July 29th, Co-President Hayden Macurda introduced new club member Karen Johns and her dog Finley. Karen presented an extremely interesting craft talk.

Karen grew up in Maine and her varied life work experiences including teaching grades K-8 , politics, lobbying, residential and commercial real estate, the oil industry, and Formula One racing. These varied careers have enabled her to live in many places, including Maine, New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Monaco and California.

Highlights of Karen's career accomplishments included having been elected to her Town Council at age 27, and having been a candidate for the New Hampshire House of Representatives at age 30 (when she lost by a mere 41 votes); having been in the Army Reserve (Military Police) and having been Chief of Staff for the North Carolina Senate majority whip.

More recently, Karen has earned a BA degree in Business Administration (magna cum laude) from Texas A+M and has established Karen Johns LLC, working in the environmental energy industry.

Karen has three sons, two of whom are combat veterans and one an Air Force Academy graduate. She describes herself as a persistent woman who always wants to take the reins and "talk to the manager" when people are speaking the same language but not hearing the same meaning. She strives to fill her life with adventure, service, patriotism, conservation and preserving the environment.

Although a Rotarian for just a short time, Karen is already a Paul Harris Foundation member and is a valuable addition to MBSR.

Wednesday August 5th, our speaker was Diana Leyva from CR&R Disposal Company, where she is the Sustainability Specialist. She shared the importance to our environment to comply with important recycling efforts.

The rules of recycling are always evolving:
Styrofoam now goes to a landfill - it is no longer recyclable
Flexible packaging like Amazon pop bubbles are also now not recyclable and go to the landfills
Old fabrics are NOT picked up by CR&R, but Target recycles fabrics/clothing
Food scraps (even spoiled food) is still organic, but palm fronds, pet waste and plastic bags go to landfills

So, in summary, be good customers and place items properly in your blue, green and brown CR&R receptacles

Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club is officially part of the movement, “Bringing Back the Monarchs!” By volunteering to create and restore the natural habitats for the Monarch butterlies, we are helping these beautiful creatures to thrive in our very own City.

Karen Engberg, the Natural Resource Manager for the City of Dana Point, supervised our members as we sowed the milkweed seeds by planting 10 flats, approximately 300 plants for the native plant nursery. These plants will be put in a greenhouse to start the propogation process, and then we will plant them in the fall in one of 5 habitats that the City has.

Please Share...
The opportunity of Rotary will change your life and the lives of everyone you touch!