The Polio Virus has been on our planet for at least 4,000 years. Killing, crippling children and adults all of this time. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President of the United States was the first president who was suffering from the effects of Polio which he came down with in 1921, he was only 39 years of age. his legs were paralized. Under his leadership it started a campaign called the March of Dimes. Mothers would walk the neighborhoods collecting dimes for polio.
As with COVID-19 there was no vaccine, but that changed by two wonderful doctors, both came up with the polio vaccine, 4 years apart, but both have changed the world when it comes to polio eradication. My program will address "Life After Polio, Past, Present and Future"
I look forward to speaking to your Rotary Club, as a Polio survivor, it is an honor and a privilage.
Lt Colonel Jose Ariza is an Instructor and Evaluator Pilot in the California Air National Guard. He has held numerous active positions as a member of the 146th Airlift Wing, most recently he served as the Director of Operations for the 146th Operations Support Squadron, Channel Islands Air National Guard Base. Lt Colonel Jose Ariza enlisted in the Air Force in 1994 and served as a Weather Observer. After four years ona ctive duty he transferred to the Florida NAtional Guard, while completing his degree from the University of Central Florida.
He transitioned to the California Air National Guard in 2004 and received his wings in 2006. Between 2006 and 2017, he deployed numerous times, flying more than 500 combat sorties to Afghanistan, Germany and Kuwait in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM and IHERENT RESOLVE. Lt Colonel Ariza is a Senior Pilot, Instructor, and Evaluator with more than 3500 hours in C-130J aircraft. He has amassed over 750 combat hours in 450 combat missions. He is qualified as a Modular Aerial Firefighting System (MAFFS) Instructor Pilot and has previously served as a deployed Chief of Tactics and aerial firefighting Mission Commander. He is a First Officer with Southwest Airlines and lives in Camarillo, CA with his wife, Tess, of Chico, CA, and two sons, Julian and Travis and a daughter, Jordyn.
Mark Roberts joined the Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise in April 2009. In the late 1970s, he was a charter member and second president of the University of San Francisco Rotaract Club where he enjoyed attending meetings of Rotary Club #2.
Mark served as Lamorinda Sunrise club service director. He was named club Rotarian of the Year before becoming president in 2012-13. He has served District 5160 as Assistant Governor. He is a “charter member” of the district’s Training Cadre.
In 2017-18, Mark was Rotary Foundation Committee Paul Harris Society and Major Gifts Chair. He is a Triple Crown member: Paul Harris Society, Major Donor and Bequest Society.
Mark has over 25 years of fundraising experience working for several Bay Area higher education and other non-profit institutions before retiring last year.
Committed to volunteer service, Mark has been a continuously active member of the Delta Sigma Pi professional business fraternity. He served as a central office staff member, foundation trustee and chairman, and national alumni vice president. In 2007, he received Deltasig’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mark served as board president of the Orinda Association, the California Autism Foundation, Orinda Senior Village and Senior Housing Foundation. He has been honored as Orinda’s Citizen of the Year.
Mark’s wife, Claire, also a past president of Lamorinda Sunrise, was co-chair of the Rotary 4-Way Fest Multi-District Conference in Reno in 2019. Claire remains active in Delta Sigma Pi (which is how they met), being recognized nationally for her many accomplishments.
Mark and Claire were married in 1985 and have been residents of Orinda since 1993.
Chief Steve Standridge started in the position of Chico fire chief at the end of January,2018 He hails from Colorado, where he served for 23 years with the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority outside of Denver, most recently as emergency management division chief. That department, he says, was huge—covering 172 square miles and comprising some 300 firefighters. At 51, he’s looking forward to working with a smaller, moreintimate operation.
Originally from Medford, Oregon, and with family spanning from Santa Cruz to Southern Oregon, Chico is middle ground for Steve. And with a teenager and preteen at home, being able to be outdoors in Chico is appealing.
