Los Altos Rotary Club eNewsletter "Rotator"

Los Altos Rotary Club

Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show

July 27 2010

Writer:Matt Cabot - Photographer: Randy Gard - Editor: Cindy Luedtke

This Thursday's Program: Aug 5 2010 Dr. Todd Anhalt, California Skin Institute

Greeters, BILL PALMER, PE MONA ARMISTEAD, MARGE SENTOUS and LONNIE GARY presented a welcoming sight to Rotarians and visitors. We had a new face collecting our money today, KAREN OWEN who deftly took my money.

We had a pretty good crowd today. I would guess in the low 100s, maybe a little less, but still a great crowd for mid-summer. President DENNIS YOUNG rapped the meeting to order at 12:15 with a call for JACK KELLY to lead us in the pledge.

Our Thought-For-The-Day was given by ALLART LIGTENBERG who did a bang up job. At first I thought he was THE program, but did get to the point with a very clever PowerPoint presentation. (That had to be a first). There was a lot of other stuff but his point was "The Cycle of Life”, and, “Wishes for Success." To illustrate these points, he defined what success was at progressing ages. You pick your age, and then see if you are successful:

When 3, success is: NOT TO WET YOUR PANTS
When 12, success is: HAVE FRIENDS
When 16, success is: HAVE A DRIVER'S LICENSE
When 21, success is: HAVE SEX
When 35, success is: HAVE MONEY
When 50, success is: HAVE MONEY
When 60, success is: HAVE SEX
When 75, success is: HAVE A DRIVER'S LICENSE
When 80, success is: HAVE FRIENDS
When 90, success is: NOT TO WET YOUR PANTS

It was funnier on the PowerPoint. ALLART also talked about the success we at LARC have attained, but this newsletter is already too long to go into that.

Uncharacteristically, there were no visiting Rotarians, but we did have several guests, brought by ABBY AHRENS, PAUL NYBERG, and LONNIE GARY. We also had a couple of visitors, whom, I am sorry didn't get their names.

LARC has invented a new way to see who is not coming to the meetings. Just take a look at the name tags at the Handbook pick up table. Let's see; ROGER ENG, TOM POTTERFIELD, DAVID BERGMAN and a whole bunch of others.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
CHUCK LINDAUER, new Director of New Generations said that we need to restart the Youth Exchange project. Speaking of youths, he also mentioned that he is looking for housing for three months for an exchange student from Hong Kong for three months. Talk to him about either.

RANDY GARD mentioned that he is still looking for one or two more photographers for Rotator duty on a periodic basis.

MATT CABOT (although he didn't make the announcement) would like at least one more writer for periodic duty writing the Rotator. If you are interested in a job that only comes up once a month or so, take a look at the Rotator Writer's Style Sheet.

10 MINUTE TALK
PE MONA ARMISTEAD gave her 10 minute talk today. She cloaked her talk in a fairytale theme. She did mention that her life is not and was not like a fairytale, but did talk about how she got to where she is today. After the talk, I think everyone of us is very happy that she will be our next president. Not to take anything away from President DENNIS, but, wow! What an accomplished lady.

I have to admit listening last year to the accomplishments of (then PE) DENNIS YOUNG in his 10 minute talk, I felt the same. I guess the point is, there are an awful lot of people in our club who are very accomplished. Most of the time, we don't know the half of it. So these 10 minute talks are quite informative.

IT'S A FINE KETTLE YOU GOT US IN
JULIE ROSE's fining theme was all about golf. The Chamber has its annual golf tournament this Monday (probably before you have had a chance to read this), so that was the impetus for the theme. Julie got 13 people for between $20 and $30 bucks. One person, LARRY MADSEN is just back after missing six months due to health problems. Welcome back Larry. Now, $30 please!

SPEAKER OF THE DAY

PP ROY LAVE left his introductory notes on the printer, and I suggest he do that next time as well. Roy did a very nice job of introducing the two speakers, Vickie Epstein and Dana Rhine who spoke about Avenidas. You can get a better glimpse of Avenidas by looking at their website.
The goal of Avenidas is to allow seniors in our community to stay in their own home as they age. In fact it is called an "aging in place" service. It is membership program for healthy Seniors.
They offer programs in:

social events
home maintenance referrals
medical referrals

Their service is a phone call-driven service. Approximately 50% of the calls concern property maintenance. The other 50% is usually regarding health-related referrals. Their Vendor Directory is key to Avenidas’ success.

The social program at Avenidas is a multi-tier program, offering cultural tours, local events such as talks, lectures, and neighborhood events.

Avenidas has health alliances with Stanford Hospital, El Camino Hospital, Kaiser Clinic, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and others. In addition, Avenidas facilitates transportation to and from these institutions.

They also offer a Legal 411 to direct members to the appropriate attorney or service for members’ legal needs.
The annual fees for all these services seems quite reasonable: $850 for a single member, $1,050 for both husband and wife.

As you might imagine, there are ample opportunities to offer your time as a volunteer, should you be interested.