RCAT Network: Climate Conversation Featuring Steve Bender and John Mathers

This RCAT Climate Conversation will center on the Global Service 4-7-8-17 Program that was developed by the Rotary Club of Newport Beach Sunrise with the purpose of “Embracing the Future While Respecting the Past”. All local and global service projects follow Rotary’s legendary Four-Way Test and fall under at least one of Rotary’s 7 Areas of Focus. Projects are created that embrace Rotary’s 8 Pillars of Positive Peace and that align with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This 4-7-8-17 Program is designed to partner with Rotary clubs locally and globally in a strategic vision for the future.

Steve Bender is the President of the Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club and AYUDA International, an organization which provides free dental care to the underserved. He also founded Steve’s Vision, which donates eyeglasses to those in need, and The Cleft Project, a charity which raises funds and supplies to support surgery for patients suffering from cleft palate. Steve chaired the Newport Beach Host Town committee during the 2015 Special Olympics in Los Angeles. Most recently, he founded and is the CEO of the California Inclusive Sailing Organization, which teaches wounded veterans and Special Olympics athletes how to sail via a custom-fitted boat. Steve is also the past president of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and a volunteer for the American Cancer Society. Steve sits on the boards of Orangewood PALS as well as the “Doc in a Box” Organization, a group which works with high schools to design and build mobile medical centers. 

Steve has influenced countless communities and individuals through an extensive lifetime of volunteerism. For his service, Steve and the groups he supports have been recognized by the California State Assembly, the City of Newport Beach, the Daily Pilot, and Rotary International.

John Mathers is the 2017-18 President of the Rotary Club of San Francisco and co-founder of the Rotary Climate Action Team (RCAT). To find out more about the RCAT Network and the Speakers Forum, go here.