MEETING OF OCTOBER 2, 2003
Rotator Writer: Mary Prochnow
Editor: Dick Blanding
LOU BECKER led the Pledge of Allegiance, and saluting our local teams in the playoffs, RICK GLAZE led a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. CINDY WEMYSS used the 51st anniversary of PEANUTS as the basis for the Thought for theDay. One favorite: “When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair!”
President-elect CINDY LUEDTKE introduced guests & visiting Rotarians from Morgan Hill, Sunnyvale & San Jose. Architect JOHN HAMBLIN was introduced with sponsor GINNY LEAR as our newest Red Badger. JOHN is a Los Altos resident & UC Berkeley graduate. He & his wife Cameron have daughters: Alison, 2, and Victoria, 4 months.
President AL reminded us to pay dues. Thirty-nine members have not yet paid. This income is needed for the ongoing operations of the clubs, so your timely payment is hereby officially requested.
Flu shots will start at 11:30 on October 16th (not next week). Please bring a $20 donation to RotaCare and you’ll make someone else healthier also. STEVE ANDERSON was the Master of Fines, extracting $30 from RICK GLAZE because Nancy’s picture was in the paper; $20 from ROY LAVE for his own picture; LOU BECKER paid for a Birthday, while STEVE YARBROUGH & STEVE GRUBER joined
the President’s Club in honor of their birthdays. LEE LYNCH also
acknowledged a birthday. President Al’s birthday was acknowledged, fine free. CRES MCFALL was fined in celebration of a birthday, and JOHN SYLVESTER, VICTORIA EMMONS & IRENE PRESTON volunteered fines for various reasons.
RED BADGE ALERT: October 16th is the District 5170 Avenues of Service event. Carpooling starts at President Al’s home at 3:30 PM that Thursday. Attend this function and you will appreciate better the scope of Rotary, while you are fulfilling an important Blue Badge requirement.
SUNNYVALE & LOS ALTOS ROTARY CLUBS are partnering to benefit our much beloved RotaCare Clinic. PAT VORREITER, president of Sunnyvale Rotary, member MARY BRADLEY visited our meeting looking for support for the Thursday, October 30th wine tasting & auction to be held at the historic Del Monte Building in Sunnyvale. The event is called ‘A Sante’, and wine donations or referrals to vendors are needed, as well as ticket purchases. Contact Ben Picard or Gigi Chu at (408) 522-8217, or Tracie Murray of our club.
PAT MILLAR gave her 5 minute talk. She gave her first vocational talk
during ROY LAVE’s Presidential year when 3 minutes was the strict time limit. PAT described her idyllic childhood in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, a town of gas lamps, 9000 people and tree-lined streets. Glen Ridge was the residence of many Broadway artists. Retired Rockettes taught the high school chorus line and PAT’s first career goal was to
become a Rockette. Her father’s goal, however, was to see his three daughters finish college. PAT attended the University of Vermont and then taught high school while supporting her husband through medical school. (To be continued in 2013.)
VICTORIA EMMONS introduced Past District Governor, commercial industrial Real Estate Broker and Charter member of the new Los Gatos Morning Club, JIM MEALEY. JIM reminded us all that first and foremost, ROTARY is a service organization. Speaking about the ROTARY FOUNDATION, he encouraged us to “Follow the Money.” He explained the Foundation’s funds (Annual Programs, Permanent & Restricted) and the various grants and matching grants available for our projects. New “Club Operated Grants” administered by the local District rather than by RI were described, along with an accounting of our share of the pool. This pool is determined by three years of our Club Foundation giving so be sure to get those tickets back to Wyatt and consider becoming a Double Sustainer, thereby increasing the funds that we can control locally.
News from Rotary International
The Rotary News BasketUNHCR thanks RI for aid to Afghan refugees
At a 26 September ceremony in Islamabad, Pakistan, Rotary International and the UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officially wound up a US$1.9 million relief program for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Launched early last year after a successful special appeal by 2001-02 RI President Richard D. King, the program assisted at least 50,000 Afghan refugees living in camps in Pakistan's North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces. It was the largest contribution by a private organization to UNHCR's relief effort in the country.
