Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 4 2011

With a smile in her voice, President MONA opened the meeting by thanking VAL CARPENTER for cashiering, CLYDE NOEL, LEM SUMMEY, and CRYSTA KRAMES for greeting, as well as LEW FRASER and MIKE ABRAMS for Sergeant-at-Arming.

JERRY MOISON tried to keep a straight face as he led us in singing “When You’re Happy and You Know It”. STEVE SHEPHERD agreed to assist him, but hid behind sunglasses.

Past President MARLENE couldn’t find any uplifting Thought for the Day about today’s stock market plunge, the government, or even the employment picture, so she focused on music, our program topic.

• Johann Sebastian Bach advised piano teachers, “There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time, and the instrument plays itself!”
• Former Governor Edmund Brown advised politicians that “Rock music in its lyrics often talks ahead of its time about what’s going on in the country.” He must have been listening to his son, Jerry.  
• Dan Rather spoke to the old-timers among us when he philosophized, “An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.”
  

Prez Elect JOHN saw no visiting Rotarians, but there were several musical guests. PP MARLENE introduced piano teacher Katherine O’Toole Gavarini, daughter of longtime LARC member JOE O’TOOLE. PE JOHN introduced Bill Hockett, bass player in the Jazz Connection, and drummer AL DIAZ introduced Noel Gray.

Pres. MONA opened the announcement period by recognizing the LARC members who will participate in Visioning Training Saturday morning, Aug. 6.

• DAN O’DONNELL thanked those who signed up to deliver dinners to RotaCare and asked for volunteers on two final dates.
• JUDY OTT circulated a get-well card for KAREN FOX following her rotator cuff surgery.
• Past Pres SAM PESNER and RANDY GARD returned from a Pearl Harbor vacation where they attended Rotary and met BOO’s cousin, the Past District Governor who offered them a club banner to deliver to MONA. Now she has to figure out what to do with club banners!
• MONA finished by enthusiastically thanking the trio responsible for producing our Handbook so early in the year: SAM PESNER, KAREN OWEN, and JERRY TOMANEK.
  

For those who “may not have noticed the construction constraints in downtown Los Altos”, said Fellowship Director BEV TUCKER the “Apricot Annie” signs reach out to visitors, merchants and residents to promote the “open for business” campaign.

She promised that streetlights at First and Main would soon be synchronized with those on Foothill Expressway.

BEV is holding meetings for the public every Thursday at 3 pm in the Chamber of Commerce conference room to share the latest information gathered from the weekly morning meetings of the City Engineer and Project Manager.

For more information, visit www.firststreetlosaltos.org or email to btucker@losaltosca.org.

Finemaster, PP STEVE ANDERSON promised to “take no prisoners”, so he exacted fines from every victim.

• LONNIE GARY was recognized (and fined) for advising the House Ways and Means Committee in Washington, D.C. last week.
• PP BOO BUE admitted he was “on final approach” to his 89th birthday and was promptly fined $89.
• GUY FARTHING was luckier and paid only $39 for his 78th birthday (though it may have been his 79th). BOO complained loudly but got no sympathy.
• PP DICK HENNING also fared better than BOO with just a $25 fine celebrating his 33rd anniversary of marriage to Paulette.
• VON PACKARD joined the President’s Club to celebrate his and his twin’s birthday. BOB ADAMS admitted to “growing up together” with Lois, his lovely wife of 56 years.
• Even Pres MONA was fined for “not paying a penny yet”, though she had volunteered a lot of time. Even our President had to chip in $25.
• Although JOHN BOGART had just given his golf clubs to STEVE (or was it the other way around?), he was fined and offered $85 to join the President’s Club.
• All the following victims were fined $25 and asked to tell something about themselves that nobody in the room knew. 
• MARY PROCHNOW had to think a while, since her daughter BAIDRA was in the room, but she did come up with her 7,000 mile round trip drive to the Outer Banks since MONA’s induction as President.  
• DICK DUHRING shared that he had visited Bulgaria, Romania and had swum in the Black Sea.
• CLARI NOLET shared that she planned to bicycle across Italy in October.
• PAUL SCHUTZ has gone sky diving four times.
• DAVE DEMATTEI had a birthday.

Sonja Palmer, Executive Director of Music for Minors (MFM), presented a program on music in the public schools. Since its founding in 1976 to stem the loss of music in schools after Proposition 13, MFM’s mission has been to nurture in children a lifelong love of music. 

She stated that MFM has become more cost effective than school districts by training 80 parents to become volunteer music teachers and employing 20 professional educators to present enrichment assembly programs such as Peter and the Wolf in public schools. MFM also cooperates with West Bay Opera’s established program of Opera in the Schools to offer musical enrichment in 15 of Redwood City’s public schools.

She thanked DICK HENNING for donating Celebrity Forum tickets to teachers and their families. In 2010-2011 the number of kids served in Title I schools (lower income areas) increased from 7,000 to 10,000 throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties while operating district-wide in San Carlos and Redwood City school districts.

Their Mardi Gras fundraiser raised $100,000 last year towards achieving Sonja Palmer’s goal of serving 40,000 school children within 5 years. She appealed for donations from individuals and from LARC.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

  Morgan Watkins   August 11, 2011
 
When you learn at a young age that your vision is failing, as our speaker Morgan Watkins did, how do you live the rest of your life? Fortunately, through Guide Dogs for the Blind, he was able to enjoy walking with ease and confidence again. Guide Dogs for the Blind serves the visually impaired by forging a truly unique partnership between two beings.
 
Morgan Watkins was a member of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Board of Directors for nine years until he was asked to serve as the Acting CEO in July 2010.  Morgan has been an active volunteer, public speaker, and enthusiastic supporter of Guide Dogs for the Blind.

He has also been a textbook author and magazine columnist.  Morgan retired in 2008 after a 30-year career with the University of Texas at Austin where he was a programmer, systems analyst, manager, and director.  He and his wife, DD, have one son, Richard. Morgan has enjoyed traveling safely with two Golden Retriever Guide Dogs, Fantom and Will.