Bishop Sunrise Rotarians and Volunteer Philip Anaya. From Left: Phil McDowell, John Loomis, Philip Anaya, and John Helm. Bishop Sunrise Rotarian Betsy McDonald also took a lead role in this project. Among other things, she prepared and submitted the paperwork necessary to obtain a District grant and helped get rotary volunteers onsite.
Greetings! We are excited to announce that the flooring project for the AkaMya Studio in Big Pine, CA was completed on June 29, 2022. Despite rising prices and supply chain and delivery issues, all involved persisted for this worthy project. Sage Romero, the leader of the non-profit AkaMya, is an internationally celebrated hoop dancer and has been offering cultural awareness presentations and activities throughout our valley and the world for many years. With his non-profit, he offers gatherings and classes in cultural awareness, dance training and performances, multimedia instruction and much more to young and old alike not just in Big Pine but throughout the Eastern Sierra. His studio has been a work of love and volunteer labor over the years, but was still lacking a quality dance floor. The concrete floor has been less than adequate for dance practice and performances. Local Rotary clubs noticed his fundraising efforts for a quality floor and decided to make this a focus of a district matching grant. Our two clubs, Rotary and Sunrise Rotary, worked together to make this happen. Our volunteer labor, combined with Sage's volunteers and local flooring experts, local fundraising and our district matching grant wove a tapestry of possibility to create a beautiful dance floor that will benefit many people of all ages over the years to come. This effort importantly also respects and acknowledges the indigenous people of this beautiful valley and their work through the generations to nurture, nourish, honor and respect this land that we call home. Payahuunadu, Land of Flowing Waters.