Speaker Notes by Steve Barton:

On Thursday Morning April 7^th, Jon Fehrenbach, a retired Boeing engineer and docent at the Museum of Flight presented a fascinating history of the development of heavier than air manned flight from its inception to WW1.  In the beginning, everyone in the “industry” was working on their own.  Manned flight began with gliders and Otto Lilienthal who had over 200 glider flights prior to crashing for the last time in 1896. 

Enter Wright Brothers, Wilber the thinker and Orvil the tinkerer,. in 1896 as well.  They had a mission and kept at it changing history on December 17, 1903 at 10:35 AM.  Orvil flew the 1^st of 4 flights that day going 852 ft in 59 seconds.  Future successes were the first oval in 1904, followed in 1905 with a figure 8 and the first 1 hour flight in 1907.  In 1910 they flew over St Lewis at 50 MPH. 

100+ years later, with over 100 years of development and buckets of technology, Alaska is having trouble even getting off the ground.  Go figure!

Jon Fehrenbach is a retired engineer, having been a structural engineer and engineering manager at Boeing until his retirement in June 2014. Jon received his Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering, and his Masters Degree in Engineering, both from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. In a 35-year career at Boeing, Jon worked in airframe structures engineering on numerous programs on both the commercial side (727, 737, 777, 787 Programs) and the military side (B-2 Stealth Bomber, Joint Strike Fighter Proposal, F-22 Fighter Program). He specialized in the design of advanced carbon-fiber reinforced composites for airframe primary structure.

After retiring, Jon completed Docent training at the Museum of Flight and now works as a volunteer Docent at the Museum, chairs the Museum’s Docent Training Committee, and does presentations in the Puget Sound community for the Museum’s Speakers Bureau. He is also interested in supporting and promoting STEM-related education programs and initiatives. In his leisure time, Jon is a bicyclist (road bike/touring), pickleball player, and long-suffering Seattle sports fan. He enjoys reading, with aviation history, biographies, and other historical non-fiction currently taking up most of his reading list.

Since 1985, Mainstay has been a self-sustaining department of the Seattle Central College. Serving thousands of job seekers with disabilities, Mainstay prides itself on high quality service, strong communication and a focus on social justice and equity. Mainstay goes above and beyond to ensure job seekers are prepared and ready for the world of work. Let us know if we can be of assistance to you, as a job seeker, employer, family member or advocate.

In 2014, Mainstay launched SAILS – Supported Academics and Independent Life Skills to support students with disabilities at Seattle Central. With academic tutoring, time management, executive functioning and communication with faculty, SAILS enhances the entire post-secondary experience. We help students reach their academic goals!

Rebecca Jansson is the Director of Mainstay and SAILS at Seattle Central College. Mainstay provides job seekers with disabilities opportunities to work in private and public sector careers of their dreams. SAILS is Supported Academics and Independent Life Skills, which mentors students with learning differences to reach success at Seattle Central. SAILS’ team provide supports such as executive functioning, academic tutoring and academic resource coordination.

In her 25^th year at Seattle Central, Rebecca finds joy in helping people with disabilities have the opportunity to contribute to their community of choice, build relationships, have a sense of competence and feel included. Mainstay assists individuals who often are unable to access the competitive workplace through a pathway of education through college. In 2014, SAILS launched when the demand for access to college began to grow for more and more populations including those with Intellectual Disabilities and neuro-diversities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Rebecca enjoys the client service piece of being the Director, but also, she finds fundraising, accreditation process and policy fun! As part of the Community Employment Alliance, Rebecca works to make a bigger impact in our supported employment systems through advocacy and legislative involvement.

Rebecca started her career focused on assisting individuals who are Deaf and Hard and Hearing navigate employment as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor. She has served other non-profits such as Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Service and Hearing Speech and Deafness Center.

