We race for charity - Annual Rotary Great Race

We award college scholarships

We mentor youth - Annual Rotary Enterprise Leadership Conference

We crack crab to raise funds for local and international grants - Annual Rotary Crab Fest

We volunteer in our community

We have fun together

We celebrate 100 years of service in the community

“Together, we see a world where people unite & take action to create lasting change -

across the globe, in our communities, & in ourselves.”

Follow & tag us on social media: @losgatosrotary

Meeting Notes from November 18, 2025

Visitors

Karen Beeson, Santa Cruz Rotary
Adam Schwartz, Mathew Hudes’s nephew
Jennifer Lin, Chamber of Commerce
Jackie Ward, 55+ program
Mark Bony, friend of Mike Frangadakis

Inspiration
Jean Marc Blanchard gave the weekly inspiration:

He told the story of Mountain Man Mayor who successfully climbed Mount Everest. If we focus on the journey, the summit will come. One backpack project at a time, one polio drive at a time, one volunteer shift at a time will build community we want.

Chamber of Commerce Presentation
Jennifer Lin, Chamber of Commerce President, presented Magical Memories. First, she thanked our club as one of their most reliable partners, continually showing up to volunteer and support the Chamber.

Magical Memories will take place the first two weekends of December, serving 800+ community members. Last year Rotarians helped volunteer to assist Santa, and she hopes we can do so again this year. They are also raising funds for Rebecca Childrens Services, which provides foster kid mental health care.

Other holiday happenings include a window decorating contest among retail store fronts and the holiday edition of the Los Gatos Perks Pass, available at losgatoschamber.com

Upcoming Service Opportunities for Rotarians

Jewish Family Services holiday gift drive - see Paul Johnson’s emails to sign up
Bill Wilson Center dinner program - see Paul Johnson’s emails to sign up
Santa’s Workshop helping elves - details to come
LGUSD Guatemala book drive - see below

Meeting Notes from November 11, 2025

Call to Order
Paul Johnson called the meeting to order at 12:30pm.

Pledge
In honor of Veterans Day, led by the Boy Scouts who brought the flag in.

Guests and Visiting Rotarians
Emily Roben, Carol Stanek, and Helene Davis all from Cupertino Rotary.
Moira Sullivan, from Los Gatos Morning Rotary and wife of Paul Yeadon.
Suzy Deline soon to be joining our Club.

Veterans Day Decor
Beautifully decorated Veterans Day eggs by Kathie and Randy for St. Luke’s! Thank you, Kathie.

Inspiration
Jean-Marc Blanchard: his inspiration was titled, Comic Sidekick, Frontline Hero. He talked about Russell Johnson who played the professor on Gilligan’s Island. He was a bombardier in WWII and flew over 44 missions in the Pacific. On his last flight he was shot down over the Philippines and landed in the water. He had to tread water for 12 hours with injuries to his ankles and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. We never know when we encounter people what their history is.

Red Badge Presentations
Tammy Janosik and Chigiy Edson were welcomed as new Red Badge members to our Club.

Meeting Notes from October 28, 2025

Call to Order
President Paul called the meeting to order.

Pledge of Allegiance
The pledge was led by Greg Gentile.

Visitors
Visitors were introduced:

Richard Bobis’ sister in law, Nancy Lippman, was visiting from Florence Italy.
Mitsy Dormity (spelling uncertain) was visiting for the second time.
Joe Albers was visiting from Grande Center in El Salvador.
A Los Gatos Morning visitor announced she will soon be a red badger in our club.

Announcements
Paul thanked Michelle Myers Nelson for the festive Halloween decor and shared that the centerpieces were available to take home.
Pictures of fall themed St. Luke’s eggs were shared, thanks to Randy and Kathy.

Inspiration
Dan Snyder shared inspiration from someone he greatly admires, his daughter Allison. Although she struggled in reading and math in her early grades, she persevered, excelled, and is now publishing astrophysics papers that he cannot understand. He encouraged everyone not to give up due to early test results or underestimate the power of education.

Meeting Notes from July 29, 2025

Meeting was called to order by President Paul at 12:30.

Pledge was led by Randy Cobb.

