Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show May 12, 2011

Walking in the Garden House on a sunny Thursday noon, you were greeted by ALLAN VARNI, RAE HOLT and KATHY LERA. Their duties came into focus today with the many students and their teachers from local schools coming in for the annual Rotary Club scholarship awards to local High School students.

CRYSTA KRAMES, dressed in her flamboyant sweatshirt, led us in the weekly salute to the flag and VAL CARPENTER shared a few thoughts for the outstanding young people to consider as they begin the next phase of their lives.
VAL’S selected observations from noted people included John Gardner who stated, “True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.”  John F. Kennedy’s remarks concerned “things do not happen, things are made to happen. William Butler Yeats comments were “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” And, Val concluded with Walt Disney’s “all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

JERRY MOISON dug out B.J. Thomas No. 1 song from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, titled  “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.”  But I didn’t see JERRY’S eyes turning red as he lead us singing the song without complaining.

Although we had a packed house, PE MONA ARMISTEAD only had two visiting Rotarians to introduce; Local, John Evans and Marlene from the Richland, Washington Rotary Club.  Since much of the audience were guests, introducing visiting scholars, teachers, and parents would have been too exhaustive of precious time.

President DENNIS YOUNG announced the regular agenda would be reversed today and the Scholarship Program would start early so students could return to their school with their teachers.  

In two short announcements DENNIS announced that the RAP Group was awarded second place at the recent District Celebration and there is a favorable change, in that the late BRUCE CANN bequest to the Los Altos Rotary Club. 

The additional CANN bequest amounts to $100,000 to Rotary.  $50,000 will go to the Rotary Foundation, which in three years will be returned to the Los Altos Rotary Club to make grants.  The other $50,000 will be turned over to the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund (LAREF).

PRESIDENT DENNIS also mentioned the Rotarian for the Month of May is SHIV SHASTRI for all the work he does under the radar primarily with Ambassador Scholarships and the International Scholars program.  Thanks to SHIV, our club will be sponsoring an Ambassadorial Scholar over the next year.

The 2011 Scholarship Award Program
PHIL ROSE is chair of the Los Altos Rotary Club Scholarships and stated that a portion of this week’s Art Show proceeds will go toward scholarships.  KATHY BERRY, previous chair, advised PHIL on his scholarship requirements and procedures and how to get the word out to the students and the media. Working with the Mountain View/Los Altos Community Roundtable, 50 scholarship applicants were submitted and 39 were reviewed and all 39 showed up over a five-day period for interviews.

Outstanding Student Awards
The program started with outstanding student awards at the middle schools. Leslie Crane, principal of Blach Junior High School, introduced Jeanette Freiberg and Connor Keane as the outstanding students for an award.  As she provided each student’s background, Principal Crane said “Connor made the right things look cool.”

Brenda Dyckman, principal of Egan Junior High School said this would be her 19th year that she was involved with Rotary Scholarships from Egan.   Her two awardees were Maya Acharya and Larry Antiporda.

“Maya is a 4.0 student and a great scholar with kindness. She represents the whole package in a person.” Brenda said. “Larry is also a 4.0 student who is outgoing and student body president.”
2011 Los Altos Rotary Scholarships for local high schools.

Alta Vista High School: Doreen Bracamontes, teacher at Alta Vista High School presented Ema Macias as her student to receive a scholarship. “She is one of the leaders of the campus and a motivator of her classmates. She graduated in March and will go to De Anza in June and enter the nursing program.”

Los Altos High School: Cristy Dawson, Assistant Principal introduced her three students from Los Altos High School;
Yuko Ogino. “Yuko has a 4.47 GPA. She moved here at the age of eight and assimilated into our way of living. She took advantage of her opportunity and will go to U.C. Berkeley in the fall.”

Eve Survilo, spends a lot of time at the Free Style Academy working with graphics and in the fall will go to New York University to study graphic design.  

Neni Venuti, a member of the school choir, received her scholarship but was absent because she was taking a test at the same time.  She will attend UC San Diego in the fall.

Mountain View High School: Keith Moody, principal thanked the Rotary club for investing in young people. He introduced two scholarship recipients.

