“Animal Lover: YogaFit’s Beth Shaw lives
her karma yoga”
Yoga Journal, 08.08
Before Beth Shaw ever stepped onto a yoga mat, she knew her life’s work
would be speaking for animals that don’t have a voice.
“I remember telling my boyfriend in high school that, when I had a lot
of money, I wanted to have spay-and-neuter vans and go around and care for the
animals,” says Shaw, the founder of YogaFit. And now, almost 24 years later,
she says, “I feel like I’m stepping into my dharma [life path] now.”
Shaw has turned her business acumen—YogaFit has certified 70,000 fitness
professionals to teach yoga worldwide—into a vehicle for promoting animal
rights. In her hometown of Los Angeles, she was instrumental in passing a new
law that requires the spaying and neutering of pets, which helps prevent the
killing of millions of unwanted animals. She backs a similar California bill.
Download a PDF of this article
here.
“A Questioning Mind: The questions
Deborah Tolman asked have changed the way people think
about teenage girls and sexuality”
SFSU Magazine, Spring.07
Professor Deborah Tolman uses her hands as she talks, sweeping
them up in an imaginary bell curve. She is mapping the way
teen girls behave and think about their sexuality. The ends
of that curve, where teens are either more chaste or more
aggressive, are getting longer, she says, “as if someone has grabbed
them and pulled them out a bit. But for the vast middle, my
sense is that it’s still a minefield, and girls are
still not entitled to their own sexuality.”
As the director of the San Francisco state center for Research
on Gender and Sexuality, Tolman is one of the country’s
preeminent experts on teenage sexuality and sexual health.
From the classroom to the set of ABC’s “Nightline,” she
challenges commonly held beliefs on these subjects and asks
thought-provoking questions. “We only know what we ask,” she
says. “The tagline of our center is, ‘Producing
new knowledge to advance social justice and social change.’ But
I’m thinking that ‘Asking new questions to advance
social justice and social change’ is more accurate.”
Read the full story here.
Download a PDF of this article here.
“A Radical in the Suburbs”
Curve Magazine, 06.07
A natural optimist and problem solver, Russell is the daughter
of a Russian Jew who immigrated to avoid the Nazis. She’s
also a woman who has always been out of the closet, even before
Stonewall, and who went from welfare as a teenager to the founder
of a multimillion-dollar employment firm that’s been
studied by a Harvard professor and featured in Inc. Magazine.
In other words, she isn’t one to let a small town or
niggling fears stop her from pursuing her dreams.”
Download a PDF of this article here.
“Moment of discovery fuels synchronized swimmer”
Contra Costa Times, 03.01.07
Gina Pietras has
been swimming practically since birth. And with a mother who
was a water ballet dancer, it shouldn't be any surprise that
Pietras, now 31, entered her first competitive synchronized swimming
event at age 5.
Since then, Pietras has been a member of the USA
national synchronized swimming team and lived in Zurich, Switzerland,
where she coached the U.S. junior national team. After retiring
from the team in 2003, she says it's a natural jump from Zurich
to Walnut Creek, where she lives and coaches the 11-12 A team
for WC Aquanuts.
Read the full profile here.
Download a PDF of this article here.
“Club keeps an eye on community
service”
Contra
Costa Times, 02.22.07
Bill Iannaccone was already busy
with a thriving chiropractic business, coaching local kids'
sports teams and the Lions Club International board of directors
when he was persuaded to participate in a clinic for eyesight
restoration in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Thirteen years later, Walnut
Creek resident Iannaccone is the chief operations officer of
Lions In Sight, a Lions Club organization that recycles eyeglasses,
provides eyeglasses to needy communities around the world and
sponsors eye exams and eye surgeries from Lithuania to Mexico
to Argentina. Iannaccone didn't expect to be traveling around
the world with the group, but he's always been interested in
community service.
Download a PDF of this article here.
“Kiwanis Club Celebrates 50 Years in the San
Ramon Valley”
Danville Times, 02.07.07
David Stegman must
have driven past the Lucille Mauzy School on Miranda Avenue in
Alamo dozens of times before he stepped inside its gates. When
he finally did, as part of a Kiwanis Club of San Ramon Valley
volunteer project, the experience changed his life. There, he
met Danny, a little boy who had been strangled by his clothes
in his crib and suffered severe brain damage.
"He couldn't communicate, but it was amazing," recalled
Stegman. "You just look at that school, and you say,
'How can the parents do this 24-hours-a-day commitment?'
And the courage of Danny to live for 12 years after being
strangled. That kid had a big heart and was very tenacious
and wanted to live."
For 50 years, the Kiwanis Club of the San Ramon
Valley has been bringing together people like Stegman with
the groups and people around the valley who need help.
Download
a PDF of this article here.
“Why his tenants Praise the ‘lord”
San Francisco Chronicle, 11.26.06
Indeed, Hallinan is a tenant's dream: a landlord who is actively involved in
the health of his building, who attends annual Christmas parties, keeps rents
low, responds to complaints promptly, and pays union employees higher wages and
health benefits. And he's committed to not raising rents during this boom time.
"When I took over the buildings, I thought about, 'What would I be willing
to pay for this space?' " said Hallinan, a former tenants rights organizer. "What's
fair?"
Read
the full article here.
“Volunteer work stirs in his blood”
Walnut Creek Journal, 09.06
When David Ringler decided to volunteer for the Red Cross two years ago, it was just part of the recently retired 60-year-old's joking scheme to "keep the brain going." But he didn't know it would link him to his past and change him irrevocably."
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