Los Altos Rotary Club

The more important Announcements:

GINNY LEAR reminded us of the Rotary International Presidents dinner on August 17.  His theme is, “Share the Magic.”

DAN O’DONNELL reminded all red badgers that there will be an important (what other kind is there) meeting NEXT Thursday (7/12) after the luncheon meeting.

SANDIE WHIPPLE needlessly reminded people that there fine-balance was 0 for everyone (soon to be corrected by PP SAM).   She also said that the annual dues (and Kickout Dinner if you haven’t paid yet) invoice will be sent out on July 15^th.  Please look for it.

New LARC board member, JACK KELLY announced that there is a signup clipboard going around for the Chef Chu’s Food Booth for next Saturday and Sunday 7/14 and 7/15.After the meeting we had 14 of the 24 slots filled.BE SURE TO sign up this coming Thursday, so we can support our club in this fundraiser, thanks to LARRY CHU and company.

Last year we added about $2,000 to our LAREF coffers.  We were able to give more to WCS, more scholarships, more to our community.  So this is important. 

 Outgoing LAREF President, DENNIS YOUNG announced that the program to build the corpus of our foundation continues.  In fact, newly minted President JOHN started off the year with a thousand dollar contribution to the corpus.  See. I told you these were important announcements.

STEVE SHEPHERD announced the annual LARC Golf tournament awards:
JOHN MCALLISTER – Low Net – Men’s
VICTORIA EMMONS – Low Net – Women’s (CINDY LUEDTKE has her award which was erroneously given to her.)
STEVE FICK – part of the Yellow Ball team. 
MONA ARMISTED (surprise, surprise) low gross – Women’s
JACK KELLY low gross – Men’s
STEVE SHEPHERD received no awards.  But he did run a great tournament, with 46 golfers, 70 at the BBQ at hosts, MEL and Mady KAHN’S beautiful home. 

The Texas Hold’em winners were DICK HASENPFLUG, LARRY MADSEN, and DENNIS POTTER. Because gambling is illegal, no one made any money – wink, wink.

STEVE ANDERSON brought us up to date on PP LARRY MADSEN.  LARRY had an operation to remove a cancerous colon section.  We should all keep Larry in our thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery, and to see his smiling face back at our meetings.  A number of people went to see Larry after the meeting today. 

SPECIAL PRESENTATION(S)

PP SAM gave acknowledgement to Alec Varsamis, nephew of SANDY BOZICH, for his help as Master Smoothie Maker for our club during the Relay for Life marathon. Apparently the reward is in the mail.

PP WYATT ALLEN representing the Rotary International Foundation presented President John’s wife Jackie with a Paul Harris Fellow courtesy of Pres JOHN.  Jackie was very impressed, but wondered out loud, “Where’s the diamond?”

Again PP SAM had not read his email, and was surprised to see that he was Fine Master.

So he began with himself.  Then launched into attacking, HERB MARSHALL (for being younger by half of most members – but gaining); STEVE SHEPHERD; President John for becoming the first member of the President’s club); JOE CORRAL for his 50 years of marriage; DICK HENNING for not staying on our continent; PP MARLENE COWAN for taking a trip to Cabo to help relive the border issue; to VICTORIA EMMONS, STEVE SHEPHERD again; BOB ADAMS for being almost 3 times as old as HERB; PAT FARRELL for his 50^th anniversary as well; past member (1987 – 2003), WALT SCHOLEY just for the heck of it; Jackie Moss  2^nd member of the President’s club; and TOM LISTON for mistaking 25 yards for 45 yards.  Not bad for not being prepared, eh?

Our program today embodied one of the themes that President John intends to pursue:  that being of re-acquainting ourselves with each other.  He began by having a 10 minute “talk amongst yourselves” time, and followed it with three 10-minute Red badge/Blue badge talks.  During the Talk Amongst Yourselves, it was interesting to see all the Rotary business going on.  Sure there was social time as well, but there was a lot of discussion about committees, upcoming events and the like, all important to the operation of our club. 

 During the three ten minute talks, we heard from Red Badger (DAVE BERGMAN)  and two Blue Badgers, (KENDRA GJERSETH and DICK HASENPFLUG).

The conclusion I made was that each individual was well worth knowing.  I guess this is the point.  Each of the three grew up on a farm.

DAVE worked construction during high school and college which ended up propelling him into a career in construction and house flipping, and spec houses, which lead him into real estate sales where he is today as Office Manager and Real Estate Agent at Intero Real Estate in Los Altos.  Dave described his ‘core values’ as:  hardworking, the farm angle, honesty and integrity, education – trying to learn something new every day, and to help people.

He felt that looking back on his various careers, helping people was a predominant thread. 

At age 17, KENDRA went to Australia to work on a dairy farm, which I suppose solidified her lifelong passion as a vegetarian.  She returned to the states and worked in television for a while in Chicago as a copywriter which led to her eventual move to Los Altos as co-owner of Birch Fine Paper in Los Altos.  She is involved with three businesses there: a greeting card retailer, wholesaler, and a graphics design company.   Her final comment was she was single and implored members to help change that. 

DICK HASENPFLUG has been a fixture in our community for many, many years.

He started to rattle off the groups he has been involved in, president of, guidance to etc, but I lost count because my mouth was so far open.

Suffice it to say that if it is in the general area of Los Altos, Dick was or is a member.  

He said as a farmer, learning to plow a straight row became a metaphor for his life.

He spent his youth as an egg delivery boy and spent a good deal of time at county fairs in the Midwest.  He got an MBA in International Business and spent a number of years in the Far East. Since that time, he has been involved in the Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Finance for the Los Altos School District, which he chaired for many years.

His accomplishments include (but certainly not limited to) creating the first financial plan for the District, working for the passing the School Parcel Tax, and becoming the 2002 Los Altos Town Crier’s Los Altos Citizen of the Year.  He was also on the founding Rotary Aids Project (RAP) Committee.