University of Washington “Tent City”

In the February 16th production, University of Washington “Tent City”, the cast was comprised of Toni Sarge, thesis student; Ted Hunter, pro bono lawyer; and dedicated volunteers Jason Tavares, Scott Morrow, and Courtney O’Toole.

As homeless shelters go, this one complies with laws, screens its residents, embraces cleanliness, and disallows drunkenness and drug activity. Hospitality is extended to visitors, from whom contributions of food and clothing are welcomed. TC is one of a network of 11 similar self-help locations. These are necessary establishments, lest people lack the basics of life.

Only 2500 shelter beds exist. Efforts are made to keep couples together. The number of affordable family housing units remains limited. People come and go. For extreme weather, warm shelters are available. TCs are self-managed, with officers elected, an executive committee is in force. A security test must be passed for entry. There is a strict code of conduct. Two security people are present around the clock.
There is a large community tent for socialization, as well as a kitchen. Weekly camp meetings are held. Bus tickets are provided for those who must get to jobs. In addition, the UW provides monthly dental care. A foot clinic, acupuncture, and alternate medicine options are available. Nursing care is also provided.

In short, not all homeless individuals are alike; a variety of factors has brought them to the shelters. The chief single factor that has made TCs necessary is the shortage of affordable housing. Until supply can meet demand, people must be sustained in this way, and by the selflessness of those who shepherd them

Relay for Life 2017

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.

American Cancer Society

On February 9^th. 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.

David Williams, “Too High and Too Steep”

Last week, David Williams, author of “Too High and Too Steep”, discoursed on Seattle’s topography. It boggled the mind overall, how, in the early 1900s and even farther back, did they accomplish what they did? There were no bulldozers, graders, hydrologists, nor cranes. And yet they juggled with water levels, obliterated high mounds, and leveled the landscape. All of this molded the city to the extent that business and residency were enabled. At the start (1854) it was decided someday to utilize smallish Lake Union to connect the salt water of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Lake Washington. Fast forward 69 years, when a ship canal was envisioned. Lake Washington was 29′ above sea level, Lake Union 20′. Salmon Bay was a tidal salt water inlet. A feat of engineering for that time took place. It involved coffer dams, gates, pumping, blasting, and at times redoing. Ultimately, boats could go from the salt water of Puget Sound, through locks, into Lake Washington. In the process, the waters of Portage Bay flowed into the Montlake Cut. The landscape underwent change with the filling in of the tidal flats, creating 24 acres of new land between Beacon Hill and West Seattle.
A series of mounds, Denny Regrade being the most iconic. had to be obliterated. The soft earth was removed in huge volumes with the use of water cannons and dynamite. In the process, houses had to be relocated. Elevated on pallets, they were brought down by a technique of “stairstepping.”

The author gives praise to pioneers from the east who did all that was necessary to create the city they wanted, from such a challenging landscape.

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 12^th, 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.

Luke Timmerman: Biographer of Lee Hood

Our first speaker of the year was Luke Timmerman, biographer of Lee Hood. Many biographers have to rely on archives, old newspapers, relatives, and much more. Others have the advantage of a living and compliant subject for firsthand information. Luke Timmerman, in his biography of Lee Hood, entitled “Hood“, enjoyed the latter situation.

Hood’s evolution stemmed from an association with a high school teacher, a Caltech alumnus, who, seeing potential, steered the young man to that institution. Hood soon made his name in Immunology and in genetics as applied to it. This entailed the DNA sequence and the shuffling of genes to evolve elements of the immune system. Thus arose the Biotech industry, investors therein, and AMGEN, the leading company in the field. Hood sat atop an empire. However, he clashed with the CalTech administration and his colleagues. CalTech discontinued genome research. Hood was ousted.

His next opportunity came at UW, to which he was recruited by Roger Perlmutter and financed by Bill Gates. In the beginning, it was rosy. Hood brought CalTech recruits, $, prominence to UW. But ultimately he ran into difficulties. The issue was that of Systems Biology, a collaboration with other disciplines. UW did not go for this. He headed the Genome Department, but encountered managerial issues. He was again out on his own.

His contributions to biology are recognized worldwide. His many awards have not included the Nobel Prize. This, according to the author, is tragic.

12/29, No Meeting, but don’t forget…

Fellow University Sunrise Rotarians,

A reminder that we are taking a break for the Holidays this week; there is no breakfast meeting on Thursday. Our regular meetings will resume in 2017 on January 5th. The January Board Meeting will be Wednesday January 11th (delayed a week) and we have our Club Fireside on Friday January 20th.

Debuts & Discoveries Early Bird Tickets
Just a few days left to get your Debuts & Discoveries tickets at the early bird price of $30.00. Visit usrotary.org and click on the Debuts & Discoveries link on the top right.

https://usrotary.org//debuts-and-discoveries/

Hope everyone is have a great Holiday week.

President Jim

City University Enactus Program

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.

The Rotary Foundation – Magnificent!

One hundred years ago, RI President Arch Klumph proposed an endowment that would “do good in the world.” The Rotary Foundation was born! ~ So… how are we doing in that “doing good” business? In a word, magnificent!

A recent Global Grant Worldwide Report, lists 1,112 Global Grants (min. budget of $30,000) approved in the last 14 months… an average of 17 Global Grants per week, year after year, after year. Imagine what that means! Rotarians around the globe are working wonders every week! Clubs working together accomplish community- based, and sustainable humanitarian projects; assemble and dispatch Volunteer Training Teams and recruit Rotary Peace fellows every week, year after year. Add to that Rotarians’ District Grant projects and Polio Eradication efforts, and you’ve got a magnificent track record of doing good in the world – brought to you by The Rotary Foundation! Be proud of that!

Remember… Every Rotarian Every Year! Use “Rotary Direct” … consider $20/mo.

PDG Mike Montgomery, DRFC District 5030