Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show September 18, 2008

Two surprises were waiting for Rotarians as they pressed flesh with greeters PAT FARRELL, PAUL SCHUTZ and JOANNA MEDIN.  The first was an unnamed Sheltie dog getting in line and eventually casing the auditorium. The second was the return of Meg Solera, now a Tar Heel and joiner of her local Rotary Club in North Carolina. “I came to harass my old friends and get away from big ‘Ike.’” Meg said.
 
Treasurer WYATT ALLEN was deep in thought waiting for responses on whether a Rotarian wants to pay $15 or $18 for his lunch.  Rotarians who paid $18 were treated to Chicken Kiev, that popular chicken dish invented in France and served plain by Frank Schumann for the big spenders.
 
After President SETH MANNING rang the bell, Past President ROY LAVE led us in the pledge; SANDIE WHIPPLE led into the thought for the day.  Recalling an Eleanor Roosevelt comment, Sandy had the constituents laughing when she said, “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”
 
With the fall season before us, JOHN SYLVESTER led us into “You Are My Sunshine” while we still have sunshine, and  before dismal weather can cool our ambition.
 
President SETH asked that visiting Rotarians declare their presence and Past President MEL KAHN introduced good friends of his by introducing Rotarians Pam and Jim Going. Mel went to Los Altos High School with them and they were visiting Los Altos to attend the 1958 Los Altos High School reunion this weekend.  Jim and Pam are also the in-laws of Red Badger, Louis Wellmeier.
 
Rotarians with guests were introduced and it seemed like commercial time for their friends.
 
Past President SAM PESNER made a pitch for the Rotary Foundation.  He is looking for contributions to RI  and provided a screen show emphasizing the activities of a Rotary Club in Springfield Mo.
 
Since 25,000 people die of hunger each year The Rotary Foundation develops financial support through the annual giving campaign.  Clubs working together can accomplish bringing food to the hungry.  Sam said Club members, if they haven’t done so already this Rotary year, will be called upon in the next month to make a contribution to the Rotary Foundation.
 
Past President CINDY LUEDTKE has been given the title of Club Trainer, but she prefers Club Resource Officer.  If you have any questions about the Rotary, see CINDY.  She also mentioned the District 5170 Avenues of Service.  This would be a great event for all Rotarians to attend, especially Red Badgers.  The Club will pay for all attendees’ registrations and a carpool will be arranged.  If you haven’t seen the clipboard yet and you’d like to attend, give Cindy a call.  The Avenue of Services will be held at 5:00 p.m., Oct 16, 2008 at Centennial Hall in Hayward.

Announcements
JOHN MORDO reminded Rotarians to attend “Oktoberfest” Sunday September 28, from 5:00 -8:00 p.m. at the Los Altos History Museum.  A fundraiser for the Museum will include food, dancing, live music and good schmaltzy friendship.  Oh yea-- There will be lots of beer and sausage too!
 
BILL BALSON, provided information on the Red Badge Wine Tasting at Vino 100.  The price for the evening  is $50 to help equip the Gardner Bullis library with books.  Bill said they have collected 700 books to date.  The event takes place from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Vino 100 located at 163 Main Street in Los Altos, where Red Badger, KAREN GESSERT spends a lot of her time.
 
KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM requested donations for Coaniquem, the burned children foundation. Envelopes were distributed to each table for those who wished to either attend the Banquet and silent auction to be held the evening of October 4th, or donate money to the clinic by purchasing raffle tickets.  KAILAS said that $600 supports a burned child’s treatment for a year.  Last year, The Los Altos Rotary Club supported three children.  To try to surpass this level, three Rotarians, BRUCE CANN, STEVE YARBROUGH, and CINDY LUEDTKE got the club off to a good start by donating enough funds to support two children for next year.
 
JOANNA MEDIN reminded club members of the A Sante’ event which is for the benefit of our local RotaCare Clinic. The cost per ticket is $60 and the date is Nov. 5th.
 
Past President MARY PROCHNOW was proud to relay greetings from JOANNE BYRNE. Joanne wishes to give thanks for all the Rotarians who are providing help to her family.  Since Joanne is getting stronger she is resuming her chemotherapy treatments.

