Our program on September 10, 2020 featured Emma Le Du and Mike Madden of TINFA (Technology and Information For All). The University Sunrise Rotary Club has a long standing relationship of support for TINFA and its mission to bring technology to rural student learning in Guatemala.

Emma Le Dû is the Exec. Director of TINFA. She has previously held positions at the Grameen Foundation  as Senior Technical Program Manager. She has been in Information Technology for over 15 years, at Microsoft and Amazon.com in various positions in International and Program Management. Emma has spent two years in Lao P.D.R, as a computer consultant to the European Union and UNDP. She holds an Engineering degree in Robotics and Electronics (ESIGELEC in Rouen France) and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School (Harvard University) with a focus on Leadership and International Development. Emma is TINFA’s co-founder.

Mike Madden is retired and lives in the Loyal Heights neighborhood of Seattle, just north of Ballard. He attended Western Washington University and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, majoring in History and French. Mike taught at Meadowdale Junior High School for five years before joining Safeco Life Insurance Company, now known as Symetra Life Insurance. Mike retired from Symetra as Vice President and head of the Individual Product Line after a rewarding thirty-three year career there. Mike believes in volunteer service, having served several years as President of the Northwest Regional Board of Dollars for Scholars. He is a board member and Secretary of the University Sunrise Rotary Club. He is a volunteer with the Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas tutoring organization and is President of the Board of Bright Future Dollars for Scholars.  

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Over several years, the University Sunrise Rotary Club and Foundation have contributed $30,000 to TINFA. These gifts have been augmented by $20,000 from University Rotary and other local Rotary Clubs. In addition, the Rotary International Foundation matched these grants to raise the total to $149,000.

The program brings technology and training to teachers in rural schools in Guatemala. Thus far, forty-one teachers have been trained in the program. Each teacher receives 96 hours of training. Some of the teachers have no phone or most have no computers.

The schools are facing, of course, an additional challenge with closures due to COVID-19. To help, TINFA has coordinated with participating teachers to create workbooks to distribute to students at home. The program has been very successful with 94% of the workbooks completed and returned by the students.

In response to a question from the Club, Emma said one of the biggest impacts of the program is to introduce how technology can impact on people’s lives. This is life changing, as new doors are opened in poor rural areas of Guatemala that help students–and their families–realize and use previously unknown resources. The key, she said, is to open this door as it will change lives forever.

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TINFA is having its annual fundraiser, Love of Learning, on October 3, 2020 – Saturday, – from 5:30 to 7:30. It will be virtual and Rotarians are hosting several virtual rooms.  You are invited to join a virtual room with a smaller number of people and have a chance to chat.  Then you will join the main program for information and inspiration.  This is a great organization doing an amazing job. 

The Keynote Speaker is Sonia Nazario.  She is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist whose stories have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems.  She is best known for “Enrique’s Journey,” her report of a Honduran boy’s struggle to find his mother.  It became a national bestseller. 

To join one of the University Sunrise Rotary rooms, as a guest, please e-mail Pam Mushen at pdmushen@gmail.com , Lee Raaen at lee@raaen.com , or Mike Madden at mikeminseattle@gmail.com.  Your hosts have paid the guest registration fee ($35) and are looking forward to having you join them. 

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly programs. We meet via Zoom every Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. Pacific. The line opens at 7:15 a.m. Registration is not required. Login by clicking here.

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for our weekly program. We meet via Zoom every Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. Pacific. The line opens at 7:15 a.m. Registration is not required. Login by clicking here.

The University Sunrise Rotary Club has a long standing relationship supporting TINFA (Technology and Information for All) bring technology to rural student learning in Guatemala. Our program will be a report on the progress of the effort. Speaking will be Emma Le Du, TINFA’s Director and Mike Madden, Secretary and a board member of the University Sunrise Rotary Club, as well as a board member of TINFA.

Mike will summarize the partnership with TINFA to date, and the status of our Rotary Global Grant projects, “Technology for Teachers in Rural Guatemala I & II.” Then, Emma will talk about the conditions in Guatemala now, what we are doing to adapt to the pandemic shut-down and plans for the rest of the current project.

Emma Le Dû is the Exec. Director of TINFA. She has previously held positions at the Grameen Foundation  as Senior Technical Program Manager. She has been in Information Technology for over 15 years, at Microsoft and Amazon.com in various positions in International and Program Management. Emma has spent two years in Lao P.D.R, as a computer consultant to the European Union and UNDP. She holds an Engineering degree in Robotics and Electronics (ESIGELEC in Rouen France) and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School (Harvard University) with a focus on Leadership and International Development. Emma is TINFA’s co-founder.

Mike Madden is retired and lives in the Loyal Heights neighborhood of Seattle, just north of Ballard. He attended Western Washington University and completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, majoring in History and French. Mike taught at Meadowdale Junior High School for five years before joining Safeco Life Insurance Company, now known as Symetra Life Insurance. Mike retired from Symetra as Vice President and head of the Individual Product Line after a rewarding thirty-three year career there. Mike believes in volunteer service, having served several years as President of the Northwest Regional Board of Dollars for Scholars. He is a board member and Secretary of the University Sunrise Rotary Club. He is a volunteers with the Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas tutoring organization and is President of the Board of Bright Future Dollars for Scholars.  

Our program on September 3, 2020, featured Jamie Lee of SCIDpda. She is Director of Community Initiatives at the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority.  Jamie oversees community focused projects at the SCIDpda. Jamie joined SCIDpda in 2014. With senior leadership, she supports external relations of the organization, and oversees funding and operations of community initiatives and Hing Hay Coworks.

SCIDpda is a leading force for the economic health of Seattle’s Chinatown International District, implementing strategies that range from support for individual businesses to marketing the entire neighborhood’s lively retail and cultural environment. SCIDpda is an effective and informed advocate for our neighborhood’s residents and businesses, promoting community improvements and public safety and protecting our community from negative impacts. SCIDpda focuses its development efforts in a way that honors the rich character and history of the Chinatown International District.

Jamie addressed the issues that have been faced in the International District in the pandemic.

The pandemic began to hit the International District early in 2020. Businesses began to slow down as early as January, well before the March 16 shutdown. The Asian source of the coronavirus had an early and negative impact on the neighborhood. The impacts were broad and ranged from a reduction in business traffic from nervous consumers to incidents that may well have been racist.

Vulcan became an early hero with a donation of $100,000 to help create a business assistance relief fund. A total of $800,000 has been raised in the wake of the Vulcan initial gift.

Efforts to assist the community have included business relief efforts, helping to improve food security, and creating Internet access for resident children for online learning.

If you would like to help, Jamie provided us with the following information:

I wanted to just follow up with information for our upcoming virtual fundraiser for SCIDpda. Fun part about the event this year is that you can purchase “Neighborhood Boxes” and get goodies from the CID delivered to your home.

A the link to donate is here – you can also find information about how to RSVP for our virtual event and about the Neighborhood Boxes on that page too.

http://bit.ly/SCIDpdaDonate

Jamie has over ten years in the nonprofit sector focusing on community engagement and nonprofit management, including working with individuals experiencing homelessness and launching a transitional housing program for homeless women. She also worked at the University of Washington’s Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center, networking with over 300 nonprofit organizations in the Seattle area and connecting them with undergraduate and graduate students looking to integrate service into their studies.  Jamie has been active in the CID since 2005, with Chinese Information Service Center and the International District Chinatown Library in their after school programs, the International District Housing Alliance (now InterIm CDA) on their fund development committee, and the board of the Washington Asian Pacific Islander (WAPI) Community Services.

