Joe Mornini is the Founder and Executive Director of Team River Runner (TRR), a non-profit organization dedicated to serving wounded and disabled veterans through paddlesports across the United States. Raised in Maryland, Joe has spent a lifetime going from adventure to adventure – whether climbing Mt. Rainier kayaking rivers and creeks, walking across Ireland and Maryland and motorcycling across the country four times.

Joe worked for Montgomery County Public Schools for thirty-five years as an outdoor education leader, special education resource teacher and counselor. Prior to this, he worked for the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County. He is a graduate of Lindenwood University and Goddard College.

Joe and a kayaking buddy recruited friends and local paddling businesses to support kayak lessons at the hospital’s indoor pool. Team River Runner was officially launched in 2004. The goal has been to provide hope, health, and healing through paddle sports – kayaking, rafting, and stand-up paddle boarding. Working in partnership with Move United, TRR is a non-profit volunteer organization that now provides adaptive, therapeutic and leadership training programs for veterans on a national level.

Under Joe’s leadership as Executive Director, Team River Runner has grown to have more than 60 chapters across the country. Joe leads live fitness workouts, consults and collaborates with other organizations serving the physically and emotionally challenged. During the pandemic, Joe created “Kayakers for Good,” a support system for coping with the many challenges of Covid-19 facilitated by visually impaired leaders. You can usually find Joe on a river or riverbank or talking on his phone while hoisting kayaks on top of a van.

Club Member Bob Sonawane received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology with specialization in Toxicology from the University of Missouri. He was a NIH postdoctoral Fellow and served as a faculty member in the Departments of Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the School of Medicine, and at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Sonawane worked as a Toxicologist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, MD. He served as a toxicologist and manager at the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), Office of Research and Development of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Sonawane has over 35 plus years research and management experience in toxicology and pharmacology and cancer/non-cancer health risk assessment of environmental pollutants. He is retired from the US EPA in 2016 and started consulting company along with Dr. Bruce Fowler in the areas of toxicology and health risk assessment, environmental chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Since 2017, he is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University in Washington DC.

Dr Sonawane received numerous prestigious awards and honors, citations, certificates, Science and Technology Achievement and Special Act Awards for his exemplary research in toxicology and risk assessment of environmental agents.

Several years ago, Bob was instrumental in getting our club to partner with Rotary clubs in India to develop water projects.  He’ll be giving us an update on the progress of the project.

Michael Kelly is a local writer and publisher of community magazines in neighborhoods around Montgomery County.  Working with local businesses in Kensington in 2020, he launched Kensington Neighbors to help local businesses reach customers in their local market.  It was such a success that he then launched North Bethesda Neighbors last summer.  His goal is to bring people together and connect residents with businesses.  He does that by sharing stories about local families, local businesses, artists, athletes, and all the things we love most about where we live.  The publications give residents a new way to get to know more about each other and to share information on what’s going on in the community. 
They give businesses a new way to connect with their market.