Crows Call

San Ramon Rotary Club

November 29, 2018

 

President John Milich demonstrated that he is well into his term as evidenced by his calling the meeting to order flawlessly.  After directing club members to join the buffet line exactly at noon followed by a call to order at 12:15p, John reminded everyone that the RI President was Barry Rassin and the theme of Rotary this year was to “Be the Inspiration” not only to ourselves but to everyone around us.  This theme set up nicely the introduction of Tom Port our greeter for the day whose thought for the day came from Albert Einstein:  “Out of clutter, find simplicity; From discord, find harmony; In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity”. 

 

Following the flag salute, Don Jones gave the club the choice to sing God Bless America or God Bless Lemon squares in recognition of the delicious deserts served to the club this week.  The club opted for God Bless America that was sung barely on key despite Don’s leadership.

 

Tom was given an opportunity to provide a greeter’s profile but instead bragged about his son’s upcoming book to be released on January 15^th with a New York signing event.  Proud father.

 

Dennis Harvey introduced two prospective members, Kim Castenada formerly associated with the San Jose Rotary Club and currently working for the Contra Costa Food Bank and Namrata Shah who expressed a strong desire to make a difference to our community through Rotary or some other service club.

 

Lunch was enjoyed by all on this rainy day with the meeting resuming at 12:30pm.

 

 

 

Senior Center Lunch:  Marie Galbo announced that our annual senior Holiday lunch would be held at the Senior Center next Thursday.  John Tatum was present to be sure not to come to the Crow Canyon Country Club but rather join the rest of the club at the Senior Center.

 

Warm Coat Project: Kathy Gailey asked and received volunteers to assist the San Ramon Valley Club in organizing all the warm coats collected to be boxed and given to needy families.  Several members whole-heartedly volunteered for this holiday season project.

Trinity Center Homeless Project: Horace Crawford requested continued assistance for the homeless in the form of gift cards or cash donations.  This will help support the homeless that rely upon the Trinity Center.

Rotary Holiday Party:  Chris Gallagher (party boy) reminded members of the December 14^th Holiday Party graciously hosted by the Tuckers.  This annual event is one of the social events of the year and all members are encouraged to attend.

Xmas Tree Lot:  Lucky Sandhu reported that he had received a great deal of feedback regarding the discontinuation of the Xmas Tree Lot most of which had been supportive.  Many community members were asking for recommendations of an alternative tree lot.

 

Adopt a Family:  Karen McNamara shared that the Interact Club was seeking a joint effort with Rotary to support an Adopt a Family project supported through the Brighter Beginnings organization.  An email went to all members from which you can choose selected items to support this needy family.  Please indicate which item(s) you wish to provide at the on-line site to avoid duplication and provide the item to Karen at the next meeting.

Auction for Education:  Norbert Walz announced that the few items that did not sell at the auction were available to Rotarians for cut rate pricing.  A minimum $25 bid would be accepted.  This will wrap up our very successful event to raise funds for local education.

 

Moose unification:  Dennis Garrison performed a magic trick using Horace’s hat to reunite President Milich’s beloved Canadian Moose first introduced to the club at his first meeting but then kidnapped without ransom.  Today, John was relieved to be joined by this stuffed animal in remembrance of his time at the International Conference.

Board Nominations and election:  President elect Colette Lay introduced nominations for the 2019-20 Board of Directors.

 

            President:                                           Colette Lay

            President-Elect                                  Chris Gallagher

            Past President/Foundation             John Milich

            Treasurer                                          Geoff Disch

            Secretary                                            Garth Riopelle

            Membership                                      Chris Gayler

            Club Administration                          Julie Fiedler

            Community Service                           Karen McNamara

            Youth Service                                    Gary Sloan

            International Service                                    Guy Greco

            Vocational Service                            Edgardo Carrillo

            Public Relations                                 Priya Jhingan

            Sergeant at Arms                              Patti Hennigan

            Member at Large                              Glen Weber

 

The honorable Pat Paterson moved that the nominations be closed.  It was seconded and the President Election called for all those in favor with a clear resounding majority.  Despite Herm Welm’s question about “what about the nays”, no recount or reconciling hanging chads were required.        
 

