Events

Ed Jellen

Ken Sommer

georgemark.org

Ken Sommer has approximately 40 years of experience working for Bay Area nonprofit organizations in fundraising, marketing and communications, public relations, and special event production.

He currently serves as Director of Advancement for George Mark Children’s House.  His previous work experience includes positions with Children’s Hospital Oakland, Glide Church and Foundation, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

Ken grew up in the Bay Area and was a resident for 50 years, before recently relocating to Davis, CA in 2023; he is married to Emily and has two sons, Benjamin and Nathaniel.

Bertha Nevárez

www.calicocenter.org

Bertha started working at CALICO in January 1999. Since her start, Bertha has conducted almost 5,000 forensic interviews! Bertha works closely with all of our partner agencies and answers all of CALICO’s after-hours and weekend pages. In addition, Bertha facilitates Spanish peer reviews for Spanish-speaking forensic interviewers throughout the state. Before CALICO, Bertha worked for Alameda Alliance providing psycho-social case management to HIV+ clients. She also was the HIV Testing Coordinator for two hospitals and five clinics and an HIV Outreach Coordinator.
 
Favorite Childhood Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Favorite Childhood Game or Activity: Riding my bike around the neighborhood for hours.
Current hobby: Traveling around the world and her current favorite place is anywhere!

Rowell Ranch Rodeo - Joint Meeting with the Hayward Rotary

The Rotary Club of Castro Valley will meet jointly with the Rotary Club of Hayward on Tuesday, May 7th, at Redwood Canyon, 17007 Redwood Canyon Road in Castro Valley for the Clubs'  Annual Rowell Ranch Rodeo lunch.

Chief of Police Bryan Matthews

www.hayward-ca.gov/your-government/staff/chief-of-police

Bryan currently serves as the Chief of Police for the Hayward Police Department (California), a department of 333.5 employees (197 sworn and 136.5 professional staff). He began his law enforcement career in 1999 and has served his hometown, the City of Hayward, for over 24 years. Over the course of his career, he has worked a variety of assignments, including Patrol, Training, Gang Investigations, SWAT, Community Policing, Internal Affairs, Emergency Preparedness, and as the department’s liaison with the community for policy innovation and alternative response models.

Bryan earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from California State University, Hayward and his Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from Columbia Southern University. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the California POST Command College, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program.

Tales of Life, Media Production, and Community

www.linkedin.com

Born in Sri Lanka, I spent my formative years alongside my parents and older sister, where my father, a professor at Kandy University, instilled in me a love for learning and exploration. In 1964, our family embarked on a new chapter, relocating to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. Prior to our move, we traversed London and Europe during my father’s sabbatical, cultivating a seasoned traveler within me.

Settling in Albuquerque, my father secured a permanent position at California State University, Hayward, igniting my educational journey. I attended St. Clements Catholic school for my grammar years and later Moreau Catholic High School for my teenage years. Pursuing my passion for visual arts, I earned my degree in Photography from Chabot College before advancing to California State University, Hayward, now East Bay, where I obtained my BA in Mass Communications.

My career trajectory began at the forefront of innovation, thanks to opportunities at the Alameda County District Attorney's video unit, where I worked part-time, marking the inception of my journey in video production. Transitioning to the US Navy base at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, I established and managed the West Coast Video Center, playing a pivotal role for over 15 years until the base's closure. Concurrently, I undertook the responsibility of Computer Training Manager, spearheading the retraining of thousands of employees to ensure their transition to the digital era.

Subsequently, my tenure extended to the Department of Justice, where I served as the Senior Sector Computer Manager for the Livermore sector of the US Border Patrol and the FBI, demonstrating my commitment to national security. However, personal tragedy necessitated a shift to the private sector, leading me to Bio-Rad Labs as a LAN Computer Administrator.

Following a brief stint at an Immigration Law firm, I transitioned to Bank of America's computer division before embarking on entrepreneurship. Together with my son and former colleague, we founded Clearwater Filmworks, a video production company that collaborated with Hollywood studios and facilitated behind-the-scenes work for movies and TV shows.

Recognizing an opportunity to support education and industry simultaneously, I intervened to preserve the Chabot Studio, eventually transforming it into the Public Access Media Center, serving our community with expanded services and technological advancements. My commitment to excellence led to integration with Comcast's Universal NBC, propelling me into a new era of high-definition production and multimedia distribution.

