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 Our members sure get around! Chris Boehner (Organic Foods; Western Natural Foods) was one of only three Young Professionals from our own District 5150 who attended the Rotary Young Professionals Summit in Berkeley August 28-29. Chris and more than a hundred other Rotarians strategized on issues related to Rotary Membership and PR. Donna-Lee Rubin (Nonprofit Management; Rotaplast International) celebrated Rotaplast at a Red Sox game in Boston - and even ended up on the Jumbotron.
 Happy to give "Happy Dollars": Heidi Kuhn (International Media; Roots of Peace) donated $100 to celebrate Jim Patrick and his efforts with the Roots of Peace Project in Croatia: Thanks to Jim's help – and the help of many others, there are no more land mines in Croatia. Tom Briody (Elder Care; Institute on Aging), donated $100 to recognize his 28th wedding anniversary. John Mathers (Management Consulting; eVo Consultancy) donated $100 in celebration of he and wife Peggy finally being settled in their new Mill Valley home.
Vocational speakers: Past President Jim Patrick (Stationery; Patrick & Co.) was proud to point out that Patrick & Co is a Price Follower. Go to his website to learn more! Xu Wang (Financial Planning; Wang Wealth Management) told us how she works with her clients to minimize the anxiety of volatility in the market. Michael Strohl (Investment Advisor; Sagemark Consulting), who is busy with his growing family, focuses on helping those with young families and the recently retired. Chris Boehner is proud to be building the largest Benefit Corporation on the planet by bringing together brands that keep you lean, strong, and full of energy.
More great speakers at our weekly Luncheon Meetings. We were wowed with stories about competitive climbs from Hans Florine, an award-winning climber. We were especially impressed to learn that he climbed Yosemite's El Capitan with a polio survivor. Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo educated us on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease and simple ways to avoid excess sugar and salt. Past District Governor Deepa Willingham, from Solvang, gave a sobering talk about the poorest people on the planet (those earning less than 1-2 dollars a day) and the resulting sex trafficking and recruitment of children to be child soldiers. Her school in India educates hundreds of girls and is being replicated in other countries. Peter Sellars told us about the history and current challenges of the International Order of Odd Fellows.
 Special raffle prize: John Mount (Statistical Consulting; Win-Vector) and wife Nina Zumel made Rotary Pasta as the raffle prize, an awesome and delicious gift! David Dye won the raffle and John made enough for President Stephanie to have some too.
Club service projects: Rick Harrell (Veterans Outreach; Heroes' Voices) is chairing the upcoming Heroes' Voices Concert Honor our Veterans at Herbst Theatre on Veterans Day, November 11. Our Club is proud to be the main sponsor of this concert with a gift of $10,000 from the San Francisco Rotary Foundation. Rotarians can get a 20% discount off the $40 seats by entering ROTARY2 as the discount code when buying tickets at the box office. All veterans can get free tickets here. Please spread the word and plan to volunteer to help out at the concert itself. Mark Calendar (Insurance Broker; Calendar-Robinson), Chair of our Dictionary Project, told us a story of a thankful Mom who's daughter received a life-changing dictionary seven years ago that had been inscribed as a gift from our own Carrie Condran LaBriola (Nonprofit Management; Retired). Mark awarded a $25 Peet's gift card to Dan Joraanstad (Retail Brokerage; Wells Fargo Advisors) for correctly spelling the word wildebeest. The San Francisco Rotary Foundation also presented a check for $10,000 to Rotaplast International. President Stephanie is aiming to make sure Rotary has the biggest float in this year's Italian Heritage Parade on October 11: bring the family and friends. You can ride the cable car in the parade or be a marcher holdings one of the more than 200 flags from the countries and geographic territories in the Rotary World.
Rotarian of the Month: President Stephanie named Kay Clarke (Strategic Planning and Management; Retired) our Club's Rotarian of the Month. Kay has been a Rotarian for 27 years, and has attended EVERY single Rotary meeting since July: 10 meetings in a row! Thank you Kay, for your dedication!
Membership moment: Membership Chair Tom Briody highlighted the importance of more members: a larger club has more volunteers to serve more people. We are starting monthly club socials beginning October 21st.
