Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 27 2014

Today’s meeting seemed to be focused on youth, as Prez JACK called on KAREN GREGURAS, hosting a group of Interact students today, lead the flag salute. JOHN Mc’DONNELL led us in singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” to honor the opening of baseball season. MARLIS MCALLISTER quoted Yogi Berra’s quip, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.”
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Prez JACK encouraged us to register for the District Conference April 11, 12, 13 at the Dolce Hayes Mansion Conference Center, San Jose, a gorgeous venue, complete with tennis and golf competitions, DICK HENNING’s interview with 49er Dwight Clark, and interesting seminars including “Beer is proof that God loves us!”

The Rotary International Convention in Sydney, Australia is sure to be international and inspirational. ROY JONES at All Horizons Travel can help with logistics.
 
STAN SCARDINO called for volunteers to assemble emergency backpacks, a Red Badge project, on April 4 and 5 for one or two hours between 9 – 1 and 1 – 5 pm.
JUDY OTT passed a get well card for former LARC member (and Bonnie’s father), Nels Burdett.
 

FRANK VERLOT invited volunteers to help judge Young at Art entries at his house, 7 pm, April 2.
 
PP MEL KAHN reminded us of the May 3 dedication of the Los Altos High gym to be named after PP DUDE ANGIUS. He encouraged donations to the Angius Scholarship fund before then. Checks should be made out to Los Altos High School for the Dude Angius Scholarship and mailed to Mary Prochnow, 164 Main St., Los Altos, 92022.  The checks will be run through the Mountain View/Los Altos School District 501c3 so that donations to Dude's Scholarship are tax-deductible

GARY BROWN regrets that the Interact car wash fundraiser has been postponed due to, of all things, forecasted rain.  A future date will be announced.
 
BONNIE BURDETT and volunteer Liz Nyberg called for volunteers to tutor and mentor high school students with Partners for New Generations (PNG).
 
BOB ADAMS announced this year’s Gardner Award nominee is BONNIE BURDETT who has chaired PNG three years in a row and also raised a million dollars with her annual Ben Ride, honoring her late husband and supporting Stanford’s leukemia research.
 
ROY LAVE informed us that the first Tuesday satellite LARC meeting at the Jesuit Retreat Center will host a “celebrity guest” on April 1. $15 breakfast.  Sign up on Clubrunner for your reservation to attend.
 
PAUL GONELLA announced that free disaster backpacks will be given away by LARC’s Partners for Elder Generations (PEGS) at Hillview Center from 10 – 12 noon on April 5. You don’t have to be a Rotarian to receive a backpack. Some have wheels, and they hold two days of emergency food.
 
Membership Director JEAN MORDO has received only 86 responses to the Club survey so far. He hopes to receive a response from each member within two weeks in order to draw valid conclusions.

Then JEAN assumed his Membership Director role in presenting shiny, new blue badges to TINA PIERCE, sponsored by RANDY GARD, and GARY LANDIS, sponsored by PP JOHN SYLVESTER.

Five Interact members co-chaired by KAREN GREGURAS, GARY BROWN and BRANDON SMITH, described the numerous events they conducted at Los Altos High School this year. A few noteworthy examples are Covington Walkathon, Hidden Villa, VA Craft Fair, attendance at Celebrity Forum to hear Steve Wozniak, thanks to DICK HENNING, and Camp RYLA. This year saw many “firsts” in their event calendar, and they volunteered 238.5 hours of service. Quite an impressive group!

ROYCE CABLAYAN, born and raised in Hawaii, joked in his Ten Minute Talk that his varied cultural backgrounds prove he’s a “Hawaiian mutt”. He’s been a dynamic entrepreneur since childhood. Raised by a young, single mother of two, he took responsibility for cooking the family dinner starting at age 8, sold newspapers from age 10, saved earnings to purchase his own bicycle and wagon to deliver them, and was selling Hawaiian sweet bread and sausage by age 13.

He reminisced about his large family luaus with ukulele songs and fireworks. “I really do miss those days,” he mused. At 15, while working as a greeter for a dinner cruise boat in Waikiki, he was invited by a San Diego family to work and live with them, if he would attend college. He did so, graduating from San Diego State. Now he has celebrated his 26th anniversary with his partner,Craig, and they have a 5th grade daughter.

ROYCE has lived in Los Altos 22 years and is a realtor with Sereno Group. Though no one in his family ever mentioned attending college, in 1995 he established a scholarship fund which has sent six of his relatives through high school and six to college. For fun, he loves participating in Burning Man! ROYCE said he has been guided by ‘Ohana, meaning “extended family” in Hawaiian culture and lives “Ohana” every day.
 

GARY LANDIS quickly and efficiently played Finemaster, collecting a fine from JERRY TOMANEK  in recognition of his well-spent time with the Entrepenuerial Leadership Conference (His team took first place!) and Family and Children’s Services Silicon Valley , CRYSTA  KRAMES joined the President’s Club in praise of ROYCE’s 10 Minute Talk, and how ROYCE lives the Rotary Values. Double the fines came from birthday kids Prez JACK, and PDG ARLEY whom at the prompting of PE KENDRA got “Happy Birthday” sung to them.