The two camps were among several opened in 2001 to resettle more than 300,000 Afghans who fled the war that overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"Rotary International stepped in when the need was greatest and through the generosity and hard work of its members, the lives of many Afghan refugees were improved," said Philip Karani, acting UNHCR representative in Pakistan, at a press briefing.
"It is the fundamental obligation of the international community as a whole and organizations to work for the establishment of peace and stability in turmoil and war-ravaged countries," said Past RI Director Lynmar Brock, Jr., chairman of Rotary International's Afghan Refugees Relief Effort Committee, set up to coordinate the humanitarian effort.
Brock thanked the Pakistan government and UNHCR for their support of the relief program. "Your cooperation made our operations targeted, meaningful, and to the point," he said. He also distributed a letter of appreciation to members of the committee he headed, in recognition of their service to the Afghan refugees.
UNHCR agreed to implement the special relief effort in a memorandum of understanding signed with RI in early 2002. Through the program, residents of the Shalman and Mohamed Kheil-2 refugee camps received an aid package that included shawls, blankets, jackets, body and laundry soaps, tea leaves, dates, cookies, candies, water storage tanks, medicines and medical supplies, educational and recreational materials for children, kerosene lamps and oil, and artificial limbs.
In addition, the Rotary initiative set up some basic skills training schools to prepare the refugees for gainful employment.
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Rotarian experts work with CDC to STOP polio
Jenny Horton is in Ethiopia on a single-minded mission: to STOP polio dead in its tracks in the eastern African nation that has not had a case of polio since 2001 but remains at risk of re-infection from countries in the region that still harbor the poliovirus. On her maiden assignment as a Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) volunteer, the Australian Rotarian nurse is incredibly fired up.
Administered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), STOP is a four-year-old Polio Eradication Initiative program that trains and deploys teams of health professionals to provide technical assistance in polio-endemic or at-risk countries. While in the field, STOP volunteers help strengthen acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance, necessary in establishing that a country is polio-free. Also, they help support National Immunization Days activities and improve routine immunization.
Collaborating with counterparts from the health ministries of host governments, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF, team members participate in three-month assignments. Since its inception in 1998, STOP has sent more than 400 members to 39 countries.
Horton, who joined the Rotary Club of Paddington/Red Hill, Queensland, in 1998, is part of a five-member STOP team that arrived in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, on 23 September. Her preparation for this assignment started in earnest in early September with a seven-day training at CDC headquarters, Atlanta, USA.
Horton is on the all-female team with Carbondale, Illinois, USA, Rotarian Ella Lacey, who has been on five STOP missions, one with Dr. Otto Austel, a past governor of District 5240. The three are the only Rotarian participants in the STOP program, which also contributes toward building lasting international bridges and connections among public health professionals.
Horton, whose encounter with Rotary started more than 32 years ago as a Youth Exchange student in the U.S., is experiencing all that and more during her Ethiopia mission. "It is also good to see where some of Rotary's financial input is going," she remarks. "And yes, I do see Rotary wheels in all sorts of places."
Equally gratifying is the positive feedback she has received about Rotary from Ethiopians, as well as CDC and WHO staff since her training at Atlanta. Some of the team members are learning about Rotary for the first time, she says.
Austel, who has been on STOP assignments in Angola, Egypt, Ghana, and Pakistan, encourages more qualified Rotarians to volunteer. "The STOP teams are most effective, in spite of their short term assignments of 3 months, since they motivate and boost the health workers of the countries visited to focus on and improve the quality of surveillance and NIDs," he explains. "In Ghana, for example, 80 percent of reported cases of AFP were in the regions where we had worked."
Horton adds, "I would share with other Rotarians that this is an incredible opportunity to be involved at a local level where your assistance will support the eradication of a disease and which will ultimately fulfill Rotary's gift to the children of the world."
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Rotary representative keynote speaker at UN Peace Day celebration
Past District 3350 Governor Praphan Hutasingh, RI's Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), was invited to give the keynote address during the United Nations Peace Day celebration held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 19 September 2003. ESCAP observes Peace Day annually.
During his speech, Hutasingh highlighted the Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution. "Rotary and Peace" fact sheets and other materials about Rotary and its peace efforts were distributed during his presentation.