Rebecca lives with her husband Roger, two children Elliott and Dahlia and her Chocolate Lab Nutella. She is officially the holder of jackets and supplies every weekend for the family at soccer games or skiing weekends.

Sharon Breiner has almost 20 years of Human Resources and Recruiting experience across a variety of industries including financial services, consumer products and professional services.  Sharon is passionate about finding the right match for both the person and employer to ensure a mutual benefiting relationship. 

Prior to joining Mainstay in 2019, Sharon was a Recruiting Business Partner at Amazon where she successfully partnered with hiring managers to strategically attract the best talent to fill positions.

After a brief work sabbatical to stay home with her young kids, Sharon wanted to take her corporate experience to work as a Job Coach for people with disabilities.  Since joining Mainstay 2 years ago, Sharon assists clients to land their dream jobs as well as coaches clients in their jobs.

Sharon is an alumnus of Michigan State University (Go State!).  Having moved from Boston 11 years ago she calls Seattle home.  She lives in Queen Anne with her husband, daughter and son. Once an avid marathoner, these days she can be found trying to keep up with her kids skiing and cheering from the sidelines of soccer games.    

Program notes from Hal Beals:

Rebecca Jannson and Sharon Breiner of Seattle Central College joined us on March 31 by Zoom to present a unique program – Mainstay & Sail a program that connects job seekers  with disabilities to employers in the area with academic counseling. Sixty two percent of students with intellectual disabilities will never work if they don’t have a job by age 21. The goal of Mainstay & Sail is to reduce this number.

Started by the college in 1985 as a pilot program to train individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities as dishwashers, a necessary job with many openings.  Today, Mainstay works with many employers in the private and public sectors in many job classifications including Walgreens, Safeway, Starbucks, McDonalds and Microsoft.  Clients and employers are in regular contact with Job Coaches who are on  the spot to resolve issues with clients, managers and co-workers. The average client of Mainstay has been on the job for 15 years.

The second part f the  program – Sails was started in 2014 to work with students at Seattle Central College on the autism spectrum having difficulty completing their academic programs. Sails provides support with time management, executive functioning and staff-faculty communication to help students be successful in the classroom.

An important part of the Mainstay & Sail program is exposing students to the job interview process, which can be difficult and stressful.  Rotarians have the opportunity to participate in mock job interviews as potential employers on April 20 and 21. Advance training and interview questions will be provided my Mainstay and Sail.  

Contact Ed Bronsdon if you want to participate.

Sophie Egan, MPH is the author of How to Be a Conscious Eater (Workman, 2020)—named one of Bon Appétit’s “Favorite New Books for Climate-Friendly Cooking and Life”—and the founder of Full Table Solutions, a consulting practice that’s a catalyst for food systems transformation. She is also a contributor to The New York Times Health section.

An internationally recognized leader at the intersection of food, health, and climate, Sophie serves as Director of Strategy for Food for Climate League, Co-Director of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, and Senior Advisor for Sustainable Food Systems at R&DE Stanford Dining.

Her first book, Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are (William Morrow, 2016), is a journey into the American food psyche. It was named an Amazon Best of the Month in Cookbooks, Food, and Wine. Sophie’s writing has been featured in The Washington Post, TIME, Parents, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, WIRED, EatingWell, Edible San Francisco, FoodTank, and Sunset. 

You can find her in the mountains, on Twitter @SophieEganM, and online at sophieegan.com. 

You can find links to booksellers on Sophie’s website.

John W. Lundin is a lawyer, historian and award-winning author, who after a career practicing law in Washington D.C. and Seattle as a trial attorney in federal court, turned to researching and writing about Washington and Idaho history.  He is a founding member of the Washington State Ski and Snowboard Museum (WSSSM) and works with the National Nordic Museum in Seattle and the Center for Regional History at The Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho. 

Here is a link to the slides that John used in his presentation.

John is a Seattle native; a long-time skier, rower, sailor, and outdoorsman; and splits his time between Seattle and Sun Valley, Idaho.  He is the author of four books: Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass, a history of skiing in Washington, published 2017; Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley, a pictorial history of Idaho’s Wood River Valley, published in June 2020; Skiing Sun Valley: a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings, the definitive history of our first destination ski resort that introduced skiing to the country, published in November 2020; and Ski Jumping in Washington State: a Nordic Tradition, published in February 2021, was the companion to an 2021 exhibit on ski jumping sponsored by the National Nordic Museum and WSSSM that John helped develop. 

John is contributing his author’s profits from Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass to the WSSSM; from his two Sun Valley books to the Center for Regional History; and from Ski Jumping in Washington State to the WSSSM and National Nordic Museum.

In 2018, Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass received a Skade award the International Ski History Association as outstanding work on ski history.  Skade is the Norse goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains.  In 2021, Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley received a Skade honorable mention. 

In 2021, Skiing Sun Valley: a History from Union Pacific to the Holdings, won three prestigious national book awards:

A Skade award from the International Ski History Association (ISHA);

the Harold S. Hirsch Award for Excellence in Snowsports Journalism (cowinner), given by the North American Sports Journalists’ Association (NASJA) to the best winter sports publication every three years; and 

the Western Ski Heritage prize awarded by the Far West Ski Association, in recognition of the best effort in the prior 2 years that communicates the contributions of snowsports to the community at large.

The International Ski History Association said the following when Skiing Sun Valley received its Skade Award. 

“There have been many attempts to tell the story of Sun Valley, but this book does so with a thoroughness and flair that this iconic resort deserves.  With over 150 photographs and the benefits of extensive research, this book unfolds a history that dazzles with tales of celebrities…and icons of American skiing…Here is the storied past of a one of a kind place in a book that does its heritage justice.”

Dick Dorworth’s review of Skiing Sun Valley in Ski History Magazine was titled “A Must Read for Sun Valley Fans.”

“Skiing Sun Valley is a deeply re-searched, scholarly book about the connections between the Sun Valley of today and the people, places, cultures, economics, wars, inventions, wilderness, ecology, risks, and personal relationships in the 19th and 20th centuries that made it what it will be in the 21st. Every aspect of the story is accompanied by an abundance of photos that on their own are worth the price of the book. Every person with a connection to and love for Sun Valley will be better informed, inspired and wiser after reading it.”

John has written essays on Washington history that have been published on Historylink.org (the on-line encyclopedia of Washington history), and on the Central Washington University’s website, (Works by Local Authors, https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/local_authors/).  His essays on Idaho and Wood River Valley history are available at the Center for Regional History.  John has written articles that have appeared in a number of magazines and journals, including Skiing History, Nordic Kultur, Idaho Magazine, and Ancient Skiers newsletters; the Mountains to Sound Greenway Blog;  the Far West Ski Association’s 90th Anniversary Publication; and websites including the Friends of Rowing History, International Ski Association, the Milwaukee Road Archives, and the Sahalie Ski Club.  

John is a frequent lecturer in Seattle and the Wood River Valley, and has done a series of TV shows with Eye on Sun Valley on history topics.  His Idaho lectures can be seen at  https://www.slideshare.net/CommunityLibrary, and his TV shows at http://eyeonsunvalley.com.

email address: john@johnwlundin.com         website www.johnwlundin.comn

Here is a video presentation that John used at The Community Library in Ketchum on March 17, 2022: “Early Sun Valley: Union Pacific, Averell Harriman and Alf Engen.”

Early Sun Valley: Union Pacific, Averell Harriman and Alf Engen with John Lundin on Vimeo

Annabel Quintero’s life was irrevocably changed on September 11th, 2001, when she narrowly escaped from the 46th floor of the One World Trade Center during the deadliest attack on U.S. soil. Her book, “Step Step Jump: Transforming Trauma to Triumph from the 46th Floor,” is an in-depth examination of the American immigrant experience, a study of spirituality in a secular world, a look at divine intervention in times of crisis, and an exploration of empathy against the backdrop of the financial and societal forces that shape the globe.

