Next Week's Program: 
Dante Dettamante - Stanford/Olympic Water Polo Coach
 

Upcoming Events:

February 8th: 
LARC BOARD:  Heritage Bank Community Room, 369 S. San Antonio Road
3:00 - 5:30

February 28th: 
WCS:  Northern Trust, Third St. 8:00 - 9:30 AM

See our Calendar for all of the important dates.

To see Neighboring Club meetings go to Clubs

To our Website

To District 5170

To District 5170 Newsletter

President Marlene Cowan rang the Rotary bell and convened the meeting at exactly 12:16 p.m.  She then called on Red Badger, Kim Copher, to lead the pledge, which segued into a “Give my regards to Broadway,” led by songmeister, John Sylvester. 

Jean Mordo,  being brief, even though it was both ground-hog day and his birthday, thoughtfully commented that French philosopher Voltaire long ago noted: “That the secret of being boring is to say everything.”  

 Since President-elect, Sam Pesner was late for the meeting, President Marlene introduced visiting Rotarian Don Zimmer, formerly from the Sonoma Valley Rotary Club.   She then welcomed Rotarians with guests, of whom there were many.

During the 10-minute fellowship period, Table 7, of which this reporter was a casual participant and observer, several interesting subjects came up.   Shiv Shastri, who was last week’s outstanding speaker on India and U.S. relations, continued his discussion with Jerry Tomanek and John Cardoza.  The three no doubt could open an insightful new era in international relations.  Joe LoConte said he’s working on three homes in Los Altos and will start on two new projects soon.  Matt Cabot reminded the reporter to send the Rotator to Cindy Luedtke for editing.  Sisters, Sandy Whipple and Barb Duncan, were engaged in fellowship across the table.  Dick Duhring noted that the Rotator copies that he mails each week to six Rotarians who do not have email, keep getting larger with the addition of the photographs.  Dick says he can send five pages with one stamp, but that he sometimes edits the mailing to keep the cost down.

Announcements:
Shiv Shastri invited Rotarians to help with the Club Scholarship Committee to decide which local high school and community college students should receive scholarship from Rotary.  Call Shiv if you want to get involved.

Sam Pesner tried to make up for being late by announcing that next week we will be treated to seven-time national champ Stanford Water Polo Coach Dante Dettamante as our guest speaker.

Katie Nutter took our temperature for a trip to the De Young Museum (we’re running a fever).  She then stood in for Art Show director Herb Marshall asking for committee volunteers and announcing that the first Art Show meeting is 8 a.m. Tuesday, February 7, at the Moisen Building located at 315 2^nd St., Los Altos.  Please come!

Roland Payne announced the beginning of the next CERT training for emergency response.  The course will be offered on four consecutive Wednesday nights from 6:00PM to 9:00 PM beginning March 8^th and full-day (9 to 5pm) session on Saturday, March 25^th.   The course will take place in Room 2 at Hillview Community Center.   Limited space is available.  The cost per person is $90.00.  Not a lot when it comes to maybe saving lives one day.  Contact Roland Payne or call the Los Altos Police Department to register.

President Marlene introduced the six candidates for service on the Board of Directors: John Hamblin, Marlis McAllister, John McDonnell, Jean Mordo, Karen Owen, and Cindy Wemyss.

She also noted that nominations for Los Altos Community Foundation’s, John Gardner Award are now being considered by the Board.  Please give her any suggestions you may have for persons deserving of recognition in two of four areas, including education, non-profit, government, or arts and letters.

Red Badgers should contact Lem Summey to arrange their five-minute talks (or he will arrange them for you!).

 President Marlene welcomed new Explorers to the President’s Club (those who have donated $100 or more in fines): Kim Copher, Firooz Ghaffari, Cres MCFall, Michael Stadlen, Joanne Kavalaris, and Pat Gray.

 Fine-master, Steve Anderson, was particularly successful raising funds from Gigi Carter, Joe Renati, Roy Jones,
John McDonnell, Shiv Shastri, Phil Rose, Joe CorRal, and Tom Liston.  He let George Estill off the hook and did not fine Dick Henning who said he was going to a funeral right after Rotary.

 Today was the Annual Richard King Rotary Speech Contest.  Master of ceremonies, Jack Kelly,   presented the speakers and outlined the awards.  Speakers drew lots for their order of presentation.  The theme was to include the topic: Service above self, because we care.  Each speaker was given 4-5 minutes.

 Speaker A,   who we later learned was Tiffany White, a senior at Mountain View High School who is active in the black student’s association, a defense attorney for the high school moot court team, and cheerleading, spoke first.   She analyzed why persons such as Paris Hilton and other celebrities attract our attention and become admired when the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize draws little attention from many people.  She concluded that the words, idol, hero, and celebrity should only be celebrated if the person puts themselves above personal gain.

 Speaker B, Brittani Conley,   a senior at Mountain View High, active in dance, cheer, and the black student association, spoke about her recent experience at Camp Anytown, where she learned to celebrate diversity and gender.  She learned that contrary to the thesis of the book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,” dropping stereotypes develops a better understanding among both men and women.  She concluded, “We may be from different planets, but it really is not so hard to live on Earth together.”

 Speaker C, Marni Gorgonia,  a native of the Philippines, developed her thesis that parents, acting as role models for their children, can have as great a cumulative impact on making the world a better place as a single person acting alone.  She told the story of her own parents and how they have struggled through the transition to America to bring a better life and education for her.

The contest judges, Joanna Medin, Hugh Riddel, and Katie Nutter awarded Brittani Conley first place,

Tiffany White, second

and Marni Gorgonia third. 

All three well deserving speakers received a warm welcome from the Rotarians present.