Bob Davidson, CEO of the Seattle Aquarium and a 36-year Seattle 4 Rotarian, provided a great overview of the aquarium and its amazing plans for the future. He came to the Aquarium 17 years ago from the Woodland Park Zoo and became the Aquarium CEO in 2010. Bob and his team at the aquarium are helping transform the Seattle Waterfront and they know how to make big visions a reality.“This is an exciting and historic time for our city, it’s been a long process,” Bob said. The Aquarium is “a happening place with a mission to inspire conservation of our marine environment.”
Bob shared some key statistics highlighting the importance of our Aquarium and the important work it does in our city:
- 1 million people visit every year; they distribute 70,000 free tickets and 40,000 students visit each year
- The city transferred the management of the facility to the Aquarium in 2010
- Over 1200 people volunteer their time every year and one-third of them are students
- Their major future expansion will include the new Ocean Pavilion that “will further connect the public with marine life”
- It is a $113 million public-private partnership with $53 million coming from government funding. and they are just getting started on their $60 million private funding campaign
Bob shared a great video from the Friends of the Waterfront of what the waterfront will look like which includes some exciting new changes for the Aquarium. Bob said that there is a long-term funding plan in place now that will reconnect Seattle to its waterfront. Part of their goal is to connect all of the new people moving to our city to activities like this that are outside of their jobs that brought them to Seattle. “As Seattle transforms to a global city, the health of our oceans is part of that. We need to find common solutions to save the ocean.”Bob concluded with, “we need to embrace our history as a maritime city. We want a waterfront for all that aligns with Seattle’s values.” The Aquarium is helping to bring nature into the urban core.
P
resident Cindy opened our meeting celebrating the Lunar New Year and the Year of The Earth Pig! We were asked to connect with our table guests that shared our Chinese Zodiac animal during the Greet and Grin. Trish Bostrom, who said she did not have any pig songs in her repertoire, led us in This Land is Your Land. Paul Ishii reflected on the Year of the Pig and mentioned some famous “pigs,” a list of other culture’s new year’s celebrations and that his family has two dogs, a rat, and a horse, and ended with, "happy Lunar New Year!"
resident Cindy opened our meeting celebrating the Lunar New Year and the Year of The Earth Pig! We were asked to connect with our table guests that shared our Chinese Zodiac animal during the Greet and Grin. Trish Bostrom, who said she did not have any pig songs in her repertoire, led us in This Land is Your Land. Paul Ishii reflected on the Year of the Pig and mentioned some famous “pigs,” a list of other culture’s new year’s celebrations and that his family has two dogs, a rat, and a horse, and ended with, "happy Lunar New Year!"
Susie Roe introduced our guests which included three tables from the Seattle Aquarium. Taylor Shimizu gave a recap of the successful business networking event that was attended by over 150 people last week! Jane Tornatore introduced us to Joseph Smith of Axa Advisors, a full-service financial firm, who was “meant to be a Rotarian and member of Seattle 4.” Jane told a great story of how he met our member Jon Bridge while running downtown which led to him joining our club today!
President Cindy introduced our member, Kevin Crane of Crane Jewelers, who drew the recipient of the Recruiter Rewards program, Jackie Lorenz, who received a nice gift from Crane for bringing in new club members. And David Woodward received a Chinese New Year/Year of the Pig gift bag in another drawing to recognize those that have recruited new members.
President Cindy introduced our member Dr. Steve Prince for a Foundation Flash focused on his dental care trips to Jamaica. Steve has made four trips so far thanks to our Seattle Rotary Service Foundation’s grant to support the Jamaica Denture Project. “Imagine going to your job or a job interview with no teeth,” Steve said, “It is likely that you have few or no teeth if you live in Jamaica.” Steve showed show great images on the screen of his before and then after smiling patients thanks to a new denture technique that only takes 2-3 hours to make. “When you don’t have teeth, you don’t smile,” he said, “thank you to the service foundation and all of you for making this possible.” Steve said he is planning a fifth trip later this year!President Cindy then recognized Ken Grant, our club sergeant of arms, for all he does to “keep us on time every week…”
Our member Assunta Ng of the Northwest Asian Weekly led us in an informative overview of the Lunar New Year. She asked everyone born in a Year of the Pig to raise their hand, “You are all piggies,” she said. “You are lucky in life and have the trait of wealth and prosperity.” This was the second day of the new year and “a day to welcome family and friends into your home.” The celebration is about “family and food and honoring one’s elders.” She concluded with, “May you have the energy and spirit of a dragon and a horse.”Our member Lillian Sherman of the Pike Place Market gave us an overview of the Year of the Pig celebrations around the Market. She mentioned that Rachel, the famous Pike Place Market pig, brings in $20,000 every year to support the Market community and this year for the Year of the Pig, they have created Golden Pearl, who will travel around the Seattle region to appear at events hosted by Seattle’s Chinese community. She’ll also make her Market debut at PIG Day Out! that will feature pig racing on National Pig Day, March 1st!
President Cindy announced our board’s recent decision to not recognize the Passport Club which was started in our district as a type of “Rotary club” that has no weekly meetings and a very low dues requirement. After forming a task force to look into this, the board unanimously decided to not recognize the Passport Club members as Rotarians as it was “not fair to the rest of the Rotary club members and was inconsistent with the Four-Way Test.”
