Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show September 24th 2009

Greeters, FRANK VERLOT, PAUL SHUTZ AND NANCY DUNAWAY

Ingrid Tsurke, a vivacious fellow Rotarian from Northern Sweden paid our club a visit and brought the meeting to an energizing start by bringing a map to show the crowd exactly where Sweden is.
 
Guests included Joanne Boland, Elizabeth, a Los Angeles resident, originally from Ethiopia, and guest of KENDRA GJERSETH, Steve Bianchi, a broker/realtor with Realty World on First Street in Los Altos.
 

Announcements
The Los Altos Fall Festival will be held on October 3rd and 4th .   Be sure to bring your friends and family to this fun-filled event.  Proceeds benefit the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce.
 
JEAN NEWTON announced that the Los Altos Rotary Aids Project will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary on Oct 11th at the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto on Sunday from 4-6:30 PM.  Along with the Tribute to RAP, there will be a Child AIDS Prevention Symposium.  This is also, the official kickoff of a new  initiative for Child AIDS Prevention,  the subject of today’s featured speaker and fellow Rotarian, RICH CASEY
 
PP SAM PESNER announced that on the evening of October 3rd, will be the Fiesta of the Americas to raise money for “Coaniquem”, the burned children’s centers in South America.  Tickets for the event are $75.00.   $700 to provide one child with needed treatment for an entire year.  In years past, the Los Altos Club has sponsored as many as three children.  One can also purchase a raffle ticket to support the event and purchase a chance to win a trip to Chile.
 
October 15th is the District 5170’s “Avenues of Service”.  Attending this event is a great way for Rotarians, especially Red Badgers to learn much more about Rotary and its areas of service locally, regionally and worldwide. 
 
KENDRA announced that LARC members are doing a great job in turning in make-ups for missed meetings.

10 Minute Talk
Aileen Low, who demonstrated her masterful talent for improvisation and humor, kept the audience entertained as she tried to control her slideshow that had a mind of its own.  In between the many times she spent making sure the slideshow was in sync with her talk, we learned that Aileen is a first generation American from Hong Kong and has spent the last 33 years working in areas of finance.  In the most recent ten years, she has been a financial advisor and is currently studying hard for her upcoming CFP exam.   

Giving Back 
JEAN MORDO, Vice President of LAREF, presented two checks to worthy recipients;  $10,000 to the Los Altos Rotary Aids Project, and  $10,000 to Partners for  New Generations.  /> &n& 

Child AIDS Prevention Project
RICH CASEY introduced a new child AIDS prevention program for African mothers and children.   The goal is to prevent the transmission of AIDS to infants from their mothers, which occurs in 1/3 of births in Africa.  Of this 1/3, 75% of the children die within three years.  It only costs $1 to treat both a mother and her baby, and doing so would eliminate ½ of all such AIDS infections passed at birth. 
 

• Donate to the program
• Initiate a local project - Talk to Rich about how you can make a difference.
• Get more Rotarians involved by visiting and speaking to other Rotary Clubs; just as Rich did on Thursday.

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