Today, Annabel has a Master’s degree in Education policy and Leadership, is an Amazon best-selling author, and cultural wellness coach. Her diverse experience as a cultural broker, educator, and coach are connected by a common thread: positively impacting people’s lives.

Annabel is a personal and cultural wellness coach.  As a result of her VIP coaching, clients stop compartmentalizing triggers, begin to practice self-awareness techniques and jump into their cultural blindspots to achieve visions bigger than themselves. 

As a result of her DEI workshops, she helps leaders expand their understanding of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion through her multi-racial ethnic workshops on Latino identity with a focus on financial, political and spiritual history. Understanding old mindsets, and identifying how they inform systems today, create the ability to choose a different course forward. Her goal is to truly heal deep wounds so that we can redefine cultural wellness and transmute trauma for all. 

Get your copy of Step Step Jump – Transforming Trauma to Triumph from the 46th floor today at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095L171BR

Presentation Notes from Stuart Webber:

Annabel Quintero was 23 years old and working on the 46^th floor in World Trade Center One on September 11, 2001.  She felt the impact when a plane hit the building, smelled the fire, and escaped by stepping and jumping down the stairs from the 46^th floor.

Years after that event, she recognized that she continued to suffer from the trauma of September 11, experiencing PTSD and survivor’s guilt.   She later returned to Seattle.  She said two activities helped her to recover.  One was to attend a 10-day meditation retreat.  The second was to participate in a Native American sweat lodge.

She said the meditation retreat taught her how such traumatic experiences impact our mind, our emotions, and our body.  Through meditation she learned how to step back and observe her thoughts, understand how those thoughts impacted her emotions, and how those painful emotions can create physical traumas within the body, such as tension and other uncomfortable sensations.  These uncomfortable physical sensations are frequently ignored in western medical practice.  Through the mediation retreat and the sweat lodge, she learned about somatic healing and how to address these uncomfortable physical sensations.  This helped her recover.  She also said these activities strengthened her spiritual foundation.  Further, she said her experience helped her to handle the stresses associated with the pandemic.

In general, she said that to recover from such traumas it is important to:

• Identify what triggers you
• Increase self-awareness
• Taking action to resolve issues (Jump)

Quintero also said journaling was an important activity which helped her understand what triggers trauma, and to increase her self-awareness.  

Quintero is the author of “Step Step Jump: Transforming Trauma to Triumph from the 46^th Floor,” a book which recounts her experiences. 

Sound Transit’s light rail plans turned out to be even more challenging than planned. The SkyLink team is advocating to build an alternative: An urban gondola. Martin Pagel told us that urban gondolas are getting more traction around the world as they can provide high frequency, sustainable, and accessible transit more quickly and with less disruption than traditional means.

Specifically, Martin and the SkyLink team have advocated for consideration of a gondola based transportation system for West Seattle that might have substantial benefits.

Martin Pagel grew up in Germany using many forms of public transit.  He is passionate about how public transportation infrastructure can reduce traffic congestion, climate impact, and housing cost by improving mobility. He lived and worked in West Seattle and currently resides in South Seattle.  

Martin, in his presentation to the club, noted that:

• The plan to extend Sound Transit was a late addition to the plan. The costs of extending light rail into the neighborhood have increased 73 percent over the initial estimates. The original estimate was $1.7 billion; current estimates are $3.2 billion.
• The Skylink team estimates that the costs to create a gondola-based system would cost less than one billion dollars to construct.
• A gondola-based system could be in place a decade earlier than a light rail system.
• Operating costs of a gondola system would be substantially lower: $12 million per year as opposed to an estimated $40 million.

Here are Martin’s presentation slides:

Learn more at the Skylink website.