Continuously evolving, I aspire to expand my services further, including commercial production, motion pictures, and digital streaming platforms, while fostering a nurturing environment for aspiring professionals through hands-on training and community engagement. My journey is defined by innovation, collaboration, and a steadfast dedication to empowering both my industry and my community.

The Philosophy and Value of 4-H

www.palomares4h.com

Andrea Sullivan is one of the Community Leaders for the Castro Valley Palomares 4-H Club. Born and raised in the Central Valley, she was an active participant in 4-H during her youth and as an adult saw the value it added to her life. In 2007 she married her husband Pat and moved to Castro Valley. They bought a small ranch in Palomares Canyon where they are raising their two teenage daughters. Both girls are very involved in 4-H and Andrea is thrilled with all the knowledge and skills they have gained.

Andrea looks forward to sharing her passion for 4-H and it’s philosophy of providing youth with learn-by-doing educational experiences, developing skills that will benefit them for life, creating and building future leaders and being of service to others.

Meetings and Activities leading up to the 2024 Castro Valley Car Shpw on June 15, 2024.

The Story of the Castro Valley Car Show

castrovalleycarshow.com

dolphingraphics.com

Ken Carbone, former Chair of the Castro Valley MAC with over 25 years of service in community governance, was born and raised in Castro Valley.

Naturally, Ken has been part and parcel of countless projects and events, with the 15+ year annual Castro Valley Car Show perhaps taking the cake among the most popular and iconic community highlights.

Currently, Ken is the principal at Dolphin Graphics, a company that specializes in the "Branded Message." He also consults for several international companies desiring to expand their companies to the United States, specifically the Silicon Valley. In the past, he donated his time to work with the former Alameda County Redevelopment Agency for the re-design of Castro Valley Boulevard as well as secure Trader Joe's in Castro Valley.

In his free time, Ken enjoys outdoor activities, mountain bike riding, aerial photography and restoring classic cars. His greatest adventures usually occur while traveling the globe with his wife Hannah.

Castro Valley Car Show - Bag Stuffing

castrovalleycarshow.com

The club will prepare event bags for the 16th Annual Castro Valley Car Show.

Year in Review

President Chris Carr will provide a review of his year as President of the Rotary Club of Castro Valley. 

Demotion of 2024 President Christian Carr on June 25

Rowell Panch BBQ Area - Gourment Dinner by CANYONS BBQ

$40 Adults & Kids free

RSVP to jab@bhp-law.com OR with the RSVP link below.

Question:  510.816.9110

Please join the Club to celebrate and honor the work of President Chris Carr.

  You may pre-paid at lunch on June 11 or 18 or at the event by cash or check.  We are currently working to setup credit card payments.

Please RSVP by June 18 to ensure a meal.

You will also receive an invitation by snail mail this week.

Chabot College in the Community

www.chabotcollege.edu

Dr. Cooks will describe Chabot College and its great value to our community.

Jamal A. Cooks, Ph.D., President of Chabot College. He served as Vice President of Academic Services at Chabot since 2022. Before that, he was a professor and associate director for the Educational Leadership doctoral program at San Francisco State University. He taught in the K-12, California State University and community college systems. In 2017, he received the National Council of Teachers of English’s Halle Adolescent Literacy Educator Award.

You’re Cordially Invited to the Rotary Club of Castro Valley Evening Social Mixer

Join us at JP's Family Restaurant & Sports Lounge for an evening of networking and camaraderie. Mix and mingle with our Rotarians and learn more about the Castro Valley Rotary Club.

About Us: The Castro Valley Rotary Club is a humanitarian service organization that brings together business and professional leaders to provide community service, promote integrity, and advance goodwill, peace, and understanding worldwide. We are a non-political and non-religious organization.

Event Details:

• Date: 07/16/2024
• Time: 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
• Location: JP's Family Restaurant & Sports Lounge, 3600 Castro Valley Blvd, Castro Valley, CA 94546
• Admission: Members - $20.00 | Non-Members - $30.00

Enjoy hors d'oeuvres and a no-host bar with us! We also have a surprise planned for the evening that you won’t want to miss.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Club Assembly

Tuesday 23^rd will be an important Club brainstorming session discussing which projects and services we want to accomplish as a Club and then creating goals to achieve those desires.

Backpack Assembly Project

Wednesday 24^th is a back-to-school Club service project. The Club has purchased (via Heidi and Club budget) school supplies to insert into 125 backpacks donated by LDS (Mormon) Church. The Club members and the LDS teen youth group will form an assembly line to fill the backpacks with supplies, which will then be donated to CVUSD (100) and Redwood Christian Schools (25). 

