Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show November 5th, 2009

President TRACIE MURRAY called the meeting to order and acknowledged Greeters STEVE POMEROY, STEVE SHEPHERD, and JOAN ROSSELLE; Photographer BAIDRA MURPHY; Cashier WYATT ALLEN; and Sergeant at Arms STEVE POMEROY and MIKE ABRAMS.  MONA ARMISTEAD thoughtfully provided the thought for the day. 

 
JERRY MOISON led us in the song for the day “What a Wonderful World” made famous by Louis Armstrong because it reminded him of a special moment with his father.  This is Jerry’s favorite song and there was a lot of emotion in the room as the group sang it.
 
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
There were no visiting Rotarians so President-elect DENNIS YOUNG welcomed guests of STEVE YARBROUGH, DON HULL, KURT HUEG, BAIDRA MURPHY, and BOB ADAMS.  Bob’s special guest, Adriana Ippati-Torrens is an artist who is putting on a French Faire fundraising event on Saturday, November 14th in Saratoga at West Valley College that he urged everyone to attend.  Part of the proceeds from the Faire goes to Partners for New Generations.
 

PROGRAM FOR NEXT WEEK
Dennis Young announced that our speaker will be Judge Len Edwards who will speak about Improving Outcomes for Foster Youth. 
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tracie announced that there will be a special Veteran’s Day celebration at the Cupertino Veteran’s War Memorial on 11/11 at 11:00 a.m. at Memorial Park in Cupertino.
 
There will be an Interact Club fundraiser focused on eradicating polio on Saturday and they are asking Rotary Clubs to support them.
 
JOHM MOSS issued a plea for help with the handbook and PHIL ROSE raised his hand.  John needs someone with good computer skills to get the club handbook ready for the printer.
 
ABBY AHRENS didn’t want to make her brown eyes blue, but did want to make her red badge blue so she announced there would be a 15-minute meeting for red badgers to discuss a new project after the meeting.
 
BOB ADAMS recognized NANCY TRAFICANTI for her dedication to Partners for New Generations (PNG) for the past 12 years and said the group is looking for another leader to help with placement for elementary school tutoring as Nancy is retiring.  If anyone is interested in working with co-coordinator, Liz Nyberg on the tutoring program in the elementary schools, and possibly junior high as well, please let Bob know.  Bob also encouraged the group to think about volunteering as a tutor for Junior High students as it is a very gratifying, though sometimes challenging, job.
 
A beardless SAM PESNER announced that he was wearing several hats but no beard due to Halloween.  His explanation was that he dressed up as a woman and that he was a very ugly woman.  A voice from the back of the room said, “still are.”  In fact, Sam said, he was such an ugly woman that one pint-size trick-or-treater asked him “What are you?”
 
But on to the announcements:  The good news is that Sam has found his successor as art show director.  MICHAEL STADLEN will be the new art show director in 2011 and will shadow Sam this year.  Sam then put on his Rotary Foundation hat and asked everyone to send in their checks made out to Rotary Foundation to P.O. Box 794, Los Altos, Ca  94023.  Your money will help pay for tuition and board for children or provide food and clean water in Nigeria and Haiti or for many other projects supported by the Foundation.
 
TRACIE announced that DUDE ANGIUS had surgery and was doing well.  He us currently in a rehab center in Pleasanton where he is recouping and rehabbing.  She said he appreciated the card sent by Rotary.

Just to remind you:  the French Fair is this coming Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Saratoga Community Center.  PNG will be there with an informational booth to expose the fairgoers to the fine work that PNG does and recruit new volunteers.  The Faire will generously donate 10% of their profits at the fair to Partners for New Generations.  This usually amounts to about $700 +.  More information about the fair can be found in last week's Rotator

There were CSA Holiday Sharing Program flyers on the table.  In case you didn't pick one up, here is a copy on our website. 

RON PACKARD gave his ten-minute talk and we learned that it all started with his parents who met in Los Angeles before the war.  (Actually it started with the Mayflower as some descendents have been traced back that far.)  On his father’s side, the family converted to Mormon in the 1930’s and his dad was the oldest of 16 children.  His mother’s family was 100% Italian and came to the United States in the 1890’s.  Both families opposed the marriage of his parents, but that didn’t stop them from marrying and having four sons.  His father was a professor at Stanford and BYU and his mother was a homemaker.
 
Ron and his wife, Crystal, have five children who are now starting to get married and have children of their own. Ron’s presentation was filled with lots of family photos with lots of people in them.  One family reunion photo featured color coordinated t-shirts designating all the cousins and their families. (Ron stood out in a yellow t-shirt.)
 
Ron is a lawyer with a degree from Hastings and originally set up his own firm in Palo Alto where he concentrated on tax and real estate syndication.  In 1989 he moved his practice to 4 Main Street where he does federal litigation.  He is also a chocolatier with a company he co-founded in 1984 that employs 130 people at its plant in Hollister.  They produce 30,000 pounds of delicious gourmet confections every day. (Thanks for the samples, Ron.)
 
Ron is also involved in local politics having started out on the Mountain View planning commission. He was then elected to city council where he served as Mayor.  In 2003 he was elected to the Los Altos City Council and served as Mayor in 2005.
 