She currently serves on the board of Sanctuary Art Center, Historic South Downtown, the Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area, and the CID Public Safety Council.  Jamie has Masters in Social Work and Public Administration from the University of Washington.

The Club is running a series of programs designed to increase our understanding of race relations and, hopefully, point us in ways to be more helpful in dealing with these issues.

Our speaker on August 27, 2020 was Marvin Charles, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of DADS (Divine Alternatives for Dads Services).

Marvin Charles has emerged as a community and national leader in creating stronger fathers and healthier families. Because of his own powerful story of separation from and then reunification with his own family, parents and children, and his 15+ years of helping others reclaim the positive role of fathers to their families, he is an experienced and trusted mentor and advisor. He has traveled all over the U.S. to speak about empowering fathers, to learn from other national leaders and to share our successes with other organizations hoping to implement fatherhood programs. Marvin Charles is an ordained minister and his extraordinary effectiveness comes from his ability to see through the pain and threats of those he counsels to the powerful change possible by embracing a living God and larger purpose. Neither class or ethnicity poses an obstacle to him being heard. 

“A General in Satan’s Army.” That is how Marvin Charles describes himself in the first portion of his life. He had eight kids. Four were born crack addicted.

“High. Crime. Time.”

He was about to abandon his seven-month old daughter, when he began to turn his life around.

And turn around, he did. Today, he is Founder and Executive Director of DADS (Divine Alternatives for Dads Services), and organization dedicated to model healthy relationships as a means of creating healthier fathers and families, to stop to cycle of family violence and brokenness in order to improve the lives of children, and to encourage fathers to become agents of change in their communities. Operating now for twenty years, DADS has helped over 4,000 fathers. DADS helps fathers understand child support issues (including both rights and obligations) and works to help create parenting plans.

Fatherlessness, says Marvin, is the #1 problem in this country that costs our nation $100 billion per year. Marvin experiences were both illuminating and meaningful to our Club.

Fathers, he said, are critical role models. It is better to have a bad father role model, than no role model. Bad fathers, he said, at least show kids a path to avoid.

Lots to think about from this presentation.

There is a lot more information on the DADS website.

Councilmember Alex Pedersen spoke to the Club on August 20, 2020. He represents the Fourth Council District, which is Northeast Seattle. He was elected in 2019 and his term of office runs through 2023.

In his remarks, Councilmember Pedersen spoke about a wide array of Seattle issues covering everything from the cuts in the Navigation Team to dealing with electric scooters.

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Several of our members were quite dismayed by his treatment by protesters over the last several months. Those in favor of a fifty percent cut in the police force budget have shown up at his home five times in the last few weeks in what must have been frightening episodes. The first was at 10:45 at night with his wife, children, and a sleepover child friend. Councilmember Pedersen has been forced to move his family out of his house.

The Councilmember answered several questions including one about the new district elections in Seattle. He noted that only Portland still has the at-large system in the USA and that voting at-large is very rare. He expressed hope that, over time, the district elections would prove to be a successful system.

By Tom Ranken

Bill McCutcheon made a return performance speaking to the club on August 13, 2020. He presented a overview primer on US Navy flight operations on an aircraft carrier. He highlighted a 1956 tour of duty that he took aboard the USS Lexington in the Pacific. He gave a fascinating talk on what it was like to be working on a carrier and covered many different aspects.

Here is link to a three minute video of 2019 carrier flight operations aboard the USS John C. Stennis that Bill recommended.

Ironically, my father was a Supply Corp officer on the same ship at the same time. My recollection is that he bought a camera on the trip in Japan and was an avid photographer. Below you will find some of the pictures of the trip.

Bill is a retired CPA and business consultant.  He received a BA in Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Washington. In the Navy. he served aboard aircraft carriers and on anti-sub patrol aircraft.  He also holds a private pilot certificate.  

Bill is a Docent and a member of the Board of Trustees at The Museum of Flight. 

