MEETING OF JULY 29, 2004
By John McDonnell
Editor: Dick Blanding
With President Cindy still inspecting the summer thaw in Wisconsin, Roy Lave graciously stood in as President Pro Tem and chimed the meeting to order at 12:30.
Larry “highpockets” Madsen led the Pledge of Allegiance. Alan Lambert than got in a little practice on his lounge act, working the room with his microphone, while leading us in two full verses of “You are my Sunshine.”
The thought for the day was given by Ellen Yamane Flanagan, who spoke on the importance of wearing your Rotary pin. For those of us who are crass and superficial, it seems wearing the pin got Ellen a free dinner in Italy and also helped her induce a customer to give $100 to the wheelchair foundation. Of course, Ellen mentioned many more idealistic reasons for wearing the pin to Celebrate Rotary, but the fee meal hit home with most of us.
President Elect Marlene Cowan then introduced all the visiting Rotarians, with was a small, select group of zero this week, and also introduced Rotarians with guests (too many to mention, although the award for farthest to travel goes to our guests from Japan).
Dick Henning, Pat Gray and Ellen Flanagan made announcements. Dick announced that the official club picture has been completed by Mike Harrigan, who cleverly used his amazing computer skills to insert pictures of all the Rotarians who missed the big picture (yea, many of us miss the big picture). So, as Dick pointed out, this is a unique opportunity to get a picture that includes every single one of us (as well as Woody Allen playing Zelig). Dick also pointed out that Mike is generously donating all the proceeds to LAREF.
Pat Gray announced that we still help on meals for Alpha Omega, and her announcement met with success as the needed volunteers signed up.
Ellen announced that the Rotary Fellowship Calendar was available.
We then has a “special announcement” related to the work that Rotary friends Chrissy and Tom Hopkins were doing to build a potable water systems in Alto De Jesus Honduras. In testimony to their efficient volunteer work, they found that the total cost of the entire system would be only $36,000 (which will paint one red-zone in California). They raised the bulk of this already, and had the system largely built and operating (after relying on experts to get an initial wrong drilling site). However, they still needed $5,000, and wondered if we could help. A couple of attending Rotarians immediately wrote checks to get them on their way to their $5,000 goal. Anyone who wishes to help further can contact Roy Lave for further information.
Heinz Blennemann then gave his five-minute talk, which started with his birth in Spain, but eventual move to lovely Poughkeepsie New York. As a talented Electrical Engineer, he took a lifetime job with IBM, which lasted about 2 months. Various Job fairs and cyclical layoffs followed him, until he luckily lined up a job in North Carolina, and returned to California to claim his Stanford Sweetheart and return to tarheel country to live happily ever after. After a short stay in the Bay Area, they wisely decided this was the only place to live happily ever after, and set their roots here. Since then he has worked at Silicon Graphics, and is currently with Juniper Systems, where the current lifetime job has lasted an amazing 6 years (longer than the life cycle of 75% of the companies around here). He has taught electrical engineering part time at Stanford, and is now firmly part of our Los Altos community.
As part of the centenary year of Rotary, Dick Blanding then gave the Rotary Moment(s). Dick recalled the many and varied “friends from around the world” that he had met during the course of many, many Rotary events and programs. He recalled terrorizing a poor girl from Belgium by making her drive the steep streets of San Francisco (without the help of Karl Malden). A young girl from Finland became another family friend. A Rotary Scholar from France also became a family friend, as did the Aussie couple that was so knowledgeable about wine (funny that Dick would remember that skill). He recalled the French girl he met who had lost her legs, and Peter “the golden banana” winner from Hungary. Last, was Philippe, the dentist he met at the Rotary convention in Nice, France, who, after a bit of wine suavely suggested (could it be any other way) to Dick’s wife, that she would not wish him as her dentist, either with or without wine (get Dick to tell the story, it works much better).
Jon Sylvester then handled the fine master duties. John McDonnell paid a fine to pay tribute to Larry Chu’s softball prowess. Kailas Chidambaram announced that he would join the President’s Club in honor of his 36th wedding anniversary. Not to be outdone, Mel Kahn promptly forgot his own 40th anniversary (he married at 12), and proposed a small fine for something else. He recovered from that bobble, and put in a buck for each year.
It was then time to move to our featured speaker, Rick Salazar of Pet Therapy, which provides pet visits for hospital nursing home patients. Rick pointed out the large amount of research that shows that the company of pets, and these types of visits has great therapeutic value. His group can be found at the web site, furryfriends.org. We were treated to a slide show of the many visits and activities of Rick’s group, and in particular the many visits to Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. The group is a regular participant in the Pet Parade, and uses 5K pet walks as fundraisers. Rick mentioned the many amazing examples of how pet therapy can be a breakthrough with patients, including Rick’s work with “Crazy Joe” who had been in the VA hospital for 40 years, and Tex, “the spitter” who left the saliva aside (for once) to swap dog stories. Perhaps the most touching story was the girl in San Jose who just spoke briefly with Rick and his dog, Dougal. It was not much, but the nurse came up afterward and told Rick that these were the first words the girl had uttered in 3 years. Visit Rick, Dougal and the rest of his group at furryfriends.org.
Note: To get your password for Clubmate, also known as RICAS, for the Aug. 19 meeting, send an email to John Cardoza, john431@earthlink.net
Programs and Events
Note: Meetings of the board of directors are held at the Bank of Los Altos Community Room, 369 S. San Antonio Road
August
August 5 - Firoozeh Dumas: "Funny in Farsi"
August 11 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.August 12 - Elizabeth Edgerly, Ph.D. - Memory Loss/Alzheimer's Association
August 19 - Steve Gruber, Rotary on the Web, at Foothill College’s Krause Center for Innovation (not at Garden House)
August 26 - Ron Sekkel, District Governor’s Visit
September
Sept. 2 - Richard Walker, Doing Business in China
Sept. 8 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.Sept. 9 - Don Johnson - Hometown Security Update and patriotic songs by the Peninsulaires Quartet
Sept. 16 - Mary Alice Rathbun, RotaPlast
Sept. 23 - Larry Rinsky, Operation Rainbow
Sept. 30 - David Sloss, West Bay Opera in our Community
October
Oct. 13 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
November
Nov. 10 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
December
Dec. 8 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
January
Jan. 12 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
February
Feb. 9 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
March
Mar. 9 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
April
Apr. 13 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
May
May 11 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
May 14 and 15: Rotary Fine Art Show, Lincoln Park
June
June 8 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
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: China Shuttle, 22382 Homestead Road, Cupertino, 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.
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