Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show May 29th 2008

Greeters, PP Jack Heidmiller and Steve Fick

PRELIMINARIES DICK HENNING recited poetry by BOO BUE, fabulously wealthy retired Dale Carnegie franchisee.  DICK named several Dale Carnegie alums, including Cal graduate and former Stanford football coach John Ralston, who twice led the Indians to victory in the Rose Bowl.  Later in the program BOO donated a dollop of his wealth in DICK’s honor.  Dale Carnegie family members have been generous to LARC through the years. Some time ago, BOO asked  fellow Dale Carnegie franchisee Ralph Nichols to travel to Los Altos from Detroit and give us a talk, which he did, all on his own dime, and at the end of his speech Ralph handed BOO a hundred-dollar bill for Polio Plus.  LEN McBIRNEY called for more, whereupon Ralph peeled off four more hundred-dollar bills, and LEN matched him! 
 
MARY PROCHNOW, as she often does, quoted former Rotary International President, Rick King, our friend from Hayward, who said that Rotary is the greatest non-political, non-religious organization in the world.  MARY applauded RICK’s wisdom and added that the reason for Rotary’s success is its emphasis on building good will and friendship among Rotarians and across the entire planet.  MARY mentioned, as an example, our very own ALLART LICHTENBERG, who spends months every year distributing solar cookers and associated wares in Nepal.  We were reminded that MARY’s theme during her Presidency was “Imagine a World of Peace.”
 

TEN-MINUTES FROM WEST POINT CHARLIE SINES, hirsute son of Your Scribe, described his daily life at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.  CHARLIE has completed 2 of 4 years at West Point, after which he has a 5-year commitment in the Army.  West Point was founded in 1802 to train engineers for the military.  To this day graduates receive a Bachelor of Science degree because of the amount of math, science and engineering in the required curriculum.  Charlie hopes to become a helicopter pilot but currently spends much of his time marching penalty hours, in which area he is a leader in his class.

YOUNG AT ART AWARD WINNERS  FRANK VERLOT and GINNY LEAR announced and passed out awards for this year’s high school winners of our Young at Art contest, which coincided with the Art Show.  Your Intrepid Reporter got most but not all the names and schools, and they are:  James Overton and Chantel Muranaga of Alta Vista High School; Sara Herrmann and Christine Jung of Homestead High School;  Zoe Maddalena and Susana Gao of Los Altos High School;  Rebecca Waldern and Delna Godrej of Pinewood School;  Evan Cate of St. Francis High School; Zachary Holdberg of Mountain View High School; and Monica Allen and Kohar Minassian of the Community School of Music and Arts.

From an email from FRANK VERLOT: 

We had some excellent work submitted this year, 34 pieces altogether from 7 schools participating. The Los Altos Rotary Club's  "Young at Art" jury  convened over the weekend and made the following selections for the 1st and 2nd prize winners from each of the participating schools. They are as follows:
 
Alta Vista HS: Coordinator: Wendy Dowling
1st: James Overton, "Vase with Flowers"
2nd: Chantel Muranaga, "Cityscape"
 
Community School of Music and Art: Coordinator: Linda Covello
1st: Monica Allen, "Woman with Hat"
2nd: Kohar Minassian, "If You've Ever" (photo)
 
Homestead HS: Coordinator: Terry Abell
1st: Sara Herrmann, "the Diet" (asparagus)
2nd: Christina Jung, "Meditation" (oil)
 
Los Altos HS: Coordinator: Christine An
1st: Zoe Maddelena, "The Way In" (photo)
2nd: Susanna Gao, Untitled (piano strings... pencil drawing)
 
Mt View HS: Coordinator: Jim Levett
1st: Leslie Hamachi, "Piano Keys"
2nd: Zachary Hoberg, "Modern Sky"
 
Pinewood School: Coordinator Chris Smith
1st: Rebecca Waldorn, "Dress"
2nd: Delna Godrej, "Evening in Poros"
 
St Francis HS: Sylvan Adams
1st: Pamela Lau, "Yellow Rose" Oriental Brush)
2nd: Evan Cate, "Dirt Bike" (photo)

GIVE UNTIL YOU BLEED SAM PESNER took advantage of the general feel-good atmosphere to quickly extract fines from BOO BUE (see above), BILL PALMER (49th birthday), JERRY TOMANEK (39 years of wedded bliss), CLYDE NOEL (who miraculously and accurately answered that DICK DUHRING was President of LARC in 1977-78), GEORGE STAFFORD (uncounted years of rapturous marital bliss plus the graduation of his son from Arizona State University), WYATT ALLEN (who interrupted his midday retiree’s nap to attend and also correctly stated there was no President of LARC in 1947-48), CINDY LUEDTKE (suddenly free to pursue other interests outside the workaday world) and others too numerous to mention. 

NOTES FROM THE LINKS  STEVE SHEPHERD announced that slots are almost gone for the annual LARC Golf Tourney to be held at Moffett Field Golf Links on June 20.  So contact him immediately if you wish to attend.  STEVE ANDERSON added – forget the golf and come to the party that night – contact STEVE or STEVE.

THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM BOB ADAMS, former President of LARC and alumnus of that august educational institution (attended by Chuck Muncie) which stole Stanford’s basketball coach when Stanford really needed him back, and a key member of the Task Force For Renovation Of The Los Altos Community Center, known throughout the community as TFFROTLACC, which, oddly enough, is the word for “ground of our being” in the ancient and extinct Oaxacan language of southwestern Mexico, introduced Pamela Anderson Brule, principal in Anderson Brule Architects (“ABA” hereinafter), retained by the City of Los Altos to develop the Community Center Master  Plan.  PAMELA, yet another of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s many outstanding graduates in architecture, set the stage by stating the civic center site of 18 acres is underutilized, traffic-challenged, and populated by civic buildings which are in need of repair and bursting at the seams.  TFFROTLACC provided ABA with a Vision Statement, which was of great utility to ABA in its initial efforts to develop the Master Plan, the goal of which is to anticipate and provide for the development of the site for the next 50 years.  In a survey to the residents of Los Altos, 630 residents responded, and 70% stated they may support a bond measure to pay for the renovation and redevelopment of the site.  Pamela advised that there will be funding consultants to assist with the money issues.  Our own DAVE SNOW has developed the following website on which we can follow the progress of the Master Plan:  “losaltoscommunitycenter.com”.
   

template updated: 03/28/08