3 presenters - David Copp, Meaghan Likes and Patsy Inouye:
David Copp is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Davis. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada. PhD in Philosophy from Cornell University, 1976. Taught at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver until 1984, and subsequently at the University of Illinois, Chicago (84-87), Bowling Green State University (98-03), University of Florida (03-09), and University of California, Davis (1989-1998 and 2009-2018). Department chair at BGSU, UF (acting), and UCDavis. Retired in 2018. Member of RC Davis Sunrise since 2011. Chaired membership committee and international committee and president-elect for 2021-2022.
Meaghan Likes owns 5 businesses in Northern California…. her favorite of which is her window cleaning business. And, while you wouldn't guess it from her personality, Meaghan's day "job" is working as a CPA. She is known as a disrupter in the accounting industry and her claim to fame is showing small business owners how to do their own bookkeeping correctly in less than 1 hour per month using Quickbooks Online. No accounting knowledge or experience required. Meaghan’s passion is educating and empowering other business owners across the world, to find financial freedom in their own lives. She is a proud Rotarian who volunteers on average 10 hours per week and she teaches smarter ways to make money, save money, and will inspire you to give back in meaningful ways.
Four Fun Facts about Meaghan: She is the 3rd fastest female window cleaner in the world, She spends about 20 weeks a year travelling around the world, She was a Rotary youth exchange student to France in high school, and She is a proud mama to 7 chickens and a dog :)
Patsy Inouye - For thirty-nine years was a librarian at UC Davis as a Government Information Librarian and then as an archivist in its Special Collection and Archives. " What a wonderful career, helping professors and students navigate through all the information of a huge library. In the beginning, it was all on catalog cards, remember those? Then we had the first computers and databases (I didn’t understand cursors!) and finally the most advanced technology. It is still changing everyday."
After retirement in 2014, Patsy joined Rotary, explaining that she liked to say “yes.” and enjoyed getting to know fellow Rotarians, and helping those in need. She loved traveling to Kenya to participate in a project to give reusable sanitary pads to underprivileged. Ans she is ever so grateful that Davis Sunrise Rotary selected her to be Rotarian of the Year, 2019-2020. She is married, with two grown children and two grandchildren.
Robert Catalano was born in Illinois and grew up near St. Louis, Mo. He entered the Army as a 17-year-old and served in Viet Nam. After working at a variety of jobs including smoke-jumber for the U.S. Forest Service, fireman for an oil well company, and a salesman, he went back to school earning a B.S. in Secondary Education the University of Oregon and an M.S. from Portland State University in Marriage, Family and Rehab Counseling. After a private practice in Salem, Oregon serving mainly teenagers and their families, veterans and victims of sexual abuse, he retired as a result of an Agent Orange-related disease. He has been a California resident for 19 years and a resident of Butte Creek Canyon for 11 years. He is past president of the Centerville Recreation and Historical Association.
As current president of the Honey Run Covered Bridge Association, Robert has led efforts to rebuild the 131-year-old Honey Run Covered Bridge which was destroyed in the November 8, 2018 Camp Fire. The Covered Bridge had been owned by Butte County which determined it has no funds for the rebuild. FEMA would only reimburse. In early 2019, the nonprofit Honey Run Covered Bridge Association stepped in to assume responsibility for Bridge ownership and rebuilding the Bridge with private donations.
With donations from hundreds of individuals and businesses and grants from the Rotary Clubs of Chico, Durham, and Paradise, the North Valley Community Foundation, the local Foor Foundation, and companies that completed Camp Fire debris removal, and after completion of an arduous permitting process from County, State and Federal agencies, Phase 1 of rebuilding the Covered Bridge is now underway and will be completed within a few weeks. This includes grading, abutments, foundations, and columns. If funding allows, Phase 2 will start in 2021 and will include flooring and trusses. Phase 3, siding and roofing, will follow in 2022, pending funding.
Robert’s presentation will include a brief history of the Honey Run Covered Bridge, its importance in Butte County and Northern California, and steps underway to rebuild the Bridge.
