Waiting in the foyer of the Garden House, greeters ROY JONES, KAREN OWEN, and JERRY TOMANEK provided a wordy greeting to incoming members. Before you stepped in the main room, PP MARLENE COWAN sat behind a table selling tickets for the Burned Children's Foundation fundraiser, Coaniquem.

After adjusting his microphone at 12:15 p.m., President JOHN SYLVESTER asked PP STEVE ANDERSON to lead members in paying reverence to the U.S. Flag.

Then, President JOHN asked that no cell phones should preempt our attention to proceedings and he promised to make fewer mistakes this week.

For the thought of the day, SALLY MEADOWS spent four and-a-half minutes explaining the different uses and references to the word, "SERENDIPITY." In general, serendipity is the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it.

After discussing the contributions of Franklin Pierce, Condoleezza Rice and Louis Pasteur to serendipity, SALLY wound up with the word "precocity."

RON STEFANI came to our rescue with the song of the day. Strumming his well -tuned ukulele, he brought out the old favorite "You are My Sunshine."

Eager and with lost anticipation PE JACK KELLY frowned when there were no visiting Rotarians and no Rotarians with guests. Must be the "After Labor Day" doldrums.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Although the event will be over as you read this, PP MARLENE COWAN spoke about Downtown Los Altos First Friday as a special event.

The Los Altos Town Crier will be celebrating its 65 birthday with a free ice cream social, offering children's games and providing music and other activities related to its long history of being part of the Los Altos community.

In addition, First Friday features 29 stores that will stay open with many offering complimentary refreshments, promotions and in store events.

ALLAN VARNI provided an update of raising funds for the schools in Haiti. ALLAN was proud to announce a check for $10,000 given for the cause.

JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA introduced PHIL ROSE as the 2012-2013 President of LAREF. Others officers are DAVID SMITH as Vice-President, JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA as Secretary, JERRY MOISON as Treasurer and DENNIS YOUNG as Accountant.

STEVEN WHEELER announced there would be a new format for vocational speeches. Anyone who wishes to spread the word of his or her working life should get in touch with STEVEN.

JULIE ROSE announced all seven candidates for the Los Altos City Council will be speaking before Rotary September 20 when there will be a Candidate's Forum. There will be other forums at the Los Altos library.

KAREN GESSERT reminded members of the September Wine and Cheese party Sept 21 at COETA CHAMBER'S house. The address is 608 Palm Avenue in Los Altos.

PP MARLENE COWAN presented a slide show of COANIQUEM and the burned children's fundraiser. With the help of STEVE POMEROY behind the podium pushing buttons, many vivid scenes of burned children were shown on the screen.

With the help of KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM, PP SAM PESNER and VON PACKARD selling tickets to the Saturday Afternoon Oct 13 at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton. MARLENE wishes to have a good group of members attend the event.

Our club is traditionally one of the largest contributors to this event. Six tickets get you to the Fiesta and if only 50 LARC members contribute $60 each, we can contribute $3,000/year and support three burned children for a year of treatment and care.

RECOGNITION

Grabbing his ukulele and his paper chit of memorable songs, RON STEFANI asked musical astute members to recall songs of classical, stage and operatic origin. RON even sang or picked a note or two. However, the following were nicked for contributions towards their presidential level of achievement. Most contributors paid $25, and a few paid $20, but everybody paid whether they were right or wrong.

JERRY TOMANEK, JOHN McDONNELL, MARGE BRUNO, KAREN GESSERT, KAREN OWEN, KEVIN SCHICK, ALLAN VARNI, SANDY WHIPPLE. and TOM POWERS.

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

PP MONA ARMISTEAD introduced today's guest speakers from first hand friendship and knowledge of attending different events in the Saratoga Hills.

Angela McConnell, Executive Director of Villa Montalvo since 2009, and Kelly Hudson, Deputy Director of Montalvo, spoke alternately throughout the program about the Mediterranean-style villa on 175 acres.

Angela started off the program by asking all members to stand. Then, recalling different events at Montalvo, if any Rotarians attended these Montalvo art events mentioned they sat down. The last members standing after five events were recalled were given two tickets to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in the Outdoor Theatre.

Reciting a short history of Montalvo, the 175 acres were originally owned by Mayor James Phelan in San Francisco. On his death he donated the property to the people of California for the encouragement of art, music, literature and architecture.

Since Angela came to Montalvo in 2009, her intent was to restore the beauty and recall the history of Montalvo.

"I wanted to open the doors of Montalvo and let the people in," Angela recalled. "After numerous activities, we have 200,000 annual visitors attending these events."

Speaking alternatively, Angela and Kelly discussed the non-profit art center. Villa Montalvo hosts a 137-acre arboretum and botanical garden behind the Arts Center. It is free and open to the public in the daytime.

Providing brochures on each table, they both spoke about the Carriage House Concert Series for the coming year and summer concerts at the Lilian Fontaine Garden Theatre.

Before the half hour was over, Angela announced a special offer for Friends of the Rotary to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The special offer is 2 for 1 ticket on any of five dates. "Just mention our name."

After a very informative and educational presentation by the two Montalvo representatives, they left with an Albert Einstein quote:

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

 

NEXT WEEK'S SPEAKER

Andrew Fraknoi, a renowned astronomy Instructor and Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, is nationally known for teaching astronomy in everyday, understandable language. His topic this week is "The Top Tourist Sights of the Solar System: Where Bill Gates' Great-Granddaughter Will Go on Her Honeymoon."

He teaches using analogies and humor to make astronomy and physics come alive. In 2007, he was selected as the Professor of the Year for the State of California . Radio and television audiences have enjoyed his clear explanations on many local and national programs for more than 25 years. He has received many prestigious awards and has published college astronomy textbooks as well as a book for children on the subject. As a measure of his contributions to science popularity, Asteroid 4859 has been renamed Asteroid Frankoi in his honor.