Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Vice President Rachelle Lopp began the meeting at 12:30
Pledge: Karen Briones
Inspiration: Suzanne Boxer-Gassman: In honor of the students participating in the speech contest, she read a poem by William Arthur Ward on risk taking. We need to take risks with trust, love, sharing, and hope. We have to reach out and take risks to make life meaningful and interesting.
Guests: Rianna and Don Spaulding, guests of Jeff Blum. Ron Mahagon, guest of Sergio Michel.
Rotarian in the Wild: Judy and Julian Rodriguez with penguins on the Falkland Islands.
First Tuesday Happy Hour: March 5 from 5:30-7:30 at the home of Ed Stahl. 110 Twin Oaks Drive, LG. Please bring an appetizer and beverage of your choice. Red wine and dessert will be provided.
Champion Forms: Submit your champion forms by February 29.
Service Opportunities:
Interact at LGHS is making blankets to give to the animal shelter on Wednesday, Feb. 28 from 2:30-3:30 pm.
Resource Drive: we will be collecting NEW Socks/Underwear, Deodorant and Laundry detergent (liquid only, no fabric softener) at the meetings on March 12 & 19 for Jewish Family services to support newly arrived refugees.
Rotary Sponsored Blood Drive will be held on Saturday, March16 at St. Luke’s on University Ave. in Los Gatos. Please come and donate or if you would like to help, reach out to Jeff Blum.
Rise Against Hunger: Service Project will be held on March 24, 9:00-1:30 pm at Saratoga High School.
Aspire Mental Health Space Update: Jon Cowan wanted to thank the club for their support of this intensive outpatient mental health program for kids in middle school, high school and up to age 25.
Centennial Year: Mike Norcia shared about the Rotary Club trip to the Grande Center for Education in El Salvador. There were 6 Rotary members who took the trip. They spent 3 days at the center working with the students in their classrooms from 1st through 4th grade. In 2023, DDF purchased math software for training and testing purposes. The Centennial project bought them a school bus to help get the children to and from school. Outsourcing the bus would normally cost them 16% of their budget. As part of the trip they visited a coffee plantation, and Mike brought a bag of coffee back to raffle off. Dan Snyder won the bag with a bid of $80.
Blue Badge Bio: Clare Vickers. Clare was born in Santa Clara, CA. She lives on Lexington Reservoir. She has three children, Katie, a therapist in Long Beach, Brett, a high school English teacher in Sacramento and Patrick, a Navy Chief in Bremerton, WA. She also has 4 grandchildren. Clare works for Los Gatos Union School District as the Blossom Hill Interim Principal. She has worked in the district for 19 years, 18 years at Fisher Middle School as an Assistant Principal/English teacher. She loves flying small planes with her partner, Mike, a retired engineer. She loves to travel and learn about other cultures and countries. Clare has three brothers and her mom and dad. Her dad was an AP and Principal in Santa Clara Unified, and her mom was an elementary teacher in the same district. She is happy to be involved with Los Gatos Rotary!
Clare and Karen Briones were both presented with their Blue Badges.
Speech Contest:
Tina Orsi-Hartigan and Stefka Bonev were co-chairs this year.
The theme for the contest this year is: Create Hope in the World. As part of their speeches they must reference the 4-way test:
- Is it the Truth
- Is It Fair To All
- Does it Promote Goodwill and Better Friendships
- Is it Beneficial to All
Speaker A was Thomas Mai. He is a junior at Leigh High School. He spoke about the negative impact of social media on our youth. Thomas was the second place winner.
Speaker B was Ananya Sharma, a freshman at Leigh HS, who spoke about the necessity of providing education to all children, especially those who have no accessibility.
Ananya came in 1st place and will move forward to the South Regional Contest.
Thank you:
Time Keeper: Skip Brewster
Judges: Barry Cheskin, Suzanne Boxer-Gassman and Marie Rector.
Tellers: Doug Brent and Carole Abela
Meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm