Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show May 14th 2009

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

DWIGHT MATTHEWS said the thought for the day was from Woodrow Wilson: “I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.”  He also quoted a Mormon minister, “True happiness is not made in getting something.  True happiness is becoming something.  This can be done by being committed to lofty goals.”

The group under the direction of JEANNE MACVICAR sang a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.

Pres Seth thanked WYATT ALLEN for cashier duty.

VISITING ROTARIANS
President-elect TRACIE MURRAY introduced visiting Rotarian Jaime Angulo, President- Elect of San Jose North, who extended his club’s support to ROLAND PAYNE and ALLART LIGTENBERG for solar cooking and other projects their club is supporting in Baja, California. The other visiting Rotarian was John Miller from Burlingame Rotary. 

AND GUESTS
STEVE YARBROUGH, MARLENE COWAN, DAVID CASAS, and BEVERLY TUCKER introduced guests.   President Seth couldn’t help but ask Steve, whose classification is Senior Law, whether there was a junior law category.  All in good fun, Steve said yes he believed JOHN MCDONNELL fit that classification.

BIG BIRTHDAY
DICK HENNING came to the podium to acknowledge BILL PALMER’S 90th Birthday party by singing a song that is older than Bill---Happy Birthday!

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Please see ROY JONES if you have not yet received your Rotary shirt for the art show. 

JOHN MOSS announced that Kickout is only six weeks away.  The festivities start with a look at Seth’s year with good humor on June 25th at the Rotary Club meeting and will be followed a day later on June 26th with the official Kickout Celebration at Los Altos Golf & Country Club.  No host cocktails start at 6:30, dinner at 7:00 and the program at 8:30 p.m.  It promises to be a Gala Affair and though club members have already paid as part of their dues, it’s important to sign up on Club Runner.  Guests are $55.

JACK HEIDMILLER had several art show announcements regarding traffic and parking (the show will be over by the time you read this). 

RANDY GARD, filling in for STEVE SHEPHERD, reminded everyone to sign up for the June 5 golf tournament followed by a fellowship dinner at Michaels on June 5.

Introducing himself as the Grand Poobah of the art show, Past President SAM PESNER, encouraged everyone to wear their Rotary shirt and to put on a hat, suntan lotion and drink plenty of water as the weather is supposed to be hot this weekend for our biggest fundraiser of the year.

President-elect DENNIS YOUNG announced the nominations for the LAREF Board were PHIL ROSE and JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA to fill the two board vacancies.  Additional nominations can be made by contacting Dennis or RICK GLAZE.  Voting will be held on June 12, which is the date of LAREF's annual meeting.

In her role as co-chair of Relay for Life, KENDRA GJERSETH announced a fun fellowship and fundraiser at Vino 100 on May 31 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.  It’s $15 for a flight of sparkling wine and promises to be lots of fun for a good cause.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Today’s meeting featured the scholarship winners and it was a great day to honor the scholars and their parents, friends and supporters who were in attendance. Since the proceeds from the Art Show go to scholarships as well as other community and international projects, everyone was encouraged to come to the show. Pres Seth introduced scholarship chair KATHY BERRY and thanked her for the enormous amount of time spent on organizing this exciting annual event. Kathy asked the group for a round of applause for JOHN CORDOZA who helped her through the process by “asking the hard questions” of the students who are recognized for their academic work and community service.

She also introduced the scholarship committee:  MATT CABOT, BOB ADAMS, VALERIE CARPENTER, JOANNE KAVALARIS, MARLENE COWAN, and SHIV SHASTRI. 

ROTARY OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARDS
Leslie Crane, Principal at Blach Junior High, introduced two award winners by saying she was proud to deliver the “best of the best”: Karly Osborne and Albert (Teddy) Hiedmann.  Adjectives to describe the two included smart, humble, enthusiastic, reliable, friendly, team players.

Egan Junior High School Principal Brenda Dyckman said it was her 16th year in presenting outstanding students to the club.  This year she introduced Lizzie Jeffrey and Ben Marimon, whom she described as “best all around.” Words to describe the two: Intelligent, great social skills, warmth, makes friends wherever she goes, trustworthy, dependable, wiling to take risks, and when asked to do something, he will always say “yes”.

LOS ALTOS ROTARY SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
The criteria for high school scholarships are a significant community service, at least a 3.0 grade point average and demonstrated financial need. Scholarships include $400 for those who will attend junior college and $2500 for those attending a four-year college.

Doreen Bracamontes, a teacher at Alta Vista High School first thanked the Rotary Club for its assistance all year round and said it was “really wonderful to know we have community support.”  She introduced Mariana Jimenez and Nicholas Maldonado who have demonstrated strength of character and resiliency and are leaders on the campus.  Marianna will attend Santa Barbara Community College and Nick will attend Foothill College. 

Los Altos High School Principal, Wynne Satterwhite introduced her students, Ana Khutsishviili, William Martinez, and Erick Ramos, by saying they are quite impressive, truly giving and share time energy and talents. Erick will attend Chico State, Ana will go to Foothill College with plans to attend UCLA in the future, and William will attend UCLA next year.

Assistant Principal Sharon Chrisman of Mountain View High School introduced Alexina Chong, Anthony Meyers, Urvashi Reddy, Eureka Wu, describing them as the “best of the best”, wonderful examples to peers teachers and administrators. Alexina and Anthony will attend Foothill College; Urvashi will attend Santa Clara University; and Eureke will attend UC Davis.

Dan Meidinger, Principal at Mt. View Academy, introduced Phenpairin (JoJay) Khunpinij as an outstanding student from Thailand.  JoJay will attend Babson College in Boston to help continue progress in the family business but would also like to pursue law in the U.S. after getting a degree in law from Thailand University.

CHARLES COWAN SCHOLARSHIP FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
JOHN CORDOZA presented this special award given annually by MARLENE COWAN in memory of her late husband Charles who was a chemical and nuclear engineer. The recipient of this year’s award is Erica Ellis Mason who will study mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley. 

BILLY RUSSELL SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Billy’s daughter Jeanne Scherer presented this award to Eduardo Bent saying that her father was a student of history and politics who believed in everyone and tried to help anyone he could.  Jeanne told the group her dad would be very proud of Eduardo who is originally from Columbia and has a love of learning and inner drive to know more.  Just after the presentation, visiting Rotarian Jaime Angulo jumped up to congratulate Eduardo saying his heart was filled with pride for the fellow Columbian.

LEE LYNCH SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
MARGE BRUNO described the Lee Lynch Scholarship by describing Lee as absolutely dependable, generous, modest, and unbelievably hard-working; a consummate volunteer.  She was no “cream puff” according to Marge. She was direct, outspoken, a private person and was a great champion of women’s and girls rights.

The winner of the Lee Lynch Scholarship, Jennifer Shieh, was introduced by Sherrie Tasnady, School Counselor at St. Francis High School.   She told the group she could see why Jennifer was selected and was so well deserving of the award due to her donation of time through community service.  Jennifer will be attending UCLA to study biochemistry after a summer of research at UCSF.

KATHY BERRY acknowledged the students for their achievement and encouraged them to go the distance and preserve their dreams to coincide with Rotary’s theme of “Make Dreams Real”.

There was a standing ovation and round of applause for these fine young scholars before the meeting was adjourned.