Tiburon parents to be honored for decades of cystic fibrosis advocacy

Tiburon residents Michael and Bonnie Rose are receiving the 2026 Breath of Life Award from the Northern California chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation during its gala Feb. 28 in San Francisco. The Roses are longtime supporters of the foundation, with efforts bolstered following their daughter Katie’s diagnosis with the disease in 2001. (via Bonnie Rose)

After Bonnie and Michael Rose welcomed their third child, Katie, in 2001, they knew “something was off right away,” Bonnie says.

Katie wasn’t gaining weight and was experiencing stomach aches — symptoms her older sisters, Chelsea and Kayla, didn’t have as newborns.

At just eight weeks old, Katie was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, pancreas and other organs. Both Bonnie and her husband carry the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, but they didn’t know it at the time.

“We just all of a sudden realized that this third kid, which was supposed to be easy because we know how to do this, we didn’t know how to do any of this,” Bonnie says. “And we were going to need help.”

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to cure the disease while funding research and drug development and advancing specialized care for those living with the disorder, became a major resource for the Tiburon family. The Roses, in turn, became dedicated to the organization, with Bonnie, the principal adviser and owner of Rose College Strategies, organizing and chairing various foundation-related galas and Michael financially supporting the foundation through his dry-cleaning company, Vogue Cleaners on Tiburon Boulevard.

On Feb. 28, the couple will be honored with the Breath of Life Award at the Breath of Life Gala, hosted by the foundation’s Northern California chapter at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

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