Andrew Stearns welcomed us all to the meeting. It was “Bring your pet to Rotary” day, so many of the 47 zoomers had a past or current pet as a backdrop, and some were live in the zoom shot. It was fun to see the variety, including Avis’ pet turtle! Amy snapped some photos:
Riley Barr led the pledge of allegiance.
Erika Buck gave inspiration with a wise quote: Although no one can go back and change the beginning of their story, anyone can start now and make a new ending. So true.
Guests: none
October birthdays were celebrated by Marlon. Don McCleve played a rousing Happy Birthday live on his piano.
Grady Jeter is our member of the week on social media. He was inspired by his experience in Butan 20 years ago, where they measure the country’s success in “Gross National Happiness”. See all profiles at https://www.losgatosrotary.
Randy Cobb transitioned from Red Badge to Blue Badge. He is already active on several committees. He showed us his 2 live kitties Olive and Waverly, plus volunteer side kick Kathie made an appearance. Dan Snyder gave $40 in honor of his St Luke’s colored eggs and House of Hope work. Welcome aboard!Amy highlighted our social media post about Joshua Chang, who we made a special spot for in RYLA last year. This was life changing for him and he will share his story soon with us. Amy wants us to celebrate the important work we do for local youth.
Mike Norcia announced the outdoor movie night will be Oct 23 7pm at Calvary Church. Movie is Mamma Mia. Tina will send an email with ticket ($50) and snack box ($15) options. Wait to order once you receive her email. Proceeds will go to fire victims through the Calvary Church program. Should be fun! This will be your “Waterloo”, if you let your “Dancing Queen” send out an “SOS”, because that’s “The Name of the Game”.
Calendar:
The Social Committee (Maddie and Gae) need suggestions for First Thursday locations. Campo and Flights are the only places in town that will reserve a large outdoor space for us so far. We may need to skip some months if we can’t find locations.
LG Chamber of Commerce wants Los Gatos service groups to help with coordinated efforts, such as delivering Thanksgiving meals to seniors and “Around the Town” Senior goody bags. Let Dick know if you have ideas or want to participate.
See Chris Potter this week to sign up for Rotarians on the Roof solar install project. Training is Oct 24.
Second Harvest Volunteer event is Oct 28 and mostly full. See Patti.
Tina thanked the many St Luke’s homeless brunch volunteers this week.
Reminder to bring your family to Rotary next week for Rotarian of the Year Award.
Mike Norcia announced a volunteer opportunity called “Beautiful Day” where he is in charge of a 1 of 20 outdoor spaces that will get beautified Oct 17-18. He will send an email to club with details if you’d like to join on his team.
20 for $20 announcements:
- Riley Barr announced he moved to Capitola’s Pleasure Point, a few blocks from the beach and is enjoying his new backyard
- Jamie Hekkelman is celebrating her favorite month October with spooky Halloween décor at home
- Randy Cobb shared the sad news that Al Smith’s historic ranch burned in the recent fires (was written up in Mercury News Aug 29)
- Jeffrey Barnett happily announced no news is good news, and that is worth noting… ha!
- Judy Rodriguez gave $40 to celebrate her 4 family birthdays this month
- John Colwell gave $50 to scholarship fund to honor Randy Cobb’s active membership, and to note how proud his dad, long-time Rotarian Ray Cobb would be
Speaker:
Hal Rosen introduced the speaker Dr. Monica Ghandi and her topic “How masks protect you and others from Covid”. She recently published an extensive article on the importance of masks that ran on the front page of The New York Times and many other publications. The presentation was recorded and will be posted on our club website.
- CDC recommended mask wearing on April 13
- Masks protect others, but ALSO you since it reduces the viral load and severity of the symptoms
- N95 masks are 90-95% effective, but must be tight fitting and are scarce, and cloth masks are 60-85% effective but are more comfortable and so more likely to be worn
- A cruise ship study showed that 2 ships had outbreaks, one had masks and one did not. The ship with masks showed asymptomatic cases only, which is highly preferable.
- The Czech Republic had an early mask mandate and had very low infection and death rates
- San Francisco had a mask mandate April 17 and has had a very low death rate
- Ideally if masks could be used by 80% of the public, infections would be low, allowing us to open up businesses and schools more
- Reasons mortality stats are going down were discussed
- Dr. Ghandi finished with a crucial public health point: our messaging about mask wearing will be more effective if given without judgement and without yelling
Click here to see the slides from this meeting.