Los Altos Rotary Club

This Thursday's Program: 
Partners for New Generations (PNG)

Upcoming Events:

June 3rd:  American Red Cross/Rotary "Preparing for the Unexpected"

COETA CHAMBERS, JEANNE MACVICAR and DAN O’DONNELL were all smiles when greeting a larger than usual crowd today. They were not only welcoming our members but were greeting the recipients of our annual scholarship awards, their family members and representatives from the academia who came to recognize their efforts.

Appropriately Pres. SAM called upon school superintendent BARRY GROVES to lead the assembled Rotarians, scholarship winners and educators in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was to be a day we feel pride in the quality of our youth. It is also a sense of pride in how our local schools, both public and private, prepare our youth for future learning as well as to be involved citizens.

It seems KELLY HUDSON was caught off guard by Pres. SAM when called upon to lead the group in song. She fell back on an old favorite, possibly from her youth and experience with the Girl Scouts, the “Hokie Pokie.” TRACIE MURRAY even managed to spin herself around while standing in the food line (fortunately she didn’t have a full plate of food at the time!).

You never know who is going to make an appearance at our meetings. No, Condoleezza Rice was spotted at AT&T Park at the Giants game and riding in a Tessla car at Moffett Field, but not our Rotary meeting. Good try!
However, past Los Altos Rotarian Dr. and Mrs. Robert Bratman made a surprise visit while back in the area from their current home in Wales. This was a stopover on their way to an Alaskan cruise while spending six weeks in the old US of A. In addition to Bob and his wife, the son of our Rotary Pres., Brian, was in the audience as well today to make sure his dad didn’t tell any off-color jokes, especially with all our honored guests in the room.

ANNOUNCEMENTS (or, activities you may want to know about!):
STEVE SHEPHERD reminded us of the Los Altos Rotary Club 58th annual golf tournament, gourmet dinner and Texas Hold’em poker tournament to be held June 8th. There are a few spots left for golf, but you’d best hurry and contact Steve before the last foursome is filled in. Golf begins at 10:00 a.m.; the dinner, at MEL and Mady KAHN’S home, will begin around 6:00 p.m. with the poker tournament, under the direction of JACK KELLY, beginning after dinner. JACK set the entry price at $10 to help minimize your losses.

DENNIS YOUNG reminded us that the election for the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund directors is coming up. Candidates already nominated for the three open positions are JOANNE BYRNE, RICHARD GLAZE, STEVE GRUBER, GAEL KNIGHT, HERB MARSHALL and JEAN MORDO. Thanks to all six nominees for being willing to serve. Other nominations are welcome until two weeks prior to the June 14th election. Contact Dennis if you are interested.
Pres. SAM announced two upcoming events that conflict in time and date: June 3rd will offer (1) the Cruise on the Bay sponsored by our Rotary District #5170 and (2) the training for our local disaster preparedness training. I guess you have to make a choice between pleasure and duty to community if you are involved in both!

KATIE NUTTER was not able to join us Thursday, but asked that this Art Show Update be included in the Rotator:
Katie’s Art Show Update
No, we haven’t gone silent on you. Great job, everybody! The weather cooperated and the park was packed. The energy level was very positive and very high. And everywhere, Rotarians were scurrying about being gracious and helpful. We’ll try to give you a pretty complete report on the financials when KATIE presents to the club on June 14th, but now the subject is even more serious. WE HAVE A SURPLUS OF WINE!
As usual, LOUIS BOREL has used his restaurant connections with such finesse as to procure some really good wines at really good prices. Of course, we can return the unused wine and get our invoice reduced. But we could also make these fine wines available to our fellow Rotarians, and that’s what we’re doing now. Between now and June 7th, you have a chance to buy wine either by the case or by the bottle. Here’s what’s available on a first come, first served basis:
By the case:
* $192 2004 Chardonnay Clos du Ch. (equates to $16/bottle)
* $204 2001 Pouilly Fuisse Partriche ($17/bottle)
* $360 2003 Meursault Ch. de Meursault ($30/bottle)
* $312 2003 Gervey Chambertin Doudet Maudin ($26/bottle)
* $252 2001 Chateauneuf-du-Pape Laurant Brotte ($21/bottle)
* $192 2002 Bourgogne Pinot Noir Ch. Meursault ($16/bottle)
* $240 2003 St. Emilion Clos de Menuts ($20/bottle)
* $192 1996 Haut Medoc Ch. Maurac Major ($16/bottle)
* $156 Graves Ch. Bel-Air ($13/bottle)
* $60 Chenet Chardonnay
* $60 Chenet Cabernet Sirah
* $60 Chenet Merlot
* $62 Kriter Brut Champagne split
By the bottle:
* $16 Clos Chateau Chardonnay (2 bottles available)
* $17 Pouilly Fuisse (3 bottles available)
* $18 Graves 2001 (4 bottles available)
* $30 Mersault du Chateau, white (10 bottles available)
* $16 Haut Merdoc Cru Bourgeois (7 bottles available
* $21 Chateau du Pap (5 bottles available)

