From obstetrics nurse to Director of Chico State’s School of Nursing, Dr. Karin Lightfoot now leads District 5160’s End Polio work.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Chico Rotarian Dr. Karin Lightfoot is a Registered Nurse who received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing at Cal State Bakersfield, her Master of Science degree in Nursing at Chico State, and her PhD in Public Health at Walden University. She also holds a Nurse Leadership Certification from Duke University.
Throughout her nursing career, she worked in obstetrics and public health nursing, specializing in maternal-child health and communicable disease control. She began teaching Nursing at Chico State in 2007 and served as Director of the School of Nursing for 6 years.
She retired in 2023 as Professor Emeritus and now volunteers as District 5160 End Polio Chair. Karin and her husband, Robb, have four adult children, and they have hosted exchange students from around the world, including hosting Daisy Wu from Taiwan last year through Rotary Youth Exchange. In their retirement, they also became Travel Advisors.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
Tue, Oct 27 - Kayla Rushing & Sarah Graham, Chico Housing Action Team
Tue, Nov 3 - Captain David Kim, Salvation Army
Tue, Nov 10 - Melissa Schuster, Burnt Barn Distillery
Team Co-Captain Charlie Snyder reported for the Wallabies and Wallaroos, filling in for Nick Sinclair, who is in Mexico and claims flight trouble kept him there. Beau has his doubts.
Since their last report, the team met at Kalico Kitchen and bartended at the Truckee Rodeo Country Concert to raise money for Kids First. They went to the Marysville Rotary Sodbusters fundraiser, helped at the Boys and Girls Club's Pasta on the Plaza and the Durham Rotary Harvest Festival, worked the Salvation Army shopping spree, donated to the Chico Community Food Locker, and did Blue Bag. They also held a joint social with the All Blacks at Michele Shover's historic home.
Coming up: a Saturday workday at Catalyst with the All Blacks, Polio Day at Centennial Park, Treat Street, and a joint social with the Calypso Warriors at the Oasis.
President Beau on the Wallabies and Wallaroos. The men's side won the Rugby World Cup in 1991 and 1999 and reached the final again on home soil in 2003, where they lost. The women took Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio Games. Small country, good rugby players.
VISITING SIDES
Lawrence Wold - Rotary Club of Davis Sunrise
Peggi Koehler - Assistant Governor & President of Durham Rotary
IN THE GRANDSTAND
Linda Allen, guest (and wife) of Gayle Hutchinson
Mark Abouzeid, guest (and brother) of Kareem Abouzeid
Dr. Cynthia Daley, guest (and speaker) of Steve Perez
Joantha Guthrie, guest (and prospective member) of Annabel Grimm
Fire Chief Wes Metroka, guest of Billy Aldridge
Sarah Cooper, guest of Matt York
FROM THE SIDELINE
September points.
Strength and Conditioning CoachPhil Aviles had the head-to-head results, and some record scores.
Australia Wallabies and Wallaroos was the month's top earner at 277 points, just edging South Africas Springboks' 255, which puts the Wallabies at 3-0 and the Springboks still looking for a first win. Germany got its first win over the All Blacks, and Chile Los Condores got theirs over Trinidad & Tobago.
Phil's tip: service hours are what give a team the biggest boost.
Reminder for October: a PolioPlus donation earns double points, and signing up for the Polio Plus Society earns triple. Members already in the Society just answer yes on the survey.
The Rules Committee: What is a scrum, for the fifth time.
Five or more Rotarians, from any team, getting together on purpose: a workout, coffee, a cocktail, a gathering at someone's house.
Five Rotarians who happen to be in the same place is not a scrum. Intentionality is the key.
Someone reported nine scrums last month, so Phil may start auditing scrum claims, and anyone reporting nine will be asked for dates, places and partcipants. Dogs don't count, btw.
At Gayle Hutchinson's prompting, a planned Zoom with five Rotarians counts.
Salvation Army shopping spree.
Charlie Snyder thanked everyone who volunteered. Fifty kids from the PV Interact Club pitched in, along with some CUTA teachers.
President Beau and Dane Bracewell were assigned a 6-year-old girl to shop clothes for, and were glad the Interact girls were there to help.
Scholarship fundraising mixer.
The verdict from the floor: "Went fantastic, let's just go with that."
Harvest Dinner.
Cynthia Perrine thanked the club for its support, and everyone who came just to enjoy it.
Lizzie Young greeted guests at the Inspire High School parking lot.
The three bars collected $111 for Rotary, staffed by Erin and Charlie Kyle, Charlotte Hall and Tim, and Megan Page and Luke Milliron.