TODAY’S PROGRAM:
 
PDG ARLEY MARLEY has joined the Board of Directors for Warrior Films, and he introduced today’s program given by its Founder and Creative Director, Frederick Marx. In “Rites of Passage: Mentoring the Future”, acclaimed independent film producer/director Marx presented his personal philosophy of life and the passion for social change that guides his films. Numerous guests from local educational organizations and Rotary Clubs visited LARC to hear his solutions for addressing “the dire state of teen boys in the U.S. today.”
 
Marx explained that many societies lead adolescent boys through a rite of passage, an initiation or personal trial period guided by mature men. This trial and guidance is not only absent from American culture, but many grown men here continue in “suspended adolescence and live out their teen years unconsciously” he said. Marx himself remembers that, at age 9, he was told he was now “the man of the house” after his father suddenly died. His continuing effort to grow into that role led to youthful excesses by driving too fast, drugs and alcohol, though fortunately he didn’t hurt anybody during his adolescent search for this role as “the man”.
 
The Mankind Project, a non-profit educational organization in 43 countries over four continents, opened his eyes in 1995 and deeply transformed his life--at age 40. It was a weekend-long, “pro-social, healthy rite of passage” for a small group of adolescent boys guided by a group of adult men. Its male role models taught integrity—what you say you will do, you actually do—and emotion; young men generally believe they should not express emotion, but when they become “emotionally real” to others, they become free to be productive, he said. This experience also taught the adolescents to recognize and accept their own darkness, or “shadow” in neo-Jungian terms. The-oft repeated adage, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” is not the way to joy; service, not consumption of material goods, is the key to joy, he explained; doing good to make others’ lives better is not altruism, it’s actually key to one’s own happiness.
 
 “Bear witness and create change” is Marx’s mission statement, for he encourages adult men to mentor teen-aged boys in order to address this pervasive social problem. Marx states that his numerous films focus on “disadvantaged and misunderstood communities: people of color, abused children, the working poor, welfare recipients, prisoners, the elderly and ‘at risk’ youth.” His films “Hoop Dreams” and “Boys to Men?” expose today’s dire situation and explore his passion for the well-being of youth. His current film, “Rites of Passage: Mentoring the Future”, is designed to show solutions, offering inspiration to accomplish the needed mentoring.
 
Marx asked us to imagine a world where teens are mentored to recognize their physical and mental limits so they don’t have to test themselves by driving too fast, drugs and alcoholic binges. He seeks a world where adolescents feel welcomed by adults, and parents have the confidence to let them go independently, to later return welcomed as co-equals.
 
Internationally-acclaimed Frederick Marx is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated film producer/director.  “Hoop Dreams” (1994) is a documentary covering two athletic African-American teenagers recruited into a white high school with an outstanding basketball record.  Marx questions which adults were there to support, not exploit, the youths. The many awards bestowed on “Hoop Dreams” include a 1995 Guggenheim Fellow, a Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award, and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was named Best Film of the Year by critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit, among others. Marx’s films have received prestigious awards from the Editor’s Guild (ACE), Peabody Award, and an Academy Nomination for best editing. In fact, the International Documentary Association named Hoop Dreams “the Best Documentary Ever”.
 
Marx’s other films include “Higher Goals” (1992) which won an Emmy nomination for Best Daytime Children’s Special and was distributed for free with a curriculum guide to 4,200 inner city schools nationwide. “Out of the Silence” (1991) was a PBS international human rights program. “Journey from Zanskar” (2010) features the Dalai Lama with narration by Richard Gere. Cross-cultural understanding underlies the universality of Marx’s message for mentoring youth today.

Joe Galiardi - "Golf Ball Collection (and stories)"
Galiardi claims to have the largest and most diversified private collection of autographed golf balls in the world. His collection of signed golf balls extends beyond golf superstars to include other famous athletes, Hollywood celebrities, and eight U.S. Presidents. His 2009 published book, Hooked on Autographs, describes many of his favorite tales in garnering and gathering the sought-after autographed golf balls.

After serving two years in the U.S. Army following college, Joe worked for an advertising and public relations agency in Pittsburgh.  He came to San Francisco in 1962 to direct Wells Fargo Bank’s weekly TV show, “Science in Action.” 

Two years later he joined Allstate Insurance Company and became their Public Affairs Manager for Northern California for 30 years.  Active in civic affairs, Joe was honored by many organizations throughout his Allstate career.

He was named “Man of the Year” in Sacramento in 1968.  He received from Mayor Diane Feinstein an Award of Merit from the City and County of San Francisco for his active involvement in the establishment of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD).

A native of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, Joe Galiardi graduated from Penn State in 1957 where he lettered in tennis.  Joe is a member of the Golf Collectors Society and the Penn State Varsity Club.  He and his wife, Judy, have two children and three granddaughters. They live in Cupertino, CA.