Recently, ESCAP accepted a "Peace Bell" donated by Rotary District 3350. The bell is prominently displayed at ESCAP's headquarters in Bangkok and highlights past RI President Bhichai Rattakul's theme, "Sow the Seeds of Love."
The Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific has been a regional commission of the United Nations'Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1947. Rotary International has had a representative to ESCAP since 2001.
On 21 September all of Thailand joined in celebrating World Peace Day at Bangkok's Ratchawithi hospital. Under the theme, "From Inner Peace to World Peace," participants -- including Rotarians -- marked the day with various activities.
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Five-year-old effort is saving lives in Australia
Paramedics who rush to the scene of medical emergencies often find that distraught family members are unable to give any details of a patient's condition or medication. Hence, a lot of time is wasted in attempts to collect the patient's medication, obtain a medical history, and rush it to the hospital.
Recognizing that in a life-and-death situation delays can be fatal, a group of paramedics and doctors in Australia wrote a book to address just such a scenario and teamed up with area Rotary clubs to distribute free copies of the life-saving publication to the public. Written in easy-to-understand English, the manual provides guidelines and tips for health professionals and lay people to gather personal medical details about a patient during medical emergencies.
Since 1999, when the effort was first launched, the initiative has placed copies of the Emergency Medical Information Book in the hands of more than 250,000 people. Today, what started as a local initiative of the Rotary clubs of Tea Tree Gully, Modbury, and Golden Grove in South Australia has become a nationwide community service project.
"Paramedics use this book every day to save people's lives, and improve the quality of patient care," says Arthur Jeffries of the Rotary Club of Tea Tree Gull, who also is chairman of the Emergency Medical Information Book Committee. "We are looking to continue the rapid expansion of this project in Australia and invite all Rotary clubs to become involved."
The front cover of the manual is personalized with a club's name and printed for just A$1 (less than 70 U.S. cents) a copy for a minimum order of 250 copies of the book. Hence, in addition to saving lives, a club promotes its good work through a medium that has a long shelf life.
The Ambulance Service of Australia, co-sponsor of the project, estimates that two million copies of the book are needed to assist people of all ages across Australia.
For more details, contact Arthur Jeffries by e-mail: arthur@falcon.bold.net.au
Programs and Events
October
October 9: Rama Bhatia- Partners in Rotary Service
October 16: Candidates for the Los Altos School Board, Foothill-DeAnza Board, and discussion of the El Camino Hospital bond issue
October 16: Flu shots at the weekly meeting, $20 each
October 23: Roy Lave-Candidate Forum
Oct. 24: Fellowship Night
Oct. 30: Karen Fox, St. Petersburg/Leningrad
NovemberNov. 20: Jennifer Kuiper- Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Nov. 21: Fellowship NightDecember
Dec. 4: San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales
Dec. 17: Holiday Party, Jesuit Retreat House
JanuaryJan. 16: Fellowship Night
Jan. 31: Progressive DinnerFebruary
Feb. 20: Fellowship Night
Feb. 27: Cioppino Feed, Garden House
March
March 26: Fellowship Night
April
April 7: Celebrate Spring at Chef Chu's
May
May 7: Golf Tournament
May 21: Fellowship NightJune
June 25: Kickout Dinner
OTHER ROTARY CLUB MEETING PLACES
On-line Meeting: www.rotaryeclubone.org
MONDAY
Palo Alto: Rickey's Hyatt House, 12:15 p.m.
TUESDAY
Los Altos Sunset: The Echo Restaurant, Los Altos, 7:15 p.m.
Sunnyvale: Ramada Inn, 12:15 p.m.
Mountain View: Adobe House, Moffett & Central, Mountain View, 12:15 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Menlo Park: Menlo Park Recreation Center, Menlo Park, noon.
Woodside/Portola: Woodside Village Church, Woodside, 7:30 a.m.
Sunnyvale Sunrise: Wild Woodys Grill, Sunken Gardens Golf Course, 7 a.m.
Cupertino: Quinlan Community Center, 12:15 p.m.
East Palo Alto Bayshore: Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, 2031 Pulgas Avenue, East Palo Alto, 12:15 p.m.
FRIDAY
Palo Alto University: Sheraton, El Camino, Palo Alto, 7:30 a.m.
"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 2003 The Los Altos Rotary Club