“Michael Polisso is a leader among leaders.  He is most inspirational with his teammates and his team was runner-up in the district athletic league. He will attend Menlo College.”

Fernanda Rodriguez attended all Advanced Placement classes and will attend Foothill College in the fall.
Mountain View Academy: With no principal to introduce the students, PHIL ROSE introduced two students. “Erika Torres received her award and will attend Pacific Union College. Karl Orotea will attend UC Irvine.

Charles Cowan Scholarship for Science and Technology: Keith Moody introduced Alejandro Aguilar, a Mountain View student receiving the Charles Cowan award. “ Alejandro is interested in science and he acquired many qualities and advanced education at the Free Style Academy.

Billy Russell Scholarship Award: Cristy Dawson introduced Mariela Rodriquez as the Billy Russell Award person. “Mariela spent her grade school years in Mexico and moved here and attended Los Altos High School where she adjusted to her new culture. This is a great achievement and will attend U.C. Davis next year.”

PHIL closed his part of the program by stating 2011 was a tough year to make a decision on the students because it was extremely competitive.

Announcements:

• PP SAM PESNER: “This is like preaching to the choir, but the show will be great in rain or shine”.
• ROY JONES: Blue Rotary shirts are available for the Red Badgers to wear at the show.
• BONNIE BURDETT: “Next week’s Rotary Program which is the Annual Partners for New Generations Thank you Luncheon, will have a large attendance, so for those who choose not to eat lunch that day, please be seated in one of the chairs along the side of the dining hall rather than take a space at a table to allow room for our guests.
• CINDY LUEDTKE: “Did you buy your raffle ticket yet? I got them right here and I need people to push them at the show. Especially beer and wine dispensing people.”
• MATT CABOT: I need one more Rotator word engineer. See/Email me (MATT).
• STEVE POMEROY: Last time you will see me standing at the podium (Applause). We still need several more slots to be filled at the Art and Wine Show.”
• TRACIE MURRAY:  “See me to get involved with the DENNIS YOUNG kick out. The first meeting is after today’s meeting.”
• JERRY MOISON: “Need more golfers. Our team came in second last year.”

In today’s Flip-Flop agenda the fining came last and “Steam Engine”- JOHN SINES asked people for their favorite memory of early life. His was a little red wagon that someone had to pull for him. So with a bit of Ohhhmmm- Kumbaya, JOHN started to work his schtik.

• JOAN ROSSELLE, just retired and will now do what she wants to do.  $20 bucks.
• Microphone expert, FRANK VERLOT remembers when he was five years old and he saw the America and the Statue of Liberty for the first time. $20 bucks.
• TED SORENSEN wanted to wait to be fined till the middle of June because he will be married 35 years. JOHN doesn’t wait so he paid $20 bucks
• CRESS McFALL is one of six brothers but is proud his daughter received a bronze medal in the Olympics. Another $20 bucks.
• CAREW McFALL said when he was nine years old his mother asked him to meet his brother Cress. $10 bucks
• ROY LAVE said his happiest moment was when he drove a steam engine. JOHN told ROY nobody drives a steam engine. It steers by itself and that cost ROY $20 bucks and some Sssssteam.

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Partners For New Generations
PNG is a community-based/supported non-profit organization that provides tutors at all grade levels and mentors to high schools in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District area. It is donation funded; employs 3 part-time mentor coordinators, and has approximately 150 volunteers.  PNG originally was conceived and funded by the Rotary Club of Los Altos.

Tutoring
For elementary and middle school children, PNG offers tutoring during the day under the supervision of the classroom teacher and help with homework in after-school programs.

High school tutoring may take place in the classroom or tutorial center. Many students need extra help to pass the new High School exit exam, so that they can receive their high school diploma when they graduate.

Mentoring
All mentor volunteers are placed at the high school level. Mentors are carefully screened and interviewed by one of our experienced mentor-coordinators for the purpose of creating a good match with a student who has been referred to the program. Mentor training is provided and ongoing support is available through the coordinators. The role of the mentor is to spend time with the student, be a good listener, and provide a positive influence in the student's life.