Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 11 2011

President MONA called the meeting to order promptly at 12:15 pm and thanked our Treasurer for the day, PP CINDY LUEDTKE and our Greeters PP MEL KAHN, PAUL SCHUTZ, and JOANNE KAVALARIS.  

PP DUDE ANGIUS then led the group in the Pledge, followed up by RANDY GARD with the thought for the day. Randy’s thought for the day was in honor of Guide Dogs for the Blind and discussed the origin of the term “Dog Days of Summer”.  JULIE ROSE, in honor of STEVE ANDERSON, led us in the song “Smile”.
 
Our PE JOHN SYLVESTER then called for visiting Rotarians and guests of the club. Visiting Rotarian Elaine Blaze introduced herself, then on the Rotarians with guests. STEVE SHEPHERD, JACK KELLY, GARY ROSS, and JOHN SYLVESTER all introduced guests. PE John then announced next week’s speaker: James Walgren who will discuss the changes in downtown Los Altos.  

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Mona then called for announcements and started off with a few of her own. The Board approved the Welcome Home Project for Veterans. In addition, 25 Rotarians met at Hillview last Saturday for the Los Altos Rotary Visioning Project. More information about the session will be brought to the club shortly.
 
Next up was MARY MARLEY in her Club Trainer role announcing the Matching Grant Training taking place Thursday night from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Double Tree Inn in San Jose and all Rotarians are welcome for no charge.
 
Following was KAREN FOX thanking the club for their good wishes after her shoulder surgery last week. She is doing well and healing quickly.
 
KAREN OWEN then followed announcing any Rotarian who has not picked up their handbook needs to please see her to pick one up.
 
PAUL SCHUTZ announced the meeting for the Welcome Home Project which directly followed our Rotary meeting.
 
BAIDRA MURPHY as the Red Badge Co-Chair announced the next Red Badge meeting at 6:30pm at First Republic Bank Thursday night. PP CINDY LUEDTKE will be discussing PNG at the meeting.
 
PP DENNIS YOUNG was then up at the mike announcing the 20th Anniversary party for the Los Altos Community Foundation which will take place on Aug 27th.   It is a roaring 20s theme and the cost is $175 a person.  If you are interested in a Los Altos Community Foundation, attending the festivities, or both, please speak with Dennis.

Our Fellowship Director BEVERLY TUCKER was up next to announce the first Rotary Bike Ride. It will meet on Sunday, August 28th at 8:30am in the Hillview Parking lot.  All abilities are welcome if you have a helmet and can change a bike tire.
 
BOB ADAMS announced the El Camino Hospital Golf Tournament on Oct. 24th in Half Moon Bay. If anyone is interested in participating please contact Bob.
 
DAVID CASAS finished up the announcements with the Muslim Community Center in Santa Clara hosting an event on Sunday.  All are welcome.

WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE UPDATE: ALLAN VARNI was next on the mike to give the club an update on the WCS Haiti Project. WCS has worked with One Dollar for Life, which was started at Los Altos High School, to find a school in Haiti that was in need of great help and repair. The goal of the project is to help the school in the short term and allow them to sustain themselves in the long term as well. WCS will raise money to purchase equipment and provide training on how to make building materials. This allows the school to rebuild and then sell the renewable building materials for continual income. The grant is written and ready to be submitted, and WCS is looking forward to a successful project.
 

RED BADGE 10 MINUTE TALK- KEVIN SCHICK: Red Badger KEVIN SCHICK gave his 10 minute talk, starting off with his sponsor DAVE SNOW and his classification in Corporate Finance.  Kevin grew up in Chicago and is the eldest of 3 brothers.  He is a White Sox and Bears fan, who spent his teenage years as a caddy. His job as a caddy allowed him to apply for the Chick Evans scholarship, which paid for tuition and housing in full for college. Dave was awarded this scholarship and attended Marquette College from 1969 – 1973. 

He then did a 1 year MBA program at Northwestern University with a marketing and finance focus. His early career was in Chicago with Motorola and then he moved on to Indiana where he met and married his wife Gloria, on 11/11/78.  He then moved on to a new company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1989 he was transferred to California and resided in Saratoga, and after 9 years was relocated back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2005 Kevin and his family made their final relocation back to the Bay Area. Kevin retired in 2010 and enjoys his time helping with Road Runners for El Camino Hospital and looks forward to contributing to Los Altos Rotary.
 

RECOGNITION: LARRY CHU was up at the mike for a quick but entertaining fining session. Larry was giving advice to future finers and his first piece of wisdom was to “set the bar high”. He then called on JOHN SINES, who offered up $100 to give an etiquette lesson and do a fine of his own. John called upon SAM HARDING, who made a poker based etiquette infraction earlier in the week, and Sam offered up $20. Larry was back up and called upon the “low hanging fruit”, KEVIN SCHICK. Kevin was fined $20, for his life’s similarity to Caddyshack.  Last but not least was Steve Shepherd who celebrated his 40th anniversary with wife Beverly (that’s Bev 1) on August 8th.  He paid $1 for each good year so that added up to $40.   That’s thinking on your feet, Steve.
 

PROGRAM: PE JOHN SYLVESTER announced our speaker for the day, Morgan Watkins, who is acting President and CEO of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Morgan began his speech with a very entertaining recall of his life and experiences as a blind man. On a camping trip with his family when he was a young boy, Morgan’s brother walked straight into a tree like he didn’t see it. So his parents had all their kids get checked out to make sure that everything was okay. Morgan and his brother were diagnosed with a degenerative disease that would cause the two of them to eventually go blind.

Through high school Morgan survived fine with friends and family around him. When he went to college, life became different and he wanted more freedom and independence, so he got a cane.  A cane allows a blind person to see by collision. It is not the most efficient method of getting around but it served its purpose. There were two events that occurred in his life that made him seek a change. The first is he ran into a young child on the sidewalk and hit him a few times with his cane.

He terrified a young child while he was trying to decipher what it was. The second was crossing Market Street in San Francisco where someone knocked into him a he dropped his cane. No one came to his aid and he was trapped in the middle of the street. In 1995 he began to work with the Guide Dogs for the Blind school and this was a life-changing event. He was able to navigate much easier and this helped to take the fear and worry out of his life. It allowed him to go wherever he wanted and because of this, he strengthened his bond with his son and freed his wife of worry.

Guide Dogs for the Blind has been helping people for 70 years. Through private contributions and absolutely no government funding, they are able to provide blind people with training and guide dogs for no cost for their entire lives. For more information please visit www.guidedogs.com.

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

James Walgren, AICP
Assistant City Manager and Director of Community Development
City of Los Altos
“Downtown Public & Private Projects”
 
James Walgren has worked for the City of Los Altos for over 10 years.  In his present position, James directs the Community Development Department, including the Planning Division, the Building Plan Check and Inspection Division, the Engineering Services Division and the Economic Development Division.   With a staff of twenty five, James administers a $3.5 million annual operating budget and an approximately $2 million annual capital projects program.  
 
James earned a B.S. in City and Regional Planning from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, with an emphasis in architecture and urban design. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, the American Planning Association, and the Santa Clara County Association of Planning Officials.  James and his wife Kerry have two  sons  - Andrew, 14, and Christian, 10.