Jason Schwenkler has over 25 years’ experience in GIS analysis, project development and management, strategic planning and leadership, and relationship cultivation and stewardship. Jason works in partnership with local, state, federal and nonprofit partners to meet their data gathering, mapping and analysis needs. He collaborates with faculty to identify partnerships where geographic information systems can contribute to faculty research interests and develops joint funding proposals. Jason identifies internship opportunities in the center’s grants and contracts wherever possible, providing opportunities for real world experience for CSU, Chico students. Additionally, he mentors other CSU campuses to develop GIS-based centers, and works with local, state, federal and academic organizations to develop business analyses and provide recommendations on integration of GIS into organizational structures and workflow processes. Jason’s publication topics include wireless broadband measurement, scientific indexing of water pollution, and riparian restoration. He has presented at numerous conferences throughout his career.
Please meet at the city plaza at 2:30 pm for instructions. The streets around the plaza will be blocked off for through traffic. Decorated cars will be able to drive around the plaza where we will pass out canydy as well as help with traffic. Please sing up by Thuesday the 27th.
Katie Simmons I was hired in 2008 as the executive director of the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce. I was from the Bay Area, and I left because my parents had moved to Chico a few years earlier and I wanted to slow down. I had the opportunity to live and work in Paradise and work with Chuck Rough and Lauren Gill. I really fell in love with it. I also went through the Humboldt fire with the town both as a resident and on the periphery of the emergency operations at the town. We as a chamber had the opportunity to assist the community with messaging and connecting them with resources. I then moved down to Chico and spent seven years as president and CEO of the Chico Chamber of Commerce. During those seven years I got to know economic and social fabric on the region, and the importance the region serves for the North State in terms of supplies, services, homes. I was actually chair of the urgent response task force, at the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, and I helped coordinate a lot of across chambers in the country when they were dealing with disasters, school shootings to floods to hurricanes. Then, in 2018, I joined the Associated General Contractors of California, and I really got a great view on what it means to be in construction. With economic development, community awareness, and construction, I think I really have a lot to bring to Paradise.
Chief Madden has been with the Chico Police Department for 23 years, and most recently, took over as interim chief in early June. Matt has served in almost every sworn position from police officer up to chief. He is a Paradise native, and is very serious about building a strong relationship between the community and the department.
James Gallagher has represented California’s Third Assembly District since 2014. Before joining the Assembly, he served on the Sutter County Board of Supervisors for six years. James earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at UC Berkeley before completing an Assembly Fellowship in Sacramento and a law degree at UC Davis, where he graduated at the top of his class. He advocates for small businesses and farmers in his law practice and is a partner in his family’s farming operation. James is married to his high school sweetheart, Janna; the two live in Sutter County where they are raising their five young children.
Jon joined Rotary in 2005 as a member of the Benicia Rotary Club, served on the Club’s Board in several positions prior to being President in 2009 – 2010.
At the District level, Jon served as Assistant Governor for the Diablo Valley Eight in 2012 – 2013, and the Solano County 10 +1 Clubs in 2013 – 2015 and as District trainer in 2015-2017. He has been a Camp Venture Counselor since 2010, and has been responsible for the House of Friendship at our District Conferences since 2012. Jon is a 2010 graduate of the District 5160 Leadership Academy, a member of the Paul Harris Society and a Major Donor.
He is an avid believer is “Enhancing the Rotary Experience for our Members” and highlighting the work that all of the Rotary Clubs are doing in their local communities.
Jon was born in Bennington, Vermont, He is a 1970 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Chemical Engineering (and a “minor” in football as he was a Student Mgr. of the football team). He retired in 2008 after 30+ years in Technical Sales and Sales Mgt. for Nalco Chemical Co. His working career included 8 years of foreign assignments, two in Thailand and six in Saudi Arabia.
Jon and his wife Bonnie have been married for 49 years and live in San Ramon, Ca. Bonnie is a certified Contra County Master Gardener. They have two children: Tyler and Carrie, and six grandchildren.
Rohey Njie - a public Helath specialist who assisted with the purge of polio in Nigeria will speak with us. She is also an honorary Rotarian in Gambia.
Rohey Njie is a public health professional from Gambia in western Africa. Raised by her grandmother in a rural community, Rohey saw first-hand the damaging effects of traditional medicine and was determined to step into the field of Public Health to help others. Through relentless study and discipline, she gained a scholarship for college and became the first person in her family to enter university. She became the only woman in her public health promotion program and excelled quickly.
From graduation in 2009 to June 2019, she rose through the ranks as a public health officer and health education and promotion officer and became a Senior Program Officer for the Ministry of Health in the Gambia. Rohey’s work focuses on advocacy, community engagement, and social and behavior change communication. While working with the health communication division, she was responsible for planning, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs, including immunizations, social mobilization, and disease prevention. She implemented several interventions and response programs working with and supporting and empowering individuals, families, and communities with health information to enable them take control of their own health and wellbeing.
In July 2019, she was recruited by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative assigned to Nigeria and continued her work with public health interventions to fight against polio. Additionally, Rohey has produced three of her own documentaries, her latest being “A Day in the Life of a Polio Survivor.”
Tod Kimmelshue, Our newest Butte County Supervisor, has been married 33 years to wife Sherri ,with 2 sons, Kirk and Chad. He is a 5th generation family farmer and served for 35 years in the finance and banking industry.
Tod has served on numerous Boards including Butte County Farm Bureau, Board Member and Past President; Faith Lutheran Church Council Member, Past President, Sunday School Teacher; Butte County Water Commission, Vice Chairman; Chamber of Commerce, Board Member and Past President, Chico State Foundation, Board Member and Past Finance Chair; California Farm Bureau, Board Member and Past Finance Chair; Northern California Regional Land Trust, Board Member and Past President; and most importantly Rotary Club, Past President.
Tod has received many community service awards:Agricultural Service Award – Farm City Celebration; Distinguished Citizen of the Year – Boy Scouts of America; Member of the Year – Butte County Farm Bureau; Community Service Award – Chamber of Commerce; and American Farmer Degree – Future Farmers of America (FFA)
Andrew Coolidge was raised just south of Butte County in the small town of Loma Rica in the Yuba County Foothills. He moved to Chico in 1993 to enroll in Chico State. He graduated with a Bacholer of Arts Degree in English Literature.
He has owned and operated Coolidge Public Relations for the last 27 years which produces the Chico Home and Garden Shows, Chico Bridal Shows and Yuba City Home, Garden and Recreation Show. He has also worked closely with the Silver Dollar Fair and Yuba-Sutter Fair over the last twenty-five years on both advertising and sponsorship. He is a single father of two children, his daughter, age 18, attends UCLA, and his son, age 14 is a Freshman at Chico High.
Andrew served on the council from 2014-2018 and was part of the council which restored Chico to fiscal health when they were the 5th most likely city to declare bankruptcy in the State of California. He was re-elected to council in 2020 and became Mayor.
Andrew has also been a PTA president at Chico Country Day School for two years, chaired the Butte County Air Quality Management District Board for four years, is a past board member for the Butte County Fair, past chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee for City Council, former board member of the Butte County Association of Governments, former Chair of the Eagle Scout Board of Review, former board member of the Buttes Area Council BSA Board.
Dr. Karin Lightfoot earned her Baccalaureate of Science degree in Nursing at Cal State Bakersfield and has been a registered Nurse for 37 years. She worked mostly in the areas of public health nursing and obstetrics. She earned her Master of Science degree in Nursing at CSU Chico and began teaching at Chico State School of Nursing in 2007. She earned her Ph. D in Public Health from Walden University in 2016 and she became Director of the School of Nursing in 2017.
She is Nationally Board Certified in Community Health Nursing and holds a Public Health Nursing certification from the California Board of Registered Nursing. She is currently the President-Elect for the California Association for Colleges of Nursing, is a State Grassroots Liaison for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and a board member of Kappa Omicron Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society of Nursing.
In her spare time, she enjoys camping, gardening, and taking long walks with her husband Robb Lightfoot. They raised their four children in Palo Cedro, California before moving to Chico in 2017, when she took the Director position. With the support of the University administration and the committed nursing faculty and staff, she has navigated the School of Nursing through the challenges of the Camp Fire and now the COVID pandemic.
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