will end up in Alaska, while Baja California is destined for the same area
  • 1 billion years ago, the coast was in Idaho
  • The east-moving North American plate began to change direction some 250 million years ago in the so called March of Terranes and terranes crashed into the N.A. plate and piled up against each other
  • At this time the Pacific plate moved eastward and the N.A. plate moved westward
  • Low rock melted and rose, giving rise to volcanism
  • Basalt was formed in eastern WA
  • The Kootenay Arc became part of N.A
  • The large Okanogan terrane now collided and became part of the N.A. plate
  • The N. Cascade super terrane came from the SE and collided then pushed up to form the Strait Creek Fault
  • The San Juan Islands are a group of terranes from a process of older rock being pushed up by younger rock.
  • Starting 12 million years ago, the Pacific plate continued to crash eastward, creating a subduction zone
  • This has given rise to the Olympic mountains and rock at the south end of Vancouver Islands
  • Basalt rocks in Eastern WA are connected to the massive floods that arose from Missoula.

Comment:  Quite a bit to digest. He kindly did not dwell on the Cascadia Fault whose potential energy continues to ratchet up beneath our feet.

City University Enactus Program

City U Enactus

City University of Seattle Enactus, an organization working to improve life conditions worldwide, brings together experts in appropriate disciplines. Their principle is to accomplish this via entrepreneurship. Distinguished faculty advisor Kathy Cox was with us to show a recent example of this type of endeavor. She introduced Nathan Patricia and Maheesa Anastasya who were altogether impressive with their description of a most promising device, The Green Energy Stove.

It is necessary first to review a condition that prevails throughout Africa, that of cooking over a wood fire. This generates the smoke that smites the eyes and lungs and impairs the atmosphere. Also, it takes up time that could better be spent caring for one’s family. Moreover, while it takes too much time and expense to walk to a cellphone-charging center, a source of electricity.

Enter the Green Energy Stove. What are its virtues?

–      It is smokeless.

–      It can use any vegetation for fuel, i.e., plentiful bamboo.

–      It operates by clean power generators.

–      No carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide is produced.

–      The burnt fuel can be used as fertilizer.

–      Deforestation is ameliorated, since wood is not required.

–      The heat energy is converted to electricity, powering lamps and cellphones.

–      A person can borrow the cost of a stove through a microloan and then pay off the loan with proceeds from sale of electricity.

–      The surface of the stove is not hot, precluding injury.

The device has been proven in Gabon and is now ready for distribution in Gambia, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Nigeria.

Comment: This stove promises to range far.

Detective Anthony Stevenson-Sex Offender Registry

Detective Anthony Stevenson Our December 1st speaker was Detective Anthony Stevenson who oversees the of sex offenders in the area. Considering the numbers, he sets forth, it is at least a formidable assignment. His first point is that such as they have no distinguishing characteristics. They can be anyone. They pervade society, with 1,275 living in Seattle, plus those who are among the homeless. Stevenson also deals with those charged and convicted of kidnapping. Both types of offenders must register. This results from Megan’s Law, emanating from a case of kidnapping/rape/murder in New Jersey. The Law requires that such offenders must not only register, but also that the community be apprised of where they reside. The total registered in King County presently stands at 3,532.

Levels I, II, and III classification of offenders based on the severity and frequency of their crimes, III being the highest risk. Local police agency will notify of an offender’s address and where he is registered. The County Sheriff’s office tracks homeless SO’s via weekly sign-in sheets. If the requirement is violated, a criminal case is instituted.

Some characteristics: 

  • Level I–These have violated people they know, and are of least risk to the community.
  • Level II–This includes such as teachers, pedophiles, baby sitters. They generally have had more than one victim.
  • Level III–This type of predator is of greatest risk to the community. Their crimes are of the violent type. They generally do not know their victims. They must be checked in every 90 days. The media and public at large are informed of them. Schools and day care facilities are prepared when offenders live in the neighborhood. Washington laws do not restrict where they live. In extreme cases, court orders and the Department of Corrections may restrict where they can be located.

As to what to do: 

  • Educate children about the techniques of offenders.
  • Stay alert and report suspicious activity via 911 or to the offices whose phone numbers have been provided by the speaker.

Comment: It is grimly surprising as to how many engage in this type of behavior–no less surprising than, say, the incidence of domestic violence. These are scary times. Those who are trusting–and there are many–are fair game. Sadly, it is necessary to teach and practice suspicion.

Kwapi Vengesayi and the 5th Avenue Theater

kwapi-vengesayiOur  Speaker October 27th was Zimbabwe-born Kwapi Vengesayi and the 5th Avenue Theater encountered each other and neither has been the same since. He had been trained in architecture and then in sociology. He found his calling, however, as the theater’s Community Engagement Specialist. The showplace had been a venerable landmark. It is now undergoing renovation in modern facilities, acoustics, and space. At the same time, efforts are afoot to preserve much of its old charm.

