Los Altos Rotary Club eNewsletter "Rotator"

Los Altos Rotary Club

Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show

December 2 2010

Writer: Marlene Cowan - Photographer: Randy Gard - Editor: Cindy Luedtke

It was a packed house for the World AIDS Day program on Dec. 2, as we entered the Garden House to sounds of African drumming by Mamadou Kone who was raised in Burkina Faso, West Africa and has mastered the art of constructing and drumming his Balafon (a huge xylophone). For lessons, contact the Los Altos Recreation Department.

Our nimble-footed Sergeants-at-Arms quickly produced the necessary extra chairs and President DENNIS opened the meeting with the Thought for the Day and a timely rendition of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” led by Songmeister JOHN SYLVESTER.

There were plenty of visitors to meet including visiting Rotarians ARLEY MARLEY District Governor Elect, caterer Joanne Mansch, and Doug Carouthers of Sunnyvale Rotary and member of our LARAP group. Numerous guests were introduced by SANDIE WHIPPLE, EILEEN LOW, JANE REED, DUDE ANGIUS, ALLAN VARNI, ROY LAVE, MEL KAHN, RICH CASEY,and PRES DENNIS.

Catering this week was by Alotta’s Deli. Four Seasons will return next week.

President-Elect MONA introduced next week’s program by Lawson Sakai, Japanese-American of the 442nd Regiment, the most decorated World War II battalion of all time and engaged in the Battle of the Bulge.

The next Rotarian of the Month to be honored in the Los Altos Town Crier was announced by Pres DENNIS: it’s Past President CINDY LUEDTKE who volunteers to do everything, and does it very well, including fund development for The Rotary Foundation this month. She was especially honored for her fundraising service to the Day Worker Center, as Chamber of Commerce Chair, in Partners for New Generations, and in the Service Club Round Table.

In the lottery for TRF ticket donations, Tim McKenzie of RC Santa Cruz won the trip to the next RI convention. Ron Sekkel, Past District Governor, was lucky enough to snag the second prize, a trip to Panama for Rotary’s Uniendo las Americas projects.

DON WITT presented a donation to LAREF of $508, representing 20% of his new phone service contracts with Rotarians. He hopes new contracts will enable him to donate even more.

Past Presidents CINDY LUEDTKE and SAM PESNER are pushing hard for “Every Rotarian, every year” donations to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) which means that every member is hopefully inspired to donate at least something annually to TRF. Only 58% of LARC members have donated this year so far, so please open your checkbooks and remember that donations to TRF are returned to clubs after three years in the form of matching grants. We hope to receive a $65,475 grant from TRF this year to help fund our Child AIDS Prevention program in Liberia, Africa. SAM reminded us that “The world is your community.” So let’s achieve the 100% participation goal for this year.

Healthy-looking JERRY MOISON described his near brush with death that resulted in a successful coronary angioplasty, saving his life. After three weeks of not feeling good, he finally saw a doctor who recommended immediate treatment. “Don’t be stupid; don’t be me!” JERRY warned us.

Past President DICK HENNING introduced Scott Johnson of Villa Siena who invited us to his Open House - Blessing of the New Building Dec. 5 from 1 to 4 pm.

Claudia Coleman of the Los Altos Community Foundation invited us to participate in LEAD’s interactive panel discussions with community leaders. These great community-building classes are held twice monthly on Wednesdays 7 to 9 pm until May.

Announcements by Rotarians:

Secretary KENDRA: The Holiday Party sign-up sheet should be paid @ $60 each by next meeting.
NANCY SIMON: Please donate pajamas or a gift card to the Holiday Drive for the Community Service Agency of Mountain View
JOHN CARDOZA: MARV PATTERSON just underwent kidney surgery, and we await more news.
COETA CHAMBERS, Artist Coordinator for our annual Fine Art Show: We are invited to recommend artists to her.
EILEEN LOW: We are invited to a Black and White Holiday Party, 2-4 pm, Dec. 16.
BEVERLY TUCKER: Garden House has a new restroom for disabled and also mentioned the recently installed lift to enable access for disabled visitors into the Garden House.
Finemaster/Doc JERRY MOISON, sporting a white lab coat, quipped, “This is as close as I’ll ever get to a PhD.” Past President DICK HENNING tossed out quickly, “Are you a proctologist or a urinologist?” JERRY dared him, “Why don’t you come up here and find out!”
Secretary KENDRA paid when she confided that she had heart surgery 19 years ago, as did JOANNA MEDIN who counseled us to put our feet high in the air to facilitate blood returning to the heart, when the heart races.
Past President DUDE ANGIUS was fined for hoping Stanford goes to the Rose Bowl.
BRIAN WARD joined the President’s Club for having devised the surgical procedure addressing the third major cause of blindness in China and Japan.
EILEEN LOW was also ready to join the President’s Club; time was short, so she conceded, “Just tell me how much.”
LONNIE GARY paid in celebration of his 16th anniversary.
Past President MARLENE COWAN paid for completing her two months leave from LARC as “granny-nanny”, and RICH CASEY joined the President’s Club to celebrate the birth of his grandson.

