MEETING OF OCTOBER 9, 2003
Rotator Writer: Clyde Noel
Editor: Dick Blanding
After the salute to the flag, RICK GLAZE changed the usual singing theme of “Take me Out To The Ball Game” because of baseball despondency, to a realistic “Yankee Doodle Dandy”. A national approach to our songfest period, but Rick, you should have made it “California Here I Come.“
MARY PROCHNOW provided an inspiration from her favorite bedside reader and CINDY LUEDTKE introduced visiting Rotarians Jim Spangler from Mountain View, Jit KaPour from Saratoga and Harry Kalshian, our permanent visiting Rotarian.
President AL TRAFICANTI provided the club with a courteous reminder that too many people have not paid their 2003-2004 dues. “I don’t want to get the Board of Directors involved, but it is getting serious, so break out the check book,” said Prez Al.
MESSAGES OF IMPORTANCE
A gentle reminder flu shots will start at 11:30 a.m. before the next meeting. Pay for the injections with a $20 check made out to Rotacare Free Clinic and you can survive the winter. The Santa Clara Health Department insists that anyone over 65 should definitely have a flu shot and anyone who hangs around seniors should also have a flu vaccination shot. I will get mine.
Prez Al said anyone going to the Avenue of Service District 5170 meeting who wants a ride could carpool. Al said, meet at his place at 3:30 p.m. next Thursday. Red Badgers could learn a lot about Rotary at this meeting.
Do you know someone that has given generously of their time, leadership, experience and heart to help those in the Los Altos, Los Altos Hills or Mountain View communities during the past year and is deserving of special recognition? If so, submit a nomination of someone who is worthy of the award. Rotarian BOB ADAMS was a recent award winner.
SUNNYVALE & LOS ALTOS ROTARY CLUBS are participating in a benefit for the Rotacare Free Clinic. For $50, you can taste lots of exclusive wines and exotic foods that will make good things happen. The date is Oct. 30.
The next two weeks will be candidate forums. If you are bringing a guest, tell JANE REED, because spaces are in scant quantity unless Frank puts up a bunch more tables. It’s the Los Altos City Council and we have members running for the three seats.
BACK TO THE MEETING
BILL REWAK visited several small parishes in Wales and he returned with three flags from the Rotary Clubs in Aberystwyth, Pwllheli and Shrewsbury Darwin. All are small towns in Wales and the spelling is right. Thank You.
HARDY JONES is a full-fledged Rotarian again. SAM HARDING sponsored him. He originally joined in 1998 but dropped out and we welcome him back. IRENE PRESTON AND KAREN OWEN are now full fledged blue badgers. They were sponsored by ELLEN YAMANE FLANAGAN and DAN O’DONNELL.
MAKING MONEY WITH JOHN SYLVESTER
JOHN SYLVESTER was fine master and extracted his usual large amount of fees for favorable misdemeanors. He embarrassed a lot of people sitting at the tables that could not find their election stubs. They had to relinquish a fin for the bucket.
Birthdays and anniversaries were the familiar subject to extract fines for SAM HARDING, ROY LAVE, MARY MARLEY, BAIDRA PROCHNOW MURPHY, BOB RAYL, JANE REED, LEM SUMMEY AND JIM SPANGLER for the article about his son in the Mercury.
SPEAKER FOR THE DAY
Rama Bhatia presented a slide show about polio eradication in India. These are the excerpts:
“When the limbs of a small child are disabled below the hips, the child is disabled forever,” Bhatia said. “We need to spend $1 billion for the funding to eradicate Polio in India and the U.S. share is $700 million.”
While the number of polio-endemic countries has shrunk to seven, eradicating polio in the remaining countries poses challenges. Efforts to stamp out polio have moved into high gear in India and Nigeria, the only nations registering an increase in polio cases in 2002.
In India, Rotary and its global eradication partners have taken extraordinary steps to prevent a recurrence of last year’s polio epidemic, which was concentrated in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The outbreak was largely responsible for India’s polio cases jumping from 268 in 2001 to 1,556 in 2002-representing 85% of all new cases worldwide.
Working with governments of India, the global eradication partners enlisted Indian film and cricket stars and community and Muslim leaders to publicize the campaign and allay fears that polio vaccines endanger children.
Hundreds of thousands of children participated in drawing competitions to highlight immunizations, and rallies were organized in a thousand communities.
Deeply concerned about the epidemic, in October 2002, Rotary reinforced its high level of polio eradication activities in India by awarding a new grant of almost US $5 million, bringing Rotary’s total contributions there to more than $46 million. The grant helped pay for hiring local vaccinators to go house to house.
So far 92 polio cases have been reported in the country, of the world's 235. The figure is 41 per cent lower than the previous year's 159 during the same period, officials said.
Today, you heard more about the technical basis on which the final push will be launched. In brief, it means conducting extra rounds of National Immunization Days and going street-to-street, house-to-house, door-to-door, whenever possible, looking for every missed child because "Every Child Counts."
“On a single day, all 165 million children five years of age must be inoculated.” Bhatia said. “A novel and effective social mobilization initiative sparked by Rotary International and District 5170 has been effective. That money will make it easier to find the difficult-to-reach children. “
Bhatia confirmed that we couldn’t afford to miss any child. "Every Child Counts". To that end, India is leading the way. After India proposed the strategies to accelerate the eradication campaign, the World Health Assembly, in May 1999, unanimously called for extra ‘intensified’ National Immunization Day (NID) rounds, improved surveillance, and additional human and financial resources. As a result, Pakistan and Bangladesh have committed to doubling the number of NID rounds this year.
Message from Steve Gruber:
For the past 17 years I have organized the Salvation Army bell-ringing for the club. I will not be doing that this year because I have retired from the Salvation Army board. If you are interested in continuing the bell-ringing for the club, we will need to find someone who can organize it for this year. Please let me know if you are interested.
Programs and Events
October
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. 6: Shannon Lee Turner on Feng-Shui
Nov. 13: Jennifer Kuiper - Israeli/Palestinian Conflict
Nov. 20: American Red Cross - Disaster Preparedness
Nov. 21: Fellowship Night
Nov. 27: Thanksgiving - no meetingDecember
Dec. 4: San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales
Dec. 11: Liz Kniss
Dec. 17: Holiday Party, Jesuit Retreat House
Dec. 18: To be announced
Dec. 25: Christmas - no meeting
JanuaryJan. 1: New Years Day - no meeting
Jan. 8: Club Assembly
Jan. 15: Dr. John Siegel - AIDS update
Jan. 16: Fellowship Night
Jan. 22: Joe Simitian
Jan. 29: Maxine Goodman - Palo Alto Philharmonic
Jan. 31: Progressive DinnerFebruary
Feb. 18: Los Altos Rotary Speech Contest
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