As a Docent, he is a tour guide, instructor in docent training and youth education, member of the museum’s Speakers’ Bureau and has been involved in all aspects of docent leadership.   

His public speaking engagements on aviation history include: The Museum of Flight, Seattle; Historic Flight Foundation, Paine Field; Washington Aviation Conference; Washington Seaplane Pilots Assn.; Quiet Birdmen, Seattle Hangar; 446th Airlift Wing-Jt. Base Lewis-McChord; 93rd Bomb Group reunion and other civic, community and retirement organizations.”

Our program on August 6, 2020, featured Dr. Amitabha “Guppy” Gupta of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  Dr. Gupta is the scientific content strategist for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Philanthropy Department; and was formerly part of the Fred Hutch Basic Sciences team.  Dr. Gupta has a BA in Molecular Biology from Colgate and a PhD from Columbia in Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology.

You can find Dr. Gupta’s slides here.

Surprisingly, Dr. Gupta noted that a quarter of the researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were doing viral work.

To achieve ‘herd immunity’ from Covid-19, 60-70% of the population must become immune from the disease.  This can occur as the result of natural immunity (recovering from the illness) or from vaccines.  In some ways, both accomplish the same thing:  The body is ‘taught’ to fight the virus.

Dr. Gupta noted that social distancing and masks are effective at reducing transmission.  He recommended wearing masks—even while running.

The virus, he said, enters the lungs and makes lots of copies of itself, destroying macrophages.

He talked about mechanisms to defeat the virus:  Neutralization blocks the process in which the virus binds to cells.  Opsonization and sensitization/complement activation reduce the severity of the disease.

Dr. Gupta noted that is normal for antibodies to fade in the body following the illness.  If re-exposed, however, the body will manufacture new antibodies to fight the disease.

The first vaccine was for smallpox.  It was discovered in 1796.  Twenty million people died from small pox in the twentieth century.  It required 184 years to fully eradicate the disease (in 1980).

The current research to acquire a vaccine against Covid-19 is radically different.  Normally, vaccine approval requires three phases of trials which normally require from five to more than seven years of trials.  Operation Warp Speed, he said, is combining all three phases.  There is, he said, “a level of collaboration never seen before.”  Normally, there are 2-3 trials of vaccines; there are 157 vaccines in trials as of July 29 in development.  Thirty-five of these efforts are now in clinical trials.

While there is never certainty in science, there is reason for great optimism in these development efforts.

Thank you to David and Pam Mushen for securing this program.

• To learn more about the work of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on COVID-19, go to: www.fredhutch.org/coronavirus
• To participate in the vaccine trial, go to: www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org
• To donate to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, go to: www.fredhutch.org/give
• To ask Dr. Gupta more questions, email: agupta@fredhutch.org

Our program on Thursday, July 30, 2020, featured Phil Reid, Ph.D, Vice Provost for Academic & Student Affairs at the University of Washington.

Dr. Reid is responsible for initiatives and services that improve the student and faculty experience at the University of Washington. Activities include development and support of modern pedagogy, instructional space planning, alignment of student curricular and co-curricular activities, student success and retention analytics, development and deployment of IT systems that support teaching and learning, support of enrollment management, development and support of faculty development initiatives. Dr. Reid is a Professor of Chemistry.

Dr. Reid told is that the University of Washington began to monitor the coronavirus as early as January 2020.

The campus is not closed today, but is scaled back. Approximately 2,000 people are still working there.

Making the quick shift to online programs was a challenge. Two thousand students requested financial aid for things like food, rent and Internet access. Many students, he said, were really struggling. Two thousand computers were sent out in two days. Zoom is now a normal part of the workings of the University–the license for which was only first activated this year.

For the fall, Dr. Reid is planning for a hybrid instructional model. there will be some programs that require onsite instruction, such as labs. Many programs, including large classroom settings, will be fully online.

The residence halls are open, but are expected to be abut sixty percent of capacity.