He is an Eagle Scout and he served as Scout Master helping his sons become Eagle Scouts, too.  His hobby is woodworking and he has made playhouses for his grandchildren and recently remodeled a walk-in closet that he admits is over the top but his motivation was being close to his parents and helping them out as they aged at home.  He and his brothers were recently made honorary citizens of a little town in the mountaintops of southern Italy where their mother’s family was from.  Ron thanked the group for the opportunity to become a member of Rotary. 

 
IT WAS A FINE DAY FOR WHINING
SAM PESNER, again, fined himself $20 for being an ugly woman. 
Voice from the back of the room:  “Not enough!”
 
Sam then fined KENDRA GERSETH, who was supposed to be Fine Master but was just in from a business trip to Florida, $20 for not fining and for whining.
 
RON PACKARD was about to be fined $10 bucks per child but Sam said how about $20.  DAVE BERONIO then interrupted the fine session with a tale of Ron’s son Ben Packard tying fishing flies with carpet samples from under the dining room table and something about having to ride with JERRY MOISON and listening to him sing.  I think he joined the President’s club and JERRY got fined $10 bucks, too.
 
Sam and JEAN MORDO C’a va bien’d and quest que cest’d back and forth till there was a $30 fine extracted for recruiting and also for whining.  JOHN BOGARD joined the President’s Club for no reason at all.  WYATT ALLEN joined the Prez’s club for both his birthday and anniversary.
 
GREG DABB said JERRY MOISON needed to talk to his wife about a bet they made now that the Yankee’s won the World Series.  Jerry passed the buck saying, “It must have been Bill.” For a $20 fine, GREG announced that Friday the 13th he would be at KAREN’S (GESSERT) place, Vino 101 giving free chair massages and encouraged all to come and drink wine.
 
MIKE ABRAMS was fined for his birthday and anniversary according to the list that is never wrong.  Only half wrong said Mike and paid $50.
 
DICK DUHRING, who had not been fined this year, stood up and said his birthday wasn’t until March and sat down.  Sam asked him to maintain decorum and you could have heard a pin drop. $20.
 
GUY FARTHING gave $100 in honor of 25 years as a member of the club.  PAT GRAY said she had achieved the first level as a certified Image Consultant and is half way there so paid $50.  DICK HENNING said he would join the President’s Club without any advertising or any whining.
 
JOANNA MEDIN paid $30 for a priceless memory of an unplanned, but wonderful trip to DC, with her ten-year-old.
 

And, that was the end of the whining, er fining.

SPEAKER FOR THE DAY
BAIDRA introduced Ana Manzur-Allan, spokesperson for EMBRACE, a company that was started by Stanford grads to produce portable infant warmers that don’t require electricity and cost only $25.  Their goal is to save babies in developing countries and give all infants a chance for a healthy life. 
 
A Rotary World Peace Scholarship Alumnae, Ana told us that 4 million babies die every year due to hypothermia and showed us a video about the project. The infant warmers have an insert and are designed to be heated in hot water, then the baby is placed inside and can be kept warm for four hours. In developing countries there are not enough incubators, so keeping the baby warm is essential and will save lives. The infant warmers are still in prototype mode with clinical trials in progress.
 
The group hopes to raise $1.5 million and hopes to work directly with hospitals, governments and NGO’s to help with distribution.  More information can be found at www.embraceglobal.org.
 
TRACIE thanked Ana and asked her to sign a bookplate for a dictionary for a third grader in Los Altos.
 
The meeting was adjourned.  
 
 

Email from ALLART LIGTENBERG  in Nepal on 11-06-09

Hi All, The Maoists are at it again. Calling for strikes, blocking roads, organizing large demonstrations, some violence, many threats including closing the airport. At last years’ vote the country was very hopeful and upbeat, but we are back to the “same-old”: bickering political parties, no compromises, incompetent and no-vision government, etc. Very discouraging.

Enclosed are some pictures related to our Budhanilkantha village Matching Grant project: discussions and training with women groups on selection of various solar and sustainable devices for health, environment and income generation. Next week we plan to get started with the Matching Grant project in the remote village of Gatlang/Rasuwa.

TRF funds recently were wired to KTM Sunrise Rotary. We need a long day to drive to Gatlang in 4-wheel drive vehicle. Project is water pipes/taps, solar cooking/water/lighting, toilets, a community building display/training area to showcase solar/sustainable technologies, better insulation, develop ECO tourism for income generation. I’ll try to get you another set of pictures before I go to Gatlang.

Best, Allart

Email from ALLART LIGTENBERG in Nepal to the club: 11/8/09

Hi All, This set of pictures is related to an initiative of a newly formed group of 6 individuals, passionate about creating vocational jobs/training/entrepreneurs in green technologies for better health, environment, poverty alleviation. We call ourselves GREEN1905 - Group (or Gang) of Renewable Energy Nepal 1905), The initiative would be a major extension of a Matching Grant project we did 3 years ago with School of Renewable Energy.

Pictures show start of an ECO demo site (and school and village day care center) where some RE technologies are already in place, such as solar, hydro, “green” building/architecture, rainwater harvesting, bio-gas, composting, organic farming, biomass briquettes.

Dawa Steven Sherpa who brought my solar backpack cooker to the summit of Mt Everest last year, is planning a “zero-impact” ECO tourist REsort and the GREEN1905 will be working closely with him as well. Dawa recently became a Climate Change Representative of the Nepal Government and WWF (World Wildlife Fund), which should help advance “the cause”.

Best, Allart

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