On a lovely, autumnal day, President FRANK ELMER called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm.
Attending via Zoom were DWIGHT MATTHEWS, JACKSON WISE, JANE DUPERRAULT, JANIS ZINN, JOANNE KAVALARIS, KATHY LERA, LYNN WILSON ROBERTS, MADELEINE FACKLER, MARIA SANCHEZ, SCOTT HUNTER, and SUSIE MIELKE.
PLEDGE
Rotarians stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, led by LINDSAY CARPENTER.
THE POSSE
President FRANK thanked his fabulous team.
Greeters: MARY JO LOMAX, KRIS OLSON, and DENNIS MILLIGAN
Thought of the Day: SHELLEY EMERSON
Song Meister: RON STEFANI
Cookie Monster: VICKI OLDBERG
Sergeants at Arms: MIKE ABRAMS, MJ LOMAX, ERIK WALUKIEWICZ
Rotator Writer: TIGER ROHRS
Photographer: TOM JOHNSON
Recognition: LONNIE GARY
Editor: SUSIE MIELKE
Publisher: SUSIE MIELKE
Tech Team: LEE CODDING
Website and Zoom: STEVE POMEROY & DAVID GREEN
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
SHELLEY EMERSON introduced this thought from Lily Tomlin: “Somebody should do something about this. Then I realized, I am somebody.”
SONG FOR THE DAY
RON STEFANI led us in singing an uplifting song about achieving peace: “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”
INTRODUCTIONS
President FRANK oversaw today’s introductions.
Visiting Rotarians included Cindy Murphy from the Bozeman Sunrise Rotary Club and Dan Polcrano from the San Jose Rotary Club. Rotarians with Guests included these:
An unidentified man introducing his childhood friend and best man, Evan Moore.
PP SAM HARDING introducing Bernie and Veronica, a father and daughter-in-law.
BENNY LOEBNER introduced Laurie Tanen.
PP DENNIS YOUNG introduced Dan Polcrano.
PE JOE EYRE introduced today’s speaker, Julie Dominguez.
PP CHUCK LINDAUER introduced his lovely wife, Ilona.
CINDY BOGARD O’GORMAN introduced Toby Emerson.
BRANDON SMITH introduced Alice Sakamoto, board president at Westwind Riding Institute, a Rotary grantee.
PAUL SCHUTZ introduced James Laffen, founder of Family Matters and Home Care, and Amy Esoo, community relations manager at Family Matters.
DUANNI HURD gave a shout-out to our newest Rotarian, TRINA OTTINGER.
POLIO PLUS
CINDY BOGARD O'GORMAN, our club’s Polio Plus chairman reviewed this amazing years-long effort, spearheaded by Rotary International in 1979, to eradicate polio worldwide. Rotary’s partner, the Gates Foundation, doubles RI’s contribution up to a $50 million contribution from RI.
Some facts:
Los Altos Rotary donates about $10,000 every year.
Over 3 billion children have been vaccinated in 122 countries.
In 2025, 20 million volunteers administered 913 million polio vaccinations.
In 2025 volunteers administered > 2B novel, oral polio vaccines.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where wild polio virus exists. Barriers are politics, social unrest, and mistrust of outsiders.
Circulating vaccine-derived polio also exists elsewhere (106 cases).
in 1987 Rotary created the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership with health organizations such as UNICEF, the CDC, and the World Health Organization.
Rotary International has donated > $2.1B.
When you donate to Rotary International, you can earmark your donation to Polio Plus. Notify Aaron of your contribution. If you write a check, you make it out to The Rotary Foundation (do not make out a check to TRF) and put Polio Plus in the notes section.
You can also join the Polio Plus Society, alongside 31 other Rotarians who have joined this society.
RED BADGER INDUCTION
MARY JO LOMAX AND DUANNI HURD inducted Red Badger TRINA OTTINGER, the newest member of the Los Altos Rotary Satellite Club. Trina and her family came to the US as refugees of the Vietnam War. Trina attended UC Berkeley and NYU Law School, then started her career in government service at the Chief Counsel's Office for the IRS in Washington, DC. Her career as a tax attorney spanned over 25 years in three states. Welcome, TRINA.
THE LOS ALTOS ROTARY SATELLITE CLUB
VICKY BROWNE of Rotary’s Satellite Club spoke about what the Club is up to and how its activities and those of the main club might overlap. The Club meets once/month in the evening. Its primary focus is helping neurodivergent (special needs) kids, ages 5-12 in Santa Clara County. Their parents find advocating for their kids’ needs is a huge challenge. Some projects include (1) creating a list of books containing neurodivergent characters and sharing the list with the Los Altos School Board, (2) purchasing and donating books to the Hope Technology School and the California School for the Deaf, and (3) stocking the little, free libraries around Los Altos with books featuring neurodivergent characters.