Welcome our newest member: Our newest member is Mahtab Shahkarami, a microbiologist with The California Department of Health. Mahtab is excited to get involved and has a special interest in the International Committee. Mahtab lives in Noe Valley. We learned she likes electronic music and has a cool cat!
Support The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International: Every member of our club is expected to donate to The Rotary Foundation every year. Our club-wide goal this year is $33,000. Take advantage of the raffle tickets you received at a meeting (or via mail) and your donation might win you one of the Visa gift card prizes worth more than $6000. See Michael Mustacchi (Photography; Michael Mustacchi & Associates), Development Chair, or Phyllis Nusz (Business Service - Fundraising; PJ Enterprises), Foundation Chair with questions about raffle tickets.
Rotary #2 Quiz: How many Rotary International Presidents have been members of our own Rotary Club of San Francisco? The answer is 5: more than any other Rotary Club in the world!
There's lots more going on in our club! Check out our event calendar to learn what's happening and to sign up.
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Posted by David Dye
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 Richard Harrell is a self-styled Okie from Muskogee. Although born in Oklahoma he grew up in the Virginia suburbs of the District of Columbia. Music has always been a part of his life. In his youth he was a member of garage bands. In high school, he was a member of the choir focusing on performing classical music. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the Catholic University of America and a master’s of fine arts degree from the State University of New York.
After college his musical background included a wide variety of experiences including performing, teaching, and managing programs. For over 25 years he has been creating musical events and providing performance opportunities for singers on three continents at many leading institutions. You can hear Rick performing the role of Bernardo on the West Side Story album conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
In 1996 Rick came to San Francisco to work for San Francisco Opera as director of the Opera Center. That career path led him to become Artistic Advisor for the Opera Studio of the New National Theatre Tokyo, Resident Stage Director for the Bangkok Opera, a principal teaching artist for the Opera Studio of the Netherlands, Director of the Opera Program of the San Francisco Conservatory and Associate Director of the Orfeo Foundation in Amsterdam. In 2012 he chose to take his career in a new direction by forming Heroes Voices. Beginning with a Veteran’s Administration facility in Menlo Park, he is expanded the reach of his music therapy into facilities in San Bruno, San Francisco, Yountville, and Livermore. This program is sponsoring research relating to music therapy for veterans suffering from PTSD. The long term goal of Heroes’ Voices is to continue to expand programming regionally and nationally.
Richard is no stranger to Rotary: his father was a lifelong Rotarian. Rick joined the Rotary Club of San Francisco looking for networking opportunities to further develop Heroes Voices. Rotary has had a tremendous impact for him. He has found his involvement in Rotary to be both personally and professionally rewarding.
Rick and his wife, Lisa Bottom, live and work in San Francisco.
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Posted by Carrie Condran La Briola
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 Katherine Anne Forsythe says with a name like that “I should be writing romance novels!” She was Kathy until she moved to Tucson, then became Kat “because it sounded like a real cowgirl.”
Born in Detroit (“Motown”), she grew up in the suburb of Ferndale (“home of Eminen”) and graduated from the University of Michigan, then got a masters degree in social work at the University of Cincinnati. She’s been a high school speech and English teacher, cyclist, sports car (Porsche 911) and motocross racer and scuba diver. She moved seven times in 10 years and traveled extensively as a national sales trainer in the financial services industry.
Kat’s journey brought her to San Francisco in 2006 to “start fresh” after a divorce, and she ended up living at 10th and Market streets (“I didn’t know.”) Ultimately, she dropped to 115 pounds, bleached her hair white, was wearing all black and “trying to find out who I was.” Though she describes her time in the Tenderloin as “an incredible experience,” she had “a spiritual transformation, an aha moment” while meditating on the Moraga Steps and decided it was time to get her life together.
One of the ways she did that was to reconnect with Rotary, which she had first joined in Tucson. “I had lost my identity and didn’t know who I was,” she says. “I know it sounds dramatic, but Rotary saved my life.” In Tucson, it was a way to meet people. In San Francisco, she was all alone and lonely and once again needed to make connections.
Kat did postgraduate work in human sexuality at San Francisco State University and now works as a sex therapist and divorce coach with “men and women, who are recovering from divorce or any cataclysmic life event. I’m giving them their joie de vivre back, hope, help redirecting themselves to who they are, their core strengths, redefining how they want to spend the rest of their lives.” She calls that “a long process. My job is to guide people along the journey.”
The author of two books, Kat is currently working on a third, which she calls “the juiciest and best,” about her personal journey. She has two adult daughters who work in the food industry. Beth is director of public relations for Whole Food Markets in Northern California, and Kate works for Fresh Food Network, which provides cards for people on public assistance to buy food at farmers’ markets.
As Club Service Chair on the Rotary Club of San Francisco Board, Kat says her goal is “for each and every person to have a fabulous, fun experience at every meeting.” Rick Harrell, her associate, is adding entertainment to the meetings, and they are planning fun and interesting “Last Week” events.
Kat says people came from all over the world for the Tucson Sunrise Rotary’s annual trail ride fundraiser, which included tent-camping, BBQ and country-western dancing. “What happened on the trail ride stayed on the trail ride,” she quips. Who knows what she may have in store for the Rotary Club of San Francisco? |
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 The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program, RYLA, is now in its 31st year. Started by the Rotary Club of San Francisco as Camp Enterprise, RYLA is now a district wide program offering a three day leadership experience each spring to over 100 high school students.
Come and enjoy lunch while viewing videos of the 2015 RYLA camp experience and learning about how this program has changed lives.
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 All club members are welcome to attend meetings of the International Service Committee. Please join the meeting to see what projects are coming up and how you can help, and/or to propose your own ideas for new projects. If you would like to find out how to submit a grant for a project, criteria for grants or completing a final report, this is the meeting for you. |
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 Rotary District 5150 is pleased to present Potential Rotary Leaders Seminars (PRLS), your leadership development program. Club members who have completed Basic PRLS are encouraged to attend this Master PRLS 4 training.
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 Help us make Rotary's float be the largest float in the whole parade! We need hundreds of marchers to represent Rotary and carry the more than 200 flags of the countries and geographic territories that are part of the Rotary World. Those who prefer can ride in style in a motorized cable car and throw candy to the crowd. All Rotarians, Interactors, and Rotaractors are invited and all are encouraged to bring family and friends for this fun event.
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 Our own Rick Harrell will talk about the needs of our country's veterans. He will give us an overview of the services offered by Heroes' Voices, an organization he leads and that is now supported by our club. He'll talk about the exciting first annual Heroes' Voices Concert to Honor Our Veterans, co-sponsored by our own Rotary #2. And he will explore some additional ways that our club can reach out to be of service to veterans.
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The board of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation meets monthly to discuss the needs of the foundation and to approve funding for Rotary Service projects. Meetings of the Foundation Board are primarily for Foundation Board Members, but club members are often welcome to attend.
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 Steve Muterspaugh, the Associate Artistic Director of The SF Shakespeare Festival, will provide us with some history and background about this longstanding San Francisco treasure with a focus on their current production of Hamlet. And, an actor will perform some highlights of that great play.
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All club members are welcome to attend meetings of the Local Community Service Committee. Please join the meeting to see what projects are coming up and how you can help, and/or to propose your own ideas for new projects. If you would like to find out how to submit a grant for a project, criteria for grants or completing a final report, this is the meeting for you.
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 First in a new series of Monthly Socials! Join us for appetizers and merriment. Bring your friends, co-workers, and family members to enjoy some time with your fellow Rotarians and guests, learn more about Rotary. Free appetizers. And someone will win a free luncheon ticket!
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 Party down with your fellow Rotarians and others at 12th Root's Halloween Bash in SOMA. You may remember Peter Logan's great band" they have provided entertainment at previous Rotary events. They'll be playing a variety of great rock tunes, along with some special Halloween music. Costumes encouraged, but not mandatory. This will be a fun evening of refreshments, merriment, music and dancing. Come and join us!
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The monthly joint meeting of the boards of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, the governing body responsible for club operations, and Rotary Service, which oversees all of our club’s service projects. Members are welcome to attend, but please contact the Club Secretary to confirm time and location before attending.
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 Join us as we celebrate with new graduates who are completing their stay at Harbor House and moving forward with the next step in their lives.
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