Events

In March PV Rotary Club member Daniel Elroi began his long-term commitment to support an NGO in South Africa, the Unity Water Foundation, which is led and supported by other Rotarians from South Africa and the United States. The foundation supports a number of activities that relieve the daily burden of women and children in rural Africa associated with fetching water from distant and sparse water sources. Daniel, a semi-retired IT executive is writing a technology road map for the foundation, and will then guide teams of volunteers, interns and staff through the implementation of various action plans in that road map.

Also in March, Daniel attended the United Nations' Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks conference in Geneva in order to learn how information management, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence are used in this arena. He learned about the recent catastrophic decrease in global humanitarian aid funding committed by governments, and will work to learn how individually-driven organizations like Rotary can step in to fill some part of that gap.

Dr. Katie Eastman is an author, licensed psychotherapist, master grief coach, certified life coach, and organizational change consultant helping individuals and organizations transform loss into growth. She will be joining our club to talk about a facinating mental health program in Ukraine and how to rise up from adversity with a growth mindset. Not to be missed!

Paul Stansbury is a retired college administrator He graduated from the US Air Force Academy with a BS in Engineering Management, received a Masters in Business from USC, a Masters in Sociology from California State University Long Beach and a doctorate in higher education from Pepperdine University. He became involved in the National Alliance on Mental Illness when one of his sons developed a mental illness and is very indebted to the support and education that NAMI and NAMI families have provided to his family. He is currently serving as President of the NAMI South Bay affiliate. In other volunteer activities related to mental health, Paul is serving as President of the Homes for Life Foundation, and Chair of Advocacy Committee NAMI Greater Los Angeles County and South Bay Coalition to End Homelesseness.

He is actively involved in the American Martyrs Parish of which he has been a member for over 40 years. He serves as a Eucharistic Minister and is active in the Cornerstone Ministry. Paul Stansbury is originally from Beaumont, Texas. After serving in the Air Force at the Los Angeles Air Force Station in El Segundo has lived in Manhattan Beach for many years. His wife Nancy has been a school teacher at the Manhattan Beach Middle School. He has three sons and he the proud grandparent of four grandchildren.

Hayden Schneider is the Partnership and Outreach Associate at Kelp Ark, where she helps build collaborations that advance marine conservation and biodiversity preservation. A lifelong student of environmental science, she holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver and is deeply committed to safeguarding ocean ecosystems. Passionate about the future of kelp farming and its potential to drive sustainable solutions, Hayden is particularly interested in the development of kelp-based products, including biostimulants which enhance agriculture’s efficiency and resilience. Through her work, she strives to bridge the gap between marine science and real-world applications, fostering innovative partnerships that support both environmental and economic sustainability. When she’s not working to protect and promote kelp’s vital role in global ecosystems, Hayden enjoys exploring all of California’s natural wonders.

Join us for a great meeting with the Pagent of the Masters winners and Rotary Interact students. 

Supporting these students is a great part of what this club does and we look forward to seeing all our members there.

Every club member will want to join us for this wonderful location visit to the Lunada Market & Deli in beautiful Lunada Bay. Jocelyn Lopez, owner/operator of the Lunada Market & Deli will be welcoming our club for a delicious patio lunch and sharing her story of being a sucessful local business women.

Reservations for this lunch are REQUIRED and all members will need to slelect their entree ahead of time. More information will be availabe as we get closer to the date. 

Geoffrey Kinaalwa, CEO and Founder of La Marc Coffee Foundation, will join us to share about the coffee farm he owns and runs in Uganda. They take in and house single pregnant girls and give them shelter, counseling and on the job training at the coffee farm, in tailoring, sewing and hairdressing, and how to start their own small businesses. This should be a truly fascinating talk. 

This is an OFF SITE meeting at the Salvation Army Training Center. 

Michael Potter is an entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, author, and social enterprise investor. He is the founder of Geeks Without Frontiers and director of Paradigm Ventures. Michael was previously appointed to the team advising the Federal Communications Commission Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee regarding strategies for helping to close the digital divide in the United States. Potter directed the space documentary, “Orphans of Apollo” and has served on two Space Policy Presidential Transition projects.

