Wednesday, May 6 Socialize @ Noon! 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM WAC
Hip Hop is Green Founder Keith Tucker
From the Mic to the Movement: How Hip Hop is Green Is Rewriting the Climate Conversation
What if one of the most powerful forces for environmental change wasn’t policy—but culture?
Next week, the Rotary Club of Seattle welcomes Keith Tucker, founder of Hip Hop is Green, a movement using hip hop to advance climate awareness, health, and youth empowerment. It’s our first program in President Jan’s “Natural Environment Month.”
The mission came to life last fall, when Hip Hop is Green took over Cherry Street with a festival showcasing local artists and a bold idea: teaching environmentalism through culture. Tucker calls it “the greatest plant-based hip-hop organization in the world.”
The mission came to life last fall, when Hip Hop is Green took over Cherry Street with a festival showcasing local artists and a bold idea: teaching environmentalism through culture. Tucker calls it “the greatest plant-based hip-hop organization in the world.”
Tucker’s path began in the mid-2000s, by 2007, he had identified a growing community of vegan hip-hop artists—an idea that evolved into “hip-hop green dinners,” where youth gathered for music, conversation, and often their first plant-based meal. Attendance grew from 150 to more than 1,200.
His belief is simple: “If hip hop moves in a green direction, the world will move in a green direction.”
Since then, the movement has scaled quickly. More than 350 students have graduated from its youth climate program. Cherry Street Farm is teaching kids to grow food. And more than 3,100 trees have been planted toward a 10,000-tree goal.
At its core, Hip Hop is Green connects culture, health, and environment—meeting young people where they are and turning awareness into action. Join us next week—and come ready to rethink where real change begins.
President Jan called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m. The meeting was held via Zoom. Guests were introduced.
Maddy Vonhoff presented and ISC update.
Bill Center and Mark Wright
Bill Center had a distinguished 35-year Navy career, he commanded ships worldwide and advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff on arms control, including serving as Deputy Director for international negotiations. In retirement, he has continued to lead as a lecturer and Senior Advisor at the University of Washington.
Bill believes that understanding other people and cultures is essential to being a global citizen. The following is a summary of a conversation that Bill had with Mark Wright.
Bill presented detailed reflections on his concept of global citizenship, grounded in personal experience as a military officer who spent extensive time in the U.S. Navy and traveled widely across the world. The central argument is that global citizenship is not a legal status or ideological label, but a worldview shaped by awareness, engagement, cultural respect, and responsibility toward the planet and humanity.
At the foundation of the discussion is the idea that a global citizen recognizes membership in a worldwide community that transcends national, cultural, and geographic boundaries. This perspective challenges narrow nationalism without rejecting patriotism. The speaker makes clear that loyalty to one’s country is compatible with a broader commitment to humanity, just as local, state, and national identities can coexist. Global citizenship, in this sense, is layered rather than exclusive.
Bill identified four defining characteristics of global citizens. The first is a global perspective, meaning an understanding of how interconnected the modern world is. Global citizens recognize that problems such as war, poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, and economic instability do not remain confined within borders. Events in one region can ripple across the world, affecting health, security, and economic conditions everywhere. Bill emphasized that injustice anywhere represents a broader threat to justice everywhere, and that shared global systems—particularly the environment and the economy—require collective stewardship.
The Future of Public Media: A Conversation with Cascade PBS featuring Chief Revenue Officer Kerry O'Keefe and Director of Original Productions and Content, Sarah Menzies.
In addition, we will be joined by Paris Jackson, Host of The Newsfeed and Rachel Belle, host of the James Beard Award-nominated podcast Your Last Meal and the Emmy-nominated TV show The Nosh.
Tuesday, May 19th 4:00 PM -6:00 PM UW Campus, Founder's Hall, Peek Forum (5th Floor)
Rotary Day at UW with the Business Mentors Program
This in‑person event will bring together Rotary mentors, students, small business owners, advisors, faculty, and community partners to celebrate a year of mentorship, learning, and community impact. We’ll hear from students and business owners, recognize Rotary scholarship recipients, and celebrate the invaluable contributions of Rotary mentors.
Event Details
Location: University of Washington Campus – Founders Hall, Peek Forum (5th Floor)
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Dinner: Will be provided
Parking: Will be provided (after you submit your RSVP, you will receive a confirmation email with parking information)
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Gabriela Michan at gmichan@uw.edu
Thursday, May 21st 5:00 PM -8:00 PM Hotel Sorrento
Major Donors Pinkham & Skeel/President's Circle Reception
The SRSF Board of Directors and donors to SRSF at the $1,000+ level this Rotary year will receive an invitation to our annual appreciation reception. The evening will feature refreshments and updates from grantee organizations on the impact our donation dollars have made to local and international projects.
Wednesday, May 27th 6:00 PM Harissa Mediterranean Cuisine
Fedva Dikmen's Ethnic Dinner
Please pre-register by paying Fedva using the payment methods outlined above.
