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California Embraces the Great White Fleet
Mar. 03, 2021
John Freeman's presentation will focus on the lavish welcome the Fleet received in the Bay Area, including how Marin County participated.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet made a bold display of the United State’s new role as an international power 113 years ago. The fleet left Hampton Road, Virginia in December 1907 and traveled around South America, and into the Pacific Ocean. In each of the ports it stopped along our coast, the fleet was hosted and toasted with an exuberant show of patriotism and pride, culminating with the fleet entering the Golden Gate on May 6, 1908, where an estimated crowd of a million people thronged to get a look at the 16 battleships.
San Francisco Bay Area hosted one of the finest receptions our navy has ever seen with spectacular parades, grand balls, banquets, and lots of exciting activities for all the sailors. The visit of the fleet was the first major public celebration of San Francisco's recovery from the earthquake and fire, and the city capitalized on the events to boast to the world about it’s rebuilding progress and it’s ability to accommodate the “grandest fleet in the finest harbor in the world.”
After two months based in San Francisco, the fleet would cross the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, arriving back at Hampton Road on Washington’s Birthday, 1909, to complete this triumphant circumnavigation of the world.
Please see more pictures on Mill Valley Rotary club Facebook page:
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There were HOW MANY dairies in Marin County???
Mar. 30, 2021
Beginning in the middle of the 1800's, the dairy industry in Marin grew dramatically until by the end of the century the county had become the major supplier of dairy products to San Francisco and one of the major dairy centers in the country. Those dairies, which over the years numbered more than 350, blanketed the county, and cows were a familiar site grazing on the hillsides. Today, just over twenty of those dairies remain. Mike Moyle, who heads the History Committee at the IDESST Sausalito Portuguese Cultural Center, and West Marin historian Dewey Livingston, are collaborating to identify all of those dairies and the individuals who operated them over the years. Mike will be speaking to us about this project, as well as about some of the dairies that were in and around Mill Valley. Today those dairies are largely forgotten. However, as Mike likes to say: "Watch where you step! If you are somewhere in Marin County, it's likely it was once a cow pasture." Please see more pictures on Mill Valley Rotary club Facebook page: |
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Carving Joy, Finding Peace
Apr. 13, 2021
Scott will briefly discuss his Vietnam experience as a 19-year-old Marine machine gunner during the years 1967-68 and how he used a Chopin tune from a music box and the imagery of a carousel to help calm him between firefights. After coming home, he walked a years-long path of social isolation and escape as do so many combat veterans. Seventeen years later he came across a broken-down 1910 carousel frame, brought it home to Colorado from Utah and over two and a half decades carved all new animals to repopulate the frame and mechanism. He will describe the beginnings of a non-profit organization, The Carousel of Happiness, and efforts to construct a building and operate it. He will briefly describe another related sculptural project called The Council of Kindness, a different kind of healing experience. Whereas the carousel was to help him heal, the “council” was designed to help others.
Scott Harrison will be joined by Shane Matthews, the filmmaker of “Carving Joy”, a short documentary film about the origins of the Carousel of Happiness. Shane will talk about why he created the film, “Carving Joy”, and a bit about the filming. Shane will show it and afterwards, Scott will give an update on the present state of both these projects.
One film reviewer wrote this about the documentary: "Simple. Poignant. Powerful. Scott opened himself up in a way that few soldiers were able to do after the unimaginable horror of the war experience. He recognized grace and accepted it. He then chose joy as the gift of his life, to give to others and to himself."
For reference on both projects: https://www.
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A Beagle, A Fat Cat, and A Couple of Characters: The Happy Adventures of Partners in Music and Life
Apr. 27, 2021
This is to confirm Mill Valley residents Ed Bogas and Desiree Goyette as our speakers on April 27th. Their presentation is entitled: A Beagle, A Fat Cat, and A Couple of Characters: The Happy Adventures of Partners in Music and Life. |
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UNSINKABLE - the story of 5 sailors and the USS Plunkett in WWII
May 11, 2021
Unsinkable is a thrilling and vividly told account of the USS Plunkett—a US Navy destroyer that sustained the most harrowing attack of any US Navy ship by the Germans during World War II, that gave as good as it got, and that was later made famous by John Ford and Herman Wouk. More than the story of a single, savage engagement, Unsinkable traces the individual journeys of five men on one ship from Casablanca in North Africa, to Sicily and Salerno in Italy and then on to Plunkett’s defining moment at Anzio, where a dozen-odd German bombers bore down on the ship in an assault so savage, so prolonged, and so deadly that one Navy commander was hard-pressed to think of another destroyer that had endured what Plunkett had. After a three-month overhaul and with a reputation rising as the “fightin’est ship” in the Navy, Plunkett (DD-431) plunged back into the war at Omaha Beach on D-Day, and once again into battle during the invasion of Southern France—perhaps the only Navy ship to participate in every Allied invasion in the European theatre.
Please see more pictures on Mill Valley Rotary club Facebook page:
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Photography in an Age of Environmental Change
May 25, 2021
Photographer David Maisel will present his work, focusing on landscapes that have
undergone severe environmental transformation. He has devoted decades to
making a visual record of such impacted sites in the American landscape and beyond, from both an aerial perspective and from the ground. He will discuss Proving Ground, which focuses on a classified military site in Utah where chemical and biological weapons are developed and tested, Desolation Desert, which examines mining of lithium and copper in Chile’s Atacama Desert, and other projects that challenge our views about our collective stewardship of the Earth. |
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What to Do about Russia
Jun. 08, 2021
U.S.-Russian relations have fallen to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War. Moscow has interfered in U.S. domestic politics, continued a simmering conflict against Ukraine, and cracked down on domestic protest, all the while asserting that the United States is encroaching on Russia's sphere of influence and even seeking to bring down the Kremlin regime. Can the Biden administration shape and pursue a policy that pushes back against egregious Russian misbehavior while cooperating on areas such as nuclear arms control, where U.S. and Russian interests coincide?
Please see more pictures on Mill Valley Rotary club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubOfMillValley/posts/3826711917446362 |
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A Journey Through Slavery at the Whitney Plantation
Jun. 22, 2021
The Whitney Plantation was an indigo then a sugar plantation located on the right bank of the Mississippi River, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. The site is now open to the public as a museum with a total focus on slavery. At Whitney, the visitors are offered a unique perspective on the lives of Louisiana’s enslaved people using restored historic buildings, museum exhibits, memorial artwork and hundreds of first-person slave narratives. As a site of memory and consciousness, the Whitney Plantation Museum is meant to pay homage to all the people who were enslaved in Louisiana and everywhere else in the United States of America.
Dr. Seck will present the history of the Whitney Plantation in the wider context of the Atlantic slave trade and will touch many topics related to the cultural legacies of slavery in Louisiana. The history of slavery is not only a history of deportation and hard labor. Beyond building the original foundations of the US economy, the enslaved Africans and their descendants contributed to shaping and defining American culture and identity.
Dr. Seck is Director of Research at the Whitney Plantation Slavery Museum which is located in Wallace, Louisiana.
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Jul. 06, 2021 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Former NASA Associate Director Joe Ramos will be our speaker. His presentation is entitled What Does NASA Do? Most people don’t really know what NASA does, and how important it is to develop new science. He will be talking about the four Major Missions of NASA, some of the great things NASA is doing in these areas, and a little about where he worked and what he did. Join via the Zoom link. FREE. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Mill Valley. Presentation begins at 12:30 after club business has concluded. |
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Jul. 20, 2021 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
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