To purchase these wines, KATIE asked us to contact LOUIS BOREL via e-mail at colljacquie@sbcglobal.net. (Louis' wife, Jacqueline, is indeed, cool. She takes care of e-mail for him and we art show colleagues are grateful for her help.) Checks, only, please, made out to the “Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund or LAREF. Wines can be picked up at LOUIS’S house at 1995 Deodora, just of St. Joseph, off Foothill Expressway. He may be persuaded to bring your wine to Rotary, if that’s possible for him (but the delivery charge may be prohibitive!). REMEMBER, the deadline is June 7th. After that date, LOUIS will return any unpurchased wine to his suppliers – for a rebate, of course.

RECOGNITION:
DICK DUHRING, after entertaining us by playing the piano last week, was fined $10 by Pres. SAM for taking time away from his joke telling time last week. Thank you, Dick!
Dick used American history to entertain us this week. As recognition master, he extracted $20 from members GARY ROSS, JACK HEIDMILLER, JOE LOCONTE, DAVID SMITH, COETA CHAMBERS, (Despite a “save“ attempt by MARY MARLEY), TOM LISTON, SANDIE WHIPPLE, SCOTT RICHES (in front of his students, no less!), SETH MANNING and JOHN CARDOZA. Mary’s “save” was when Dick asked Coeta what state George Washington was in while standing in a boat crossing the Delaware River. She boldly pointed out that since the event took place before their initial formation, there were no states at the time for Washington to be between in the first place. Undaunted, Dick just went onto the next question as you might expect him to do.
LARRY MADSEN was called upon with the last question, but by this time Larry realized that whether one answered DICK DUHRING’S questions correctly or not, the fine was to be $20. Rather than responding to DICK’S question, rather not even acknowledging it, Larry began to extol praises on his granddaughter who competed as a junior at Palo Alto High School in the Central California Swim Meet over the weekend at Stanford. He felt she had a pretty good day. Well, I’ll say she did. She won three individual events and helped her relay team win as well in setting or tying meet and school and accomplishing personal bests in 50-meter, 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter “free” relay. And Liv Jensen is only a high school junior who probably hasn’t reached her peak! That was one proud grandpa!

OUR PROGRAM:
KATHY BERRY, the chair of our Scholarship Committee, proudly talked of the work of this extensive committee in their efforts to award the phenomenal achievements of sixteen middle school, high school and community college students.
Kathy also offered a three-word theme for the day we honor local students for both academic excellence and service to community. Those words were EXCELLENCE, ACHIEVEMENT and GRATITUDE. The students honored at today’s meeting managed to display all three characteristics in exceptional and extreme ways.

From Blach Junior High School, scholarship awards were bestowed upon Jonathan Chiang and Emily Sitler who were both described as multi-talented, kind, generous, possessing very positive attitudes and of course, smart.

From Egan Junior High School, awards were granted to Andrew Nguyen and Erika Schohner who were described as respectful, intelligent, active, and fine citizen in our community.

Our own DICK HENNING introduced the student from Foothill College we honored toady, Confiance Dukunde. He came here last year from Rwanda where his education was halted in 1994 by the genocide that occurred there that took the life of his mother. When his father became very ill, Confiance sacrificed his education to work in support his family. He was never able to finish high school, but not being discouraged, he bought books and taught himself. He took the National Exam, passed and received a certificate in Biochemistry.