Join us in welcoming Scott Elliott, Executive Director of ICAN, a nonprofit organization that provides quality employment, life skills, and social programs for Southern California’s adults with intellectual & developmental disabilities. Scott will share what's new with his organization and what ICAN is doing in our community. 

Join us in welcoming Mike Talleda, President of Wounded Heroes of America

We make sure our heroes know they aren’t alone and they aren’t forgotten. Conceived in October 2001 to originally help the families of 9/11 victims, our mission grew into an organization dedicated to aiding the veterans of the wars that followed. Founded in 2004 in Hawthorne, California, Wounded Heroes of America reaches veteran families in the Southern California communities and in 16 other locations in the United States. Our job is connecting wounded (OIF) Iraq and (OEF) Afghanistan veterans with the resources they need to re-enter and adjust to civilian life. We focus on the proven commitment and functional abilities honed in their service. We rely on community support to fulfill our mission.

Lynn Doran, a native Californian, began her life of adventure and creativity in the 1950s, traveling with her parents whose curiosity led them deep into Mexico, pulling a travel-trailer.

Leaving college with a degree in Fine Arts, Lynn immediately started her own company, “Natty,” designing and manufacturing women’s specialized ski accessories, as well as more youthfully contemporary tennis and golf attire. Success allowed Lynn to leave the world of business and start traveling the world, photographically documenting, selectively collecting artifacts and turning her lifelong-interest into a major motivating factor in her life.Travel serves Lynn as a stimulant and her creative themes express themselves through ceramic sculpture, printmaking and photography.

Longtime PVE resident and photographer John Harbison takes you on a fascinating and informative trip down memory lane with clips from films and TV shows that were shot in Palos Verdes over the last century. In these movies, PV has “pretended" to be many locations around the world, such as Japan, Scotland, Arabia, Egypt, England, Hawaii, San Francisco and the Caribbean. John has had a successful business career as a management consultant, entrepreneur and early-stage investor (with five of his investments earning between 256x and 1478x). One of his companies introduced the world’s first side blindspot detection radar for cars, and that company grew from $0 to $700 million in revenue in eight years. As a photographer, he travels extensively to remote locations and specializes in wildlife and landscape photography; locally, he’s won the grand prize in the Palos Verdes Photography contest twice.

Michael Friedman is a docent at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, and a retired attorney and long-time Palos Verdes resident.

Join us as Mike shares his knowedge of the history of the Peninsula!

Prof. Frank Chindamo, CHP, founded LaughMD, Inc. to answer the question, “If Laughter is the Best Medicine, why don’t we use it as medicine?” LaughMD has conducted 5 studies showing that its comedy video app lowered stress and pain in over 90% of patients, in one study, by over 60%. Frank began his media career in comedy writing and production at SNL, and as an assistant on Ghostbusters.  He's won 30+ awards for writing/producing comedy videos for HBO, Showtime, CBS, PBS, Comedy Central and more. He launched the world’s first mobile comedy channel, featured on the front pages of Forbes, the LA Times, and in the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times. Former Adjunct Professor in Web Video at USC, UCLA and Chapman University. Certified Humor Professional through the Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor.

Join us in welcoming Rosa Kwon Easton as she shares her journey writing her debut novel, White Mulberry. 

Rosa Kwon Easton was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up with her extended family in Los Angeles. Easton holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Smith College, a master’s in international and public affairs from Columbia University, and a JD from Boston College Law School. She is a lawyer and an elected trustee of the Palos Verdes Library District. She has two adult children and lives with her husband and Maltipoo in sunny Southern California.

PV Rotary welcomes Jennifer Weintraub, owner of Assisted Living Locators in Torrance, to share her knowledge about the ever growing need for assisted living facilities. 

From Jennifer: I am dedicated to offering a personalized, no-cost senior placement service to my community. With a 25-year career in the fashion industry, leading teams in sales, operations, and business development, I have honed my ability to understand and cater to individual needs, goals, and challenges. I deeply value the relationships I build and am committed to gaining trust through empathy and active listening. Now, as part of the Assisted Living Locators team, I am eager to apply these skills to serve seniors and their families, assisting them in making critical life decisions. I’m excited to bring my unique expertise and dedication to seniors and their families in Torrance and the surrounding areas.