Thursday, June 11th 5:00 PM-8:00 PM Queen City Yacht Club
President's Party
We return to the Queen City Yacht Club for this year's President's Paty. Enjoy us for an evening of celebrating “the year that was”…at Rotary!
In an effort to better inform membership of the health of the club, we will start posting member additions and resignations after each month's club board meeting.
New Members: Zack Glass and Dakota Keene
Resignations: Letitia Johnson, Jared Grose, Edie Hilliard, Jonathan Kilpatrick
We love to see our Rotary members promoting good works in our community and abroad! If you have a project or fundraiser that you are excited about and would like to promote to your fellow club members, please check in with our Club Director, Mary Goldie, before distributing information or invitations through our email roster. We value the privacy of our members’ contact information and can let you know the appropriate ways to reach out to folks in our club. Thank you!!
Meets 10:30 am on the second Tuesday of each month via Zoom; please contact Jevon Powell for calendar invite and link.
The mission of the Local Service Committee is two-fold: to coordinate hands-on service activities for club members, and to accept and process grant applications for local service projects and forward those applications to Seattle Rotary Service Foundation for final evaluation and award.
Serves to fulfill Rotary's mission of "advancing international understanding, goodwill, and peace." The committee selects projects that positively impact the health, education, and welfare of less advantaged people in other countries, with a particular emphasis on youth. Actively works with clubs in our District and abroad to leverage — via matching grants — the amount of money available for a project. Members get involved through direct knowledge of the project or by volunteering. Prior focuses have included malaria projects in Zambia, Tanzania, and Uganda; microcredit and water projects in India; de-mining projects in Vietnam and Lebanon; AIDS orphan support in South Africa and Ethiopia; education/literacy projects in Nepal, Chile, and Hungary; and more than a decade of wide-ranging projects in Russia.
For more information on this committee, please email info@seattlerotary.org.
We’re pleased to invite you to Rotary Day at the UW Foster School of Business, a special Year‑End Program Celebration recognizing the impact of the Rotary Business Mentors Program and our longstanding partnership with the UW Foster School of Business. Please see the attached PDF invitation for full event details.
This in‑person event will bring together Rotary mentors, students, small business owners, advisors, faculty, and community partners to celebrate a year of mentorship, learning, and community impact. We’ll hear from students and business owners, recognize Rotary scholarship recipients, and celebrate the invaluable contributions of Rotary mentors.
Event Details
Location: University of Washington Campus – Founders Hall, Peek Forum (5th Floor)
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Dinner: Will be provided
Parking: Will be provided (after you submit your RSVP, you will receive a confirmation email with parking information)
"Save the date" for our annual invite-only reception honoring our highest level of giving at the Pinkham & Skeel and President's Circle levels. Thank you for your continued support of the Seattle Rotary Service Foundation!
Anchor Dewitt Jensen Masahiro Nakashima Carmen Best Rachel Smith
MAY CLUB ANNIVERSARY
These are club membership (not total years of Rotary membership) anniversaries only
1 Year
Ming-Ming Tung-Edelman Bob Braun
2 Years
Arik Korman
3 Years
Julie Kang Eun-ji Seo
5 Years
Dr. Yvonne Richards Brenda Barnes
Tim Cummins Steven Gonzalez
6 Years
Kerry O'Keefe
7 Years
Dorothy Miller Liam Li
8 Years
Jevon Powell
14 Years Peter Wright
15 Years
Sarah Weaver
18 Years
Sue Beller
24 Years
Jerilyn Brusseau John Kilpatrick
25 Years
Charley Dickey
27 Years
Maureen Brotherton
34 Years
Doug Seto
40 Years
Tim Bendokas
43 Years
Tom Herche
Get Involved
Meet fellow Rotarians and get involved in service. See below for a list of committees. Email the committee chair by clicking on their name. Or, contact Mary Goldie for more information.
4. Invite your connections to a weekly meeting, and let mary@seattlerotary.org know so they may be introduced.
If you don't already have a LinkedIn profile, CLICK HERE to learn how to get started.
SEATTLE 4 ROTARY AUDIO VISUAL SPONSORS
Video of Seattle 4 Rotary Programs are available online thanks to the generous support of our Seattle Rotary Audio Visual Sponsors.
In addition to supporting our club, becoming a Seattle 4 Rotary Audio Visual Sponsor brings many benefits. To learn more, click here, or contact Mary for more details at mary@seattlerotary.org.
Do You Have Any Musical Instruments to Donate to Students in Need?
Music4Life is a non-profit and project of Rotary District 5030 that distributes musical instruments to public school students in need.
We welcome any gently used musical instruments you wish to donate. They can be delivered directly to these local music stores that are now open: American Music in Phinney Ridge and Kennelly Keys Music in Bellevue, Lynnwood, and Everett.
Please accompany your instrument with the PDF donation form, linked below.
Our Rotary Cares team is ready to listen and to support you. One of the wonderful things about our club is that you have many friends --you just need to reach out to tap into our amazing network of caring people. Please contact our Rotary Cares Committee Chair to let us know how we can help.
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