 

Colette Lay shared that she discovered this topic in the Spring of 2018 and felt that after much planning and coordination she was pleased to introduce Chrisfino Kenyatta Leal.  Of course, this would be the day that Colette forgot her glasses and struggled to read the bio of our guest speaker.  Suffice it to say that Chrisfino is the founding member of the Last Mile program conceived when he was a prisoner at San Quentin. He is a recognized inspirational speaker regarding the power of rehabilitation and the reduction of criminal recidivism.  His riveting story of moving from a life of crime to a life sentence in San Quentin to becoming a business development manager at a tech company was a treat for Rotary members.

 

Mr. Leal began by sharing that as a youth he was on a destructive path despite attempted support from teachers, coaches and family members.  Abandoned by his father at 6 months of age, Chrisfino described the “hole of despair” he experienced during his teen years leading to dropping out of school at 16 and pursuing a life of crime which culminated in being convicted in 1991 of two counts of robbery. He was released in 1994 only to be arrested again when pulled over by the police for a traffic violation where the passenger in the car was found in the possession of a firearm.  This represented a “third strike” of an ex-felon resulting in a life sentence.  During subsequent years, Chrisfino was in deep denial blaming his convictions on friends, the court system and bad breaks.  It was not until a friend with whom he had weekly phone calls told him that he did not want to hear Chrisfino’s whining anymore and that the judge, lawyers, three strike law or disloyal friends did not cause him to break the law and use bad judgment.  This “moment of truth” affected Chrisfino when he realized that his problems were based on a series of bad choices and that he had the power to change this paradigm.  At first, he did not know how to make these changes, but after much soul searching he learned that the most important lesson to start was to ask for help.  With the help of correctional officers, counselors, other inmates and family, he began to reimagine his life, identify his priorities and take control of his life.  His first two priorities were obtaining an education and supporting the San Quentin community through tutorship and mentorship.  He received his GED and Associate degree while in prison, the first of his family to receive a degree in higher education.

 

With new-found skills and an attitude to support a transformational journey, Chrisfino met a venture capitalist who was initially tasked with giving a talk on entrepreneurship and formulating business proposals.  This venture capitalist was surprised and impressed by the energy, engagement and proposals the inmates offered.  From this beginning the Last Mile technology training program began at San Quentin. 

Chrisfino’s “hustler skills” turned to be a good basis to develop entrepreneurial skills.  This program offered training to develop business ideas and “pitch” these ideas to local companies much like the “Shark Tank TV Program”.  This later developed into a simulated software training program. Duncan Logan of Rocket Space came to the prison in 2011 as one of the discerning executive seeking new ideas.  Chrisfino, who was sentenced to life in prison, asked Mr. Logan if he would give Chrisfino a job if he were not in prison and without hesitation, Mr. Logan said yes.  A few months later, Proposition 36 was passed, making Chrisfino eligible for resentencing.  After presenting to the same judge that had sentenced him 19 years previously, the judge resentenced to seven years and Chrisfino was set free.

 

His first call was to Duncan Logan who offered Chrisfino a job with the company.  Chrisfino was promoted shortly thereafter attaining Sales Manager with the Rocket Space company.  Recently, Chrisfino became the head of Business Development at Last Mountain.  Through a public-private partnership, Chrisfino facilitated a scholarship program for inmates to qualify for software training and apprenticeship programs.  There are seven other prisons in the U.S. who have instituted this program with the goal of reducing recidivism.  The current statistics indicate that without rehabilitation the recidivism rate after three years is 60% at a cost of $60,000 per inmate per year.  It cost that State of California $10 billion per year to support its prison system.

 

Questions from Rotary members were many.  Chrisfino shared that both men and women inmates were involved in this program.  The vetting for participation relied upon a demonstration of the inmate’s motivation to take responsibility for his/her actions, is academically successful and has the attitude to improve ones life.  He shared that 80-90% of the San Quentin inmates are involved in some kind of rehabilitation effort.

 

President Milich thanked our speaker and presented him with a certificate indicating that a donation was made on Chrisfino’s behalf to the Afghan Education Foundation.

Cathy Ophelia won the twenty-dollar greeters gift.  Our guest speaker won the $380 raffle pool (whose ticket was provided by our own Chris Gallagher).  Chrisfino elected to donate his winnings back to the club to support the Afghan Education Foundation fund.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 1:25p.  Next meeting will be held at the Senior Center on Alcosta!

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Gary Sloan, Rotary Scribe