President FRANK called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm.   Rotarians then stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, led by CINDY WEMYSS.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

LINDSAY CARPENTER reminded us all of the importance of stopping and taking in each moment, being present, and learning to appreciate all that really matters.  Her specific quote was:

 “Dwell on the beauty of life.   Watch the Stars and see yourself running with them” --Marcus Aurelius.

President FRANK’s team for the day included 

• Greeters:  MADELEINE FACKLER and JOE FUSCO.   
• Thought for the day was provided by LINDSAY CARPENTER.
• Cookie Monster:  GERRI ACRES.
• Recognition:  KAREN FOX.   
• Rotator Writer:  MADELEINE FACKLER.
• Photographer: PP CHUCK LINDAUER.
• Publisher:  ANNIE JU.
• Editor: PP CYNTHIA LUEDTKE.
• Tech Team:  LEE CODDING and MIKE KERR.   
• Website & Zoom:  STEVE POMEROY and DAVID GREEN. 

Also noted at this early point in the meeting was that MARILYN MANNING and RICHARD LONERGAN were both “back in the house”.   Their attendance was met with strong applause from all of those in attendance. 

INTRODUCTIONS of GUESTS

PP STAN SCARDINO led the welcome section of the meeting.   There were no visiting Rotarians this week, but multiple individuals had come to hear this week’s speaker or simply continue to see the group in action. 

STEVE POMEROY introduced Ellen Green (aka DAVID GREEN’s wife) and PJ Pierce, her sister. 

SHERRY AUERBACH welcomed Vera Imper back from a monthlong trip to Croatia, who was present as a guest of the club.   

MARGE GEHL and MEL KAHN introduced Dr Harry Mittelman, who has recently retired after a career in facial plastic surgery, and whom MARGE and MEL are hoping may be interested in joining our group. 

NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM

Alison Carpenter Davis will be speaking on “Letters home from Stanford: 125 Years of Correspondence from Stanford Students – and why this Book Matters”.   The group acknowledged that a few of us have received physical letters home from our “children,” so it will be interesting to hear Alison’s findings.  

“PILLARS” (Part 3)

President FRANK continued his recognition of long-term members of Los Altos Rotary, all of whom have contributed so much to our community. 

PP CHUCK LINDAUER, who is also PP of Mentor Tutor Connection and former Dean at Foothill College, has been a member for 24 years and enjoys hiking and playing with computers. 

KURT HUEG just retired as Associate VP at Foothill College and now plans to focus on improving his golf game.   He has been a member of our club for 25 years.   

Another PP, MONA ARMISTEAD, has also been with the club for 25 years.  She is a former teacher, banker, member of a tech start-up, and practicing Psychotherapist.   

STEVE SHEPHERD may be known best for his chairing of the Los Altos Rotary Member Golf Tournament.  He has been with the club for 26 years. 

SHIVE SHASTRI has also been with the club for 26 years.   He is a Civil Litigation Attorney and has been actively engaged with Rotary International Graduate Study Scholarships.   

JACK HIGGINS was a member of the Rotary Club at Chico before moving to our area and joining LARC 26 years ago.  He worked for a Medical Device company and is now heading a non-profit focused on creating a global health network for which he has received the most coveted “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International this past year. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

There will be another Dine Around next week, August 13^th, starting at 6 pm at Long Bar & Bistro, hosted by President FRANK and SHARI ELMER.   The night will also include a Trivia contest for 3 groups of 6 people each.   Sign-ups are now open.   To get us all primed, STEVE SHEPHERD led a short Trivia contest by table with 5 questions: 

1) History:  Which US State was the first to ratify the US Constitution? (answer:  Delaware in 1787)  

2) Geography: What river is the longest in the world? (answer: The Nile)  

3)  Food & Beverage:  Which essential spice comes from an orchid flower and is the 2^nd most expensive after Saffron?  (answer: Vanilla)  

4) Sports:  How many total rings make up the official Olympic Symbol? (answer:  5)  

5) What 1939 classic movie had the line “There is no place like home”? (answer:  The Wizard of Oz)

SHARI ELMER provided an overview of an upcoming travel opportunity – a LARC Trip to Guatemala, April 3—11, 2027, with Dream Volunteers.   This is a great opportunity to participate in a multi-generational service and sightseeing trip to a beautiful part of Guatemala.  A daily itinerary is available for review at https://dreamvolunteers.org/guatemala-larc-trip.  Everyone is welcome – singles, families, grandparents.  Service work will be aligned with people’s skills.   Each family will need to make a deposit of $1,000 by October 1^st.  The trip will be open to the first 30 people who sign up.     

Reminder that Cuppa’ Joe is this upcoming Tuesday at 8 am at Holders. 

President FRANK shared his plans (immediate next steps and longer-term efforts) based on the survey feedback he received earlier this spring.   His immediate actions include:  Adding More Member Spotlights;  Improving communication on Committees and Volunteer Opportunities, and Evaluating meeting logistics and needed upgrades to the Garden House.   

Longer-term actions include:  

• Explore a signature Los Altos Community project,   
• Expand environmental and hands-on service opportunities, and
• Scheduling periodic presentations from organizations supported by Rotary Grants. 

RECOGNITION

KAREN FOX once again took the lead for the Recognition section of the meeting.   She built on a theme of medical professionals, their work, and positive results evidenced by numerous members.   

JACK HIGGINS was called on first, and he shared the good progress being made with the use of telehealth in Kenya and Uganda.  This helps supplement care when problems arise that those present locally aren’t sure how best to address.  This has been extremely valuable, particularly in light of the recent cuts in foreign aid. 

RICHARD LONERGAN shared the exciting news that after over a year of different cancer treatments, MARILYN MANNING was cancer-free.   Treatments will continue, but they have turned a corner and are extremely thankful. They were both extremely appreciative of all of the support they had received throughout the last 12-18 months (e.g., visits, cards, and chocolate chip cookies) and are thrilled to be back with the group.   They both joined the President’s Club with their thanks.   

WENDY WALLEIGH let club members know that the Cupertino Club, an important partner to Los Altos, is holding a fundraiser on August 15^th.   It’s called Global Elegance and will be held at Hidden Villa from 5:30 – 8 pm.    Money raised will go towards their global projects. 

ELSBETH TeBRAKE trained as a Physical Therapist and has found that to be a skill that continues to be of value.   It has helped her provide a healing touch to people she cares about.   She is glad that she has been able to do that and joined the President’s Club in recognition.

JAN PEPPER shared that her daughter got engaged recently (and plans to marry at the end of this month).  They held an Engagement Party for her in their backyard, but JAN tripped over an uneven spot and broke her toe.  KAREN FOX reminded folks that the ground at FAITP is also uneven, and we should all be careful as we work there for FAITP.

TAMI MULCAHY wanted to recognize TOM JOHNSON for his work sorting through and compiling a large number of emails to generate 100 potential names of people for the Climate Action Summit to be held next January.

CHUCK LANDAUER shared the exciting news that his daughter was promoted to be the Head of Global Customer Success Management for Stripe, the largest privately owned company in the US.  He joined the President’s Club with this announcement. 

Lastly,  KAREN FOX recognized the great work done by the BooksPlus Committee within Rotary.   Friday, they were to be handing out bags of books and literacy tools for underserved children in the area under the age of 6.

FEATURED PROGRAM: 

PP HARRY PRICE introduced our featured speaker for the day, Christy Hale, an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books.   Her books have been amazing, immersive experiences, and she has 3 more books coming out this year.   

Although Christy began life in Massachusetts, her family moved to the Bay Area before she turned 4.  She started 5^th grade at Addison School in Palo Alto.   Her teacher read “Harriet the Spy” to the class, and Christy and her best friend, Leslie, loved it.  They wanted to be Harriet the Spy and did their best to search out potential mysteries and solve them the way Harriet did.   Christy noticed at the time that the author of “Harriet the Spy”, Louise Fitzhugh, was both the book’s author and illustrator.   This convinced Christy at age 10 that that is what she wanted to do. This childhood experience also showed her that play can become one’s life’s work.  To date, Christy has written and/or illustrated 35 books. 

Christy’s path was not a direct one.   Upon graduating from college, she became a middle school art teacher in Oregon.  After teaching for 7 years, she became hungry to find a way to nurture her own creativity.   She applied for and was accepted at Pratt Institute to study Illustration.   She lived in NYC for 18 years, including 2 years working in the Communications Design Department at Pratt.   This helped pay the rent and gave Christy valuable experience in design, typography, and art direction.   She eventually moved into the design departments in different publishing houses.  She built strong relationships in these houses, which proved invaluable as she set out to do some of her own illustration work.   

Her first illustration assignment was with Lee & Loew Books, the largest multi-racial publisher since their inception in 1991.   Publisher Philip Lee there shared his desire to have a story written and illustrated about the biracial sculptor, Isamu Noguchi.   This led to one of Christy's first books titled, “The East-West house,” describing some of Isamus’ challenges assimilating given both his Eastern & Western heritages. 

Another book Christy highlighted for the group was titled “Reaching across the Sky,” which features 100 unique bridges across the globe.   “Dreaming Up” focuses on 14 different and diverse architects to illustrate that anyone can excel in this work.   

In addition to Christy’s books, she shared her own passion for promoting Literacy among children. The most important thing we can do to increase childhood literacy is for adults to model it for their children, both in reading aloud to their children and reading themselves.   Another recommendation Christy had was to allow kids to select their own books that they want to read and normalize “abandoning” books that they find are not of interest.   She also recommended talking with children about stories rather than quizzing them about what they read.  Literacy is how all of us learn, key is to make it a fun and interactive experience. 

There was an opportunity for Q&A, and multiple interesting, related topics were raised. Christy is strongly against using AI in book writing and illustration. She feels books are always better when a human hand has been involved. Audio books are not as relevant for children’s books due to the accompanying illustrations needed, but she sees real value for them for adults, especially as so many outstanding actors are serving as the audio readers.   For challenging works, she recommends listening to someone reading it while you follow along yourself. Her recommendation for anyone interested in the field: go to the library and look at and read as many books as possible.  That way, you can see what is of interest to readers (and thus publishers). 

President FRANK presented a book written and signed by Christy called “Serious Fun” from Linden Tree Books.   He then adjourned the meeting at 1:25 pm.