Vengesayi’s mission is to immerse the community in performance culture.  Also, his aim is to reach out to under-served and under-represented areas of the community. He realized, upon arrival, how much musical theater is around us. Therefore, he works to engage the community in musical theater. Indeed, several of the musicals at the 5th have made it to Broadway.
The crux of the endeavor has been that of partnerships. In the process, high school students have at one time run the theater, under supervision. Variously, there have been served those with dementia, Thai dancers, kids who met the casts, and those of Tech Tuesday. This has catered to those who study all stages of production as to what foes into staging a show.  It is hoped that time and effort may be devoted to autism.

Other partners have included the UW Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the Thai community, Alaska and Delta Airlines, US Bank, Bank of America, Renton Skyway Boys and Girls Club, and others either current or pending.

Meanwhile, the project goes on to make the theater more spacious and to have patrons interact in the large entrance area.

 

November Food Drive to benefit the UNIVERSITY DISTRICT FOOD BANK

Teresa St. OngeUNIVERSITY SUNRISE ROTARY – In-House “COLOR TEAM COMPETITION” Food Drive to benefit the UNIVERSITY DISTRICT FOOD BANK… 

UDFB has entered its busiest season and is distributing groceries to over 1,100 families, delivering food to 105 homebound adults, and providing weekend food to 500-plus middle, elementary and high school students through their Pack for Kids program.  They currently serve 11 schools! 

WHEN:      First three Thursdays in November
November 3rd, 10th and 17th 

WHAT DO YOU DO?  Donate items or Cash.  As a member of your team, by your giving, your team will add 10 points to their cumulative total-to-date.

We’ll announce at each Thursday’s meeting the team scores- it’s a win-win!

It’s also easy and fun!  PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING to an agency our Club is so proud to be a partner with…………

 Needed items:  In addition to the ‘always need’ canned good items that include fruit (highly desired!), canned chicken, canned tuna, canned salmon, canned soups, stews and chili’s, peanut and other nut butters (especially Crunchy), shelf stable milk and milk alternatives, cereal and cooking oil are most appreciated!

They would also really like to have hygiene items – soaps, toilet paper, lotions, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products and BABY PRODUCTS – formula and diapers, especially large size diapers for older babies.  

Make your check out to University District Food Bank if you desire to contribute funding.

Bring your items in each Thursday – we’ll make sure they get delivered.

Thank you for all you do!!!  UDFB appreciates Rotaries continuous support and love.

 

Teri St. Onge and your Community Service Club Committee Members

 

 

 

 

Our October 20th speaker: State Senator Pramila Jayapal

Pramila Jayapal, community activis (Tyrone Turner / Tyrone Turner)
Pramila Jayapal, community activist

The October 20th US Rotary speaker will be Senator Pramila Jayapal. An Indian-American activist and politician. A Democrat, she has represented the 37th legislative district in the Washington State Senate since 2015. Before her election she was a Seattle-based civil rights activist, serving until 2012 as the founder and executive director of OneAmerica, a pro-immigration advocacy group.

In January 2016, Jayapal declared her candidacy for Congress in Washington’s 7th congressional district, after Congressman Jim McDermott announced his retirement.  She finished with 40% in the August 2 primary and advanced to the general election in November.

She was born in India and raised in Indonesia and Singapore. She came to the United States in 1982, at the age of 16, to attend college. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an MBA from Northwestern University in Chicago.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/bernie-sanders-to-headline-pramila-jayapal-rally-saturday-in-seattle/

Classification Talk: Phill Briscoe

Rotarians meet weekly and weekly meetings allow members to get to know each other personally and develop a high level of Esprit de corps. This comradery builds not only builds a strong bond but also encourages members to not only participate but explore numerous avenues to explore “Service Above Self”.

Phill BriscoeOn October 6th, Phill Briscoe came forth with the touch of autobiography that we term a classification talk. (Traditionally Rotary classifies us as to occupation. Maybe there are other ways).   Phill originated in Great Bend, Kansas. Its name would appear to come from what one sees on a map, to wit, its location at the apex of a major bend in the Arkansas (pronounced ar kan’ zass) River.

  • Aesthetically minded, his school chose a gorilla as a mascot. Phill did his best for the Gorillas in track. The teams did quite well.
  • Kansas is not entirely flat; there is an elevation named Mushroom Rock.
  • His family, ever-supportive, was active in diverse community activities.
  • Phill moved to the northwest in 1972 and became a lecturer in ethnic studies at Central Washington State College.
  • Further career progression:

o   1976–Upward Bound instructor at Evergreen State College.

o   1980–Allstate Insurance finance; agent (20 years)

o   2000–Microsoft certified systems engineer, then Microsoft small business specialist.

o   Established Ebony Knight Consulting/Briscoe Network Solutions

  • Military–Republic of Viet Nam, a significant period in his life’s direction.
  • Tai-Chi, an important part of his life. He went to China as an honoree in the discipline.

Presently Phill is retired and spends time with friends. Friends, Rotary, Tai-Chi, and race relations currently fill his calendar. A closing memorable photo of Phill on a Chinese litter after an injury piqued some interest. Some yuan changed hands at that juncture.

Conclusion: Phill filled the bill, but we’ll never have our fill of Phill.