The Club will also be donating additional gift cards for the Family Outreach center at the CVUSD District office to support underserved students and their families.

Collaborating Organizations & One Million Meal Goal!

www.riseagainsthunger.org

Jay and Justin will provide an overview of Rise Against Hunger, the 2023 Impact Report, Four Pathways to End Hunger through the November 2023 South Africa Trip, and how Rotary Clubs worldwide have contributed to our joint success in ending world hunger. In addition, the Patel family has made a goal to "unite the community" by packaging one million meals and inviting the Castro Valley Rotary to attend their 51st Event on August 10, 2024, where we will package 15,000 meals in two hours!

Jay is a CPA and grew up in San Francisco. He has a BS in Accounting, an MBA, and over 30 years of business experience in accounting, finance, real estate, and software development. In the summer of 2023, Jay joined the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business as a professional faculty member. Jay and his wife Nimisha have a daughter (graduate school) and a son (undergraduate). Jay is a volunteer with Rise Against Hunger and a National Board Member. He has set an ambitious goal with his family to “unite the community” by packaging one million meals for Rise Against Hunger. To date, they have reached 92% of their goal.

Justin is the Events Manager for the Rise Against Hunger Northern California branch and has been a part of the team for over 4 years. Starting his career in the culinary arts, he eventually found that relief work was his calling. Being an active volunteer for food banks and community centers at a young age, he realized that he wanted to serve not only locally, but the global community as well.

Trust and Estate Planning

www.phillipslaw.us

Like President Dan, Jim is home grown - CV Elementary to CVHS. Phillips families have lived in CV for over 100 years.

Jim is married to Melissa and has two children and 1.5 grandchildren. His sister, Anne Duey, and his brother, George, also live in Castro Valley, as do their children and as does Jim’s daughter, Katelyn.

Human Development degree from UC Davis and JD from UC Hastings College of the Law and LL.M in tax from Golden Gate Law School. Jim has owned his own law office since 1989 and has been a certified specialist in trust, probate, and estate planning law for over 30 years.

Jim’s godfather was our 1st president and his dad was our 2nd. Jim’s been a Rotarian for over 40 years.

Annual Restaurant Walk along Castro Valley Blvd.

District 5170 Governor 2024-25 Insights

Jill Duerig joined Rotary in 2003. Due to a change in jobs, she left the Scotts Valley Club and joined the Rotary Club of Livermore Valley in 2005, serving as its President in 2019-2020. She was an Assistant Governor for Area 4 in 2020-2021 and served as Lieutenant Governor-Avenues of Service from 2021-2023.

Jill is a retired General Manager of Zone 7 Water Agency in Livermore and a former General Manager/Chief Engineer for Scotts Valley Water District. It’s no surprise that her passion for potable water got her involved in the Haiti National Clean Water Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy (HANWASH, a partnership between Rotary’s WASH Rotary Action Group, other NGOs and the government of Haiti). She participates in HANWASH’s Steering Committee and chairs its Project & Technical Work Group. She is also a WASH ambassador and cadré member.

Her husband of fifty years, Tom, started out as her college sweetheart. They have three married children and six grandchildren. So even though her career and Rotary focus may be water, her love of family and her history as a soccer mom, cub den mother, girl scout leader, frequent school trip chaperone, Sunday school teacher, babysitter and grandma cookie maker demonstrates that she lives the motto “Family First.”

Additional details about Jill include:

• Former board member of Safe Alternatives to Violent Environments (SAVE) in Fremont
• Current member of the Ohlone College Foundation Board in Fremont
• Current member of the Ohlone College Citizens Bond Oversight Committee
• Former member of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) board of directors; former chair of the ACWA Water Quality Committee; former member of the ACWA Groundwater and Recycled Water Committees; former board president of the California Urban Water Agencies (CUWA)
• JD - Santa Clara University School of Law; MS Civil Engineering - Univ of Pittsburgh (PA); BS biology/chemistry Lehigh University (PA)
• Member of the California Bar; Registered Professional Engineer (CA); Certified Water Treatment Plant Operator

What I’m thinking about that might interest You

www.martynemko.com

Named the San Francisco Bay Area's "Best Career Coach," Marty Nemko, Ph.D., has been career and personal coach to 6,000 clients and enjoys a 95 percent client-satisfaction rate. The author of 13 books (250,000 copies sold) including Careers for Dummies, plus 4,000 published articles, including in TIME, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, and more than 1,800 in Psychology Today. 26 of his best articles are anthologized in The Best of Marty Nemko, 2021 edition. He teaches methods of inquiry to medical students at the University of California San Francisco. He was the one man in a one-man PBS-TV Fundraising Special, 8 Keys to a Better Worklife. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley with two specializations: educational psychology and evaluation of individuals and programs..

