Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show April 16 2009

President SETH opened the meeting with flag salute led by SCOTT FLEMING. MARLIS MCALLISTER's Thought for the Day was appropriate for mid-April woes: "There are only two kinds of people who complain about taxes: men (pause) and women." VAL CARPENTER led "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in a well-coordinated round with the musical assistance by visiting former LARC member Meg Solera, who rowed her boat in time to the music. If only the rest of our lives were so perfectly coordinated!

• League of Women Voters will host a Ballot Measures presentation May 19, 7 pm, Los Altos Library (COETA CHAMBERS)
  Curators from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, Russia will speak at LARC next week. (KAREN FOX)
• Los Altos Chamber CEO JULIE ROSE announced the Los Altos Business Expo, April 23, 4-7 pm in the Los Altos Youth Center.
• Green Town Los Altos urges you to cease buying plastic bottles, as 70 million (was that “Million”?) are consumed daily in the USA and create toxic waste. This information was brought to you by our Health and Safety guru, GREG DABB.
• SANDY WHIPPLE suggests its time to pay for your LARC Progressive Dinner party taking place on May 25.
• LARC Rotarians at Work Day, May 25, needs volunteers and tables/chairs. See DAVID SMITH, our director of Community Service.
• STEVE ANDERSON  of Green Town and LARC announced a LARC fundraiser 5:30 - 7:30 April 20th at Vino 100.  Come for fellowship and a free massage by Gregg Dabb.
• Two LARC members are needed for the District Celebration Sunday breakfast to honor LARC members who passed away this year; LEE LYNCH, RON INCERPI and BILLY RUSSELL. (SETH MANNING)

After a boisterous Fellowship time, Finemaster STEVE ANDERSON took us to task by posing a tough question: How many taxes do we routinely pay?

• SAM HARDING was immediately fined for guessing just 7 taxes.
• SAM PESNER offered to pay $24 for announcing that Willy Mays had visited his office for optometric services. (BOB ADAMS suggested an alternate fine relating to his 605 homeruns scored.)
• Not to be outdone in bragging rights, JOANN KAVALARIS countered that Willy was her dear friend and customer and had personally invited her to the opening of the Giants season.
• MEG SOLERA announced that her son had been accepted to Harvard Business School, and, as a visitor, escaped a fine (though VAL CARPENTER had promised to pay her fine).
• MIKE ABRAMS was nailed for his super tan captured in Siem Reap, Cambodia and Bali.
• JEAN HOLLANDS guessed a whopper 54 taxes, and it cost her, as one of many wrong guesses to this tough question.
• MEL KAHN was fined for having won a two-man golf team competition last year, which he will re-enter this year.
• DICK BLANDING dedicated his fine to his mother who recently passed away.
• GEORGE STAFFORD also guessed wrong: 32 different taxes.
• KAREN FOX offered to pay a fine on behalf of DENNIS YOUNG (our highest LARC fine contributor!) because he actually answered her phone call on Tax Day.
• JULIE ROSE announced that our Finemaster STEVE ANDERSON will be the 2009 recipient of the Walter and Marie Singer Red Bowtie Award by the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce.
• JEAN NEWTON was glad to announce that both her sons are now gainfully employed (and one is executive chef at the Urban Tavern, San Francisco.)
• STEVE POMEROY wrongly guessed 23 taxes.
• Right-as-usual SANDIE WHIPPLE provided the right answer as 12 taxes. Aren't we smart to have her as our Club Treasurer.  The deal is, she got no deal at all.  It cost her 30 bucks!
• DICK HENNING then corrected the Finemaster, since he remembered the Poll Tax had been eliminated over 100 years ago. Wow, what a memory!

Report on the District Celebration
This year’s conference was well attended and here are just some highlights;
 
On Friday at lunch, Dave Dravecky, former Giants pitcher in the 80’s, told his emotional story of beating cancer, and finding that being a professional baseball pitcher turned out not to be his greatest purpose in life after all.
 
Some of the daily forums at the conference were unique and “relevant” for this year.   One was focused on what clubs could do to “go green”.  Another was wine tasting.  There was also a guided tour of the Intel Museum and a special session on World Networking Groups. 
 
