Rotary International Theme 2025-2026	THE ROWEL Rotary Club of Durham		Rotary International President: Francesco Arezzo Rotary District 5160 Governor: Joy Alaidarous Durham Rotary President: Tom Knowles _____________ Editor: Phil Price Publisher:  Jen Liu
	February 17, 2026	Crab Feed 2026 Will be held on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026

The Meeting Opening he meeting was at Rancho Esquon,  We had 10 Rotarians at the meeting.  We didn't do any sort of formal meeting format, we didn't do a Flag Salute or Invocation because as soon as everyone had arrived, 5:35pm, Rayme Antonowich wanted to get us back outside while it still had some daylight, for a short tour since it really was bitterly cold outside, especially with the wind!  Once indoors,inside what was once the bunkhouse for the ranch hands and is now a beautiful large room that is built like a log cabin, we were able to thaw out a bit and could see all sorts of taxidermy creatures found on the ranch and many professionally done poster of land mammals, water fowls, and vegetation that thrives here.  Enchiladas, rice and beans, chips and salsa from Pueblito's, soft drinks and water, were all provided for our shared meal by President Tom.  A big THANK YOU to Tom for doing this!  In attendance were: Mike, Larry, Steve Plume, Tom, Peggi, Imogen and husband, Steve, Rebecca Oberdorf, Shane Oberdorf, Carl Ochsner, and Rayme.

Announcements

Introductions

as noted above, we had Carl Ochsner from the Chico Sunrise Rotary Club

Recognitions

The Program

The program was a visit to Rancho Esquon, organized by . Tom Knowles.

We were guided around various parts of the Rancho by Rayme Antonowiich.

The Rancho has an interesting history.  In the history below you can see where the names of Durham, Gridley and Neal Road came from.

Rancho Esquon (also called Neal's Rancho) was a 22,194-acre (89.82 km²) Mexican land grant in present-day Butte County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to Samuel Neal.^[1] The grant, located south of present-day Chico, extended on the east bank of Butte Creek, and encompassed present-day Durham, Esquon, Gridley, and Nelson.^[2] Rancho Aguas Frias was directly across Butte Creek.

History

Samuel Neal (1816–1859), a native of Pennsylvania and a blacksmith by trade, came to California with John C. Frémont's second expedition in 1844. After working for John Sutter briefly, Samuel Neal was awarded the five square league Rancho Esquon grant in 1844.^[3] In 1849, Neal mined gold on the Feather River at a location that became known as Neals Diggins.^[4] For six years David Dutton worked with Neal on the Rancho.

With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Esquon was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,^[5][6] and the grant was patented to Samuel Neal in 1860.^[7]

Upon his early death in 1859, Neal willed most of his land to R.W. Durham. Robert Waddell Durham(1818–1871), a partner in the Waddell branch of the Pony Express, came to California from Missouri. Durham became a close friend of Samuel Neal, and worked as Neal's business manager at the ranch. Durham, an early farming community, was settled by R.W. Durham and his brother, William W. Durham (1811-1873), in 1852. Like Neal, Durham never married and having no children of his own, sent for his nephews (sons of his other brother George Durham), George W. Durham (1834–1880) and William Wellington Durham (1844–1907) from Missouri, to assist him in managing the inherited rancho.^[8]

In 1868, R.W. Durham sold 17,800 acres (72.0 km²) in the southerly part of Rancho Esquon to George Gridley and his eldest son, C.E. Gridley. George Gridley was a sheep rancher. R.W. Durham died in 1871, and his elder brother William died in 1873, and their portion of the rancho was subdivided in lots and sold. In 1879 George Gridley sold his 17,800 acres (72.0 km²) to E.B. Pond, John Boggs and C.W. Clarke, who then sold them to Leland Stanford in 1880.^[9] The Stanford-Durham Ranch later became the property of Stanford University.

Over the years, the land evolved into a prominent agricultural hub, beginning with E.L. Adams in the early 20th century who pioneered rice farming, earning him the title of, 'Father of the Rice Industry of California'.  Since 1993, when Ken Hofmann and family from the Bay Area purchased the ranch, they've focused on sustainable farming practices of rice and several acres of almond orchards,along with significant wildlife habitat restoration. Mr. Hofmann in the early 2000's was instrumental in turning approximately 950 acres of the ranch into a thriving habitat of wetlands and planting thousands of cottonwood and willow trees, making it a self-contained eco-system, promoting an ideal setting for migrating birds and local birds alike of nearly 100 species.  General Manager Rayme Antonowich was a key player in planting thousands of these trees!  This of course has brought in some mammals that are welcomed and some that are a nuisance, and the ranch is careful on how to keep that balance.  Butte Creek runs through the property and most years salmon use this water way as a means to travel. The name, 'Esquon' is derived from a Native American tribe that once lived along Butte Creek.  In the recent past, pre-covid, many educational classes and field trips were conducted here, and Mr. Antonowich would love to see this aspect return.  The late Mr. Hofmann's genuine desire to giveback to the community continues to this day, with a famous quote he shared, 'Give until it hurts, then give some more'.  There is a large Community Youth Center still operating in Concord, CA, started by Mr. Hofmann, serving underprivileged youth free services in every aspect of tutoring, mentor-ship,coaching of various sports' opportunities, all in a positive and safe environment.

Next Meeting

The next meeting, on March 3^rd at Butte Creek Country Club.  Jessica & Diana will introduce the Durham High School, Interact Club.  They will then take over the meeting.

