(July 25, 2023)
Our 2023-2024 DG Makiko Nakasone has been a Rotarian since 2004 and is a member of the Glendale Noon Rotary Club. She showed us her childhood photos growing up in Japan near Mt Fuji. From there, she became an American Field Service exchange student to South Dakota in 1975-76, and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Germany in 1982-83. She majored in German at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and did graduate studies in Journalism at UC Santa Cruz. She has been a free-lance writer, financial news reporter, and a Japan Readers Digest Editor. She currently owns an educational services consulting company.
DG Makiko’s Rotarian interests have included Rotary’s Peace Initiatives and New Club Development. We remember her promotion of the Rotary Model UN Peace Conference at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School on Oct 22, 2022, where a Hiroshima ginkgo tree offshoot was planted at the High School as a memorial to the 1945 Hiroshima bombing victims. A survivor of that attack near Ground Zero spoke to the attendees, and we also heard 2 Ukrainian War refugees and an Afghanistan War refugee speaking of their wartime experiences.
DG Makiko’s 3 goals are:
- Support The Rotary Foundation:
- Attend the Foundation Celebration on Nov 19
- Special Dinner with RIP Gordon McInally on May 13, 2024
- Promote Rotary’s visibility in the community:
- Wear Rotary emblems in the community
- Join “Peace Walk” pm Oct 28
- Join Rotarians at Work” Day on April 27, 2024
- (No more “best-kept secret in town”!)
- Grow Rotary:
- Let’s offer a great Club experience!
- Let’s each sponsor at least one new member!
Important coming Rotary events:
- Humanitarian Trip to Ecuador April 2-12, 2024
- District Conference, Millenium Biltmore Hotel in LA, May 5, 2024
- RIP Gordon McInally’s Luncheon, May 13, 2024
- RI Convention in Singapore, May 25-29, 2024
- Japan Trip, May 30-June 5, 2024 (following convention)
DG Makiko and Pres Victoria conducted the Induction of our newest member Evanswinda Valverde into our Club!
Pres Victoria presented a check for $200 from our Club to the Rotary Foundation!
