Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show April 15 2010

President TRACIE MURRAY called the meeting to order and ROLAND PAYNE led the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
Tracie thanked Greeters ANNE ARJANI, COETA CHAMBERS, DAVE SMITH, STEVE POMEROY; photographer RANDY GARD, Sergeant at Arms STEVE POMEROY and MIKE ABRAMS, and cashier PP WYATT ALLEN.
 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
PP STEVE ANDERSON asked, “What’s funny about Tax Day?” and replied, “Absolutely nothing.”  So, he decided to share some wit and wisdom including the following quips (which, honestly, may have become fractured in translation) “Baseball is the heart and mind of America”. “ No one gossips about the virtues of others”. “It’s better to a do a job right than explain why you didn’t”.
 
SONG FOR THE DAY
JEANNE MACVICAR led us in song, accompanied by BONNIE BURDETT and PEN MONA ARMISTEAD.  While Bonnie mostly sang and giggled, Mona provided a full-on acting out of“itsy-bitsy-spider-type “rendition of April Showers Bring May Flowers. Tracie said of Mona  “It’s a symptom of being the president elect-elect”.
 
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
Since President Elect DENNIS YOUNG was off doing taxes, Tracie handled the introduction of the only visiting Rotarian, District Governor nominee Arley Marley of Sunnyvale Rotary and husband of our own MARY MARLEY.  Rotarians with guests included LARRY CHU, who introduced Rob Peters of First and Main Sports Lounge and DAVID SMITH, who introduced Gary Walbeck, candidate for Los Altos Hills City Council.
 
SUNSHINE
Tracie passed around a card for DWIGHT MATHEWS who just had surgery for prostate cancer. Tracie said he was doing well and we definitely wish him well.
 
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
HANDBOOK ON THE HORIZON:
BONNIE BURDETT announced that a combined 2010 and 2011 handbook will be published and said everyone needed to look at their listing on club runner to update the info by Monday, April 19.  KAREN OWEN is heading up the project and it’s important to make sure everything is correct or it will go to print as is.  MATT CABOT is sending an email reminder. If you are having troubles logging onto our site, and updating your profile, check this out first, and then email Matt if you need further assistance.  It is very important that your personal information is up to date because this is the information that will be in the new Handbook. 
 
The next Wine & Cheese will be held on April 30 at COETA CHAMBER’S home according to JOHN SYLVESTER.  He still needs someone to host the May mixer, so please let him know if you can open your home for socializing next month.
 
NEW BUDGET:
SANDIE WHIPPLE said MATT CABOT would send out the new budget in the next few days.  Please watch for it or look at Clubrunner or here  and call her if you have any questions.
 
Relay for Life will be held on June 12 & 13.  KATHY BERRY said the chairman this year is Duncan MacVicar and that Jeanne has put together an outstanding array of food and entertainment.  The event will be held at a new venue: Egan Junior High.  Although the 3:00 am spot is already taken, Kathy urged us to sign up to walk for the remaining 23 hours of the RFL event.
 
LOS ALTOS CHAMBER BUSINESS EXPO will be held on Thursday, April 22 at the Los Altos Youth Center from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm., according to JULIE ROSE, who also announced the new Los Altos maps are available at the Chamber.
 
RED BADGERS:  Everywhere you go, people want to know, who they are? That was kind of hard to tell, since the entire committee donned red and black “Red Badger” masks to get the message out about their fundraising event to beautify the Garden House asking us:  Will we buy it? Will we help them? It’s going to be fun for everyone and it involves buying candy, so watch out for more to come.
 
KIWANIS JOINT MIXER AND MEETING
Tracie announced there would be a joint Los Altos Chamber of Commerce mixer hosted by Los Altos Kiwanis and Los Altos Rotary on April 28 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Los Altos History Museum.   In addition, eleven Los Altos Rotary members will attend the Kiwanis meeting next Tuesday.
 
DISTRICT CONFERENCE APRIL 23 to 25
Our own PP DICK HENNING will be interviewing Judge Adriandne Symon on Saturday.  Don’t miss it. Brochures were on the table.
 

TEN-MINUTE TALK
Recent John Gardner winner, PP SAM PESNER, shared his life story that began in Hollywood where he was born.  His grandparents came to the U.S. from Russia in the 1900s and were furriers.  He remembers learning not to stick your finger in a chinchilla cage at a very young age.  His father was a good baseball player and was recruited by the Giants, but his grandmother refused to sign the contract so he missed out joining his best friend, Mel Ott, in that career and went on to work at Northrup Aircraft. Sam’s mother wanted to be an M.D. but girls didn’t do that so she worked in an office. Sam spent most of his young life in southern California, though there was a cold and hot stint in Kansas that he hated.  Sam graduated from high school in 1964, was senior class president and managed the football and basketball team because at 5’8” tall and 120 pounds, he says he wasn’t that great at sports.  He attended UCLA, but then graduated from the Los Angeles College of Optometry.  He actually decided to become an optometrist at age 14, which is exactly the same age his partner, PP Steve Anderson, also decided to become an optometrist.  Sam described their partnership as a “marriage made in heaven.”
 
