Creating Access to Education in the Rainforest of Mayan Guatemala
Meeting for the week of September 14 - September 20, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Creating Access to Education in the Rainforest of Mayan Guatemala
Speaker: Kim Covill & Paul Heesaker
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from Directors Olu and Ferheen :
Directors Olu and Ferheen
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
You are certainly not required to pay anything in order to attend our meetings. However, if you would like to make a small contribution to our service efforts, you are welcome to do so in our secure Happy Dollars section down the page. This could be what you normally pay at your own club's meetings for lunch, for example. Any amount is welcome, but first and foremost, we're happy you've joined us, and hope you will share with others who we are and what we do to help inspire Service Above Self.
And don't forget to fill out our attendance form so you get an email you can pass on to your club's secretary!
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly Funny with Shags.
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steve Shags Shagrin!
This one's a real cut-up!
A surgeon was checking on a patient who had a hernia operation three days before.
The doctor asked the man why he had not gotten out of bed.
"I hurt," the man said. "You don’t know how it feels."
"I know exactly how it feels," the doctor said. "I had the same procedure last month, and I was back at work two days later. There’s no difference in our operations."
"Oh yes there is," said the patient. "You had a different surgeon."
Weekly Inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
Rotarian Chris Cochrane was notified by BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) that this commercial Chris made in 1998 has been named "best use of live & pre-recorded footage" over the last 25 years. Chris is a former member of our club and is now a Rotarian in his part of Ontario, helping District 7040 prepare for a fully online district conference in October. Way to go, Chris!
Coffee With a Rotarian
Every 4 weeks, each member of our club is matched with another member for one-on-one conversations!
Here are the current matches!
Maxi Bustos and Tanya Martin
Rushton Hurley and Gabi Lopez
Nathan Gildart and Kelly Ku
Nick LaGarde and Cal Mann
Manuj Mittal and Angelica Marotta
Tzviatko Chiderov and Sarah Tuberty
Emily Paver and Alaa Hasanen
Brett Sham and Richard Knaggs
Suzanne Van Stralen and Manouchehr Shamsrizi
Nan Herron, MD and May Yam
Olu and Alexandra Heller
Roger Plested and Tatiana LaGarde
Sandy Stabile and Mark Dohn
Carlos Gabuardi and Imad Ghoummid
Hardeep Kaur Singh and Caleb LaPlante
Rory R. Olsen and Yvonne Kwan
Mahmood Khan and Susan Howell
Keith Marsh and Mark Busani
Ferheen Abbasi and Catherine
Steven -Shags- Shagrin and Cecelia Babkirk
Weren’t matched? 😔
Join the #coffee-with-a-rotarian channel in our club’s Slack workspace to participate in the next round!
World of Rotary
Every month we will focus on a particular story that tells of our organization and the work of Rotarians in the world.
This month, we bring back the story of Canadian Jennifer E. Jones, who is Rotary's first woman to be named Rotary president-nominee. When Ms Jones becomes RI President in 2022-23, she will be the first woman to hold that office in Rotary history. Read the full story here: https://www.rotary.org/en/jennifer-e-jones-makes-history-becomes-first-woman-named-rotary-president-nominee
Ms.
Jennifer E. Jones
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
Remembering the fallen NYFD firefighters from 9/11/2001. Seven members of Manhattan's Engine Squad 18 lost their lives in the North Tower.
Learn Something New
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
14 Incredible Edible EGG Tricks!
A wee bit longer -- just over 6 minutes, this video shares some things to do with "Cackle Seeds" -- one of the most widely consumed foods on the planet! As you know from the omelette video on July 14th, egg dishes are not my thing, so to reduce the supply available to me, here's what to do with the excess!
Service Report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
On the first meeting of every month, we feature service reports from club members for the previous month. Thanks for your service everyone!
Club Announcements
Haven't joined the conversation on Facebook yet? Consider joining the conversation by signing into our club members-only Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rotarysiliconvalley/
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Past Events:
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
District 5170 Events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)
More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
The heatwave is slowly going away. All is well. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus.
Felix Pretscheck made a Other Amount donation.
I'm happy, glad and honored to become a member of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley! Looking forward to meeting you all over time!
Selected Comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Mahmood Khan said:
What a great idea. In one simple idea, enabling economy, mobility, empowering community and education. Buffalo bike, could be called mighty Bike :-). Simple but engineered for usefulness and a change agent. Many future design and innovation ideas as well. Great program. Thank you Dave.
Amazing WD-40. I have used it for years for all sorts of "tough nuts" to undo working on my Mustang Cobra, Model 1981. Now I know how it was created and many more uses of it. Thanks for sharing Shags.
Great picture Keith, as always.
Phil Dean said:
Dave, thank you for the very interesting presentation. I never knew your organization existed. I know the importance of bicycles, having depended on them from before elementary school to the 90's. Checking your organization's web site, I found that you are a very large organization with a budget of over $10,000. Keep up the good work.
That's all for now. I have to go buy a can of WD-40 and start experimenting.
Sandy Stabile said:
Dave and Kemi, thank you for speaking with our Club. I never realized how much "power" there was by giving someone a bicycle. Your program addresses so many challenges, poverty, hunger, health, education, gender equality...
Great work you are doing!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: Creating Access to Education in the Rainforest of Mayan Guatemala
Speaker: Kim Covill & Paul Heesaker
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Our speakers this week are Kim Covill and Paul Heesaker.
Kim, a founder of From Books to Brilliance, and Paul, the founder of the Rios Fund, will tell the story of how Seacacar, a tiny Mayan village in the rainforest of Guatemala, is redirecting the future for themselves, their families, and the natural world. Education is the key, they say, to saving their home on the banks of the Rio Sauce. With the help of many, seventy-five Mayan families have planted over 20,000 tropical saplings. A rustic lodge sits at the entrance of Guatemala's newest protected area, the Seacacar Cañón Natural Reserve, and welcomes tourists. Now a local economy creates income for its citizens.
However, with the onset of the latest coronavirus, the quarantine has made life even more challenging. Food is scarce. Kim and Paul will speak about their organizations' joint efforts to feed the children and promote literacy through their Soup and Stories program, and how members at Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley and Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA set the stage!
Kim Covill is President and a Founder of From Books to Brilliance, an all-volunteer organization that promotes literacy through library creation and reading initiatives in under-served communities of the Americas. While volunteering for University of Texas-Galveston medical delegations in Nicaragua, the Founders of FBTB recognized the need for literacy to reduce poverty and human suffering.
Kim left the international corporate world in her late thirties to become a teacher. Now retired, she partners with many people and organizations to create village libraries. She serves as president of Rotary eClub of the Southwest USA and is inspired by the service of so many fellow Rotarians, like you, at the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley.
Paul Heesaker, of Colorado, first saw Guatemala's Rio Sauce Valley while on an exploratory kayaking expedition in 1995. Following a career in public education, Paul returned in 2011 to work on a documentary film highlighting endangered wild rivers. That film, "Rios Guatemala, The Preservation of Wild Rivers," was shown in the Colorado Environmental Film Festival and the Breckenridge Festival of Film. Paul then founded an ecotourism project in a village in the Rio Sauce Valley as an economic alternative to slash and burn agriculture. Profits generated go directly to the local people and will become a sustainable funding source for reforestation, sustainable agriculture, education and more. Donations help establish and maintain project initiatives, but the local Mayan people will not depend on them. We value opportunity, not dependency.
Members and guests, please welcome Kim Covill and Paul Heesaker!
Upcoming Program Recording Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
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