Auction Time
Auctioneer personified SAM PESNER provided the incentive to increase the Rotary Endowment Fund by selling two cases of Chardonnay wine and two cases of champagne splits.
 
The winners were GINNY LEAR who paid $75 for one case, and DICK HENNING who paid $80 for the other case of Chardonnay wine.
The champagne splits were sold for $75 each to DAVID BERGMAN and DENNIS YOUNG.
 

Personal Recognition (Fines)
The chore of fining club members fell upon Past President MARY PROCHNOW today. After asking for members to provide their personal history events, the following fines were paid.
 
SAM PESNER; $30 for a 30th wedding anniversary celebration
JOANNA MEDIN; $20 for GREG DABB’S generous gesture of a free treatment for one of her ailing friends.
BONNIE BURDETT; $30 for a successful Ben Ride last weekend, a fundraiser for Leukemia Research in memory of her late husband, Ben Eckenhoff.
 
Mary then queried folks on their knowledge of U.S. Presidents.  Some questions were definitely harder than others.  For the presidential trivia multiple choice questions,
COETA CHAMBERS $30 Wrong answer
GINNY LEAR $20 Right answer
BOO BUE $20 Right answer
DAVE BERGMAN $30 Wrong answer
SANDRA BOZICH $30 Wrong answer
JOAN ROSELLE $20 Right answer
GEORGE STAFFORD $20 Right answer
JACK KELLY $30 Wrong answer
MIKE ABRAMS $20 Right answer. 

Speakers for the day
Past President ROY LAVE introduced Bill and Claudia Coleman, Los Altos residents who founded the Coleman Institute at the University of Colorado. The Institute was founded in 2001 by a generous gift to the University of Colorado System from William and Claudia Coleman.
 
Bill and Claudia originally became interested in cognitive disability and technology from their relationship with their niece, Susanne. In the mid 1980's, they saw her learning skills, focus, and dexterity improve dramatically through the use of a computer. The computer acted as a repetitive tool like a flash card.

 
The Colemans—he is a founder of BEA Systems, she a long-time employee of Hewlett Packard. They decided early on that if they ever made enough money to donate to a major cause, it would be to enhance the lives of people with cognitive disabilities. But they hadn't decided on any recipient at that stage of their lives.
"I saw some of the incredible research being done in cognitive science, including the use of computer-based technologies to support lifelong learning and online community building," Bill said.   "I saw a connection with the work that my company, BEA Systems, had been doing with the development of personalization technology for the Internet and possible techniques to help those with cognitive disabilities."
Inspired, the Coleman’s made a series of relatively small gifts of a few hundred thousand dollars. “We had a shotgun form of giving by providing a little in a lot of places without any feeling what a larger donation could do. A larger donation can fulfill a life and do something that means something,” said Bill.

Their vision to improve the quality of life for people with cognitive disabilities grew over time. In the fall of 1999, while Bill was a guest lecturer at a CU freshman computer science class, he spoke of his philanthropic goals. Over the next year, he and Claudia formed a partnership with CU, ultimately resulting in the creation of the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities.
CU President Elizabeth Hoffman announced the largest private gift ever made to a public university -- a $250 million endowment from Bill and Claudia Coleman creating a system wide institute for advanced research and development of innovative technologies for people with cognitive disabilities.
 
After the partnership with University of Colorado was formed, they went to Washington, D.C. to tell of the lack of research centers and the first grant went to the University of Colorado in 2005. Between 2003 and 2006 over 100 projects were funded.
 
The Coleman’s mission was to catalyze and integrate advances in science, engineering, and technology to promote the quality of life and independent living of people with cognitive disabilities. “As a humanity award, our role is to establish standards of disability,” said Bill.
 
As Bill continued, he spoke by referring to "cognitive disabilities" as primarily referring to mental retardation and developmental disabilities, acquired brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, and severe and persistent mental illness. These conditions affect over 30 million American citizens -- seven percent of the U.S. population.
 
In conclusion, both Bill and Claudia said their goal is to improve people with cognitive diseases so they can be productive and have independent lives. We provide funding to immune system diseases to accomplish this.
 
“We give back in this way,” said Bill, our research is to make people productive in the work environment.”

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