A large part of the agenda for the Saturday Lunch was to honor DUDE ANGUIS and special recognition for the work of the Los Altos Rotary Club and its Rotary Aids Project begun 20 years ago and still going strong.  It turned out Dude was unable to make it to lunch, but MARY PROCHNOW along with DICK HENNING did an excellent job in describing the history of RAP and its many accomplishments and illustrating to the group that the actions of one man can really make a difference in the world.  The Los Altos Rotary Members who attended were bursting with pride.  Even the keynote speaker of the luncheon, Robert Hull, the Rotary International President’s Representative, referred back to the Dude and the Los Altos Rotary Club in his speech, as an example of what Rotary can accomplish in the world.
 
District Governor, Gary Citti chose DUDE ANGUIS as this year’s Rotarian of the Year for the entire District 5170.  RAP President, RICH CASEY accepted the award on Dude’s behalf. 
 
The hospitality suites were outstanding this year.  Each area was asked to come up with an international food and beverage theme.  Area 6 had an African theme complete with a lion at the entrance.  Ireland, Afghanistan, India, and Surfing, USA were represented by different areas. 
Congratulations to STEVE (and Kathy) ANDERSON and his LARC crew for working with the Area 10 Clubs and putting together a spectacular Hawaiin- Polynesian spread both Friday and Saturday evening.   Thanks to Ming’s and Chef Chu’s, the food was amazing. And…the Mai Tai’s were fabulous!
 
Dinner followed the hospitality both nights.  Saturday evening, the presidents of the 60 clubs in the district appeared on stage with their respective 10 Area Governors.  This year, each club was able to brag about their signature project and mention their most senior members.  It was amusing when Dick Henning, the announcer of each club, got to his own Los Altos Club and saw his own name on the list of most senior members! 
 
Later, the Joe Sharino Band proved to be well worth staying for.  The dance floor was filled with Rotarians and Rotary Exchange Students doing line dances and twisting the night away.
 
Next year’s District celebration is taking place in Monterey next year.  Be sure not to miss the fun and attend.

Program SCOTT FLEMING introduced the speaker, Enrique Flores representing East Side Heroes, a mentoring, counseling and scholarship program for at-risk youth in East San Jose’s public high schools. Enrique was the first person in his family tree to graduate from college, and he went on to earn a Master’s Degree in social counseling. He grew up in East San Jose. 

Life was so rough and gangs were an influence on them. He and his brother each suffered stab wounds related to gang activity.  

A chance conversation between his father, a custodian at Santa Clara University, and a priest led to a scholarship offer for Enrique to attend Bellarmine College Preparatory. Since then, his passion has been to help other at-risk young people. As Diversity Director and Counselor at Bellarmine, Enrique’s job was to recruit 25 low-income kids, 20 of whom have now gone on to graduate from college.

Now at the YWCA’s Youth Services, he serves four high schools in East San Jose. As a volunteer, he continues to raise funds for East Side Heroes. Enrique’s video interviews with a couple of East Side Heroes demonstrated how well he has inspired them to stay in school and rise above their social environment.

Extending the program to also support girls’ education, Enrique introduced Sara Zunita, a Junior at Notre Dame High School.  Sara found it easy to get by with passing grades in public school and feels much better challenged in her “dream school”, Notre Dame.  She put forth a wish that her sister and her mentee could also afford the cost of attending Notre Dame.  Responding to her plea, a visiting Rotarian, Rushton Hurley offered $100 if a LARC member would match it. MEL KAHN promptly matched his $100, so the girls of East Side Heroes, a 501(c )3, will now benefit from their generosity. More information is available at www.eastsideheroes.org.

Enrique invites us to attend a banquet celebrating “kids beating the odds”, April 25, 2-4 pm at Mayfair Community Center, 2039 Kammerer Ave, (across from Lee Mathson Middle School, no city given), 95116. The banquet is free.  But bring $5 bills to participate in the raffle to raise money for students needing scholarships. Scott Fleming has a list of students needing scholarships for secondary/college-prep education.

rev 4/20/09 mac

template updated: 06/27/08