Rainier Valley Rotary launches a new series of programs about ways to make a difference in small ways.  These may feature making a difference in your community, or making a difference and touching the lives of people on the other side of the planet.

Our program April 24 will be from William "Bud" Wurtz, who has a PhD in educational psychology from Texas A&M University.  There he specialized in creativity - in the only doctoral-level creativity research program in the nation.  Bud's understanding of how people create new products, services, solutions, careers, and lifestyles is comprehensive.

Sometimes we forget that, while we seldom hear later how giving dictionaries to 3rd graders or helping the local food bank's operations can change people's lives, there are interesting stories about exactly how we change lives.. Martha Sidlo is a lawyer for a downtown Seattle firm, and generously shares with many people she meets in Rotary just how much she benefitted from her two chance encounters with Rotary programs earlier in her life. Join us on Tuesday, May 1 to hear her story.
 

 Paul Nelson's curriculum vitae includes work in commercial radio and other creative fields.  More recently he's created a series of interviews with notable poets and activists.  Now he's founder of Seattle's SPLAB.ORG "Giving Creative Voice To Poetry."  Since the invention of rhyme (possibly before the invention of fire) human culture has been carried through spoken culture - mostly through rhyme (Example: Homer's "Odyssey").  How does poetry fit in the Internet age?

  "Crime Prevention Through Enviornmental Design" by Donna Lew.