Rotator eNewsletter

Los Altos Rotary Club

Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show

April 30 2009

Writer: Kendra Gjerseth - Photographer: Larry Madsen - Editor: Cindy Luedtke

This Thursday's Program: May 7 2009 Professor Thomas Nazario
The Children of the World - The Forgotten International

What would a Thursday be without three smiling Rotarians to welcome you to lunch? Today’s greeters JOE LOCONTE, PHIL ROSE and MIKE ABRAMS did a fine job of welcoming us into the meeting. The final meeting of April 2009 was kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance, led by PP BOB ADAMS. It was a big day for BOB, as his son-in-law was our guest speaker (and personal fine master).

Thought for the day was given by the most famous Beloit College Alum I know, PP SAM HARDING. Although it’s not March, being Irish is never out of fashion. JOHN SYLVESTER led us in “I’m Looking over a Four-Leaf Clover”. PE TRACIE did introductions, and we had one visiting Rotarian, DOUG ADAMS from Menlo Park and many Rotarians with guests, including a table full of PP BOB ADAMS and LOIS ADAMS’ family and friends.

Announcements were given, and the highlights include: DAVID SMITH, our LARC Community Service Director, reported of the great results from our Rotarians-at-Work Day. First, our club ‘done good’ by staining of gazebo at Lincoln Park. Our Young at Art winners will be so happy to see their artwork hung in the newly-spruced up gazebo during our Art in the Park this year. Next, LARC volunteers did a ‘supermarket sweep’ - barrels were filled – Interactors were involved, and we gathered over a HALF TON of food for the CSA food bank. Great work, LARC!

JEAN MORDO, our Art Show Treasurer, begged members to NOT leave phone messages regarding reimbursement and other vendor payments – he needs an email with the exact amount, the payee, and whether you want him to bring the check to the next meeting or have it mailed.

LAREF President, RICK GLAZE, announced that LAREF will meet May 6th. Red Badgers are more than welcome to attend.

Young at Art Chair, FRANK VERLOT, announced that we’re missing a 1’x4’ sign that was hung on the gazebo last year. Please let FRANK know if you have the sign.

Golf Chair, STEVE SHEPHERD, got some valuable mic time to announce that the Annual Rotary Golf and BBQ event is happening Friday, June 5th. Steve introduced his committee of ‘hard’ workers and said that this year’s BBQ will be at the Lakeside Café at Shoreline. We have the whole facility rented from 5:30 - 11 pm. Sign up soon because all money is due by May 29. The cost is $75/player for golf $45/person for dinner and $10/person for poker. Even if you’re not a golfer, join us for the BBQ dinner, which will be our last fellowship event of the year.

Honorary member, LOIS ADAMS, introduced Red Cross Volunteer, Bill Orden, who told the club of the high-tech rescue vehicle parked outside. The van is well-equipped with satellite communications, dispatch, wireless telephones, and medical supplies.

KENDRA GJERSETH announced that it’s time to start talking about Relay for Life. Our team sign ups will start, and our team goal is $20,000 this year. So let’s get ready to Relay! Join our team or donate by visiting our Rotary Ramblers team page at here.

JOHN CARDOZA, LARC Director of Membership, held a blue badge induction. Two STEVES (PP STEVE ANDERSON and STEVE SHEPHERD) co-sponsored RANDY GARD, while PP MARGE BRUNO sponsored FRANK VERLOT. Welcome to Blue Badge status, gentlemen.

Recognition was led by JOHN MCDONNELL while STUART BOWEN wielded the duck bucket. Among those recognized were:

JERRY TOMANEK has a big anniversary coming up. JERRY donated $40 to the LAREF corpus for his 40th, and joined the President’s Club!
AAALLART LIGTENBERG is happy to announce that he’s a prostate cancer survivor and urged the men in the room to “have your PSA blood test done today.” ALLART joined the President’s Club.
RICK GLAZE is holding a reading and book signing of his book at Main Street Café and Books on Friday, May 16th at 6pm.
JOHN SYLVESTER spent two weeks in Maui visiting his daughter and son in celebration of his 73rd birthday, so also joined the President’s Club.
JACK HIGGINS has been traveling the world and not here much. He’s got his second 510K for the device he’s been developing, so pledged $60 now and an IOU for $40
SCOTT RICHES announced that the Los Altos Town Crier did a great article on Pinewood School and his family. He thinks it’s worth $50 (although already a member of the President’s Club).

And since we don’t give enough recognition to the red badgers, JOHN called to the front of the room GEORGE ZETINA, JOHN HAMMERSCHMIDT, LOU WELLMEIER, BEVERLY TUCKER, and LEW FRASER. They were good sports and got some good ‘face time’ with the club; at a price, of course.

CALLING ALL WRITERS: We are looking for a few good people to join our Rotator Writer's crew. With the new Rotary Year coming up, we would like to add 2 or 3 people to the group. Depending on how many people volunteer, you would be writing about once every six weeks to eight weeks.

The task is to write down the important and meaningful events of the meeting, and submit it our editor, PP CINDY LUEDTKE. She will edit it for style and submit it to our publishing group, (MATT CABOT, DAVE SNOW and STEVE POMORY). They will combine the pictures submitted and publish it to the club and friends of the club, hopefully on the following Monday. If you are interested, take a look at the "Rotary Style Sheet here and then send MATT CABOT an email indicating your interest.

PP BOB ADAMS introduced our speaker, his son-in-law, Bob Reedy. Bob Reedy is the VP of Land, Building, and Real Estate for Stanford University and is responsible for the over 8,200 acres Stanford owns.

Bob’s talk was very informative, and from it we learned that Stanford was organized in 1891 (Berkeley 1868). Stanford and Berkeley have had many match-ups on the football field, several of which Berkeley has lost, and a few other facts about the University:

In 2008=2009 school year, there are 6,812 undergraduates and 10,280 graduate students.
The Class of 2013 – 30,349 applicants and 2,400 admitted. The cost to attend is about $50K/year with tuition and room & board
The 2007-08 school year revenue was $3.7B, and student tuition makes up only 16% of this.
Stanford campus has 49 miles of roads, a 49 megawatt power plant, and approximately 700 buildings.

http://www.losaltosrotary.org/Rotators2008-2009/Rotatorstylesheet.docStemplate updated: 06/27/08