Thanks to Peggi:

I want to thank Peggi Koehler for providing me information and photos for the Rowel, since I did not attend. The history of Rancho Esquon above is a combination if information from Peggi and what I found on line.  The photos are all from Peggi, although it did not use all she sent.  If I had put the photos she took of members I would have had to use all of them (since there were only a few members in each photo), and that would have been too many.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member. We Need More Members! Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

President Tom is asking the members to bring in new members this year.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their c ommunities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

If you have any questions, ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

The latest District Newsletter has been uploaded to DACdb - to view it there go to the District tab, open the District Bulletin file andlook for the pdf file named Rotary District 5160 Newsletter.

{Note that the proceeding may not be the complete article.  See the complete article on Rotary International’s web page.}

Note that the photos in the original article may not have been reproduced here. 

Rotary’s alumni honoree works to transform mindsets in peace building efforts

By Amy Hoak

As a child during Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, Pushpi Weerakoon planned to become a lawyer. “I was born into a civil conflict, walked minutes away from bomb blasts, and saw parents of my schoolmates killed,” Weerakoon said. “From a very early stage, I understood the cost of conflict, and I knew I had to do something about it.”

In 1999, with Sri Lanka a member of the British Commonwealth, Weerakoon headed tothe University of Buckingham in the UK. There she earned a bachelor of law and a postgraduate diploma in international and commercial law.

Weerakoon fully intended to continue traveling down the barrister’s path, but nature intervened. She was visiting Sri Lanka from England when, on 26 December 2004, an earthquake erupted beneath the Indian Ocean off the northwest coast of Sumatra, an Indonesian island. The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Asia and one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, it spawned amonumental tsunami that hit Sri Lanka and more than a dozen other countries and left more than 220,000 people dead.

Image credit: Monika Lozinska

Moved by the devastation, she began volunteering with groups to help survivors. The director of the country’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute asked her to train grassroots leaders in mediation, drawing on her law education. “After the tsunami,” Weerakoon explained, “so many small claims clogged up the main court system.” It was hoped that those newly trained leaders could help resolve contentious issues in Sri Lanka’s well-established community-based mediation boards.

She traveled throughout the country holding mediation workshops for three weeks of every month for two years. Because the country was approaching the final stages of the civil war, she was accompanied by members of the military into highsecurity zones.

“Remember,” she said, “I was trained to be a lawyer, where you think in terms of black and white and then punishment.” But in a situation where combatants on both sides think they’re right, Weerakoon continued, “that’s not a matter of black and white. It’s a matter of transforming mindsets, about opening up and sharing thoughts and values and ideas — and the law doesn’t exactly help that.

“With that thought, I came back home, and that was it. I decided I’m not going to bea traditional lawyer.”

What followed were years of additional study and an impressive aggregation of degrees on her way to becoming an internationally respected peace builder, supported by Rotary at multiple steps along the way. She received an MBA from the University of Wales, a master’s in conflict transformation at Eastern Mennonite University (with the help of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship), a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a PhD in peace and conflict studies at the University for Peace.

Pushpi Weerakoon

• Rotary Peace Fellowship, 2007
• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, 2009
• Rotary Alumni Global Service Award, 2024-25

She also studied at the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, earning a diploma in peace studies and conflict resolution. “Chula was veryhands-on,” said Weerakoon, clearly impressed with the peace center program. “It’s not this theory and that theory. It was very practical: If it’s a class on mediation, you sit down and actually mediate.”

There were also trips in the field where peace fellows interacted with Indigenous people whose lives and livelihoods were threatened by plans for a hydroelectric dam. “What Rotary exposed me to was like gold,” she said. “The experience tosee it, and then now having to actually do it.”

Impressive as they are, Weerakoon’s academic achievements served more as steppingstones rather than as goals in themselves. In Sri Lanka, she served as the coordinator of the National Reconciliation Secretariat and, in 2016-17, the civil society coordinator for the country in the Open Government Partnership, a global initiative that promotes collaboration between government ministries and nongovernmental organizations. In that role, she helped craft a national action plan to address crucial issues related to health, the environment, corruption, and access to information.

For the last nine years, Weerakoon has worked at the United Nations International Organization for Migration, where she has taken leading roles not only in Sri Lanka, but in such far-ranging destinations as ElSalvador, the Bahamas, and Micronesia, mediating disputes, supporting disaster recovery, and combating sexual violence. In Bangladesh, home to Kutupalong, the largest refugee settlement in the world, Weerakoon served as IOM’s refugee support officer. In that capacity she helped design a social cohesion strategy and coordinated efforts to address the Rohingya refugee crisis.

 
At the convention in Calgary, Weerakoon receives the Rotary Alumni Global Service Award from Rotary leaders Stephanie Urchick and Mark Maloney.

Image credit: Christophe Viseux

In June, Weerakoon was honored for her work with the Rotary Alumni Global Service Award at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary. During her seven-minute speech, she challenged Rotary members to ensure that graduating peace fellows have the resources to best employ their newly acquired skills. “Rotary does not just spark change,” she said. “It cultivates generations of it. Let’s make sure we have the valuable insights from the post-fellow fraternity … that will help Rotary build a mechanism to continue to carry the legacy forward.”

Her speech offered only hints of the things she has accomplished as an internationally respected peace builder. Instead, she emphasized how Rotary had been there for her at each step of her life’s journey. “What Rotary gave me wasn’t just scholarships,” she said. “It was a family, a belonging. It was the certainty that, no matter where I am, I would not be alone.”

This story originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of Rotary magazine.

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