Doug Brent called the meeting to order at 12:30pm
Pledge: Lydia Norcia
Guests: Carol Boyce, Mike and Vianne Bell, and Ron Auch.
Inspiration: Anjana Bose led us in a deep breathing exercise, three long breaths to clarify our minds and get our bodies in alignment. Very relaxing.
Rotary Eggs for St. Luke’s were MBA themed.
Marjorie Brent presented her Blue Bio: Marjorie was born in southern California and grew up in Pacific Palisades. She got her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland in biochemistry and then went to USC for her MBA in consumer marketing. She worked with product lines like Fancy Feast, Intellivision, and Shasta. She met Doug at USC, and they were married in 1982 and moved to the Bay Area. Their daughter was born in 1986 and their son in 1989. Marjorie changed her focus once her children were born and volunteered in all of the kids’ school and extracurricular activities until their youngest left for college in 2007.
She got certified in Scuba diving and has a tremendous passion and talent for baking, glass making, mosaics, and stained-glass art. She also bakes fabulous thematic cookies for special occasions.
Marjorie got involved with Rotary when Doug joined the club in 2018 and loves the work we do and the people in the club. She is thrilled to be a new member. Doug presented her with her Blue Badge.
CELO: Mike and Vianne Bell presented on their organization Coalition for Effective Local Democracy, which has partnered with our Rotary Club for 25 years. Their recent projects are in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa at the NDUKUMBANA and NXAWE primary schools where they provided computers and internet access to the students. These students now can access information and aspirations that were not previously available to them. Mike and Vianne presented Doug with an outstanding contribution award for our Rotary Club for the 25 years of service together with CELO.
End of Year speaker Survey: Barry Cheskin presented the report to the Club. Members were asked to rate speakers on topic from 1-very uninteresting to 5-very interesting, and on the speaker’s presentation skills also 1-5. Response rate was very high—about 65% of attendees. Average speaker rating was 4.4/5 and average presentation skills was 4.5/5.
Members reported that they liked the speakers, 3 thought some speakers were too promotional, a few members wanted to leave comments, 1 member wanted more detailed survey data, and 1 thought one topic was too complicated. Overall speaker program went very well and a huge thank you to Barry, Lisa, and Lissa for all their work!
Guatemala Service Project Begins: Paul Johnson and his team—which includes Debbie Johnson, Karen Briones, Michelle Strachan, and Jenna Mittleman—are bringing supplies, desks, and computers for schools in Guatemala.
Doug showed slides of three events that were held recently: Club Family BBQ, District Conference, and First Tuesday at Mike and Jennifer Norcia’s house.
Great Race Sponsor: The 47th annual Great Race is coming on Saturday, August 30. Be a race “friend” at $500 or up to $10,000 to be a presenting sponsor with 15 free entries and a registration banner. Commitment deadline is July 15.
Announcements:
Roast and Toast is Tuesday, June 24. Register online or let Meghan know you will be attending.
West Valley College Back to School Shopping is August 2, from 6:30–10:30am.
Family Photo this week was Rachelle Lopp’s family: herself, her husband, son, and daughter.
30 for 30:
Barbara Rogan, $50 for her daughter’s graduation from college with her history degree.
Tom Boyce, $25 each for Mike and Vianne for their 25 years of service with CELO.
Rachelle, for the Rotary Club of Toronto who helped her daughter who was in charge of an event in that city.
Hal Rosen, for the outreach and kindness of the Rotary Club and especially, Marlon Smith and Randy and Kathie, to his wife Lydia who was ill with pneumonia.
Meghan, $30 to scholarship as a reminder to purchase tickets for the Roast and Toast online.
Speakers:
Tom Caruso and Ellen Wang, Clinical Professors of Pediatric Anesthesiology at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. They co-direct the Stanford Chariot Program, which pioneered the use of immersive, virtual reality or VR to minimize pain and anxiety that children experience during medical procedures.
Their innovative, immersive technologies encourage rehabilitation, ease patients’ pain and stress, and restore a child’s sense of normalcy at Stanford and at hospitals around the world.
They work on research, software development, clinical implementation, and hardware development. They have created 15 games/apps that are used for minor procedures as an anxiety reducer. They have created 4 games/apps that train healthcare providers for hospitalized patients. They have created 4 games/apps for immersive technology for virtual reality rehabilitation sessions.
The goal going forward is to continue to design research-based immersive tools to captivate kids’ imaginations and restore a sense of normalcy.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm.