Meeting summary by Michael Bronsdon.

Paula Del Giudice has been the executive director of Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center in Redmond, WA, for the past four years. Previous to her work with Little Bit, she served as the executive director or regional director of National Wildlife Federation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Seattle Guild, and the Pacific NW Pollution Prevention Resource Center. She has earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Nevada, Reno, and a Master of Education degree from Regis University. She lives in Sammamish, WA, with her small dog. She has two grown children, Kevin who works for the State of Washington’s Emergency Management Division, and a daughter who is a Speech-Language Pathologist in Issaquah. She is an avid golfer, artist, and gardener who loves to bake for family and friends. She is also Secretary of the Rotary Club of Redmond and is a member of BNI–Eastside Excellence chapter.

Little Bit was founded in 1976 by a woman named Margaret Dunlap. Margaret had Multiple Sclerosis and found that being on the back of a horse slowed the advance of her disease. From our humble beginnings of one horse and five riders, we have grown to be one of the largest nationally accredited, industry-leading PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship) International centers and one of the largest full-time therapeutic horsemanship programs in the United States. We offer Adaptive Riding and Hippotherapy, and serve 260 riders and patients each week with 30 horses and the help of more than 350 volunteers.

Little Bit runs three programs

• Hippotherapy: PT, OT, or Speech-Language Therapy: The movement of the horse brings full-body movement for riders, which brings a number of benefits to each rider. Core strength, stretching of muscles, and the bond between horse and rider are key benefits. Many of the clients are also able to have a different view of the world from on top of a horse.

• Adaptive Riding: Similar benefits to the above, but also teaches how to care for and work with a horse. Clients have goals to pursue through recreational horseback riding. Special Olympics Equestrian Team is also a component of the Adaptive Riding Program. Program suspended by Covid; intending to restart

• Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy: Mental health therapy, working with mental health professionals and an equine specialist. This is an ‘unmounted’ program and through the interaction between horse and client includes helpful biofeedback. Equine-Assisted Learning also includes educational and professional skill development, in which clients also have personal learning goals as they develop life skills through working with horses.

Other Programs – Summer Camps! Inclusive camps for children and young adults for kids from 5-12, and young adults ages 18-35. Participants get to ride for an hour a day.

Volunteers: A key part of Little Bit is the volunteer support that enable all of the programs. 135 volunteers weekly, who range in age from 14 to 92! Over 15,252 hours were logged in 2020.

The Horses

30 horses currently on the property. One third are Norwegian Fjord horses, which are stoic and a bred to be work horses. They are also a bit shorter than other breeds. They are easy to work with and very popular. Horses average 419 hours of staff and volunteer care per year.

‘Harvest’ was a Seattle Police horse who retired from the department and has moved to Little Bit. He’s been great for larger riders, as he is 17-hands tall.

Friends of Little Bit

34 different work groups (including some corporate teams) help with cleaning and maintenance issues.

Little Bit sponsors several fund-raising events every year. On September 9, 2021 they are hosting a golf tournament at Redmond Ridge. Registration is available online.

Program Summary by Joe Diehl.

Jake Leachman made a presentation on the use of hydrogen in Washington State as an environmentally friendly approach to reducing carbon emissions. Refer to Jake’s PowerPoint slides for more detailed information. Jake noted, this talk is presented on a very high-level basis. There is a lot happening in the news on clean energy. Jake’s presentation covered where we were; where we are today; and where we are going in the future. There is no doubt climate change is a reality!

Currently a major challenge is in the supply change: most hydrogen is delivered in liquid form in a huge tanker truck. In the big picture, 74% of all of the mass in the universe is hydrogen – and 75% of the sun’s mass is hydrogen. Thirteen percent of all atoms on the earth are hydrogen atoms. Jake covered several different types of hydrogen (grey, blue, green, etc.). Washington is building one of the largest plants for green hydrogen production. By the way, nuclear power produces a byproduct known as pink hydrogen.

Jake spoke about combining wind power using hydrogen to produce electrolyte water. A good characteristic of hydrogen, is that it can be compressed. The use of hydrogen is growing as quickly as the historic growth of solar and wind power. Jake noted that Federal funding for the development of hydrogen energy is sorely lacking.

