Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 30 2012

Today was an unusual meeting, but despite the small quirks that define us as human, we had a good time together with our fellow club members.  Greeters at the door were JOHN CARDOZA (who rose to the occasion when he saw people arriving without greeters to welcome them) and new member DONNA VERNA who also saw a need and jumped in to fill it. That’s the Rotary way!

PP TRACIE MURRAY led the flag salute, followed by FRANK ELMER with humorous quips about the origin of Labor Day as our Thought for the Day.  BONNIE BURDETT led “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, and gave us pictorial cues in case we had forgotten the words while organic farmer, Harn Soper accompanied us on guitar.

PP DUDE ANGIUS offers two tickets to the Stanford-Duke game September 8 which he cannot attend. If interested, just give DUDE a call.

When PE JACK KELLY invited visiting Rotarians to rise, there was our old friend, Walt Hays, co-chair of several World Community Service Projects with LARC.  Other guests included FRANK VERLOT’s wife Marion.  JOHN EVANS introduced the mother of Father Tom, Carol, El Retiro. BONNIE BURDETT introduced her fiancé and guest of the club, Harn Soper.
Next week’s speaker will discuss the Villa Montalvo Art Center.

Our club continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Membership Director RANDY GARD initiated a new member, GEORGE PETROUTSIS, sponsored by PE JACK KELLY.  GEORGE was born in Sparta, Greece and is owner of Go Go Gyro in the Village Court Shopping Center.

Today RANDY also inducted three new blue badgers: PAUL GONELLA, sponsored by GEORGE STAFFORD, RAE HOLT, sponsored by ABBY AHRENS, and ALISON SALISBURY, sponsored by MARLIS MCALLISTER.  The most recent Red Badger project was the distribution of Youth Contact Cards to Los Altos high school students. RANDY read a note of appreciation from local student Kaitlyn Krautkramer: “A lot of the contacts on the card I didn’t know even existed, and its so handy to have them on a sturdy little card to put in my wallet…Kudos to you for a good use of sponsorship money, and thank you again.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS
PP TRACIE MURRAY announces the annual fundraiser for the RotaCare Free Clinic: “Join Us! Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 5:30 – 8 pm. The Rotary Clubs of Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Mountain View, Cupertino and Palo Alto University invite you to experience a taste of fine wines and cuisine from California and the Bay Area at a benefit for the RotaCare Clinic to be held at the Historic Del Monte Building, 100 South Murphy Avenue, Sunnyvale with Wine Tasting, Gourmet Cuisine, Silent Auction, Commemorative Wine Glass for $55 per person. For tickets or more information, email: tmurray650@yahoo.com.” Check the website at www.rotaryasante.com.

Songmaster RON STEFANI called for other prospective Songmasters to sign his clip board.

PP ROY LAVE reminded us that all are invited to the alternative AM meetings of LARC. 

BILL BALSON announced a generous donation of $2,800 from the Town of Los Altos Hills to the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project where he had recently made a Child AIDS Prevention presentation.  Mayor Rich Larsen will formally deliver this contribution at LARC on Sept. 13.

PP MARLENE COWAN introduced this year’s COANIQUEM fundraiser to support three burned children in South America. The Fiesta of the America’s event, Saturday afternoon, Oct. 13 at the Firehouse Arts Center of Pleasanton, will feature Latin tapas, Chilean wine and dessert with entertainment by Chilean singers, Bolivian dancers, a romantic Peruvian marinera dance, and classical guitar concert by Rotarian Dr. Jorge Rojas, surgeon and Director of the Burned Children Foundation.

Next week in the Garden House entrance, MARLENE will start selling chances for the charity drawing of two round trip air tickets to South or Central America (need not be present to win).  Reservations for the Fiesta are $60 each, and individual chances for the Grand Prize air tickets are $10 each. A donation of any size is appreciated.  Just six charity tickets get you into the colorful Fiesta, and if 50 LARC members contribute $60 each, we can continue our $3000/year support for three burned children.  

Please reserve by Oct. 6 to enjoy this worthwhile event. Let’s make it a party en route by carpooling together; contact MARLENE to join the carpool. Friends and non-Rotarians are welcome. Tickets are available from the COANIQUEM fundraising team, KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM, PP SAM PESNER and VON PACKARD.  Even PDG Carolyn Schuetz plans to visit LARC on Sept. 13 to encourage your contributions, for LARC is traditionally District 5170’s first or second top supporter of burned children treated at COANIQUEM.

RECOGNITION by expert Finemaster PP DENNIS YOUNG.  DENNIS knows how to keep this club in business!  

