Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show May 22 2014

“The scholarship luncheon is one of my favorite meetings!” said one club member today. “I’m so impressed with what these kids have achieved, especially the ones from difficult family backgrounds.” ‘Twas a very uplifting meeting.
 
Song leader RON STEFANI sang (beautifully) the introduction to America the Beautiful and was joined in the chorus by an audience of visitors and Rotarians who packed the Garden House. LONNIE GARY gave us an inspiring thought.
 
Rotarian visitors came from a town near Hamburg, Germany where women join the Inner Wheel of wives rather than the Rotary Club. CINDY BOGARD O’GORMAN and PAT FARRELL introduced their guests.
 

Announcements
FRANK VERLOT announced the World Community Service (WCS) meeting next Tuesday, 8 am.
 
PP JOHN SYLVESTER invited members to join him today to plan how to make Prez JACK’s last meeting miserable on June 26.
 
GARY WALDECK passed a sign-up sheet for delivering dinners to the RotaCare Free Clinic. He also offered to sell left-over Art Show wine at cost; his beverages team were real over-achievers!
 
PP DICK HENNING kindly brought a birthday cake for our eldest member, BILL PALMER, to celebrate his 95th birthday month, and then DICK led us all in singing Happy Birthday.
 
KATHY BERRY announced that the Rotary Ramblers will again walk together June 14 in the Cancer Walk for Life to promote “more birthdays”. In addition to a fundraising raffle of Giants tickets, ALLART LIGTENBERG and BUD OLIVER will be there to sell solar cookies and solar tea. KATHY invites all to decorate luminaria bags, attend the opening ceremony, and walk with our Rotary team.
 
PP MARLENE COWAN reminded all to support District 5170 Rotaracters’ fundraiser for our Child AIDS Prevention Project. The Bottle CAP event with wine, food, entertainment, raffle is at Purple Orchid Inn and Spa, Livermore Valley, Sunday, June 8, 3-6 pm. Marlene handles tickets or donations @ $50.
 
Art Show Treasurer JEAN MORDO urges all, please quickly submit their Art Show bills to him so he can announce the proceeds. The race is on to see if 2014 Art Show Director HARN SOPER can beat 2013 Director CRYSTA KRAMES’ excellent results of over $100K raised at the Art Show.
 
Membership Director JEAN MORDO awarded a blue badge to JEFFREY BAIER who has completed all requirements to graduate to becoming a “Blue Boy”.
 

IMPORTANT POST MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT:  We are in the process of updating our PRINTED Handbook.  So please take a look at your portrait in both the online and the printed Rotary directories. Send JERRY TOMANEK any updates or ask him to do one for you.

YOUNG AT ART WINNERS – FRANK VERLOT displayed the winning art works by students at our six local high schools. A jury of Rotary Club members had selected the first prize winners of $150 and second prize winners of $100 from each of the schools. The pictures were displayed at Bank of the West, thanks to JOANNE KAVALARIS, Boston Private Bank & Trust, thanks to FELIX HU, and the Nature Gallery, thanks to CAROL GARSTEN who also hosted a lovely reception for the winners and their families at the Nature Gallery. Several of the student artists and their parents were present at today’s luncheon to receive their prizes, and Frank will return the artwork to the others. Great job, FRANK!
 

Young at Art winners were:
 
Alta Vista HS
-  1st prize to Juliette Morizur for her watercolor landscape 'Silent Sky'
-  2nd prize to Elias Baltazar for his print & collage 'Bridges'
 
 Homestead HS
-  1st prize to Maren Pedersen for her untitled mixed media
-  2nd prize to Whitney Lieberman for her photograph 'Zion Spring'
 
 Los Altos HS
- 1st prize to Gabriela Preciado for her untitled acrylic landscape
-  2nd prize (tie) to Ann Suzuki for her acrylic 'Girl Wrapped in Color'
-  2nd prize (tie) to Nicole Vendelin for her oil 'Brother and Sister'
 
 Mt View HS
- 1st prize to Eriko Sasaki for her untitled autumn landscape watercolor
- 2nd prize to Brooke Beard for her pointillist ink work 'Pride'
 
Pinewood
- 1st prize to Esther Zhu for her acrylic still life 'Fruit & Vase'
- 2nd prize to Sydni Topper for her digital photography montage 'Shooting Hoops'

 St Francis HS
- 1st Prize to Sophia Xiao for her charcoal 'The Ancient Mariner'
- 2nd prize to Vanshika Jain for her computer art piece 'Scenic Undertakings'
 

Rotary’s Outstanding Student Awards were MC’ed by Scholarship Chair LEW FRASER. LEW announced that last year’s 8 scholarships have been surpassed by 15 scholarships this year, thanks to the infusion of $16,000 from 2013’s very successful Art Show plus private scholarship donations in the memory of PP BILLY RUSSELL, CHARLES COWAN and MARY MARLEY. Total scholarship funding was a whopping $22,000. LEW reminded us that anybody can donate a scholarship. Student applicants were evaluated on the basis of their community service, need, and grade point average above a minimum of 3.0. A team of LARC members spent three full afternoons interviewing the candidates. And the winners with their colleges of choice were as follows:
 

High School Scholarships
 

Alta Vista High School
Jasmine Jara (an annual scholarship from KAREN GREGURAS)-West Valley
 
Los Altos High School
Stephanie Yau-Cal Poly
Anastassiya Bronnikova-Nevada Reno
Arissa Wongpanich-UC Berkeley
Alicia Herrera-CSU East Bay
Eina Suarez (Russell Scholarship)-Foothill College
Barbara Garcia-Clark College
Dafne Hernandez-San Francisco State
Jennifer Corona-CSU East Bay
Rosa Carrera-UC Merced
 
Mountain View High School
Selina Ellis-CSU East Bay
Zhizi Xiao-Oregon
Jessica Fernandez-Humbolt State
 
St. Francis High School
Anmol Thiara (Cowan Scholarship)-Santa Clara U.
Antonio Conte (Mary Marley Scholarship)-U. of Pacific
 

The outstanding intermediate school students received $50 gift cards to Books, Inc. after introductions by their school Principals. Winners from Blach School were Michael Byun and Serena Myjer. Winners from Egan were Sydney Taylor and Nao Tanase.

This Thursday's Program: Dr. Paul Tang
"LinkAges - A System for Successful Aging" Dr. Paul Tang is a nationally recognized expert in health care delivery and currently directs the David Druker Center for Health Systems Innovation at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.  He has extensive experience in administration and management of health information technology (including electronic health record and personal health record systems) in both medical group practice and hospital settings as well as online disease management,  clinical decision support systems, and personalized health care.

He has served on national and state health care and advisory boards and is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Academy Health, the Chair of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee at National Quality Forum and a Vice Chair at Health Information Technology Policy Committee, US Health and Human Services.