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Join us for one of our best meetings of the year. Local High School students will be presenting speaches about how they have been inspired. The winner will move on to the district area contest. The students are always amazing. See you there.Join us for one of our best meetings of the year. Local High School students will be presenting speaches about how they have been inspired. The winner will move on to the district area contest. The students are always amazing. See you there. "I took my pay in Sunsets..." framed remarks from Geoff Paulsen's cousin Bob Roaney who spent 45 years in Yosemite where he worked for the National Park Service and became known as 'Yosemite Bob.' Roaney was our luncheon speaker on Wednesday January 10.
Life in Yosemite means life with American black bears and Roaney shared the joy of working with these animals and the challenges of managing their relationship with humans.
After more than 1,300 incidents between bears and humans in 1998, an expanded bear management program was started. More than 300 bears are in the park and protecting them from human-caused problems is a primary objective. Often the temptation of food lures bears. They can learn to loose their fear of people and become a threat to visitors. The few that learn this behavior must be killed. A saying within the park is that a fed bear is a dead bear.
Another consequence of human interaction is that an average of 20 bears a year are killed by cars, almost 20 percent of the park's total bear population.With the arrival of Europeans both grizzlies and black bears were prevalent throughout the state including in our region and present day Cupertino. Today, American black bears are the only remaining bears in California.
Although a Yosemite grizzly is on the California state flag and the official state animal, the last grizzly in the state was reportedly killed in the 1920's.
Rotarians expressed surprise as Roaney explained the link of the stock market terms "bear" and "bull" markets to bears in California. During the 300 years that California was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain grizzly bears in California were captured, tied up and made to fight bulls. 
Bears are very good and fast tree climbers. They have short curved claws that they use for for climbing trees and also to forage for insects within downed trees. When visiting Yosemite one can often see claw marks on trees from their climbing.
A vocabulary expanding moment was learning that black bears are typically crepuscular animals - most active at dawn and dusk. They are omnivores, but grasses, berries and acorns are their primary source of food.
Roaney explained that hibernation is not about winter cold, it is about food scarcity. Bears go into a deep sleep because of the lack of food.
During Roaney's 30 years with the park service he trained and mentored other rangers in the art of interpretation and assisted in a number of projects including producing the visitor center film “Spirit of Yosemite,” and writing the “Road Guide to Yosemite.”
In 2009, Roaney was featured in a very interesting profile as a "California Character" by National Public Radio: Call Of The Wild: How Ranger Became 'Yosemite Bob'.
Pledge: Constantine Lolos
Inspiration: George Denise used some excellent quotes from our time to inspire (and amuse us)
January Birthdays: Everyone sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to honor the rotarians at the birthday table. All was celebrated with donut holes.
Announcements:
Anjali announced the upcoming State of the City on Jan 31st. This event is co-sponsored by Rotary and the Chamber. Pre registration is required so pease go to the chamber website or click here to sign up.
President Helene informed us about an upcoming Red Cross/Rotary Boot Camp on January 20th from 9-4. A perfect opportunity to learn some disaster relief skills. Sign up by clicking here.
President Helen also explained to the club one of our new programs: Unsung Heroes- led by PP Bev Lenihan. This program recognizes those members who go out of their way to help others in the club. If you know of any unsung heroes amongst us, feel free to contact Helene or Bev.
Red Badge Talk:
Hongwei Wang gave us some excellent insight into her past and passions. She was born in near the Yellow River , her city was fairly recently formed as it was only 2000 years old She has 2 children and loves to hike. She shared an experience that had a major impact on her, a weeklong horse riding trip with the scouts. The pictures were beautiful and the information was interesting. Welcome to our club and thanks for the work you already are doing to support our club.
Jim Gibson regaled us with 2 jokes this month, trust me you had to be there to appreciate them. Don't miss next months Joke of the Month.
President Helene commented on her first 6 months and how much she has enjoyed being our President and all the help and support she is receiving. She especially wanted to thank all those who help make our meeting possible. The club service team does a great job. Thanks.
The following information is for club members with articles to submit to the Rotator.
Deadline for Article Submission: To help the editors in the work they do, please plan to make your submissions by the end-of-the-day Thursday. Please email them to cupertinorotary@gmail.com. Later submissions might be deferred to the next week's Rotator, depending on how far along the editor is in processing the meeting and program staff reporting for the current week.
Our outstanding editors are assigned as follows: First Wednesday - Gary Latshaw; Second Wednesday - Stuart Rosenberg; Third Wednesday - Louisa Roberts ; Fourth Wednesday - Padma Chari Fifth Wednesday - Peter Troop.
Our highly esteemed meeting reporters are assigned as follows: First Wednesday - Julie Griswold; Second Wednesday -Kathy Yates Third Wednesday - OPEN; Fourth Wednesday - Bill Wilson;; Fifth Wednesday Byron Rovegno
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