Rotary Club of Marina del Rey

President, 2026–2027

Presenting the Three-Year Strategic Plan at Club Assembly.

Earlier this week · El Salvador

Early this week, our International Service Chair Claire Date and I traveled to El Salvador, joined by fellow Rotarian Renee Mejia of the Rotary Club of Bellflower. We went to see the work with our own eyes — and we came home changed by it.

We were hosted by our partner clubs in San Salvador, and by our dear friend and fellow Rotarian Tito Mancia, along with Amalie Amorosius of the Mizata Foundation. What becomes clear the moment you land is what it means when another club decides to invest. Building homes and delivering humanitarian relief in a country in need is not something one club does on its own — it happens when clubs come alongside one another. We are grateful to the District 5280 clubs already standing with us, and our hope is that more will join.

We walked the site of our future global grant project in Mizata: a water well that will supply clean water to 2,500 families. We learned how profoundly clean water changes daily life — health, school attendance, hours of a woman's day given back to her — and how the partnerships we are building now will carry that project through.

This is not our first work in the area. Our club took part in an earlier global grant in the Talnique area, and this past November we built our first home in Talnique — which is part of why the welcome was so warm, and why the trust is already there.

With Amalie, we sat down with the ADESCO — the community leaders who will help build the well — and worked through the placement of the storage tank together. Standing on the ground, walking the slope, pointing at where the line has to run: that is not a conversation you can have over video. It gets solved in person, on site, side by side.

Left: walking the site of the future water well in Mizata. Right: visiting an existing project in the Talnique area, built through an earlier global grant we took part in.

In Talnique, Tito took us to the sites of two more homes our partnership is building and refurbishing — work our team will complete in November, during our visit. They follow the first home we completed there this past November. We met the families. They told us, one on one, how grateful they are — and how grateful to God — that they will have a home.

Claire Date with the little boy whose family will move into one of the new homes in November.

They welcomed us into their space and served us graciously, with far less than most of us have. That is the part that stays with you.

A "Bienvenidos" sign and a table set for guests — welcomed into a family's home.

Left: talking with families outside their homes. Right: beneath the ceiba tree — friendships that last.

Our full humanitarian mission to El Salvador is November 11–15, co-led by Claire and me. If any part of this speaks to you, come with us. There is room.

Thursday, July 23 · Playa del Rey

Members gathered at 370 Fowling Street for dinner and our first full working session of the new Rotary year — in person and on Zoom.

We walked through the Three-Year Strategic Plan (2026–2029) and its five pillars: Membership Growth, Signature Service, Community Branding, Foundation & Fundraising, and Governance & Leadership Development. We reviewed the FY27 budget line by line, and we rolled out our eight standing committees with chairs named for each.

A special thank you to Adam Taylor, our Treasurer, for a detailed and thoroughly prepared presentation on the budget and our finances. Clear numbers make for confident decisions, and the club is better governed for the work he put in.

The headline number: we start the year at 33 members, with a goal of 45 by June 30 and 75 by 2029. Every committee has a role in getting there.

Members gathered in person and on Zoom for Club Assembly, July 23.

Fellowship at dusk afterward — all of us together, with the Marina lit up behind.

Not on a committee yet? There is room on every one of them. Reach out to me or to the chair directly — we will find the right fit.

Sunday, July 26 · Santa Monica

Sunday morning at 810 PCH, our club joined the Coastal Alliance and Santa Monica Helping Hub on the sand for a guided dune walk and beach clean-up — two hours of learning about our shorebirds and coastal habitat, and then leaving the beach better than we found it.

The morning opened with stretch and meditation presented by 24LA, followed by pro surfer Caroline Day, before Lucian Plauzoles led the group out through the dunes. Rotarians, families, surfers, and neighbors all walked the same stretch of coast.

Thank you to every member and family who showed up early on a Sunday. This is what our Environmental Service work looks like in practice, and it is the kind of partnership we want more of.

Gathering on the sand at 810 PCH before the walk.

Following our guide out along the dunes.

Left: our tent on the sand, flying the Global Impact and New Club of Excellence awards. Right: Rotarians out early on a Sunday.

Left: alongside our partners at the Community in Action tent. Right: young volunteers pitching in.

Mark your calendar

Volunteer sign-ups for the August events are open now — if you can give a morning, we can use you.

Save the date · Thursday, September 17

Our third annual Sunset Sail aboard the FantaSea One — an evening on the water benefiting the club's service work, with Royal Oakes as MC and Mary February chairing the event.

Dusk & Diamonds HonoreeGary Jones — LA County Beaches & Harbors

Marina's Own · Founding Honorary MemberTony Palermo

Commodore's AwardBill Stump

Tickets are $200 for members and $250 for the community. Sponsorships run from $1,000 to $25,000 — and now is the moment to make an introduction. If you know a business that belongs on that deck, or you would like to make a donation, contact Mary February or Julia Anderson.

Sponsorships & tickets

The Four-Way Test

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?