Last, a huge shout-out and thank-you to Danie Schwartz, marketing and event planner.
World Polio Day.
Karin Lightfoot has the Polio Plus Society sign-up form at her table, for double or triple points this month and lives saved.
The event is at Centennial Park, and she needs people to hand out and post flyers around town. "They do no good in my office."
Volunteer slots are still open.
She thanked Assistant Governor Peggi Koehler for her support. Durham, Chico Sunrise and Paradise clubs are partners.
Treat Street.
Dane Bracewell has the date: Friday, Oct 30, not Saturday the 31st. The streets close again, and Rotary works the perimeter corners as crossing guards, much like the Thursday Night Market.
About 40 volunteers are needed. New this year, the DCBA requires every volunteer to fill out a waiver. Trouble? Call Val Reddemann. (He was kidding, Val.)
Afterward, the crew drops off vests and flags at Tres and grabs a margarita or a beer.
Surf & Turf.
Kevin Moretti has volunteer sign-ups for Saturday, Nov 14: shifts the Friday before, the event itself, and the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after.
Can't make any of those? Tablecloths need washing, and they'll be waiting for you in a bag. Kevin will email anyone who hasn't signed up.
Evan Markey reported two tables left. Three more were held back for individual tickets, but requests for them by Friday will sell them as tables instead; otherwise individual sales go live on the 17th.
President Beau's reminder: this is the club's biggest fundraising event for the year, so please be sure to volunteer.
RUGBY KIT BAG
The prize was a dozen cookies and went to a Karli Olsen who came in late, to President Beau's protest: "You can't be the last person to come in and win the drawing."
Karli was wearing a pin, which triggered the club's $40 donation, headed to Butte County Search and Rescue.
TRIBUTES
Dorian and DaNelle Dodds came up with a slide full of photos.
Dorian, of Dental Services, General Dentistry, introduced DaNelle as his better half. "By far," she agreed.
A couple of weeks ago, son Justin came to town and they went salmon fishing with a guide, along with Tommy, the husband of their front-office manager Jane and Dorian's high school baseball teammate. Most of the day, one fish. Dorian is going with 18 pounds; the guide said 12 to 14. The slide cropped the fish off, so President Beau upgraded it to a 37-pounder.
On a tour at the Sundial Bridge, Dorian fed the parrots a cup of nectar and was swarmed, one nibbling his cheek. Terrifying at first, then he couldn't stop laughing.
Their dachshund, Taz, survived two rattlesnake bites in one month last year and back surgery for a ruptured disc this June. Son Brandon graduated first in his law school class in May 2025, and Dorian never tires of saying so. DaNelle's dad turned 80 this year, celebrated in Bodega Bay. Blake is a City of Chico firefighter at Station 5.
Something the club doesn't know? DaNelle claimed nothing. Dorian sketches and designs kitchen remodels and landscapes for themselves and friends, and several have been built, including their own backyard and pool.
Twelve bells each.
MATCH OF THE DAY
Dr. Cynthia Daley, director and co-founder of Chico State's Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems, told the club what regenerative farming is and why it pays.
CSUC President and Chico Rotarian Steve Perez introduced her as one of the best in the world at what she does, and as the inaugural recipient of the Gayle E. Hutchinson Award for Excellence. The namesake was in the room.
Ag is her thing. Six kids, three farms, so she kept studying. When the University Farm's conventional dairy was losing money, she took it on and built an organic, grass-based dairy. She got hate mail. Twenty years later it is iconic, run by Darby Hefner with 10 student employees, and they now make cheese. Buy some at the farm store.
The principles: keep a living root in the soil, till less, bring in livestock, add diversity. Butte City walnut grower Danny Unruh grows mustards under his trees and rolls them into a weed mat, cutting herbicide and nematicide, and his costs run about $1,500 below his neighbor's. In side-by-side 30-acre trials from Richvale to Palo Verde, the regenerative field at Lemoore gained 186 percent more soil carbon. "Carbon is money." She closed with an invitation: come to field days, mentor a student, take a farm tour.
Photographer: Tyler Smith (Tyler Smith Photography)
Pasta on the Plaza and the Durham Rotary Harvest Festival, worked the Salvation Army shopping spree, donated to the Chico Community Food Locker, and did Blue Bag. They also held a joint social with the All Blacks at Michele Shover's historic home. 
Five or more Rotarians, from any team, getting together on purpose: a workout, coffee, a cocktail, a gathering at someone's house. 
e streets close again, and Rotary works the perimeter corners as crossing guards, much like the Thursday Night Market. 
RUGBY KIT BAG
