The first Rotary meeting of 2025 kicked off with President Bobby Reed showing a video from his December service trip to Nandyala India with Rotoplast International. Rotoplast is an independent nonprofit that started out as a service project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, and, nearly 30 years later, has provided more than 21,000 patients from emerging countries with life-changing reconstructive surgeries. The Nandyala center, which is primarily supported by the Rotary Club of Bangalore, focuses primarily on burn treatments and scar reduction. President Bobby shared that he was deeply moved by his experience and grateful for the opportunity to participate alongside other leaders from District 5150.
Surroundings (Maggie Hopkins and Rachel Minyard) sponsored both the wine reception and the meeting itself. Surroundings is a full-service real estate firm, offering buying, lending, staging and marketing support to ensure that when you are home you are surrounded by a place you love. Their new office and event space (opening this spring) will be at N and 25th Sts – directly across from CLARA, where this author can be found most days. Learn more here
Maggie Hopkins also provided an on-theme Thought for the Day around the idea that what – and who – surrounds you, shapes you. Social scientists theorize that our personalities are an average of the five people we spend the most time with, and she challenged us to consider whether those people were supporting our personal and professional goals. It was a provocative thought and challenged our table to consider “our five” and their impacts on our lives. (Anyone whose five included Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan or Charles Shaw – I made that joke first).
Put Me In, Coach!
The list of celebrations today was short but heartfelt:
President Bobby recently launched a Capitol Tech Solutions sales office in San Diego
PEN Paul Keefer is celebrating his son’s first day on his first grown-up job
Sargent at Arms Jamie Furlong made gifts to both Rachel Minyard and Maggie Hopkins’ Paul Harrises in honor of their new company (Surroundings) and excellent past professional expertise.
Later in the meeting, PP Brian Van Camp made an additional gift in honor of his friend, the late Dr. William Lee, father of speaker Larry Lee, and his contributions to the Sacramento community.
Club announcements: Also short and sweet
The memorial for Past President Jack Bowker will be 1pm this Sunday at the Sutter Club
Thursday, January 30 is a Loaves and Fishes service day – keep your eyes out for the signup email.
Jean Runyon nominations will open next week and close on Friday, February 14.
Also: in an unsurprising twist, an attempt to launch “Rotarians Helping Rotarians,” wherein Club members looking for support with miscellaneous life tasks, received a wealth of people happy to be of service – and a dearth of people actually asking for assistance. Please reach out to Maggie Hopkins if you would appreciate support with chores or errands including but not limited to gardening projects, rides to meetings or appointments, groceries, or other errands.
And now, the Main event
David Brandenburger served as the host for the day, introducing his childhood basketball buddy Larry Lee, now the Publisher and CEO of the Sacramento Observer. Lee’s accomplishments are many, but most recently include being named one of the Sacramento Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs in 2023, and the Robert T. Matsui Community Service Award from Rep. Doris Matsui during the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.
Lee took the mic, observing that Brandenburger was “really, one of the greatest foulers” he’d ever played with. He also thanked the Rotary Club for inviting him, a Black business man, to speak “in a month that’s NOT February” but quickly moved to acknowledge that there’s a lot of overlap between the Rotary mission of service above self, and that of the Observer, which is to lead with service.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Observer, it is Sacramento’s Black newspaper and has been named America’s “best Black newspaper” seven times – most recently in 2023. The history of Black newspapers in the US is a long one; the second-oldest Black-owned business in the US today is a newspaper. The importance of a Black press is found in the mission of the first-ever Black paper (Freedom’s Journal, founded in 1827): “We wish to plead our own cause, too long have others spoken for us.” Even today, the need for the African-American community to have a news outlet that can tell their own stories in their own voices remains relevant. Lee spoke with pride about his father – Observer founding publisher Dr. William H. Lee – and how the Observer became a trusted messenger within and for their community.
As his father’s successor (Dr. Lee was the longest-tenured publisher in California when he retired after 52 years) one of Larry Lee’s primary jobs as the successor to that legacy has been transforming the company from a print-first news institution to a digital-forward newsroom with a great print product.
Lee had a lot to say about remaining viable in the current journalistic environment – and it’s relevant that, at a time when newsrooms across the country are shrinking, the Observer’s staff has tripled since 2019. He acknowledged the existing expectation that people don’t pay for news, which means that the Observer has had to “get creative” about how to attract funding outside of subscriptions. However, that creativity and diversity of funds gives the Observer the opportunity to shift their content from strictly covering news in the Black community to more in-depth coverage of Black issues that aren’t otherwise being told. He said “even though there’s a million stories to tell and a million ways to tell them, we try to lead with love and as a purpose of service to support the Black community.”
Our greeters today were Rick Davis, Joe Quilici, Robyn DeLong, and Bob Daly. John Swentowsky served as today’s photographer, and Megan Wygant is today’s Pulse Reporter.
Tune in next week when Dr. Dylan Spaulding from the Union of Concerned Scientists takes the mic to discuss the history of stockpile stewardship and nuclear arms policy. Until then, get out there and be good Rotarians!