Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show February 7 2013

Shaking off the chills of winter:
Rotary Speech Contest brings five talented high school students to the podium
 
President Elect JACK KELLY welcomed five fearless high school contestants to the Area Speech Contest.  The winners here are eligible to compete in the regional then the district events for increasingly large cash prizes.
 
Tara Iyer, sponsored by the Los Altos Sunset Rotary, a student at Evergreen Valley High School, took first place honors.  Ms. Iyer showed the judges a confident, self-assured young woman who had something on her mind and was not afraid to say it.  Her theme, “peace through service,” wove together the Kennedy-esque “ask not . . .” idea with a narrower focus on how we as individuals can affect peace.  Tara was presented with the top prize of $200.  She will next compete at the regional event.  Following that, the district contest will be held on March 24 at the District Conference.
 
Leo Patmore-Zarcone, a junior at Los Altos High school was awarded the second place prize of $100.  He is considering college in the East and aspires to be in foreign service.  Leo examined the paradox of the use of torture by a society whose fundamental philosophy is acting under rule of law based on fairness and individual liberty.  Leo is a two-time honoree in the Los Altos Rotary Speech contest.
 
Divya Saini, sponsored by the Palo Alto Rotary Club, examined the relationship between the real and ideal response of neighbors and government in the event of a natural disaster.  She noted that the primary responders in any event are the neighbors, then local authorities.
 
Eric Nguyen, sponsored by East Palo Alto Rotary, a senior at Independence High School, compared passive and active forms of service in the search for world peace. 
 
Ally Nguyen, representing Mountain View Rotary, a senior at St. Francis High School, took a linguistic approach to dissecting the relationship between peace and service.
 
Great praise goes to all the contestants and to Rotarian and PE JACK KELLY for his leadership!
 

Check it out: The Art Show Brochures 

CRYSTA KRAMES, 2013 Los Altos Rotary Art Show coordinator and official cheerleader, with her committee of STUART BOWEN, GREG DABB LONNIE GARY, and STEVE POMEROY, placed brochures at each table that Rotarians can share with potential sponsors.  Please pass them out to your friends and colleagues.  Direct your own sponsorship donations to the committee!  Don’t forget to mark your calendar for May 18-19, 2013.  Plan for two days of fun!
 
In Honor of Our Song Leader

Due to Los Altos Rotarians unfamiliarity with classic theme songs, here are the lyrics to the song that TRACIE MURRAY beautifully tried to lead us through:
 

Missing Mary Marley  
President JOHN SYLVESTER announced to the club the Tuesday evening death of MARY MARLEY of cancer at El Camino Hospital.  Mary was a very active Los Altos Rotarian and wife of District Governor Arley Marley. 

Sunshine chair JUDY OTT is circulating a card for your expressions of love and loss.
 
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Minding other business
President JOHN SYLVESTER called the meeting to order at about 12:15 p.m. and asked Past President TRACIE MURRAY to lead us in the pledge. 

Then he called upon Rotarian DONNA VERNA for a mindful thought. JACK KELLY introduced visiting Rotarians and Rotarians with guests.
 
Vocational Talk
Rotarian FRANK ELMER presented a vocational talk about his practice.   Frank is a former banking executive who in 2010 opened his private financial advisor practice on Second Street, in Los Altos.  He handles estates larger than $500,000 with an objective to grow and protect the wealth.  His business is named Frank Elmer Investment Strategies.  Stop by for coffee.
 
Dick Henning Keynote Speaker
Past President DICK HENNING will be a keynote speaker at the Rotary District Conference.  The conference will be held March 22-24.
 
Cioppino Feed is Cooking
PAUL SCHUTZ announced that the Town Crier will match the funds raised at the silent auction at the Cioppino Feed up to $10,000.  Bring your bidding enthusiasm!  Thanks to the generosity of the Town Crier and Rotarian PAUL and Liz NYBERG.  You guys are wonderful!  March 1st.

 
Minding golf business
STEVE SHEPHERD, the indefatigable leader of the largest committee of our club, has planned a site visit, which at the time of this publication, will have been a success.

 
Rotary day in Los Altos
The cities of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills have declared Saturday, February 23, 2013, to be Rotary Day.  Help man the tables at the Rotary Plaza at the intersection of State and Main.
 
Minding money business
Rotarian BILL MOISON, was asked to use a full 16 agonizing minutes to extract contributions to the club for the President’s Club.  Bill hosted a Valentine’s Day quiz massacre and nabbed needed loot from DAVE DEMATTIES, ALLEN LAMBERT, ROLAND PAYNE, ROY JONES, PATRICIA ROHRS, KURT HUEG, BARBARA SMALL, JEFF BAER, BUD OLIVER, DICK DUHRING, DENNIS POTTER, HARN SOPER and ROY LAVE.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Bob Simon
"Valentine' Day Poetry Presentation"
Bob Simon is a "living poet" whose verses rhyme and have meter.  In an age when so much poetry is bereft of either quality (a condition Robert Frost compared to playing tennis without a net), Bob's listeners respond with a collective sigh of relief.  And a smile.  Sometimes, even a laugh.  That's because his poetry is almost always intended to convey a hint of humor.

Our program will consist of Bob's poetic commentary on contemporary life.  Don't miss this "endangered species" and his take on his world—and yours  -