Speaker: Karen Daubert, Friends of Street Ends | Summary by Michelle Lee

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Karen met Daniel Byrne, a University Sunrise Rotary Club member, when she was working on a project in Dan’s neighborhood.  Dan was curious about Karen cleaning up blackberries in a dead ended street and struck up a conversation. Dan and Karen has since worked on a few Friends of Street Ends projects. 

Friends of Street Ends started 25 years ago, its purpose is to open up shoreline street ends for safe public access, to create an open and inviting space for neighbors, coworkers, parents and kids to enjoy our beautiful shoreline.

There are total 141 shoreline street ends in Seattle.  Through volunteer effort and partnership over the years, half of them have been opened, a quarter still have overgrown and the remaining are currently permitted for private use for a fee.  The completed project will always has a sign, a bench and visual or physical access to the water.

The sites are identified by Friends of Street Ends, the clean-up are done by volunteers, site/landscape design and planting are mostly supported by cash or in-kind donations.  Of note, only manual labor, no chemical, is used for the clean-up.  The cost of construction is paid by Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).  However, Friends of Street Ends relies on volunteers to maintain the sites.

Karen is looking for volunteers to help the clean-up and to adopt the sites to clear up overgrown regularly.  Karen is also a long time Rotary Club member with Seattle Downtown Rotary Club.

Karen Daubert co-founded Friends of Street Ends in 1992.  Karen has over 30 years’ experience in environmental, trail, and open space policy, advocacy, and funding. As former Executive Director of Washington Trails Association, she oversaw the largest state trails organization in the nation.  As Founding Director of the Seattle Parks Foundation, she led the organization from a start-up to one that is recognized as a national leader in parks philanthropy and advocacy.  As King County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, her focus was on real property and parks issues.  She also served as a member of the Seattle Planning Commission, Seattle Park Commission, and National City Parks Alliance.  She has been responsible for many aspects of community organizing ranging from founding Friends of Street Ends to leading several community-based groups.  Karen is experienced in working closely with board members, management teams, the public, elected officials and agencies and believes strongly in team and community building. 

Friends of Street ends (FOSE) is a city-wide all-volunteer group who members work to open and improve Seattle’s 142 shoreline street ends.  Throughout its 30 years, FOSE it has made a significant impact on Seattle.  At the April meeting, FOSE members will provide an overview of the group, its mission, its work in partnership with the City, as well as its successes and failures.  Friends of Street Ends started when three Leschi residents decided to open up four of Leschi’s shoreline street ends for public access.  At the time, these “public places” were not open for public use and enjoyment.  Rather, they were being used by adjacent property owners for their own backyards.  And on top of that, there were no City policies that clarified that Seattle’s public streets – especially those that dead-end of bodies of water – should be accessible to the public.  Thus, Friends of Street Ends was born. As a result of this leadership, Seattle is a leaders in its work on shoreline street ends. 

Cathy Gibson is the current District Governor of Rotary District 5030. She oversees a District of nearly fifty Rotary Club throughout Western Washington.

CATHERINE GIBSON’s varied career spans 40 years. Beginning in 1980, in roughly 10 year increments she worked in corporate finance in New York, then managed international development projects across Africa, in the newly independent nations of the former Soviet Union, and the South Pacific on behalf of U.S. and European development agencies, then helped build the business consulting practice as a partner at Moss Adams LLP in Seattle, and since 2010, as Managing Partner, has led Evolve Partner Group LLC, a boutique mediation and family business advisory firm. Catherine currently serves as an outside director on the board of Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants.

Beyond her business career, Catherine has prioritized community service. She is a long serving board member, and former board chair at Seattle Goodwill, the West Seattle YMCA, and the United Negro College Fund. Catherine is a 20 year Rotarian, past president of her Rotary club and is currently serving as the Rotary District 5030 Governor in 2020-2021.

She and her husband of 31 years live in West Seattle.

Cathy opened her presentation with Einstein’s “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.  Rotary International’s (RI) Theme of the Year is “Rotary opens opportunities”.  She thinks there will be many opportunities ahead for Rotary. 

Being an experienced mountaineer (she has climbed seven summits), she shared with us her setback during the climb on Mount McKinley. Despite mapping out a well-planned route, having a good team and having learned from past accidents, she suffered snow blindness.  Nonetheless, she and her team summited by doing one step at a time.

The district goals for this year align with Rotary International’s including adding new clubs, increasing membership and continuing to fight polio.  District 5030 will launch three new clubs, Environmental Rotary Club of Puget Sound, Rotary Club of Southeast Seattle, and the Rotary Club of the Pacific Northwest Fighting Sex Trafficking, with a plan to have seven more in the next three years.  The District 5030 Foundation is supporting the “End Polio Now” program with a $2 million grant.  She also encouraged Rotarians to volunteer at Covid-19 vaccine sites.

Rotary’s brand is perceived differently in different regions.  Rotarians are humanitarians in North America while it is more for personal affiliation in Europe, and for professional networking in other countries.

Regarding membership diversity, statistics aren’t currently tracked. Cathy thinks that open culture is key. We need to think about the meals we eat, holidays we celebrate, jokes we laugh about and who the program beneficiaries are etc… and be sensitive to our members and guests.

In terms of gender equality, RI is committed to have 25% female board members.  Jennifer Jones from Canada will be the next RI president, the first female in Rotary’s 115 years history.

To attract young professional, Cathy suggested Rotarians invite someone from their profession to join as they retire and to host networking events, which young professionals are interested in.

University Sunrise Rotary Club has been given the Award for Outstanding Growth in Membership.  Our membership has risen by 20% year to date.