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The meeting was brought to order by our new Club President, Nicholas Welzenbach at 12:30pm. This was our first in-person meeting since March of 2020 and was held at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos.Mike Frangadakis led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.
John Pencer provided the Inspiration with a poem that focused on friendships.
David Karwowski welcomed guests and visiting Rotarians. We had one visiting Rotarian, Hung Weoi from the Cupertino Club. Our guests included a member from the Fisher family plus Nicholas Welzenbach’s wife and kids.
Nicholas Welzenbach shared about his love of music and how it will tie into every meeting this year. He thanked Lisa Norcia Cheskin for getting everything together for the lunch and our new meeting location, Shir Hadash. He also thanked Doug Brent for all of his continued help and reminded all of us to embrace change and focus on having fun as a Club.
Patti van der Burg thanked all of those who helped out on the Cat Tail Committee this past year.
Ron Cassel presented one final Certificate of Appreciation from last week’s Roast and Toast dinner to David Karwowski for everything he’s done for the Club.
Nicholas Welzenbach spoke more about the importance of adaptability and change then thanked the new Welcome Committee: Tina Orsi-Hartigan, Terri Trotter and Anjana Bose. He reminded us of the new meeting structure that will be in place for at least the next three months: every second Tuesday will be a social get-together instead of daytime meeting.
Twenty for Twenty
$20 was donated to the Club by the following Club Members:
- Nicholas Welzenbach started by sharing that he just got back from a family trip to San Diego which was briefly interrupted when he had to fly up here for the Roast and Toast.
- David Karwowski; in honor of all us getting together for the first time!
- Tina Orsi-Hartigan; for her being invited to share in her new daughter in law’s 30 th birthday celebration in San Diego.
- Avis La Grone; tried to visit her home near Lake Shasta but could not access it due to the existing fire. She thanked all of the fire fighters for keeping us safe.
- Gae La Torre; fireworks recently lit fire near home but luckily the fire did not spread and she enjoyed spending time with her family visiting from Los Angeles.
- Andrew Stearns; to thank those who came to the Roast and Toast.
- Lisa Norcia Cheskin; her birthday date coincided with the Roast and Toast and she sarcastically thanked everyone for being there to celebrate her birthday with her.
- Andrew Howard; he celebrated the 4th of July with family at a picnic and his and son won pie eating contest. Andrew was also a Good Samaritan as he jumped in to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a man that was choking…who turned out to be a Judge.
- Wes Sadumiano; he celebrated the 4 th of July with friends and wanted to see Nicholas’ first meeting so he didn’t go to work today. He is now living in Modesto but will be staying with our Club, even though he has been recruited by the Modesto Club.
- Randy Cobb; shared a story about traveling the US with dad.
- Mike Frangadakis; he is still serving with the 129 th Rescue Wing out of Moffett Field. They are prepared and ready to leave at a moment’s notice to perform fire rescues and keep us all protected.
Program
Nicholas Welzenbach introduced our Program for the afternoon, a musical duo named Lavender Fields. They performed for us and did a beautiful job. They played:
Marvin Gaye – “What’s Going On”
Cat Stevens – “Wild World”
Tom Petty – “Free Falling”
Van Morrison – “Into the Mystic”
It was very festive and many members got up and danced! What a wonderful way to start our new year!
Nicholas Welzenbach thanked them with a plaque noting that 50 polio vaccinations will be given in their name
Nicholas Welzenbach thanked everyone for coming and reminded us that next Tuesday’s meeting will be an evening get-together at the home of Gordon Levin.