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 June 8, 2025

Meeting Called to Order:
President Paul Johnson, the new club president, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone to the new Rotary year.

Flag Salute:
Skip Brewster led the flag salute.

Guest Introductions:

Sangita Seshadri - Rotarian guest from Saratoga Rotary.
Anya van der Burg - Patti’s daughter, a recent San Jose State Business graduate seeking work in a non-profit.
Julie Ross - Friend of Marlon Smith, recently retired. Her husband, John Ross, is a San Jose Rotarian, and her mother resides at Terraces near Marlon.
Paula Marcabian (sp?) - Recently retired, met Terri and Lisa. Looking for a sponsor and a club.
Chiggi Henry (sp?) - 20-year friend of Michelle Strachan, attending to hear about Michelle’s Guatemala trip.
Theresa Fister (sp?) - Guest of Jenna Mittleman, Chief Business Officer of the school district.

Inspiration:
John Pencer reflected on the passing of club fixture and legend Ed Stahl, who founded the original club auction fundraiser and many other traditions. John is encouraged by the club’s new active members, which bodes well for the future. He also shared quotes on life’s purpose and the value of losing oneself in the service of others.

Decorated Egg Tradition:
Paul asked Tina to explain the weekly decorated egg photo. The club, under Tina's leadership, provides food to the homeless pantry at St. Luke’s. Randy and Kathy contribute 18 festive hard-boiled eggs each week.

Roast and Toast Notes from June 24, 2025

The Rotary Club of Los Gatos gathered on Tuesday June 24th at 6pm to roast and toast our outgoing president, Doug Brent. Doug led an amazing year for our club and it was a pleasure to celebrate him.

After a delicious dinner, Meghan Burton opened the program and Ron Cassel and Suzanne Boxer-Gassman honored a handful of Rotarians for outstanding service this past year. The recognition committee chose Cindy Gentile, Michelle Strachan, Jeffrey Blum, Russell Couch, Lissa Kreisler, and Elaine Ware as deserving of honor for above and beyond service this year. Patti van der Burg won the elite Rotarian award. Marty Fishman won the William Cilker Rotarian of the Year award. Congratulations, and all so well deserved!

Meeting Notes from June 10, 2025

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.

Meeting Notes from May 27, 2025

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

July 2025

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

First Tuesday
The Frangadakis’ home

Aug. 05, 2025
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!

Suwanna Kerdkaew, Santa Clara County Fire Chief

Jul 15, 2025

Fire Fighting / Fire Safety

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

Bill Epling, Prison Sports Ministry

Aug 12, 2025

San Quentin visitor basketball program

Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza, President, WV College

Aug 19, 2025

The challenges of today's students and how West Valley College is responding

Chris Constantin, Los Gatos Town Manager

Sep 09, 2025

Update on the town of Los Gatos

Dan Orloff, San Jose Rocks

Sep 25, 2025

History of Rock in the South Bay

Mark Purdy, Bay Area Sports Columnist

Sep 30, 2025

Eighty Years of 49ers History

View entire list...

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.