Guests were announced:

Patti introduced her guest Leah Peretsky, a Cornell law student doing a summer internship in San Jose who is living with her for the summer. Patti wasn’t sure she could trust her at first, until she found out she is doing pro-bono work for immigrants.
John Pencer introduced his guest who he shared a parole officer with, Darryl Monda. Darryl is a former LG Rotarian who helped set up the first club auction.
Michelle Strachan introduced her guest Chigiy Edson, who is applying for membership.
Emi Eto introduced her guest Rob Wardell from Scouting America, noting the name change from Boy Scouts of America.

St. Luke’s eggs were a Giants theme this week.

Thank you Randy and Kathy.

Inspiration was by John Pencer.

He noted that when you get your steps in, keep in mind the 10k goal is not backed by science. You can get amazing health benefits at only 7k though. He challenged us to move for at least 30 minutes/day. He suggested googling a 6-minute video by the Kaiser CEO on benefits of walking.

Jenny Anderson gave her blue badge bio.

She grew up in Calusa, California and was inspired at a youth music summer camp. She studied music at UOP, administration at SJSU, and transitioned from band leader to principal at VanMeter. She’s a new bird launcher (not empty nester), and has a dog and cat. She especially enjoyed service as a Girl Scout and singing at senior homes, and leading school volunteering at House of Hope.

Service Updates:

Pacific Clinics backpack prep day was attended by 5 Rotarians (Randy, Gordon, Jeffrey Barnett, Karen, Barbara) and a photo was shared.
Hunger at Home event is full or nearly full now. JFS Backpack event is coming up. Taste of Los Gatos is Sept 6. See details for all these in Paul’s email.

December 2025

We meet most Tuesdays, 12:00-1:30PM at
Shir Hadash
20 Cherry Blossom Lane
Los Gatos CA 95032

First Tuesday
Randy Cobb and Kathie

Jan. 06, 2026
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Our club is celebrating 100 years of service in our community. Check this out to see what we've been up to!

Sarah Cramer, International Rescue Committee

Dec 16, 2025

The situation in Gaza

Anh-Quan Nguyen, Saratoga Robotics Program

Jan 13, 2026

3D Prosthetic Printing Project

Jennifer Lin, CEO, Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce

Jan 20, 2026

Update on the Chamber of Commerce

Los Gatos Police

Feb 10, 2026

Police Activity

Barb St. Clair, NAMI of Santa Clara County

Feb 17, 2026

Mental health: issues, what to look out for, and resources

Cheryl Reinking, Chief Nursing Officer,

Mar 24, 2026

How it's different leading as a Nurse Leader

Rob Moore, Mayor of Los Gatos

Apr 07, 2026

Mayoral focus areas for year

David Wells, Los Gatos Rotarian

Apr 21, 2026

Trends in Philanthropic Giving

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We served Thanksgiving Lunch at Live Oak Senior Center

We packaged 22,000 meals with Rise Against Hunger in April 2025 (an annual event for us).

We feed families burdened by extended hospital stays at JW House on a regular basis

We assembled hygiene kits in May 2024 for the Catholic Charities Shower of Hope Mobile Van bringing hot showers to the unhoused population in East San Jose.

We raised over $14,000 at our February 2024 CrabFest for the Bill Wilson Center Safety Net Shelter for at-risk youth.

Every year, we partner with Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley to help fix up a home in our area.

Each Fall, we stuff back packs full of essential back-to-school supplies for underprivileged kids.

Each year, we help prepare 30,000 meal packs for Rise Against Hunger.

We assembled activity kits for isolation patients at El Camino Hospital in February 2023.

We helped prepare materials for solar kits for Lighting For Literacy in December 2022.

Each holiday season, we donate hundreds of toys for Toys For Tots.

We volunteer every year at Second Harvest Food Bank.

We volunteer to clean up the Los Gatos Creek.

We donated then sorted hundreds of books for children being treated at Stanford Children's Hospital.

Every week, we donate food to the homeless at St. Luke's Church Los Gatos.

Here we are packing PPE equipment for the elderly at one of our Summer 2022 meetings.

Our Leigh High School Rotary Interact students volunteering at Second Harvest.

We donated bikes to Good Karma.

We sorting items donated for fire evacuees in Summer 2020.