Nicholas Welzenbach opened the meeting at 12:30
 
Ron Cassel led the pledge of allegiance
 
John Pencer gave the inspiration, on a lighter side this time, sharing a funny story to remind us to take care of ourselves with a little humor in a tough world climate.
 
We welcome our guests! So glad you could join us.
  • Emi Eto
  • Cindy 
  • Matthew Hudes
  • Suzie Snowden and her mother
  • Stefka Bonev
  • Felicia Barr
 
Lydia, Patti, and the We Care team presented a gift to expectant parents Riley and Felicia Barr. It was a big basket of baby books for ‘Baby’s first library.” Congratulations Riley and Felicia! 
 
 
Lydia introduced Suzie Snowden as our newest red badge member. Welcome to the club, Suzie!
 
Our Rotary Club is in the news! We had articles about The Great Race in both San Jose Mercury News and Los Gatos Living this past week. Thanks to Jeffrey Blum for writing the one for Los Gatos Living. Check out the Mercury article here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/04/06/two-los-gatos-middle-schoolers-aim-to-break-world-record-at-great-race/
 
Our Speech contest winner Alex Bonev made it to the finals! Congratulations Alex. And also congratulations to his proud mom who is our newest club member candidate!
 
The Great Race is May 1! It’s coming fast! Sign up to run, walk, or volunteer. This is an all-hands-on-deck club event, raising critical funds for the work we love to do. To run or walk, register here: www.lggreatrace.com. To volunteer (we need you!) register here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/409084daaa72da75-great
 
Rise Against Hunger update. We put together 15,000 meals last week. It was a great turnout, along with LG Morning, Campbell, and Saratoga clubs. Great community effort!
 
Tina Orsini Hartigan and Andrew Sterns announced the good news that the Family BBQ is back! It will be May 20th at 5pm at Oak Meadow Park. Mark your calendars and bring your family! The price is $12 for 13 and above, $7 for 6-12, children 5 and under are free. We will provide a BBQ main dish and beverages. Sign up to bring an appetizer, side dish, or dessert. The train and carousel will be open.
 
Hearts and Hands event. Club members are invited to this event to support Pacific Clinics, formerly Uplift Family Services. See your email for more information.
 
Don’t forget to bring gently-used or new children’s books for our Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Little Libraries project. Keep them coming each meeting until June 21. They need books for kids aged 0-12 and bilingual books are especially helpful. Questions? Ask Lydia Norcia.

20 for 20

  • Both Nicholas Welzenbach and Grady Jeter celebrated the Kansas Jayhawks as national champions. 
  • Gordon Levin commended his nephew who completed his Ranger training.
  • Ramon Ware thanked Dick Konrad for meeting with him for coffee to tell his stories for his book.
  • Judith gave a shout out to Patti van Der Berg and asked us to donate to the Ukraine emergency fund.
  • Hal Rosen commended his nephew for raising money for Ukraine.
  • Haryl Pascal gave 20 just to make Gregg Butterfield run with the microphone.
  • Nicholas Welzenbach gave $100 in honor of Gregg Butterfield for fixing our audio issues!

Upcoming Events

April 19 - Sammy L Davis will be our very special guest speaker. There will be no lunch served, as the room will be set up theater style to accommodate more guests. Did you know how big of a deal the Congressional Medal of Honor is? It’s a big deal.
April 26 -  We will be assembling household-essentials-welcome-kits for refugees. Look for an email from Meghan Burton to sign up for something to bring.
May 1 - The Great Race! Volunteer or Run/walk! See above for sign up links.
May 3  First Tuesday social at Aldos
 

Guest Speaker
Dr. Arash Anoshiravani from the Stanford Children’s Hospital

Dr. Anoshiravani runs the teen van. It’s a 39 foot blue RV transformed into two-exam-room clinic. For 25 years it has served as the outreach arm of the children’s hospital, traveling to give healthcare to adolescents without access to traditional care- those who are uninsured, underinsured, homeless, or housing insecure. They go to the most underserved areas: East Palo Alto, San Bruno, areas of San Jose and Mountain View.
The goal to give excellent physical, mental, and reproductive, care to youth.
 
Pandemic impact was tough.  Schools and community clinics closed so there was a greater need. The van, for the first time, started serving whole communities not just teens. 
There were communities of people who couldn’t shelter in place- were essential workers (like Instacart drivers) who had no support. There was no testing avail to these communities. So the van decided to provide that. Once a father came up with 4 children whose wife was in ICU and they were all in trauma. The team in the van was able to help the family. Through all the Covid surges, the Van was there to help - it was sometimes scary.
Partnering with Stanford children’s hospital they started tele-health, something new at the time. For first time were seeing patients in their environment- where they were- often in a closet or a car. They saw 1000 young people through tele-health. 
Once the vaccine was available they traveled to places to make sure all communities had access. Some people just couldn’t take 4 buses on a work day to get vaccinated at Levi Stadium- we needed to go to them. They vaccinated predominantly minority groups who were uninsured and often recent immigrants. Still now, they are getting people coming in to get vaccinated the first time. 
 
Now that schools are open again, there is a sharp increase in young people coming back for healthcare. They still offer testing and vaccinations to prevent school closures. 
They are also working to get kids caught up on all the regular vaccinations that were postponed while clinics and schools were closed. There is a lot of work to do.
 
There is definitely an increased need for mental health support for our young people - mostly depression and anxiety. Most of these kids already have had traumatic experiences in their childhood (parents in prison or loss of home, etc) and then add a pandemic.
They address mental health and help with substance abuse care.
 
They also go to schools and organizations to give health education- mental health, reproductive health, and  physical health. There has been a rise in teen pregnancies, but now that schools are open they are back to crucial health education programs.
 
The van’s goal is not to be replacement of heal care system but a bridge. They see the need, give immediate care, then transition the child to a clinic for ongoing care. For some high need kids, however, the van is whole care giver and they may see them for years. Every kids is different.
 
Upon conclusion Mike Norcia presented Dr. Anoshiravani with a big check from our fall fundraiser.