Events

Sen. Sharon Shewmake was sworn into office on Dec. 9, 2022 and is the first Democrat to represent the 42nd District in two decades. She serves as Chair of the Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee and on the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee and Transportation Committee.

Shewmake is focused on helping families with affordability of housing and energy, creating jobs and building infrastructure, and ensuring everyone can live in safe communities. Shewmake is a professor of environmental economics, urban economics and energy policy at Western Washington University in Bellingham, as well as a children’s book author, spouse, and mother of two young boys.

Mayor Kim Lund took office January 1, 2024. She is Bellingham’s 23rd Mayor, and the second woman elected to the City’s top executive position.

Mayor Lund has experienced the evolution of Bellingham firsthand, from the sleepy mill town of her childhood to the rapidly growing city it is today. She brings her professional background as an engineer, nonprofit executive director and community advocate to the position of Mayor. She is committed to City government that is smart and effective in its actions, and unbounded in aspiration.

Mayor Lund knows that cities have an important role to play in addressing the complex environmental, social and economic issues of our time. She believes that City Hall can, and must, act with urgency, intelligence, and courage to not only meet today’s challenges, but to proactively shape our shared future. 

Mayor Lund is a Bellingham Public Schools alumna and mom, and a graduate of the University of Washington. She has been a team leader at Intel Corporation, a small business owner, and executive director at the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation. Mayor Lund holds a Leading Sustainable Corporations certificate from the Said School of Business at Oxford University. 

She has served on the Whatcom County Planning Commission, the boards of directors for Brigid Collins, Whatcom Million Trees Project, and CommunityWise Bellingham, and the Bellingham Public Schools Sustainability Advisory Committee.

Speaker Anna Booker - "An Introduction to Salish Sea Studies"

Bio: Anna Booker has been a practicing historian in the public and private sectors for over twenty-five years, including more than twenty years teaching students at Whatcom Community College. Among her accomplishments is a grant-funded digital history project on the transformation of Bellingham Bay over the last 150 years, which was presented by students at the city’s inaugural SeaFeast festival. She has received grants for teaching and research from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BNSF Foundation, and the Northwest International Education Association. 

In lieu of a formal presenter, Rotary Focus Weeks will feature internal discussions about Rotary, our local Community, and our Club members and experiences. 

This meeting President Nathan will share the survey results and a discussion will be held.

Offsite tour of the New Senior Center with lunch served.  Located at 140 E. Bellis Fair Parkway

Presentation Title - Whatcom Council on Aging: Connect - Nourish - Thrive 

Description of the talk and visit: WCOA delivers four key programs to older adults: Meals on Wheels and More, Bellingham Senior Activity Centers, Bellingham At Home, and Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA). These programs help older adults maintain vitality and well-being throughout every stage of life, fostering connection, continued growth, and meaningful engagement in their communities. We are building the Future of Aging Well and are excited to tour and share plans for one future-ready home for both the Bellingham Senior Activity Center and the Meals on Wheels kitchen, providing access to nutritional, health, social, recreational and educational resources for adults 50 and over.  

Chris Orr is the Executive Director of the Whatcom Council on Aging (WCOA), an independent nonprofit serving seniors in Whatcom County since 1964. A native of Anacortes, WA, and a University of Washington graduate with a BA in Economics, Chris and his family relocated from Charlotte, North Carolina, to the Bellingham area in 2019. Before joining WCOA, Chris spent over 20 years in YMCA leadership roles with the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. As Executive Director, Chris oversees WCOA’s mission to promote lifelong wellness by providing access to nutritional, health, social, recreational, and educational resources for adults 50 and over. He is based at the Bellingham Senior Activity Center.

Tom Dorr is principal at Tom Dorr and Associates Consulting with over 20 years of business counseling, business development and business advising to small and medium sized businesses. Having helped over 4,000 businesses in the past 25 years, he is passionate about helping business owners actualize their dreams. Tom is also co-owner of Inspired Closets Bellingham. Serving on the Board for Whatcom Council on Aging for 6 years, Tom is currently Board President, helping to shape the vision for WCOA, cultivating a vibrant community where older adults are seen, supported, and celebrated, and where connection and nourishment empower individuals to stay engaged and shape the world around them.  

Contacts:  Kate Dowling/Tom Door/Chris Orr

Our Camp Kirby Rotary Work Party is planned for Saturday, October 17, from 9AM - 12:00PM. The address at Camp Kirby is 4734 Samish Point Road, Bow, WA.  98232

We will have lots of various projects around camp for all skill levels, so you don't need to be a professional handyman.  Grab your gloves and join us as we clean up Camp Kirby from a jam-packed spring, summer and fall!! 

Lunch will be provided, so please sign-up so we can turn a number from RCOB.

In lieu of a formal presenter, Rotary Focus Weeks will feature internal discussions about Rotary, our local Community, and our Club members and experiences. 

Purchase tickets here:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mountainfilm-on-tour-presented-by-the-rotary-club-of-bellingham-2026-tickets-1990147568952

Speaker:  Rick Kaiser

Title:  Beneath the Salish Sea – SCUBA Diving in our Cold Local Waters 

Each year, millions of people explore the warm beaches and cruise the cold waters of Puget Sound and Canadian waters. Yet only a small number of passionate adventurers have fully immersed themselves in this incredible and dynamic underwater world. Rick Kaiser is one of them, and he will take you on an amazing exploration of what lies below the surface and the equipment and training required to safely and comfortably get there and back again.

Rick Kaiser has a degree in biological oceanography from the University of Washington and has worked as a scientific diver and oceanography instructor at UW. He has taught SCUBA diving and worked in dive stores in Seattle and Bellevue, and he taught intertidal marine ecology at Whatcom Community College.  He is still an active SCUBA diver with 55+ years of local diving experience and over 700 logged dives. 

Title:International Project Alliance annual update 

Annual visit by the IPA to your club to inform what has changed over the last year: lots of exciting changes and news on your village: Las Peñas 2

Speaker:  Marty Pease

Bio:  Joined Rotary in 2016 and made my first trip to Honduras in 2016 and fell in love with the people, country and the IPA, my self assigned duties include visiting our member clubs annually, I have served on my club board every year, twice as president and am a team mentor with Youth Engaged in Services 

In lieu of a formal presenter, Rotary Focus Weeks will feature internal discussions about Rotary, our local Community, and our Club members and experiences. 

More information to follow

More information to follow.

Christmas Holiday

Holiday - New Years

In lieu of a formal presenter, Rotary Focus Weeks will feature internal discussions about Rotary, our local Community, and our Club members and experiences. 

Holiday - Martin Luther King

In lieu of a formal presenter, Rotary Focus Weeks will feature internal discussions about Rotary, our local Community, and our Club members and experiences. 

Holiday - President's Day