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across the globe, in our communities, & in ourselves.”
  
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Club News
Meeting Notes from June 10, 2025
Los Gatos Rotary Meeting notes The Cat Tale

Doug Brent called the meeting to order at 12:30pm
Pledge: Lydia Norcia
Guests: Carol Boyce, Mike and Vianne Bell, and Ron Auch.
 

Inspiration: Anjana Bose led us in a deep breathing exercise, three long breaths to clarify our minds and get our bodies in alignment. Very relaxing.

 

Rotary Eggs for St. Luke’s were MBA themed.
 

 

Marjorie Brent presented her Blue Bio: Marjorie was born in southern California and grew up in Pacific Palisades. She got her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland in biochemistry and then went to USC for her MBA in consumer marketing. She worked with product lines like Fancy Feast, Intellivision, and Shasta. She met Doug at USC, and they were married in 1982 and moved to the Bay Area. Their daughter was born in 1986 and their son in 1989. Marjorie changed her focus once her children were born and volunteered in all of the kids’ school and extracurricular activities until their youngest left for college in 2007.

She got certified in Scuba diving and has a tremendous passion and talent for baking, glass making, mosaics, and stained-glass art. She also bakes fabulous thematic cookies for special occasions.

Marjorie got involved with Rotary when Doug joined the club in 2018 and loves the work we do and the people in the club. She is thrilled to be a new member. Doug presented her with her Blue Badge.

 

CELO: Mike and Vianne Bell presented on their organization Coalition for Effective Local Democracy, which has partnered with our Rotary Club for 25 years. Their recent projects are in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa at the NDUKUMBANA and NXAWE primary schools where they provided computers and internet access to the students. These students now can access information and aspirations that were not previously available to them. Mike and Vianne presented Doug with an outstanding contribution award for our Rotary Club for the 25 years of service together with CELO.
 

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Meeting Notes from May 27, 2025
Los Gatos Rotary Meeting notes The Cat Tale

Pledge

The pledge was led by Mike Norcia.
 

Visitors

Visiting Rotarian was Jaime Goodo from Weed California (guess which member yelled out “Did you bring any?”), a retired Mechanical Engineer from Silicon Valley club.
 
Patti’s guest was Linda Levenson, a potential new member who speaks Spanish and looks forward to helping in our Guatemalan and Mexican trips.
She also knows Suzanne and the Fishmans, and already volunteers with our partners Santa Maria Urban Ministry, Food Runners, and Refugee Services at JFSCV.
 

Inspiration

Inspiration was by Jean Marc Blanchard. He noted Memorial Day was for fallen soldiers, and he wanted to honor courageous cops who had fallen in the line of duty. He said they run toward danger when others run away, a true example of service above self.



Doug shared a few photos:

  • Randy and Kathy’s memorial day eggs for St Luke’s homeless pantry
  • a thank you note from our grant recipient Days for Girls (sponsored by Andrew Howard)
  • JW House group of volunteers who served dinner to those traveling for a loved one in the hospital
  • Seniors of Distinction ceremony at Terraces held last week where Tina Orsi-Hartigan and Jeffrey Blum were honored. Also in attendance was Rotarian and mayor Matthew Hudes and other Rotarians. Doug noted the bios were inspirational and it was nice to be in a room where all had a high regard for service. Congrats to Tina and Jeffrey!
  • there were a couple new Guess the Rotarians: teen pictures of Art Rabitz playing football and soldier Mike Frangadakis
  • this week’s Rotary family was Mike Frangadakis- showing his group of 10 at Dodge Ridge
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Meeting Notes from May 20, 2025
Los Gatos Rotary Meeting notes The Cat Tale

Doug Brent called the meeting to order at 12:30pm

Pledge: Randy Cobb

Visiting Rotarian: Janice Russell from Sunrise morning Rotary.

Guests: Brad Strand, a prospective member and Susan Kang.

Inspiration: Jean-Marc told two stories entitled two homeruns of a different kind. The first one was about Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese who played in the majors together and worked to overcome racism and discrimination in baseball in the 1940’s; and the second about Jim Abbott, a standout pitcher for University of Michigan, who was born with no right hand. Both stories illustrate what you can do with determination and standing up for what is right.

Rotary Eggs for St. Luke’s were very festive again.

Shared a picture of the 8 Rotarians who helped with set up for the Bill Wilson Center celebration on Friday.

 

Skip and Donna Brewster shared about their trip to VIM Colonet in April to build a house for a family in 5 days. There was a team of 16 this year, and our Rotary Club and Morning Rotary both support this project.

 

Guess the Rotarian: Doug showed pictures of 16 Rotarians from their youth and then the Club had to guess who the person was. There were pictures of: Rachelle Lopp, Greg Gentile, Cindy Gentile, Mike Norcia, Sarah Schiltz, Anjana Bose, Avis LaGrone, Barry Cheskin, Doug Brent, Marjorie Brent, Lissa Kreisler, Suzanne Boxer-Gassman, Barbara Fishman, Jean-March Blanchard, Marty Fishman, and Jeffrey Barnett.

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Meeting Notes from May 13, 2025
Los Gatos Rotary Meeting notes The Cat Tale

Call to Order
Doug Brent called the meeting to order at 12:30pm

 

Pledge
Ron Cassel

 

Guests
Joe Russo, Monique Guo, Joe and Luis from Grande Center, and Samira Esposito

 

Inspiration
Jean-Marc told two stories about music, entitled Music to My Ears. One was about the musicians on the Titanic who played to keep people calm as the ship went down—all perished in the tragedy. The second was about A.D. Benedetto, known as Tony Bennett, a tireless civil rights advocate who marched from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 with Martin Luther King. Both stories exemplified service above self.

 

Rotary Birthdays
Hal Rosen, Riley Barr, Gordon Levin, Randy Cobb, Andrew Stearns, Jean-Marc Blanchard, Carol Goedde, and Thomas Lettiere

 

Rotary Anniversaries
Ed Bowen, Michael Frangadakis, Eric Eberle, Andrew Howard, Meghan Burton, Randy Cobb, Sandeep Gopisetty, Cindy Gentile, Emi Eto, Fabio Giannetti, Ane Troger, Tsovo Massena, Ryan Rosenberg, and Dan Spalding

 

 

St. Luke’s Eggs
This week celebrated the 100th anniversary of Disneyland

 

Three Activity Slides
Fisher Middle School Track Meet, JW House Dinner, and First Tuesday at the Terraces

 

 

Grande Center for Education in El Salvador
Joe and Luis thanked the club for ongoing support of their K-12 education center. Permanent construction is complete, desks have been purchased, and Paul Johnson and the school district are sending books for the library. The Rotary-purchased school bus is essential for getting children to school who otherwise couldn’t attend.

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

Upcoming Events
 
 
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Centennial Video
Our club is celebrating 100 years of service in our community. Check this out to see what we've been up to!
Weekly Meeting/Speaker Schedule
Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza
Jul 15, 2025
The challenges of today's students and how West Valley College is responding
Carl Salas, Nuclear Engineer
Jul 22, 2025
Tracing the Legacy and Resurgence of Atomic Energy
Ryan Rosenberg, Chair, Los Gatos Community Center
Jul 29, 2025
Community centers and Los Gatos
View entire list...
Our Long List of Service to the Community!
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.
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