Posted by Alisha Marfatia on Sep 08, 2021
President Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales | JM Real Estate Group) called the first meeting of September 2021 to order at 12:15 PM.
 
Visiting Rotarians and Special Guests
In today's audience were the following guests: Edita Cruz from SCORE, Anthony DiGiorgio, Greg Grundstrom, Dr. Elisa Stephens of the Academy of Art, and today's speaker — Jaxon Van Derbeken. 
 
Membership News
Margaret Miley (Hospitality: Hotels | Retired) and Matthew Madsen (Nonprofit Management | The Salvation Army) completed their red badge requirements and are now full members of our Club. Congratulations, Margaret and Matthew!
 
 
President Mary, Bill Gregory, and Christopher WisemanSupport for The Rotary Foundation
These members were recognized as Paul Harris Fellows, as an appreciation for their generous donations to The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International:
PHF+1: Bill Gregory (Educational Services | Retired) and
PHF+1: Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation).
 
Upcoming Events
President Mary invited everyone to participate in the upcoming events shown on the Club calendar. Our Club will be hosting an opportunity to view the Blue Angels in style on October 9, 2021. Stay tuned for details.
 
Personal Safety Alarms Distributed to Asian Seniors
President Mary announced that 150 alarms were distributed on August 30, 2021 to the residents and food pantry recipients at Heritage Homes in Visitation Valley. Thank you to Mary Liu, James Wong, Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired UCSF), Rosie Liu, District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani and her aide Emily Abraham for volunteering.  

On September 4, 2021, 859 alarms were distributed to food pantry recipients in the OMI (Oceanview, Merced Heights, and Ingleside) neighborhood. Collaboration among our Club, SF-Marin Food Bank, and Catholic Charities made this distribution possible. Thank you to Rotarians JT Forbus, Alex Omoko (Human Services | Bay Area Community Service), Carmel Finnerty (Real Estate: Property Management | Ros Hills Property Management), Nat Crawford (Education: Tutoring | Improve Your English Tutoring), Brian Lan (Information Technology: Financial Services | DocuSign), Mary Liu, and friends of Rotary: Elaine Hom, James Wong, Rosie Liu, Jessica Liu, Simon Timony, Edna Casteel, Rose Hoang, Joyce Perey, Miyoko Sakatani, and the Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown President, Richard Swart, for coming out on a beautiful Saturday morning to distribute the alarms to Asian Seniors.
 
Climate Minute
New to our Club is this segment featuring a video about the effects of climate change. Here is the video shown on September 7, 2021.
 
Dan Joraanstad, Edita Cruz, and Sunny SinghGrant Presentation to SCORE
Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising | Retired), president of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation, presented a check in the amount of $5,000 to SCORE. Present to receive the check was Edita Cruz. Edita offered to our Club members an opportunity to take free business training.
 
50/50 Campaign Grows with a Surprise Donation Challenge
Allan Herzog (Financial Services: Advising | Wells Fargo Advisors) called for a standing ovation to recognize the new members of our Club. Then, he offered to donate $3,000 if Club members would match his donation. The following stepped forward and donated $3,000 together: JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco), Christopher Wiseman, Bill Gregory, Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing | GRANTdog) and Bill Poppen (Banking: Management | MUFG Union Bank), Jim Patrick (Retail: Office Supplies | Patrick & Co.), and Sunny Singh (Financial Services: Advising | PK Wealth Management).
 
$20 for Twenty Seconds
Rhonda Poppen donated to celebrate the attendance of Edita Cruz from SCORE and Dr. Elisa Stephens from the Academy of Art University. Joining Rhonda in donating were John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates), President Mary, and Susan Lundy who was not present but donated online.

A $100 donation was made to wish Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) a speedy recovery from back surgery.
 
Jaxon Van DerbekenGuest Speaker
Christopher Wiseman introduced today's speaker — Jaxon Van Derbeken. Jaxon is an award-winning reporter for NBC Bay Area, with a focus on public safety and enterprise reporting. He talked about investigative journalism and public perception, particularly related to the Millennium Tower building and how the building is leaning. Recent news is that the “fix” caused it to lean even more. President Mary thanked Jaxon and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in his name. 
 
Raffle
The meeting concluded with a raffle prize of Napa champagne; David Dye (Management Consulting | Retired) was the winner!
 
The meeting was adjourned at 1:29 p.m.
 
Editor's Note: Thank you to Alisha Marfatia (Information Technology: E-Commerce | EvolveWare) for serving as scribe at this meeting, to Matthew Madsen for serving as photographer, to Bill Gregory for managing the microphone, to Margaret Miley for collecting lunch tickets, to Cecile Chiquette (Accounting | Fiduciary Administration), Christopher Wiseman, and Maureen O'Shea (Governmental Relations | Retired), who served as greeters, to Greg Grundstrom of the Academy of Art for managing the audio visual equipment during our in-person meetings, to Casey Blair (Financial Services: Private Trading | KCB Trading, LLC) for managing those who were attending via Zoom today, to JT Forbus for serving as cashier, and to Gary Dales (Accounting | Fly Leasing) for doing check-in today at the Hotel Nikko.