Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show December 10th 2009

Writer: Marlene Cowna  - Photographer: Larry Madsen  - Editor:  Cindy Luedtke

This Thursday's Program: Dec 17 2009 Mountain View HS Choral Group  Holiday Music

 
Thanks to the many Rotarians who help our meetings flow so smoothly all year. This week the Greeters were ABBY AHRENS, RON PACKARD, and DAVID CASAS. Sergeants-at-Arms were STEVE POMEROY and MIKE ABRAMS.  Our ace photographers were LARRY MADSEN and JERRY TOMANEK. After a lengthy Google search, GEORGE STAFFORD gave us a very practical Thought for the Day: “Turn off your electronic gadgets’ noise to enjoy the peace and quiet.”    Rudolph the blinkin’ Red -Nosed Reindeer arrived to sing his theme song while looking a lot like JERRY MOISON.
 
Guests included Bob Denebeim of East Palo Alto Rotary who announced that this year’s Group Study Exchangees will come from Brazil. VAL CARPENTER introduced Karen Greguras of the PARC, Arts and Recreation Commission, STEVE YARBROUGH introduced Barbara Small, DON HULL introduced Von Packard, JOHN MCDONNELL introduced ballet teacher Ina Baher, and RICH CASEY introduced Dr. Art Ammann, President of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention.
 
After some boisterous fellowship time, President TRACIE reminded us that the handicapped parking spaces at Garden House are there for our handicapped members and visitors.  

She led off the announcements by recognizing three LARC members who had just won LA-LAH Joint Community Volunteer Service Awards:

• ALLART LIGTENBERG sponsored by LARC for his international efforts to teach solar cooking, BONNIE BURDETT for PNG’s mentoring and tutoring in Los Altos schools, and honorary LARC member DAVE LUEDTKE for volunteering as project manager for the new home for the Mountain View Day Workers Center. (Did you catch that broad smile on PAST PRESIDENT CINDY’s face?)
• The Kiwanians would appreciate volunteers helping at their Christmas tree lot, where TRACIE has already volunteered.
• She recognized BILL BALSON for leading the Red Badgers’ Gardner Bullis School Library project and presenting their check for $5,655 to the Los Altos School District Board on Dec. 7.
• TRACIE also encouraged us to contribute to the tenth annual Town Crier Holiday Fund. “Of significance to Rotarians is the number of community non-profits supported by the fund:
  • RotaCare
  • Partners for New Generations
  • Community Services Agency
  • CHAC
  • Hidden Villa
  • Help One Child
  • Music for Minors.
  Contributors are listed in the paper each week. A dollar doubling matching fund is supported by several local foundations and individuals including an annual grant from Packard for $20,000. The Fund's fiscal sponsor is Silicon Valley Community Foundation which provides tax receipts for all contributions.”

Health Flash from JOHN CARDOZA: RotaCare will be giving H1N1 (swine) flu shots to the general public next week from Monday the 14th through Tuesday the 22nd of December at the RotaCare facility.   All Rotarians are invited to receive the vaccine. There is no cost although any contribution to RotaCare would be greatly appreciated.
Hours are as follows:

• Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays: 5-7 pm.
• Tuesdays and Fridays: 9-11am

Register early for the June 20-23, 2010 Rotary International Convention in Montréal, Québec, Canada and save big. After the Dec. 15 deadline, fees will rise, then rise again after March 31. You can register online at www.Rotary.org

Other Important Announcements:

• KENDRA GJERSETH reminds us to give her a check for $55 each to attend the Holiday Party at the Jesuit Retreat Center, 6-10 pm, Sunday Dec. 20 where JOHN SYLVESTER’s Jazz Connection will play, certified sommelier KAREN GESSERT will pour and all will enjoy a jolly good time. KENDRA needs to give the head count to the caterer soon.
• JERRY MOISON continues to collect donated laptop computers for Kenya’s E-Agriculture group. The Resource Area for Teachers will “sanitize” laptops for export, DAVID CASAS assured us.
• PAST PRESIDENT SAM encourages all to give before the end of December to the Rotary Foundation. He even offered a two-part joke (something about “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hydrant” and hitting both a tree and a hydrant because he couldn’t decide between the wood and the iron.)
• While thanking LARC volunteers for delivering meals to the RotaCare Clinic, DAN O’DONNELL advised us to read the Town Crier’s page 14 article on the RotaCare Free Clinic.
• NANCY SIMON passed a cash donation box to benefit the Community Services Agency Holiday Program.  Next Thursday will be the last chance to donate.  A gift card, cash or a check written to CSA will do the job.
• JOANNA MEDIN donned her rapper’s sunglasses and rhymed, “My name’s Joanna, I’m the Donation Queen” to encourage donations to the January 21 silent auction benefitting RotaCare.

Finemistress, KENDRA collected dollars from:

• KAREN GESSERT, who will depart Jan. 15 on her new job (as working/vacationing sommelier) sailing to Mexico, Alaska, Australia, and Asia.
• CINDY WEMYSS joined the President’s Club for telling how she helps clients build wealth and pass it along efficiently.
• BILL BALSON joined the President’s Club to celebrate the granting of his patent for electronic information exchange after 8 years of rebutting application denials.
• DAVE BERONIO offered $20 and got the chance to tell about his banking career.
• BILL MOISON gave $20 because “my jokes are better than Pesner’s”.
• P P SAM quickly countered (for another $20), “No, they’re not!”

RICH CASEY introduced today’s program: AIDS in Africa. The tragedy of the 15 million African children orphaned by AIDS was described by three leading authorities.
 Dr. Arthur Ammann, President of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention accepted a $7,400 check from RICH, President of Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project which was Global Strategies’ portion of the total $22,500 raised at RAP’s Nov. 11 Child AIDS Prevention symposium in Palo Alto. Dr. Ammann diagnosed the first case of pediatric AIDS at UC San Francisco and now leads Global Strategies’ efforts in Liberia using counseling, treatment, and the medication Nevirapine to halt mother-to-child transmission of HIV during the birth process. In Africa, availability of AIDS treatment drugs for children is even slower than for adults. The best treatment is thus prevention of mother-to-child transmission. LARC’s Child AIDS Prevention project will continue to raise funds for better health outcomes in Liberia.
 
At the two clinics that Dr. Ammann last visited, 560 women were counseled, including 26 who tested HIV positive, all of whom received anti-retroviral drugs. ALLART LIGTENBERG was instrumental in getting Tiburon Rotary Club and Belair School to provide a commercial-sized solar cooker to Liberia.
 
Liberia is historically linked to America. In the 19th century, many freed American slaves migrated to settle there. The only female president of an African country, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, is scheduled to speak here at the Celebrity Speakers Forum in April, 2010.
 
The two speakers today were Ruthann Richter, Director of Media Relations at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Karen Ande, co-authors of Face to Face: Children of the AIDS Crisis in Africa showed documentary photos of Kenyan children struggling, and eventually succeeding, to survive and even get an education after losing their parents and a series of relatives and foster parents to AIDS. Ruthann read a poem titled, “The Death Child” which describes the feelings of an orphan who was wrongly called “a bad omen” because of his many relatives who died of AIDS. 83% of HIV positive Kenyans do not even know they are infected, and so the infections continue to circulate.
 
There are certainly heroes working for the AIDS orphans, people like Natasha Martin of the Grassroots Alliance for Community Education who has personally adopted and supports 200 orphans. Richter and Ande’s fundraising photo journal of personal stories can be purchased online at www.FaceToFaceInAfrica.com to benefit grass roots organizations focused on AIDS in Africa. Today, $20 of their $50 book sales was donated to RAP and their Child AIDS Prevention program.