On January 17, the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club had the distinct honor of hosting R.I. President Ian Riseley at our weekly breakfast meeting.  Nearly 100 members and guests gave President Ian a warm welcome and enjoyed hearing him talk about his theme of Rotary: Making a Difference, and how it will take teamwork on a global scale to move Rotary forward and secure its future.
 
 
 
Eight new members were recognized as first-time Paul Harris Fellows: Cheri Choy, Tim Fronczek, Susan Kreitzer, Jeff Jones, Kelly Perry, Jason Toranto, Andrew Schwarz and Jillian Semmer.  District Governor Scott Carr announced that once again this year, we are a 100 percent Paul Harris Fellow club.  A special award was presented to long-time club members Karen and Gary Green for their outstanding service to Rotary.
 
President Ian encouraged participation in his tree planting initiative: 1.2 million trees, one for each Rotarian, to be planted worldwide by April 22, 2018.  He firmly believes that protecting the environment and curbing climate change are essential to Rotary’s goal of sustainable service.  He also spoke about the need of clubs to improve their gender balance and lower the average age of their members, praising the diversity of our club members as well as our Rotaract and Interact Clubs.
 
At the conclusion of the program, club president Bobbi Spinner-Flack made President Ian an honorary member of our club.