ROTARY

Program: David Bobanick, Executive Director, Harvest Against Hunger, “Building Healthy Food Systems Across our Community,” Dec. 14, 2023

David Bobanick, Executive Director of Harvest Against Hunger (HAH), has nearly three decades of experience in non-profit executive management.  Since David joined in 2001, the organization has significantly expanded its impact at the local, national and international levels, resulting in the delivery of nearly half a billion healthy servings of produce for those in need. 

David has led the creation and development of the national Harvest VISTA program, as well as innovative and award-winning programs focusing on shortening the connections from Farm to Community. In addition, David and the HAH team continue to build and scale nationally-recognized programs with partners like the Corporation for National and Community Service, AmeriCorps, USDA, WSDA, Washington State University, the University of Washington and other partners to enhance food systems in communities across the United States.

David has a degree in communications from Penn State University and has studied at the Non-Profit Executive Leadership Institute at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, as well as the Non-Profit Management Institute at Stanford University. David was also recently named a “Food Waste Innovator” by ReFED, and currently serves as a board officer for four local, statewide, and regional non-profit organizations.

Program: Sophia Lopez, “Disaster Preparedness: The Basics,” August 10, 2023

Here is a link to Sophia’s presentation. The Passcode is qvZ9Pdh=

Here is a link to the King County and Seattle Disaster Preparedness Website.

Sophia Lopez has been surviving disasters her whole life.

Now, she gets to educate others how to do just that. Having personally experienced and survived tornadoes in Texas, hurricanes in Georgia and Louisiana, snowstorms in Eastern WA, and earthquakes in Hawaii, Sophia was a preparedness expert long before discovering she could major in it, let alone dedicate her life to it. She received her Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security Studies from Tulane University. She is a Certified Emergency Manager with over nine years of experience in Emergency Management and over 25 years of experience in Customer Service. She has served on multiple deployments and activations, including supporting the USDA with the Avian Influenza outbreak in 2015 (H5N1) and serving as the Logistics Section Chief for the King County COVID-19 response in 2020.

She is currently the Community Engagement Manager at the City of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management.

Here are Sophia’s slides:

Program: Rotary 5030 District Governor, Kae Peterson, February 23, 2023

Kae Peterson spent almost seventeen years at the Evergreen Health Foundation as Vice President of Development. Prior to that, she spent nearly ten years at Shoreline Community College in various roles including Senior Executive Director for Community Relations and the Foundation.

She spent nearly eighteen years as an elected Commissioner of the King County Fire Protection District #16 — Northshore Fire Department.

She has a BA in Education from Augustana College in Illinois and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Argosy University in Seattle.

Since July of 2022, she has been Rotary 5030’s District Governor.

Rotary Peace Fellow Applications

Rotary Peace Centers

The 2022 Rotary Peace Fellowship application is now available, and we need your help finding the next cohort of global peace and development leaders.

Club members are encouraged to use their professional and social contacts to find potential candidates. They can also support the program by coaching candidates through the application process and connecting them to districts that can endorse their applications, a required step in the application process.

These resources can help you recruit candidates for 2022 Rotary Peace Fellowships:

Candidates have until 15 May to submit applications to their districts. Districts have until 1 July to submit endorsed applications to The Rotary Foundation.

Send any questions about the fellowship program to rotarypeacecenters@rotary.org. Thank you for your dedication to the Rotary Peace Centers and your help educating Rotary members and your community about the fellowships.

Sincerely, 
Rotary Peace Centers

Rotary Peace Centers are made possible by the generosity of donors.

Program Summary: Denny Wilford, “The Fight Against Polio,” Jan. 21, 2021

By Steve Barton

On January 21, 2021, we were honored to host Denny Willford, a Polio survivor who has given much of his life in the eradication of polio and improving the lives of survivors.  Two drops is all it takes to never have Polio and Denny has given hundreds two drop doses to children in multiple trips to Ethiopia and Uganda. 

Unfortunately, it has not always been enough.  Those who do come down with polio often become what is known as crawlers, unable to walk.  This condition can partially be resolved through surgery, which requires extensive rehabilitation.  On of the best restoration methods is hydrotherapy. Denny and his foundation built a hydrotherapy pool to assist in just that with great results.  Once rehabilitated, these former unemployable crawlers can now support themselves and their families.

Denny hasn’t stopped there.  He has formed the Willford Foundation which is supplying school desks for schools in Ethiopia.  To quote him:  $5,000 builds a lot of desks. 

Through the efforts of many Denny’s volunteering their time to provide 2 drops, worldwide polio cases were down to a handful with the goal of a polio-free world well in sight.  However, due to Covid and political discord, polio immunizations have stopped for the duration of the pandemic.  This has set the goal of eradication of polio back many years.