• PP MARLENE began by giving a glowing report of Koralie, her 2 days old granddaughter for $32 (8 pounds x 2 year old sister x 2 because she’s a girl!).
• SCOTT RICHES felt bad about his busy schedule and absences, so he volunteered to join the President’s Club.
• PP SAM HARDING celebrated his 43 years of marriage to Janet, but the celebration cost him $50 today, and there was no champagne involved.
• FRANK VERLOT is celebrating 45 years of marriage to Marion, so he paid $45.
• The owner of The Menu was so glad people liked his restaurant that he volunteered $20.
• FRANK ELMER escaped a fine, as his Thought for the Day had already answered the two questions DENNIS had prepared about the origin of Labor Day.
• Newly minted member GEORGE PETROUTSIS was fined $20 just for being present.
• The first of three new Blue Badgers, RAE HOLT paid $20 to announce that his daughter Jessica has just started a Fine Arts degree at Yale University in Drama.
• Blue Badger ALISON SALISBURY paid $35 to celebrate her son getting a job.
• But Blue Badger PAUL GONELLA escaped without a fine because he had joined the President’s Club three weeks earlier.
• STEVE YARBROUGH was encouraged to pay $50, so he announced his new title of “Super Lawyer” by San Francisco Magazine.
• LONNIE GARY was recently nominated as PE for the National Association of Enrolled Agents, and it only cost him a $20 fine.
• MIKE SPENCE was recently elevated to the Executive Committee of his firm, so DENNIS set the fine at joining the President’s Club.
• KURT HUEG just returned from summer vacation at the ocean and announced his daughter’s entry into first grade for a $40 fee.
• KAREN FOX reported her mother’s second surgery and had to pay $20.
• Club Secretary KENDRA GJERSETH paid $25 to celebrate her cards being sold in “Village Stationery” and “Christian”, reserving a higher fine for “really big stuff coming down the road”.
• RON STEFANI paid $20 to warn us that next week when he’s Fine Master, his theme will be “Name That Tune”.
• PAUL SCHUTZ paid $20 to announce the need for 100 volunteers to collect parking fees for CHAC’s fundraiser.
• PE JACK announced that the Los Altos Town Crier will turn 65 years old and extracted a $20 fine from PAUL NYBERG.
• PP WYATT ALLEN had the best story about paying big bucks to raise his boat from under 25’ of water, only to discover it wasn’t his boat; he forgot he had asked his son to move their family boat to another place, and somebody else’s boat was in his slip.
• JOHN CARDOZA was nicked $20 for glorying in the fact there’s now a stationery store here in Los Altos.
• Even PRESIDENT JOHN had to join the President’s Club, though he retorted unsuccessfully, “Perhaps you were not aware of the fact that the President is exempt.”
• PP DENNIS concluded by announcing Los Altos Community Foundation’s receipt of $50 owed by a guilt-ridden shopper at Walter Singer’s stationery store many years ago.

PROGRAM:– Cindy Wilbur of Proyecto Itzaes was introduced by FRANK VERLOT as the Educational Coordinator of the Jasper Ridge Biological Reserve of Stanford University. According to bookmarks she placed on lunch tables, “The mission of Proyecto Itzaes is to provide educational resources for children and families in villages in Yucatán where traditional farming and fishing can no longer support families.  We believe that the fundamental tools of literacy should be available to all. Our goal is to build sustainable community service programs that promote family-centered learning and respect Mayan cultural heritage. Education will create new opportunities for children to fully realize their gifts in a changing world.”

Since 1972 Cindy has lived part-time in Yucatán, Mexico where the average minimum wage is $4.20 US Dollars/day, though most impoverished Mayans there spend 11 pesos per day to get to their work, resulting in an income of just $2/day.  She recognized Palo Alto Rotarian Walter Hays for helping to launch this program in 2003 when she took the first group of Rotarians to refurbish the library in Chicha la Puerta, Yucatán.

When the Mayans’ eating habits changed due to the novelty and availability of white bread and CocaCola, many developed Type II diabetes. So in 2007 Cindy led a hands-on project that constructed a classroom complete with computers and raised garden beds for producing nutritious vegetables.  

In 2009 her group delivered “real tools” and drip watering hoses to help farm the rocky soil. The task of the most recent trip in 2012 was to paint a bathroom building constructed of cinder blocks. Now the Mayans sell their vegetables in a mercado campesino (farmers’ market) or barter/exchange their foodstuffs.

JANE REED and CHUCK LINDAUER showed photos of the hands-on projects they had accomplished for Proyecto Itzaes. They also enjoyed visiting the ruins at Mayapan, a cenote (fresh water hole) where local youngsters are trying to start a tourist business and Reserva San Nicolas where Cindy’s son Simon is establishing a bio-reserve.

Cindy seeks support from LARC and other Rotary Clubs. JANE and CHUCK encouraged other LARC members to join in future hands-on trips to Yucatán. For more information, visit her website www.proyectoitzaesusa.org.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Angela McConnell/Kelly Hudson
"Villa Montalvo"

Angela McConnell,  the Executive Director of Montalvo since 2009, and Kelly Hudson will speak  on the Arts at Montalvo.  Located in the Saratoga hills, Montalvo occupies a Mediterranean-style villa on 175 acres, which Senator James Duval Phelan left to the people of California after his death in 1930 for the encouragement of art, music, literature, and architecture.
 
Angela McConnell  has made it a top priority at Montalvo to provide programs with broad community appeal. She was previously Executive Director of the Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) in Mountain View. This month she will be recognized by The San Jose Business Journal as one of The Hundred Most Influential women In Silicon Valley.  She has received many awards, including Professional Fundraiser of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and the Athena Award for Business Woman of the Year from the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce.
 
McConnell  has a Master's Degree in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco, and an undergraduate degree from Manhattanville College in New York.
 
Kelly Hudson was the Development Director of CSMA before she joined Montalvo. Prior to CSMA she was the Director of Marketing and Development for Opera San Jose. She also served as Chief Executive Officer of Rich’s Business Directories, a publisher of information about high technology firms in Silicon Valley.  
 
Ms. Hudson is a graduate of UC Berkeley and The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City