Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show December 12 2013

Greeting us on this chilly noon as we enter the Garden House for Today’s Rotary greeters were Rotarians HARRY PRICE, PATRICIA ROHRS and BUD OLIVER. Going around the corner KAREN OWEN was collecting money from the big crowd today.

At 12:15 sharp President JACK KELLY rang the Rotary bell and pronounced “Welcome to the Los Altos Rotary club, the finest Rotary club in the land.”

After the salute to the flag, MARLIS McALLISTER provided a John Muir quote of climbing the mountain.

DONNA VERNA provided the love ballard written by Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (?). Singing in three sections as: DO! – A deer, a female deer. RE! - A drop of golden sun and ME! - A name I call myself.

Introductions by PE KENDRA GJERSETH introduced a visiting Rotarian from the Palo Altos Rotary Club, Al Nicholson, and from the Cupertino Rotary Club an Honorary Rotarian, Bud Cox.

Rotarians with visiting guests had PP BOB ADAMS introducing PP GEORGE PERHAM from the Paso Robles area. GEORGE WAS our president during the 1997-1998 years. George left the area to grow grapes and make wines but he forgot to bring along a sample bottle.

Other Rotarians with guests were: VAL CARPENTER, JOHN SYLVESTER, GARY WALDECK, DIANA NEIMAN and ALLART LIGTENBERG. 

Announcements:
ALLAN VARNI told us about the annual Recap of World Community Services meeting at Chef Chu’s restaurant on January 18th.

GARY WALDECK said a clipboard was going around the room for RotaCare signups. He needs more drivers.

PP TRACIE MURRAY said the A Santé event raised $35,000.

President JACK KELLY announced there would be three director positions open and after recommendations by the nominating committee anyone who wishes to serve as a Director should advise JACK and be willing to serve.

PP JOHN SYLVESTER announced past presidents have met to select the Rotary Clubs President Elect and it will be popular JERRY MOISON.  He will take office when PE KENDRA GJERSETH retires from her presidency.

Rota Care Speech:
We had the pleasure to have a history lesson on RotaCare by Past Rotary District Governor John Fisher.

Dr. Mark Campbell and the Winchester Medical Clinic started RotaCare in 1988, and eventually it spread through the Bay Area and a large influence in the Pacific Northwest. In time, most Rotary Clubs organized a RotaCare clinic throughout the West Coast.    

In 1912, the Daughters of Charity established Seton Medical Center in downtown San Francisco. The following year the Daughters opened the first free outpatient clinic in California.
At the end of his speech, PP MEL KAHN mentioned that Rotarian John Fisher should be considered the godfather of RotaCare.

10- MINUTE TALK:
It was DIANA NEIMAN’S turn to complete one of her blue badge requirements with her 10-minute talk. The “Brit” kept us intrigued because her early years were spent in her native England.
She grew up on Thorpe Beach in England as the youngest of three children. She originally started working for Price Waterhouse where she met Steven Jobs of Apple and eventually worked for Apple in England.

In 1987 Diana moved to Cupertino and her siblings were scattered all over the world. In 1991 she moved to Los Altos and has lived there for the past twenty three years.
In 2007, she became a U.S citizen when she passed her spoken English test and voted for the first time.

In 2010, Diane was unemployed and chose a 2nd career and entered the non-profit world. She is now employed with the Family & Children Service of Silicon Valley.
As a Brit, Diana traced back her genealogy and found she is related to King Henry, the third, of England.

Recognition:
JERRY TOMANEK took the podium and tried to detach some hard earned money from the audience.

Looking for Rotarians to join the President’s Club, JERRY succeeded in making a few new President Club members in JOHN MORDO, BARBARA SMALL, DONNA VERNA AND STEVE YARBROUGH. 

Other contributors were JUDY OTT for $40, PAUL GONELLA for $20, CINDY BOGARD FOR $40 and KATHY BERRY FOR $50. And we went on to the main speaker.

Guest Speaker:
It isn’t often we have the wife of one of our active Rotarians speak, but ROLAND PAYNE’S wife, Kay Payne, a docent and lecturer at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, kept us involved with the photographs and the artistry of “Ansel Adams and the American Wilderness.”

Ansel Adams was born Feb. 20, 1902 and died April 22, 1984. He developed the famous and highly complex “zone system” of controlling and relating exposure and development. His comment, “I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.”

Ansel Adams is a famous American photographer known for his black and white landscapes. As the half hour continued on the screen, we were fortunate to see numerous Ansel Adams photographs about Yosemite National Park and the American Southwest.  Kay Payne gave us the treat of discussing each painting shown on the screen.

Adams received a number of awards during his lifetime and also awards posthumously. There are also numerous awards named after him since his death.

The meeting was over early after a short questions and answer period.