The Club has identified these three partners.
Parents Helping Parents teaches >8,000 families, many of whom do not speak English as a first language, how to advocate for themselves in the systems they encounter.
REAL of Palo Alto aims to educate educators, so that they are better able to serve neurodivergent children.
Bay Area Friendship Circle connects teen mentors with neurodivergent children to develop social skills.
Satellite members are also engaged in Fine Art in the Park, World Community Service, and Books Plus.
WESTWIND RIDING INSTITUTE
Alice Sakamoto, board president of the Westwind Riding Institute, described what happens at WRI, which is one of our club’s grantees.WRI provides recreational horseback riding classes for children with disabilities ages 14-19. Horseback riding is physically and psychologically therapeutic; children gain balance, coordination, and confidence while on horseback. Volunteers, including teens, ready the horses, assist with mounting them, lead the horses, and provide two volunteers/horse to walk beside the horse.WRI also has a drill team that rides in formation.
NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM
Dr. Robert Siegel will speak about "The Secret Life of Viruses." Please read about him on the Rotary website.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
October 17 and 31: The Climate Action Committee has two upcoming volunteer activities: (1) Saturday, Oct. 17, Stevens Creek Trail cleanup, and (2) Saturday, Oct. 31 at Surfers Beach.
October 21: Enjoy Happy Hour at the Laughing Monk Bar 5:00-6:00 pm.
October 23: Enjoy Wine and Cheese on Friday, 5:00-8:00pm at SUSIE MIELKE'S home.
October 28: Join the next dine around at Enchante Hotel.
October 29: Celebrate Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at the Rotary meeting. Bring photos of deceased loved ones for placement on the memorial ofrenda.
November 10: Meet PE JOE EYRE for Cuppa Joe at Holder’s between 8:00-9:00 am.
November 12: Honor veterans in your family and friend groups at Rotary’s meeting. Please email photos to SUSIE MIELKE by November 1. If you have any questions, please contact GARY MAGGARD.
December 5: Come to Rotary’s festive holiday party.
RECOGNITION
LONNIE GARY was masterful at collecting money, aided by DUANNI HURD.
PP DENNIS YOUNG joined the President’s Club and called on his guest, Dan Polcrano, who is the CEO of the Weekly's Media Group (see weeklys.com), which has purchased and added The Los Altos Town Crier to its portfolio. Dan emphasized the reliability and predictability of print publication, as contrasted with the mutability of “news” published on the internet and/or written by AI agents.
KURT HUEG has moved to Lodi and plans to join the Lodi Rotary Club. He misses his Rotary friends here and contributed his $100 bill today.
JEANINE VALADEZ praised Vicky and other Rotary Satellite Club members for their initiative with neurodivergent kids and said Books Plus has adopted their charter. JEANINE contributed $20.00.
KRIS OLSON donated $20.00 so that she could announce a Club 55 event, which has occurred since her announcement. Look for her Club 55 announcements in 2027.
BRANDON SMITH bragged about his two sons on the cross-country team for Mountain View High School, the #1 ranked team in California. Brandon joined the President’s Club.
TRINA OTTINGER was welcomed by President FRANK, who told TRINA that Red Badgers are recognized as soon as they have been accepted. TRINA joined the President’s Club.
TODAY’S PROGRAM: The Bay Area’s Indigenous Muwekma Ohlone Tribe
PEN JOE EYRE introduced today’s speaker, Julie Dominguez, a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. She is the community education co-chair of the tribe’s Muwekma Ohlone Preservation Foundation. Julie belongs to the unbroken Dolores Sanchez lineage--nine generations going back to her ancestors' time as virtual slaves to the Spanish missions in California. Julie also performs traditional tribal dances in costume.
In Julie’s well-illustrated presentation, we learned that the tribe is composed of 600 members. Although the tribe currently belongs to the historic Verona Band of Alameda County, it seeks restoration of its former federal recognition status from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. If this restoration of status were to occur, ancestors could be reburied on both marked and unmarked ancestral lands (cemeteries), most of which have been despoiled by the creation of modern infrastructure, e.g., highways and solar panels.
Other goals include obtaining ownership of ancestral lands, preserving the culture through language, dance, songs, etc., focusing on higher education for youth, offering Chochenyo language lessons, and engaging with those outside of the tribe.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
President FRANK presented Julie a signed book, A Better World Possible, donated by Linden Tree Books, to be given to a local elementary school.
President FRANK signaled the meeting’s end at 1:30. “Thank you all for coming today. Go out and create lasting impact, and I believe our best days are ahead of us. We are adjourned.”
Rotarians and guests chatted and slowly vanished into the sparkling California afternoon.