PROGRAM – WORLD AIDS DAY
RICH CASEY, President of the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project, chaired our club’s annual World AIDS Day program and introduced two other speakers who described their groups’ concerted activities to raise awareness and funds with the goal of totally eliminating HIV transmission to newborn babies throughout the country of Liberia, Africa by 2015.

RICH reviewed over twenty years of local Rotarians’ involvement with HIV/AIDS issues. Past President DUDE ANGIUS had first launched action during his LARC presidency in 1989 when his son contracted AIDS and died.

The Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project (LARAP) currently focuses their activities on Liberia, West Africa because, with its relatively small population of 3,500,000 and the high HIV infection rate of infants throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this is a country where the newborn infection rate could be reduced to nearly 0%. LARAP (www.rotaryaidsproject.org) has partnered with Global Strategies for HIV Prevention (www.globalstrategies.org) to raise funds supporting HIV prevention in Monrovia, the capitol of Liberia.

HIV is preventable in infants: just $2 covers the cost of maternal HIV testing and a $1 dose of Nevirapine for mother and newborn reduces HIV transmissions during the birth process by 50%. After continuing treatment with antiretroviral drugs, those mothers can live to raise their children. With 150,000 Liberian women infected annually, the patient group of the entire country could be treated for just $1 million.

Following presentation by LARAP members of the Child AIDS Prevention (CAP) project to over 70 Rotary clubs, eight of them have volunteered funds, including $25,000 cash from our own club. LARAP is now awaiting approval for a $65,476 matching grant from Rotary International’s Foundation (TRF).

To train 40 trainers in care-giving at three Liberian clinics and private homes, and to set up medical supplies delivery and financial safeguard systems, a Vocational Training trip is planned for Feb. 19-26, 2011. RICH CASEY and ALLAN VARNI will travel to Monrovia with a nurse and a scientist will establish best medical practices there with the assistance of Liberian Rotarians.

Gretchen Miller Selfridge, Global Strategy’s Program Manager for Liberia, presented slides of the three Liberian public health clinics that will benefit from Rotary’s support. HIV is so stigmatized that women often walk from remote villages, to seek anonymity during treatment.

Stanford student Austin Keeley of the Face AIDS organization spoke about the Ride-Against-AIDS fund-raiser. Last summer they crossed the USA by bicycle, covering 4,000 miles in 67 days and visiting Rotary clubs, newspaper reporters, and high school and college students in Face AIDS chapters. RICH presented a $1,000 donation from LARAP to support the students’ fund-raising ride.

The next way we can support the Vocational Training trip to Liberia will be to attend the screening of “The Other City” exposing AIDS in Washington, DC and co-produced by José Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and graduate of Mountain View High. The public is invited to attend Tuesday, Feb. 8 in the Eagles Theatre, Los Altos High School, 7:00 to 9:30 pm. Mark your calendars and invite friends to support our Rotary international service project.

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

In 1943, Lawson Sakai joined the 442nd Infantry Battalion, Regimental Combat team, all Japanese-American soldiers, many of whom came from internment camps. They fought valiantly in Italy and France, saving the Lost (Texas) Battalion in the Battle of the Bulge. Their motto was "Go for broke". They became the most decorated unit in US history. Lawson is President of the Friends and Families of Nesei Veterans, the non profit Veterans group that sponsored a 65th anniversary tour in France.

Since those dark days of war, each new generation benefited from the sacrifices of the Nisei soldiers. When President Truman welcomed the 442nd RCT return home at the south lawn of the White House on July 15, 1946 and presented the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation, he stood before them in the rain and said: “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity to tell you what you have done for this country. You fought not only the enemy, you fought prejudice and you won. You have made the Constitution stand for what it really means: the welfare of all the people, all the time.” He also urged them to “Keep up the fight!”