Believe it or not, Sam became a gym rat at the original Gold’s Gym and worked on his abs, though his nickname at the gym was Bones. That’s where he got to know Arnold before he became the Governator.  Sam eventually could lift 225 pounds and squat 375 pounds, but Arnold still giggled the day Sam showed off his abs.
 
Sam was married to Stephanie, a traveling artist, for four years but the traveling took its toll on the marriage.  Then one day a beautiful blond named Lou came walking into his office. They have now been married 31 years and are still dating.  Their daughter Leah is a tattoo artist and their son Brian works at Zitune in Los Altos.  Sam described his Boy Scout career as living vicariously through his son Brian who became an Eagle Scout, since his mother wouldn’t let him go camping because it was too dangerous.  Sam was a Cub Scout Master and said it was one of the best jobs he ever had.
 
Sam opened his optometry practice in 1982 over on El Camino Real in Los Altos, joined with Steve Anderson in 1987 and recently became the sole owner of Los Altos Optometric after Steve retired.
 
Sam said he loves being in Rotary, loved being president and especially liked telling a joke at the end of each meeting.  Today’s joke was about a woman whose husband died in Jerusalem and she could choose to bury him there for $150 or ship him home for $5,000.  She said no thanks to burying him there, since she had heard about another guy who died in Jerusalem, but came back and is still around.  (Ok, folks, face it, no one call tell a joke quite like Sam.)
 
 

A FINE TIME
Fine Master JERRY MOISON (duck bucket by BAIDRA MURPHY) asked for volunteers before he asked questions about the history of the U.S. Tax system.  PP SAM PESNER gave $100 in honor of his honor as a Gardner Award Winner and thanked PP ROY LAVE and the Los Altos Community Foundation.  PP DON HULL just became a grandfather; STEVE POMEROY is now the proud parent of a UCLA business school student; WARD WILLDANGER  sent around a pledge for a walkathon; JOHN SYLVESTER announced his birthday and joined the president’s club as we sang to him; MARV PATTERSON gave $20 if we would promise not to sing anymore; ESTHER ENG said Rotary was a great venue for solving problems, as meeting with the visiting city manager, Doug Schmitz, solved one of hers.
 
There was a long list of people who had not paid a thing and not surprisingly, none of them were in attendance.  So, Jerry asked tax questions and “recognized” MARY MARLEY, BUD OLIVER, PP DICK DUHRING, and PP WYATT ALLAN even though at one point Jerry said he felt like a piece of cheese, as he was “aging while waiting for the answers.”
 

NEWEST MEMBER
JOHN CARDOZA introduced our newest Rotarian JAN MINER, a former Los Altos Rotarian who is rejoining the club, and her sponsor MARY MARLEY.  Jan is a native Californian and has had a diverse career in education, health care, and gerontology.  Welcome back Jan!
 

SPEAKER OF THE DAY
ABBY AHRENS introduced our speaker, Neil Ross, a respected Los Altos orthodontist who has improved the smiles of over 6,000 patients in his career. Neil told the group he was involved in Rotary almost 30 years ago when Dick Durhing was president.
 
Neil gave us an overview of the Stanford Medical Youth Service Program, a program he has been involved with for 20 years or so.
 
The Stanford Medical Youth Science Program works to increase knowledge about the sciences and health professions, and offers guidance about the college admissions process to low-income and/or under-represented minority students.
 
Neil said there is a huge crisis in education where under-represented minorities don’t have access to education, and consequently, set their personal goals very low and don’t go on to higher education.  The goal of the program is to reach the bottom of society and encourage them to become scientists, engineers and physicians so they can go back to their community as role models. 
 
The program brings 24 disadvantaged students to Stanford to live in the dorm and to shadow doctors, prepare for the SAT, connect with mentors, and learn how to appreciate science.
 
It’s tough for under-represented minorities to graduate from college.  Current statistics show these graduation rates:
Asian 51%, Caucasian 31%, African American 16% Hispanic 8%, and Native American less than ½ of one percent.
 
Those who participate in the Stanford Medical Youth Science program have a different result. The success rates of those graduating from college, after participating in this program, are 84%. Of those, 78% are African American, 81% are Hispanic, 82% are Native American and 73% are Asian.  Many go on to become doctors, scientists, etc.
 
Neil shared several success stories of students who had been helped by the program that relies on grants and donations.   For more information, check out http://smysp.stanford.edu.
 
Neil was thanked by Tracie for an informative program and given a bookplate to sign for a dictionary for a Los Altos elementary student.
 
The meeting was adjourned.