He hopes to get into the Radio Logic Technology program at Foothill next year. Despite being a full-time student and working to pay for out-of-state tuition, he has found time to give of himself to his new community through volunteering at local hospitals as well and getting involved in student government and black student affairs. He is striving to achieve a double masters in Math and Chemistry. Confiance is an ambitious and driven young man who cares greatly for his fellow man. A quote from his application might give you a clue to his motivation. “It’s really amazing to see how much we can achieve when we believe in ourselves and when we believe we can make it.” He received a standing ovation from the crowd when we all realized what he has, and is, accomplishing from such challenging beginnings. Many of the young adults we honored today have overcome tremendous challenges to achieve what they have and still give back to others, but Confiance has overcome greater adversity than most of us can perceive.

From Mountain View Academy Francis Mendaros was described as achieving academics while being repeatedly involved in a mission to help others both domestically and overseas.

FromAlta Vista High School, our own HINDA WEBER described Candice Salazar as a student who overcame severe dyslexia to excel in academics while helping feed the homeless locally, helping build better facilities for small villages in Mexico and being involved in student government.

Jennifer Perez was introduced from Los Altos High School where she was commended for making tough choices to improve her life and help others rather than easy choices and go down the wrong paths. She has volunteered through the YMCA and the Los Altos Police Department to help others make the right choice as well while working part-time at a local flower shop and graduating in three years from high school.

Mountain View High School offered the greatest number of honorees. Michelle Lo achieved over 1000 hours of volunteerism, led the Key Club at MV, is the first generation of her family to attend college and will attend UC-Berkeley.  Vinh Nguyen achieved Eagle Scout with troop #31 and organized the entire tsunami relief effort for the entire Boy Scout Council. He will be attending Sonoma State.  Ana Rangel achieved despite losing her mother to cancer a few years ago. She is also the first in her family to attend college and will be going to UC – Davis in the Fall. Ariana Promessi achieved in academics but was very active in her church in leading social justice programs, providing leadership for youth groups and singing in the choir. She is also attending UC – Berkeley.
Krissa Querro, another who is the first in her family to attend college, has been active in Girls For A Change that helps young women develop self-confidence, self-esteem and confidence to achieve. She will attend USF with hopes of getting into non-profit management and continue to promote social justice and self-worth programs.

MARLENE COWAN awarded the seventh annual Charles CowanScholarship for Science and Technology to Laura Weiden. Laura has excelled in academics, sports and community service. She has also excelled in leadership in both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts (Venture Post) and believes community services is part of one’s life.

SCOTT RICHES, President of Pinewood School and fellow Los Altos Rotarian, proudly introduced Amanda Merriweather and Katherine Hasnain as consistent over-achievers at Pinewood. Amanda is an up-beat, enthusiastic and active young woman who will be going to the Univ. of Puget Sound. Katherine has volunteered at CSMA, local hospitals and as a tutor and has been the involved in the Interact Club for three years and has served as its president. She is also going to UC – Berkeley.

DICK DUHRING didn’t volunteer to play the piano to end our meeting, so Pres. SAM had time to provide both a profound quote as well as a joke (this time with a moral for all of us to ponder).

The quote, “Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.” That seemed fitting for the day. The next offering, well you be the judge:

In a miracle of birth, a head was born, without a body, yet it lived. Shocked though they were, the parents took the head home and placed it on a pillow in the window so it might watch the world outside.
After five or six years, the little head was watching some children playing ball in the street and said, “Gee! If I had a body, I’d be like those kids out there.” Well, there happened to be a fairy godmother floating in the sky just above his house who thought, “Why not?” And with a wave or her magic wand in a flash he had a body! “Wow!” he said. “If I had arms and legs, I’d be like those kids out there.” And with another wave of the magic wand, in a flash he had arms and legs! “Wow!” he said again. “If I had hands and feet, I’d be more like those kids out there.” And with yet another wave of the magic wand, in a flash he had hands and feet! When he looked down at himself, he couldn’t believe his good fortune. He had a body, arms and legs, hands and feet! Now he was like the other kids outside.
In his joy, he ran out the door and into the street to join them in their game. Unfortunately, he wasn’t experienced in the rules of traffic safety and didn’t see the big truck that was coming from the other way. It knocked him to the ground and smashed him, dead! What a sad story! (The assembled members and guests let out a uniform moan upon hearing such a sad ending to the tale.)
Oh, there is a moral to the story: Quit while you’re a head!

Webmaster's note:  Last week, I missed putting in the pictures for the Rotator that BAIDRA MURPHY took. So, here they are.  Also, if you go to the archive file, the Rotator for last week, May 17th now has the pictures.