Worldwide, hydrogen energy development has now been embraced by the world. During the pandemic, carbon emissions were reduced; but now they exceed pre-pandemic levels – thus elevating the importance of developing alternative energy sources. Hydrogen can be delivered forty times fast than other energy fuel.

Jake answered questions and answers from Rotary Club members in the remaining time.

Jacob “Jake” Leachman is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University (WSU). He initiated the Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) laboratory at WSU in 2010 with the intent to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of cryogenic hydrogen systems. He earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 and a M.S. degree in 2007 from the University of Idaho. His master’s thesis has been adopted as the foundation for hydrogen fueling standards and custody exchange, in addition to winning the Western Association of Graduate Schools Distinguished Thesis Award for 2008. He completed his Ph.D. in the Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 under the advice of John Pfotenhauer and Greg Nellis. He is the lead author of the reference text “Thermodynamic Properties of Cryogenic Fluids: 2nd Edition”. In 2018, he received the Roger W. Boom Award from the Cryogenics Society of America and is a Senior Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Our new President, Pam Mushen, opened the weekly meeting at 7:30 a.m. 

Jim Horrigan’s Red Team members introduced the Thought of the Day and the Rotary Minute. 

President Pam announced that Club Social Events Chair Colleen White and Club Community Service Co-Chair David Mushen had already met with their committee members and have put together our first Social/Community Service event on July 13^th, 4:00 p.m. at Colleen White’s residence at 9209 8^th Ave NE.  Everybody participating will help with preparation of a meal that will be delivered to Teen Feed at University Way NE. that same night.  Teen Feed will distribute the meals. 

Pam introduced her first ‘Historical Fact’ and reviewed all Club positions and areas of responsibility for the coming year.  She will follow-up by emailing both the Social Events Calendar and Committee Roster to all members. 

Pam, the ‘almost’ ‘Strawberry Fair Princess and probably future Queen’ of the Lebanon, Oregon community, informed and entertained us with her “This is Your Life.” so far, facts and stories about her education, career positions, and family.   

We were then led into our ‘Break-Out sessions by Committee assignments’ by Lincoln Ferris, who also coordinates the ZOOM meetings each week.   

**Sidenote:  I was fortunate to be the only other member of the Social committee in attendance with Joseph Thomas and Claudia Gutierrez in our ‘break-out session’.  They attending from Mexico City.  We discussed an idea of theirs……They have mailed/emailed a local Rotarian who owns large grounds at the foot of the volcano sites and hosts two ‘Beer Festivals’ a year and an annual ‘Cut your own Tree’ Christmas Tree sale.  They would like our University Sunrise Rotary membership to attend this festival in 2022.  As of now, they have not heard back from the owner of the property but will keep us posted.  Pam thinks this would be a great trip for us! 

That’s it.    

Teri St. Onge – First-time Scribe for our new year – July 2021 – June 2022. 

Our program on June 17, 2021 featured Damian Wampler, Public Diplomacy Officer, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State discussing the state of US-Russian Relations. 

This program was off-the-record.

Damian joined the Foreign Service in 2009. His first assignment was in Central Asia, where he served as the Embassy Spokesperson and Information Officer in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Due to his background in education and culture, he served as the Cultural Affairs Officer in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in Moscow. He has managed and overseen major academic and professional exchange programs such as Fulbright and created numerus programs to promote cross-cultural understanding. He has also served in a consular capacity adjudicating visas and supporting American citizens overseas in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Karachi, Pakistan.   

Before joining the Foreign Service, Damian served in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan teaching English and returned to Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright scholar to do research. He also worked as a recruiter for the FLEX high school exchange program in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and as Peace Corps recruiter for the New York regional office.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Anthropology from Boston University, and received his Master’s in human and political geography from the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at UW-Madison. He also earned a Master’s in Professional Studies from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and is a photographer and author of plays, screenplays, and graphic novels. He was born and raised in Newark, Delaware, and serves overseas with his wife, son, and two dogs.