He is married to Barbara Nemko, the Napa County Superintendent of Schools. They have one daughter and one doggie: Hachi, named after a dog so loyal that he waited at the train station for his owner to return for ten years. The archive of Marty Nemko's writings and KALW (NPR-San Francisco) radio program plus a link to his YouTube videos and his books, are accessible from martynemko.com.

We Need Your Help!

We will ahve Rotary booth at the Fall Festival to promote our Club and to feature the RI Polio Plus campaign.  Please wear your favoitre Rotary attire and pin to help with promotion.

Thanks for your help!.

59 Day Trip through America's National Parks

It's time again for the monthly evening social!  Please register and bring a friend or prosepctivce member to join us for some casual Club fellowhsip.  We are scouting out a diffenrent location for next month (Octoiber) for the Interact Club students to join us so please check the monthly calendar on ClubRunner for any future changes in location.

The Biology of Us

Gary Howard will describe his upcoming book, The Biology of Us (Oxford University Press). It is easy to overlook the natural world all around us. Only major life events, such as birth and death, remind us that we are biological organisms. The book describes common but fascinating examples of biology and nature that are hidden in plain sight. Many of our normal activities are examples of evolution: standing up, communicating, telling time, and more.

Gary C. Howard worked 22 years as a science editor and writer for the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and continues to edit and write books. He received a PhD in biological sciences from Carnegie Mellon University and completed fellowships at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. He is vice-chair of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Board of Education.

The Insurance Crisis in California

The wildfires, legislation, inflation, and other events have taken a toll on the insurance companies in recent years. As a result, several major carriers have stopped offering new policies in the state, and some have even cancelled existing customers. The governor, legislature, and insurance companies have been struggling to find a solution. Todd Anglin is a long-time State Farm agent, and he has been involved in those discussions. He will review the current state of the insurance situation for the club. 

Todd Anglin is a well-known figure in Castro Valley, CA. He has been a State Farm Insurance Agent since 2013. Beyond his professional role, Todd is deeply involved in the community and serves on several boards and committees. He is Chair of the Castro Valley/Eden Area Chamber of Commerce and Vice-Chair of the Fairview MAC board, on the Castro Valley Educational Foundation, and the California Earthquake Authority Advisory Panel. He is active in the local school board and councils and homeowner associations and is a past president of the Rotary Club. 

teamanglin.com

State Education Update and What's New in CVUSD

Parvin Ahmadi, a member of Castro Valley Rotary and Superintendent of Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) will provide an update  on CVUSD's efforts to support students, new programs and initiatives.

Her career spans 35 years as a teacher, principal, director, assistant superintendent and superintendent. She has been a superintendent for fifteen years, ten of those years in CVUSD. 

Parvin Ahmadi earned her Bachelor degree at San Jose State University, a Master’s degree in Teaching from Chicago, and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Saint Mary’s College of California. She also holds a School Management Certificate from  UCLA. 

In addition to her role as the Superintendent, Parvin Ahmadi is active state wide, advocating for public education. Last year she was the President for ACSA , the Association of California School Administrators, which includes 18,000 administrators in California  supporting six million children, and is currently the Past President continuing her work state wide.  Superintendent Ahmadi has taught new superintendents and administrators at the University and Academies for the last ten years. 

She was selected by Senator Weickowski as the Senate District 10 Women of the Year in 2019 for her work in public education and her advocacy for children and families in the Bay Area. Superintendent Ahmadi is a fierce advocate for students, equity, and social justice. 

Castro Valley Ice Cream Social

Join us for a sweet celebration!

Knudsen's Restaurant-Ice Creamery

3323 Castro Valley Blvd, Castro Valley, CA 94546

Entry Fee: $20.00 per person

Interactor students and parents attend for free!

This Ice Cream Social is our way of showing appreciation to the Interactor students for their invaluable assistance during the Restaurant Walk. Come enjoy delicious ice cream, good company, and celebrate the contributions of our amazing Interactors!

We look forward to seeing you there!