I first moved to Mequon in the mid 60’s and attended Range Line Elementary, Lake Shore Middle School and Homestead HS (class of 79).

After high school, I had a strong desire to leave Wisconsin and see what the world had to offer, I chose the US Navy as my vehicle and after basic training in Illinois, I was stationed at homeports on both the east and west coats, and did indeed see the world. As a “parachute rigger” I was part of the naval air wing rather than a ship board sailor, spending many many more hours in the air than on a ship. 

I continued education during my naval career at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the east coast, Alameda Collage in San Francisco, San Diego State University and Mesa Collage in San Diego, studying Aerospace Engineering, Medical, Architecture and Business.

I finished my Naval career as a well-decorated Chief Petty Officer in 1994, took residence on Coronado Island in San Diego and started my first business, American Dream Construction, a design - build firm, It was an exclusive location in the middle of a building boom and we did very well there.

Four years ago, my wife MJ surprised me with an unearthly question. “How can we keep Mars-bound astronauts connected with their loved ones on Earth?”

This question sparked a journey, though not yet to Mars… Instead, I embarked on a journey to understand social isolation on Earth, to develop new ways to connect remote loved ones using advanced technologies, to found another company, my seventh, Kinoo.family, and to become even more deeply engaged with Rotary!

While few Rotarians are likely to find ourselves hurtling toward the red planet, many of us do understand the feeling, if not the risk, of social isolation, and the desire to remain close to our friends and families.  Strikingly, within months of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, nearly 80% of Rotary clubs embraced Zoom, or other video conferencing software, to host virtual club meetings and stay connected. 

Recognizing both an opportunity and a need, Rotary International commissioned a Presidential Task Force to look at how virtual connectivity can be used in Rotary’s future, and I was honored to be invited to participate.  As an inventor and entrepreneur, having created the LeapFrog learning system, LiveScribe smart pen, and most recently, an eye-tracking company, Eyefluence (initially funded by Rotarians) that we sold to Google in 2016, I am comfortable applying cutting edge technology to gnarly problems.

With Zoom meetings came the opportunity for resourceful clubs to recruit world-renowned distant speakers, bringing them into their meetings in a virtual setting.  Some clubs even began reimagining meetings, creatively exploring the capabilities of virtual connectivity, rather than force-fitting incompatible, traditional, in-person activities into a small screen of headshots.

Inspired by our discussions within the Pandemic Task Force, I reached out to other Rotarians with an idea. I quickly found support from Rotary International, from my Lamorinda Sunrise Club in the San Francisco Bay Area, and from a Rotary nonprofit I had co-founded, The Global Impact Group TGIG.org. The idea was to produce a video to help clubs see how easy it can be to host a “hybrid,” or virtual/in-person (V/IP) meeting, one that brings people together physically, while giving remote members simultaneous access to the meeting.

We recognized that the emergence from lockdowns, with clubs returning to in-person meetings, would still leave some members uncomfortable or unsafe, rapidly returning to their club venue. Also, in cities around the world, surveys have shown that some Rotarians have embraced occasional remote participation while traveling, or to avert commute traffic.  Finally, virtual connection has opened the door to some extraordinary remote speakers, who are delighted to present to Rotarians via video chat platforms, and to field questions remotely.

So my wife and I cleaned out our garage, and with some industrious, masked and socially distanced LSR club members, we transformed our garage into a studio to film a live virtual/in person meeting to show how easy it can be to bring remote virtual participants to an in-person gathering, and vice versa. This allowed us all to have fellowship and real time exchanges!

We quickly realized, however, that our enthusiasm in mentoring clubs on hosting such hybrid V/IP meetings might not attract widespread viewing by clubs across Rotary. We knew we needed another hook to get more Rotarians to view our video and convince them to model our approach in their clubs.

Another spark!  What if we could attract some legendary speakers to help Rotarians look in a mirror, to see who we really are at times of crisis, when the world needs us most?

On that thought, I reached out to my friend and colleague, Dr. Sten Vermund, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, and within weeks, we created a lineup of Zoom interviews with global health experts and Rotary celebrities ranging from Dr. Anthony Fauci to Rotary CEO John Hewko and Rotary International President Holger Knaack.