Dr. Reid was generous in answering questions. He closed by noting that the University of Washington is more than an academic institution. It is an institution of learning, fellowship, and community.

Important roles that are compromised under the current conditions.

Our speaker on July 23, 2020 was Bill McCutcheon. Bill is a member of the Board of Trustees and a Docent at The Museum of Flight.  As a Docent, he is a tour guide and an instructor in docent training and youth education. He is a member of the museum’s Speakers’ Bureau and has been involved in all aspects of docent leadership.  His public speaking engagements on aviation history include: The Museum of Flight, Seattle; Historic Flight Foundation, Paine Field; Washington Aviation Conference; Washington Seaplane Pilots Assn.; Quiet Birdmen, Seattle Hangar; 446^th Airlift Wing-Jt. Base Lewis-McChord; 93^rd Bomb Group reunion and other civic, community and retirement organizations. Bill is a retired CPA and business consultant.  He received a BA in Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Washington.  In the Navy, he served aboard aircraft carriers and on anti-sub patrol aircraft.  He also holds a private pilot certificate.

Bill spoke about a 1931 effort to fly around the world. Led by Clyde “Upside Down” Pangborn (1895-1958), the endeavor was to break the world record for flying around the world. They failed at that goal on the trip, but Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon Jr. flew their plane, Miss Veedol, on the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean.

Before taking off, the existing record (twenty-one days) was broken, so the new objective was to fly around the world in less than eight days and fifteen hours. Weather in Siberia grounded the plane and made that objective impossible.

In Japan, however, they learned of another prize that they could achieve: the first Trans-Pacific flight. Following seven weeks of being under arrest for taking pictures that were considered spying by Japan, they plane took off for Washington.

Co-pilot Herndon erred so badly on the flight that they nearly crashed multiple times (his mother financed the expedition), but they made it to Wenatchee, WA. They landed on October 5, 1931, after a flight of 41 hours and thirteen minutes and 4500 miles.

There was an award of $25,000. “Upside Down Pangborn received only $2500 for his efforts.

Our speaker on July 16 was Rob Talafous. Rob is a sales executive with Georgia-Pacific.

While Georgia-Pacific has many customers and sales people, Rob’s only customer is Costco. Rob reviewed the impact the pandemic had on toilet paper sales at Costco and offered his insights into this product that we use so often and know so little about.

Costco is Georgia-Pacific’s largest worldwide customer with $2 billion in sales of Kirkland Signature Bath Tissue, Paper Towels and Napkins as well as other Georgia-Pacific brands like Dixie disposable table top items, Vanity Fair premium napkins and Marathon “away from home products.”

Before joining Georgia-Pacific, Rob was already a consumer packaged goods professional (Coca-Cola and Kraft-Hines). He also spent five years in a startup business that he co-founded.

A former member of the ice hockey team at St. Cloud University in Minnesota, Rob and his wife moved to the Seattle area in 2014 to be closer to his big customer.

By the end of February 2020, Rob, Costco, and Georgia-Pacific were seeing a hurricane in the purchase of home tissue products. sales were up 75 percent. Initially, this was a regional phenomenon, but it quickly spread globally.

Why did it happen? Rob offered several lines of reasoning:

Because to the nature of the industry, manufacture of these products is constant. There manufacturing capacity runs 24/7 with little safety stock. Hence, when demand surged, there was little capacity to increase stock and existing inventories were wiped out quickly.

Because of the shelter-in-place orders, more residential products were needed–and less workplace product. Retail outlets sold out of toilet paper and home tissue products; office product demand declined significantly. These are different markets with different qualities and brands.

Even when customers didn’t need it, they began to be concerned about having enough and adequacy to purchase–so they bought more than they needed.

Because people were at home more, they began to use more of all home tissue products for cleaning and increased hand washing.

Home products are still in heavy demand: 25-35% of Costco outlets are sold out every day.

Rob was great and provoked a lot of questions.