Few people realize that prior to the Hindenburg, airships transported thousands of paying passengers millions of miles without a single casualty. And they did so, for more than 20 years--a safety record unmatched by any other form of transportation. John's talk focuses on the true but little-known story of the USS Macon (ZRS-5), a U.S. Navy Zeppelin that was the world’s largest, most expensive, most technologically advanced aircraft of her day. He reveals for the first time anywhere how the American Zeppelin came within a hair’s breadth of replacing planes, trains, and ocean liners as the dominant form of long-distance transportation–a tale of physical courage, ugly politicking, two egregious disasters, and a Navy coverup.

Kevin McCormack, Director of Patient Advocacy

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE (CIRM)

Ever wondered what is involved in Stem Cell Research? Here is a chance to learn more about this burgeoning field.

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Historian and writer Noah Griffin will present "The Tulsa Race Massacre 101 Years Later". When race riots were renamed massacres, America began to come to grips with the unnverving nature of its disturbing past. Dozens of heretofore justificed mob shootings, killings, lynchings, and wholesale destruction of Black cities and towns across the nation and across centuries took on a new meaning. No massacre encapsulates that untold story better than the Tulsa Massacre of 101 years ago. 

Noah is a longtime Marin County Rotarian currently serving as president of Central Marin County in Larkspur.

The Tour de Menlo is the major annual fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Menlo Park Foundation.  Click here to go to the Tour de Menlo website.

The Karat School Project's mission is to educate to help eradicate poverty and inequality in a sustainable manner. We are breaking the cycle of poverty for children and women through skills-based education and training programs. The project has been making a great impact in the Ivory Coast and right here in the Bay Area through the work that we are doing with children living in RVs since COVID-19 started. Founder Evelyne Keomian will provide an update on the impact of the Karat School Project and new opportunities they have.

MOTOWN: MUSIC, MONEY, SEX, AND POWER

THE REMARKABLE BEHIND-THE-SCENES BUSINESS STORY OF THE RISE AND FALL OF MOTOWN RECORDS

In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building's entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted "Hitsville U.S.A." The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company's name was Motown. Swirling around the political upheaval of the 1960s, the emergence of black entrepreneurship, the decline of some American cities, and filled with more intrigue than any soap opera writer could conjure, Motown's story is riveting.