MEETING OF JULY 26, 2001 By Mary Prochnow
Editor: Dick Blanding
Webmaster: Steve Gruber
The Greek National Anthem played to begin this meeting, celebrating the nation of Greece. JEAN NEWTON, back from a road trip exploring that vast country surrounding her native state of South Dakota, led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.Former District Governor JIM WALKER was a welcome visitor. Past President MARGE BRUNO brought flags from Naples and Sorrento, collected when she and Mike were enjoying an extended trip to Italy. Welcome back, MARGE.
JOANNE KAVALARIS shared her "Lessons I've learned in life", including "Being kind is better than being right" and "Everyone you meet deserves a smile".
Our first DIPLOMAT, KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM, was joined by PAUL NYBERG (First DIPLOMAT to receive his Diplomats' pin), DUDE ANGIUS, STEVE SHEPHERD, JEAN HOLLANDS (of Good Morning America fame), and BILLY RUSSELL. Congratulations to BOO BUE, "finemaster extraordinaire'.
The 'Birthday table' was occupied by July celebrants; RUDI GRZIWOK, KIRK MAHNKE, BILLY RUSSELL, BUD OLIVER, JOANNE KAVALARIS, LUCY RASMUSSEN, AND BAIDRA (CAN IT REALLY BE 31?)PROCHNOW.
DUDE ANGIUS reported on the activities of the ROTARY AIDS PROJECT at the ROTARY INTERNATIONAL convention in SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS in June and also reported that RI PRESIDENT RICK KING has appointed an AIDS RESOURCE SPECIALIST for each of 34 zones worldwide. DUDE gave special thanks to JEAN NEWTON and JOHN VERDUCCI for the amazing work that they did on both the convention display and the web site at ROTARYAIDSPROJECT.org. The talented work of these two people was done under difficult time constraints and was performed pro bono. Many, many thanks for a wonderful job!
DUDE also thanked the many volunteers, last year's Red Badgers for their successful RAP auction, and LAREF for its ongoing support.The speaker of the day was first generation Greek American and Rotarian, PAUL SANDIS. PAUL served as RI Director from 1997-1999 and has received many Rotary awards including the coveted "Service Above Self" award. PAUL began by mentioning that as he looked around he saw a friend at every table. He then proceeded to wax eloquent on the history and efficacy of the ROTARY FOUNDATION, "THE GREATEST SUCCESS OF ROTARY" with $500 million in assets. The Foundation made its first grant of $500.00 in 1930 to the International Crippled Children's Fund. This fund ultimately became Easter Seals. Paul Harris was the first chair of the Rotary Foundation and the Foundation really became well funded at the time of the death of Paul Harris in 1947, when Rotarians honored his life with gifts to the Foundation. Since that time, 32,000 scholarships have been granted.
Polio Plus (the ultimate solution to the problem of those children helped by the very first grant in 1930) was started 15 years ago. The original goal, based on an estimate of the World Health Organization, was $120 million. Ultimately $500 million will have been spent and 2 billion children will have been immunized. The world will be Polio-free in 2005. On one day in India 147 million children were immunized.
PAUL went on to describe matching and 3H grants and added to our general knowledge of Rotary facts with many interesting anecdotes.
Maybe you are looking for a use for your tax relief check. PAUL SANDIS demonstrated clearly today that the ROTARY FOUNDATION would make the world a better place with that check. How about it?May the week be wonderful for each of you.
Programs
August
August 2 - John Billheimer, mystery writer, "Getting published today"
August 9 - Karen Bivens, "Formula for Fitness"
August 10 - San Jose Giants game, 5:30 p.m.
August 16 - Gayle Tully, District Governor, visits Los AltosAugust 23 - Lucy Carlton, retiring Los Altos Police Chief, " Changes seen by a woman over a 32-year career in law enforcement.
"Information in this newsletter is intended for the exclusive use of the members of the Rotary Club of Los Altos to facilitate the work of the club and to promote club fellowship. It is not to be used for any commercial or outside, unrelated, non-profit purposes. No publication of material in this newsletter should occur without the express permission of the club President or the Editor of the Rotator."
Copyright 2001 The Los Altos Rotary Club
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