Los Altos Rotary Club
Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show
May 15th, 2008
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Los Altos Rotary ClubHome of the Annual Rotary Fine Art ShowMay 15th, 2008 |
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| Writer: Jean Newton Fraguglia - Photographer: Baidra Murphy - Editor: Cindy Luedtke |
| This Thursday's Program: May 22 2008 PNG Committee |
This was one of those meetings that makes you proud to be a Rotarian with many
guests in attendance for the annual student scholarship presentations.
LOUIS BOREL, BILL PALMER and PHIL ROSE were on hand to greet everyone while
JOANNE BYRNE filled in for our dear LEE LYNCH as the cashier. SCOTT
FLEMING and DAVID BERGMAN took care of Sergeant-at-Arms duties and professional
BAIDRA MURPHY was the photographer of record.
President JOHN MOSS called the meeting to order right on time. Los Altos
Mayor, VALERIE CARPENTER, appropriately chose the patriotic America the
Beautiful as the song of the day.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -- ROY LAVE ON WOMEN
PP ROY LAVE’s thoughts were all about women in a tribute to the fact that LARC
welcomed its first woman member on May 14, 1987----21 years ago (plus one day)
and just one week after the Supreme Court ruling allowed women to join Rotary.
He also noted that the first Mother’s Day was held 100 years ago the previous
Sunday. As an example of service above self, the day was initiated by an
unmarried woman with no children who wanted to honor her own mother. Then
it was time for the jokes---something about the difference between men and
women, third world countries, visiting the loo and being careful of what you ask
for. Roy also said Rotary wouldn’t be what it is today without women members
(Thanks, Roy!)
INTRODUCTIONS OF ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
President Elect SETH MANNING introduced visiting Rotarians and guests and the
club welcomed BRENDA FORSTALL from Granite Bay.
JEAN MORDO introduced his guest, Bill Balson, and described him as the “Grand
Poobah” of the Boy Scouts of America, Stanford Area Council. MARLENE COWAN
introduced her son, Christopher, and daughter, Katie. KENDRA GJERSETH
introduced her guest, a certified sommelier from Vino 100.
SUNSHINE THOUGHTS
President JOHN MOSS informed the club that LEE LYNCH wasn’t feeling well enough
to be able to be Grand Marshall at the parade or participate in the Mayor’s
Choice Awards at the art show but that he and his wife, JACKIE MOSS, would be
filling in for her. Our sunshine thoughts are beaming her way.
JOHN also announced that HUGH RIDDELL was also battling cancer and asked club
members to sign a card to show our thoughts are with him as well.
FOUR WAY TEST
As part of a series on the four-way test, DICK HENNING told about his own
experience in using the four-way test as a guideline while making decisions in
business. As the founder of the award-winning Celebrity Forum Speakers
Series at Foothill College, DICK graciously shared his expertise with a
colleague who ended up not being quite honest about his business dealings.
Because he didn’t tell the truth, it caught up with him in the end. To
paraphrase DICK, “We can tell the truth, be honest, be a loving person and
follow the Four-Way Test. Don’t do it for others do it for yourself.”
ANNUAL STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Due to the schedules of most of our guests who were teachers, students and their
parents, PRES JOHN reversed the order of the meeting and introduced KATHY BERRY,
chair of the scholarship committee, to present the Annual Los Altos Rotary
Scholarship Program.
After welcoming the junior high and high school students, KATHY acknowledged her
co-chair LEE LYNCH, for all her hard work and participation during the interview
and selection process. She also thanked her dedicated committee members:
JOHN CARDOZA, PHIL ROSE, CAREW MCFALL, PP BOB ADAMS, JOANNE BYRNE, VALERIE
CARPENTER, PP MARLENE COWAN, KURT HUEG, JOANNE KAVALARIS, PP ROY LAVE, MARLIS McALLISTER,
President JOHN MOSS, PE SETH MANNING, and SCOTT RICHES.