Two resulting videos are available at TGIG.org. Virtual/In-Person Meeting is a 25-minute video of our garage meeting with the above celebrity speakers – and more, which is designed for you to show to your club. A second short 2-minute Quick Start Video shows you how easy it is to run an engaging Virtual/In-Person (V/IP) meeting. Thanks to Rotary International, this video is now available in eight languages!

So you need not be planning a trip to Mars, but dreaming of reaching the stars may spark a Rotary moment, and help you begin your own next Rotary journey!

The logistics of shipping and storing vaccines

by Elizabeth Schroeder

A mass, worldwide vaccination effort is crucial to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic — but the logistics of getting it done are incredibly complex. Two of the most complicating factors? Storage and transportation.  

Distributing vaccine doses is much more elaborate than simply putting vials in a box and loading them onto a truck. From the time a vaccine leaves the manufacturer to the time it’s administered to a patient, it needs to be kept in ideal and highly specific conditions. For example, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine needs to be stored at a frigid -70° C.  That’s why the success of large-scale immunization efforts is dependent on a reliable cold chain: a system of safely storing and transporting vaccines at recommended temperatures.

What makes up a cold chain?

A seamless cold chain combines three equally important elements:

• Equipment: in most cases, the best storage option is a pharmaceutical-grade unit, specially designed for housing vaccines. Unlike the freezer where you keep your ice cream, these can cost upwards of $15,000. Specialized portable coolers are also important for moving vaccines from one location to another.
• Personnel: staff and volunteers tasked with handling vaccines must be thoroughly trained on safe storage and transportation practices. This is particularly important because different vaccines require different conditions.
• Processes: vaccinating facilities must have clear, detailed, and up-to-date instructions for vaccine handling — plus contingency plans in case of emergency. What if the facility loses power? What if there’s a weather event? These questions and more should have thorough answers. 

What happens if the chain breaks? 

Vaccines can only protect against disease if they’re delivered safely. Overexposure to heat, cold, or light can compromise vaccine quality. Not only does this diminish the vaccine’s effectiveness; it also leads to wasted vaccine supply and financial loss. Between spoiled vaccines, replacement costs, and administrative expenses, cold chain errors cost healthcare shippers billions of dollars a year.

How we help

For more than 30 years, Rotary members have been supporting the safe transport of polio vaccines to every corner of the globe. When it comes to COVID-19, we’re just as committed to bringing vaccines to all. Learn more about how we’re playing our part: http://on.rotary.org/covid19efforts.

Editor's Note: Our speaker Chris Stein referenced this article during his presentation on Friday (4/16).

Seventy-five percent of the world’s plant species are dependent on pollinators, such as the monarch, to survive

by Frank Bures in Rotarian Magazine - October 2020

Late last winter, just before the world shut down, my family flew from Minneapolis to Mexico City, then drove two hours west toward the city of Valle de Bravo. From there, we continued on to Santuario Piedra Herrada, a nature preserve situated in the forested mountains of central Mexico.

The next morning, as the sun rose behind the mountaintops, we began our hike up a mile-long trail. The air was cool, and the sky was obscured by patchy clouds. Higher up the path, we noticed the oyamel fir trees start to take on a different appearance. They looked solid. They looked so heavy that they might fall over. They looked like they had been colonized by some strange creature.

When we reached the top, we could see that in fact it wasn’t one creature that had colonized the trees, but many: Millions of orange-and-black monarch butterflies covered the branches and trunks of the now orange-tinged trees, huddling together for warmth as they have done every winter for thousands of years. When the sun emerged from behind the clouds, the insects, warmed by its rays, filled the air, and the beating of their wings sounded like a soft rain.

In a few weeks, those same butterflies would take off from these hills — Santuario Piedra Herrada is one of a handful of places where monarchs gather to spend the winter each year — and fly to Texas and other parts of the southern United States, where they would lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Those offspring would then fly north as far as Canada to lay their own eggs. After a third generation, at the end of the summer, a fourth, “super” generation, whose life span is as long as nine months (as opposed to its predecessors’ two to six weeks), would embark on a journey back to Mexico, following the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains until reaching the hills around Piedra Herrada.