Sandy Bocks led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Inspiration:
John Pencer provided us with some inspirational quotes:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
–Winston Churchill
“Only a life lived in the service of others is a life worth living”
–Albert Einstein
“Do something for somebody everyday for which you don’t get paid”
– Albert Schweitzer
“If you want happiness for an hour take a nap. If you want happiness for a day go fishing. If you want happiness for a year inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime help someone else.”
–Chinese Proverb
Visitors and Guests:
John Mathers visited us from the Rotary club of San Francisco.
Jack Higgins visited us from the Rotary club of Los Altos.
Mike Norcia welcomed Tom R. who was visiting us as well.
Mike Norcia welcomed Tom Anthony as a new member. Tom is a long time Los Gatos resident with 3 daughters, and 3 step sons. He is a general contractor and considers service to others to be a major part of his life.
Announcements:
- First Thursday is August 6 from 5:30-7:30 at Oak Meadow Park by the bandstand area. Bring your own chair, food, drink, and PPE. As a PSA the sprinklers do come on at 8pm.
- Shoe Drive Tina explained that the shoes collected will be sent all over the world and the proceeds will be used to fund a hospital in India. Please donate in the next 2 weeks. New and gently used shoes are appreciate., and please tie the laces together or rubber band them so they don’t get separated. Amy Potts gets the prize for the most shoes donated.
- Uplift Family Services Backpack Drive - If you would like to volunteer please let Gae La Torre know.
There is also a request from their Facilities Dept. They are readying another cottage on their Los Gatos campus to welcome an additional Professional Parent and foster child. They hope to have them move in in about a month. Below is a list of donations they are looking for in order to make the cottage a welcoming place for them:- A double or twin bed with mattresses/box spring frame.
- Coffee table for living room
- Pots and pans
- Kitchen utensils
- Kitchen towels
- Pot holders
- Blender
- Mixer
- Baking oven ware
- Bath towels
- Queen Bed linens
- Queen Quilt
- Queen Blankets
- Gaming system
--- If you have any of these items in good or very good condition, please let Gae know and send pictures if possible. They can arrange pickup in the immediate area, however drop off would be appreciated. Contact Gae for more details.
- Family Giving Tree – Needs support for a back to school drive. You can do this virtually at the familygivingtree.org, click on virtual giving tree, and click on the items to donate.
- St. Luke’s Volunteers – Tina thanked everyone and wanted to call out Michelle Meyers Nelson who got a whole case of Hawaiian buns, as well as making tasty treats for them. Today several Rotarians provided food for the homeless as well.
- Amy Potts - Wanted to send encouragement for people to send photos of community events, or other Rotary activities that our members are participating in.
Our Speaker
Today Nathan Thomas is talking to us about the Solarize Uganda Project. The LG rotary gave Nathan a grant for this project that we are going to hear about today. Nathan is from Raleigh North Carolina rotary club. He is an engineering team leader for a German automotive supplier for Caterpillar. He started working with All We Are (AWA) (at the age of 16) whose mission it is to electrify 50 schools and health centers in Uganda by 2025. They have completed 30 installations that are providing 15 kilowatts of energy. The groups focus on education is due to a core belief that education is a critical building block, and they wanted to provide that to people in need.
From 2009-2011 he helped by collecting gently used computers, packaging them up, and sending them to schools in Uganda. He realized through doing this that his work was not sustainable. When he visited, he realized that what he thought these students needed was not necessarily what they needed. In fact he found that even powering the computers was a significant burden to the school. With that new found understanding he started to listen to local communities, and to do projects with cultural sensitivity. Asking the community what they needed was incredibly important. He met a local friend Brian Ddibya on his 2011 trip who rose from poverty to become an electrical engineer in Uganda, and now leads the in country efforts in Uganda.
What they are doing is developing infrastructure for schools. Many of the students in these schools are using candles, or kerosene lamps to study at night, but with Nathan’s low cost solar + led installation they can have safe efficient lighting. Uganda has a 4% growth rate which means they have a large population who need education, and unreliable power stunts education & growth.
Solarize has created a solution which provides this power to schools and medical centers in the area. They work by partnering with a host Rotary Club in Uganda that knows the area, and knows the needs. Then the AWA team travels to the country to do a technical assessment, they get funding from the rotary clubs here in the US, purchase parts locally from high quality solar distributors in Uganda, and then they use and train local labor to build the installations putting money back into the local economy. Schools pay a portion of the maintenance costs so that AWA can determine if what is being done is still helpful.
Nathan then shifted to focus on Climate action, and he wanted to call out that this partnership with Rotary Clubs could lead to more installations all over the world helping to reduce the carbon foot print for the future. He then thanked our club for the donation, and said if you are interested in talking to him more to please visit their website at allweare.org.
Click here to view the slides from today's meeting.