KATHY remarked that this was a day to celebrate the hard work and valuable
community service of the student winners and reminded everyone that the annual
Rotary Art Show provided the funds to help these students attend the college of
their choice. This year the Los Altos Rotary Club awarded $16,000 in
scholarships with up to $800 for junior high winners and up to $2500 for high
school honorees.
KATHY then introduced a representative from each school, who, in turn, announced
the student scholarship winners and introduced proud parents in the audience.
The students were described as “natural leaders”, “having a good work ethic”,
“dedicated to community service”, “critical thinker”, “taking a very rigorous
academic program”, “the kind of student teachers like to have”, “smart
artistic and engaged”. With one outstanding achievement after another,
each of the students was honored for exemplary academics and community service.
Rotary Outstanding Student Awards were presented to:
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| Blach Junior High | Egan Junior High |
Kathy Berry thanked Eric Petersen of Books Inc. at Town and Country in Palo Alto for the contribution to literacy and for the matching donation toward the scholarships for the junior high awards.
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| Scholarship Awardees | Mountain View High School | Los Altos Altos High School |
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| Saint Francis High School | Alta Vista High School |
Los Altos Rotary Scholarship Awards were presented to:
Some of the colleges students will be attending include Foothill, De Anza, Santa Clara University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC San Diego.
CHARLES COWAN SCHOLARSHIP
MARLENE COWAN presented a very special scholarship to Natasha Chan.
The scholarship recognizes a student who has undertaken challenging studies in
science and reflects the belief of MARLENE’s late husband, Charles Cowan, that
education is critical to the future success of our country and the world.
At the conclusion of the Scholarship Awards, KATHY BERRY congratulated all the
scholarship winners and said, “You honor us by being here today.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS
With the countdown to the art show just hours away, DAVID BERGMAN issued his
final plea for volunteers. JACK HEIDMILLER thanked SCOTT RICHES and ROY
LAVE for the use of their vans. DAN O’DONNELL, the author of the comic strip
being passed around for signatures for Lee Lynch, thanked everyone who signed up
for delivery of the Rota Care dinner. (If you haven’t done this, it’s a
great way to see Rota Care in action.)
STEVE SHEPHERD reminded members of
the upcoming golf, barbecue, and poker event on June 20 and said that all are
welcome – even if you can’t golf. A sign up sheet will go around next
week.
TEN-MINUTE TALK
As surely the youngest member of the club, KEVIN PHILLIPS started out his
ten-minute talk a couple of generations back with photos of his grandparents
that his grandmother gave to him. (He attributes his gift of organization
to her.) After describing his grandfather’s military career, which
included the Battle of the Bulge, Utah Beach, and D-Day, KEVIN told us that his
grandparents met as pen pals in the war and moved to Mountain View in the
1940’s. The walk down memory lane included more photos of his father
as a boy, their home in Los Altos, his parents’ hippie days and an interesting
photo of him and his sister, who just got married last year. In fact, he’s
the only one in the family who didn’t get married last year, since both his dad
and mom remarried in 2007.
KEVIN was born in Los Altos in 1979 and went to
Oak, Blach, and Mountain View High School, where he wore a pink suit to the
senior prom. He attended Foothill College and then UC San Diego,
graduating with a degree in Mass Communications. KEVIN started his real
estate career with REMAX. September 11, 2001 was supposed to have been his
first day, but obviously was postponed. He also worked with Coldwell
Banker on the commercial side as a property manager and in sales and leasing.
Having known the MOISON family for many years, he came to work with BILL and
JERRY in 2005. He isn’t too sure when he is going to get married, but
doesn’t think it will be for a while. He ended his talk by saying he is
glad to be part of the community and thinks it’s cool to be part of Rotary.
With all thoughts focused on the upcoming art show and Los Altos Rotary’s
biggest fundraiser of the year to be held over the weekend, President JOHN MOSS
adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.
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