The trip included four Rotary meetings and four visits to Turkish municipalities. The delegation consisted of Rotary District Governor, Yavuz Atila, (representing 55 Rotary Clubs across four counties in California); former Monterey City Council Member Nancy Selfridge; Danielle Dupree of Salinas-based Merrill Farms in Salinas; and myself.
The purpose of the trip was to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the sister city relationship between our two cities and to celebrate three collaborative projects. There was also discussion and planning for trade, student exchange and future projects. The three projects are:
- Completion of the Soke Public Hospital Hysteroscopy Terminal, for which $37,000 was raised by the Santa Lucia Rotary and members of the Salinas community, with help from the Cannery Row Rotary Club and Rotary International. The new equipment will serve more than 300 women per month. Soke Public Hospital has 255 beds and supports mostly farm worker families that have no other access to health care.
- Dedication of the Soke Public Library "Salinas Cesar Chavez" wing, including a ribbon-cutting to celebrate a new children's gaming area, Steinbeck book collection, and the donation of six Amazon Kindle tablets funded by Salinas Santa Lucia Rotary, Dr. Aytac Apaydin of Salinas, and members of the Salinas community. Soke is re-orienting its libraries as community centers, following the model of Cesar Chavez Library in Salinas.
- Donation to the Salinas Kinship Center Project, which serves challenged Salinas Valley youth. The delegation received a $2,000 check from the Soke Rotary Club Foundation and the Soke community, to go towards a $30,000 Rotary International grant to expand programming at the Kinship Center.
The four Rotary Club visits included two presentations on the Salinas agtech ecosystem, sponsored by Western Growers, SVG Partners, and the City of Salinas.
Among the outcomes:
- Interest in submitting startup agtech companies to the Salinas-based Thrive Accelerator.
- Interest in starting an ag tech accelerator in Soke.
- Planning for a regional healthcare professional exchange via Rotary International.
- Interest in a public artwork exchange.
- Interest in a high school/college exchange in the next year.
- A visit to Salinas in August of 2017 by Soke elected officials and business leaders.
- A future discussion concerning mushroom production and investment in the Salinas Valley.
- Interest in establishing a farming and entrepreneurship training program in Soke modeled after Salinas-based ALBA.
The delegation also visited three other Turkish municipalities: Sinop, Duragan, and Kusadasi, which is a sister city of Monterey and is on the Turkish coast not far from Soke. The delegation met with local elected officials and professional staff, and delivered gifts from the Salinas area, along with informational handouts about agriculture, agtech, and investment opportunities.
Delegation members were impressed by the safety, beauty, and opportunities they found in Turkey, and plan to keep working to build lasting ties with Soke and Kusadasi.
Arrangements are being made to arrange a trip to Salinas and Monterey by a delegation from Soke and Kusadasi during the summer of 2017, to include a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Turkish festival in Monterey.
High resolution photos from the just-concluded trip can be found at:
More information is available from:
