We race for charity - Annual Rotary Great Race

We award college scholarships

We mentor youth - Annual Rotary Enterprise Leadership Conference

We crack crab to raise funds for local and international grants - Annual Rotary Crab Fest

We volunteer in our community

We have fun together

“Together, we see a world where people unite & take action to create lasting change -

across the globe, in our communities, & in ourselves.”

Follow & tag us on social media: @losgatosrotary

Meeting Notes from April 9, 2023

Meeting called to order by Vice President Rachelle Lopp at 12:30pm.

Diane Eriksson led the pledge of allegiance.

Judy Rodriguez gave our inspirational message about how this Club and all the kind, friendly, intelligent, energetic, organized and generous people that make up the Rotary have inspired her.

The Los Gatos Rotary Club is celebrating 100 years of service this year and that is quite an accomplishment; and a testament to all the people in this room and all the others that served before us. She was so pleased to hear this year we gave $93,000 to 48 different charitable organizations---truly remarkable!

Judy has been associated with this club for almost 30 years as a wife, Inner Wheel member and Rotarian. She loves coming to Tuesday meetings because of all of you. Judy ended her message with “let’s continue to serve the Los Gatos Rotary Club for another 100 years!”

Visitors:

Mike Egleston, a travel advisor was introduced by Ed Stahl

Gali Dodium, who was interested in finding out about the Rotary community, was introduced by David Hubbard.

Our Rotarian in the Wild this week is Marie Rector among the Mayan ruins in Tikal.

Great Race 2024

Meeting Notes from March 26, 2023

The meeting was brought to order by President Meghan Burton at 12:30.

Mike “The Greek” Frangadakis led the pledge of allegiance.

Erika Buck gave the inspiration. She again went to the book 100 Ways to Calm for an excerpt, and this time shared a little life advice: Be late for work. Call or email your boss and tell them you’ll be a little late. Do something nice for yourself! Make yourself a great breakfast, practice yoga or take the dog out for a walk. And, miss the traffic! A much more restful day (unless being late annoys your boss :-)

Introduction of Guests

Cindy Carter, President Elect of Sebastopol Rotary joined us today. She was visiting with her daughter who works in Los Gatos at Charles Schwab, and wanted to check out how another large club operates after meeting Doug Brent at President Elect Training. Her daughter, Michelle Flamm also visited.
Ed Stahl introduced JoAnn Smith from the Los Gatos Morning club.
Tom Boyce introduced Peter Morris, a former Rotarian, and now Executive Director at the Terraces. This is the second visit to our club.

The Rotarian in the Wild was Rachelle Lopp. Rachelle climbed an 800 year old 200 ft high tree in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Janice LeFevre of Saratoga Inner Wheel sent a slide that showed their work supporting artificial limbs, and thanking those who supported their raffle.

Meghan reviewed the contribution several Rotarians made to Rise Against Hunger, along with Saratoga Rotary, and others. The group packaged 20,000 meals that will be used anywhere in the world, where needed. Each kit is a healthy meal in a bag, that just needs to be boiled, and seasoned to local tastes.

Upcoming club events

(Please note: details/links for these will be provided by Meghan in her weekly newsletter.)

The April, “First Tuesday” will be held at Chez Felipe in downtown Los Gatos on 2 April from 5:30-7:30. Hope to see you there!
Paul Christensen discussed Great Race progress. Sponsorships are going really well (thanks to Patti!), and sign-ups are on track with progress last year. But Lisa Cheskin pointed out that we still have about 400+ people to sign up, so continue getting the word out! Paul stated that this week, you will get a link to a website where you can sign up for different tasks to support the race. Most will be race day tasks, but it is possible to work ahead of time, and it is even possible to sign up for tasks that still allow you to race. This is a major fund raiser for the club (and very significant for the Scholarship Foundation), and we’re asking for everyone to find a way to help.

Visitors:

Peter Morris was introduced as a previous Rotarian and new director of The Terraces, Los Gatos.
Paul Christensen introduced Damir and Ava Herman; Ava designed the logo for the Great Race.
Dan Synder introduced his daughter Allison, who is home from college.

Our Rotarian in the Wild this week is Marty Fishman, visiting the pyramids in Egypt.

Decorated eggs St. Luke's Pantry: Happy Spring!

Announcements:

Red Cross Blood Drive was a great success with ~38 donors.
First Tuesday Happy Hour April 2, 2024 at Chez Phillippe, LG; 5:30 to 7:30
Rise Against Hunger Community Service Event: Sunday, March 24, 2024 from 9:00-1:30 at Saratoga High School
Dick Konrad—Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce Wine Walk, Saturday April 20, 2024, 1:00-4:00pm STROLL, SIP, SAVOR. Volunteers needed: contact Dick Konrad
Paul Christensen—Great Race Logo Design winner: out of 87 logos submitted, Ava Herman was the winner and was presented with a check for $100.00. Congratulations to Ava!
Sign-ups for The Great Race at Vasona Park, April 14, 2024 will be coming soon.
Mike Norcia—Mark your calendars for the Centennial Celebration at the Mountain Winery, Tuesday May 7, 2024. Cocktails at 6pm, Dinner at 7pm.
$175 per person.

30 For 30:

Our own resident poet laureate, Jeff Blum read two poems from the heart: the first one was about our Red Cross Blood Drive this past weekend; and the second one was to Lissa and their twelve years of being together.

$30.00 to each one.

Paul Christensen—on the many places he has been, including ski trips to Whistler and Big Sky; and a trip to the Grand Canyon. $50.00 for each.

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Rotary District 5170 Conference
Hayes Mansion

Apr. 26, 2024 - Apr. 28, 2024
Centennial Celebration Gala!
Mountain Winery

May 07, 2024 6:00 p.m.

Ramon Ware, Club Member

Apr 16, 2024

Lead Like an Aviator

Club Field Trip

Apr 23, 2024

NUMU - Los Gatos Museum

Cordelia Willis, SCC DA's Office

Apr 30, 2024

Real-Life CSI in Santa Clara County

Evening Event - NO Lunch Meeting

May 07, 2024

Club Centennial Gala

View entire list...

We raised over $14,000 for the Bill Wilson Center Safety Net Shelter for at-risk youth in February 2024.

We partnered with Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley to help fix up a home in our area in October 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csNuJ-oYYc8&feature=youtu.be

We assembled back packs full of essential back-to-school supplies for Uplift Family Services in August 2023.

We helped assemble 24,000 meals with Rise Against Hunger at Saratoga High School in April 2023.

We assembled activity kits for isolation patients at El Camino Hospital for our February service project

We helped prep materials for solar kits for Lighting For Literacy at our December service project

We collected a record number of toys for Toys For Tots in 2022!

Above, volunteering at Second Harvest Food Bank!

Filling backpacks for Back-to-School drives. The Rotary Club of Los Gatos participated in 3 back to school drives this year: Pacific Clinics, West Valley Community Services, and Jewish Family Services.