Meeting called to order by President Meghan Burton at 12:30pm.
Gregg Butterfield led the pledge of allegiance.
INSPIRATION
John Pencer gave our inspirational message. John was down in Rancho Mirage looking to join a morning Rotary meeting. He googled times for the meeting and was met with multiple times and days; but decided to go on Thursday, not really knowing whether or not there would be a meeting. Well, there was a meeting with seating for ~10-12 people and ~6 Rotarians were present.
The speaker was a 17-year-old local High School Girl Scout who had been in Girl Scouts for 12 years and was working on her gold sash, after completing her bronze and silver. Her project: a friendship bench that could seat 2-4 people. Her project and slide presentation were inspired by her friend Gemma, who was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 1. She told the audience that Gemma was the most positive and inspirational person she had known. Sadly, Gemma, passed away ~1 year ago. After this very emotional speech, the Rotarians started making plans on ways to help; such as: providing a truck, providing lumber and other ways to get involved.
John’s takeaway: you don’t need a huge club to have a big impact.
Visitors
- Lydia Norcia introduced Marily Hart, who’s hoping to join the club.
- Kyle DeMattei from Los Gatos and Kevin Jones from Mountain View wanted to see what the Rotary was all about.
- Dan Snyder proudly announced that his daughter Allison has an internship this summer at Montana State University, studying physics of solar flares.
- Andrew Howard introduced Santiago who is studying business at San Diego.
Our Rotarian in the Wild this week is Suzanne Boxer-Gassman and her husband Gerry at Arches National Park.
A picture of the volunteers that helped at the Building Dreams Fundraiser last Thursday was shown.
Decorated eggs St. Lukes Pantry: Randy and Kathie’s cat guarding the eggs.
Announcements
June 4, 2024: First Tuesday Happy Hour at The Florentine Village, Family home of Nicolette Rodman Kelly. 42 Central Ave, Los Gatos 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Projects
Wes Sadumiano presented the Philippines Water Project. In December 2023, the international project was funded by the Los Gatos Rotary. The water structure was built to withstand weather’s fury. The usable water project serves a total of 1,800 high school students.
Wes showed slides including local school officials and local Rotarians, the groundbreaking ceremony and the plaque highlighting the Los Gatos Rotary Club.
Blue Badge Bios
Rhonda Beasley was born in Trinidad where the steel pan originated. She moved to San Jose at age 14, where she went to Oak Grove High School. She graduated from Pomona College in Claremont where she lived in Rancho Cucamonga. Rhonda obtained her Master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University and her doctorate from USC.
Rhonda worked in finance and HR, but wanted to teach so she moved back to Southern California, taking a position as an elementary reading coach.
She is married and came back to the Silicon Valley where her husband worked. She worked in East Palo Alto Charter School; then stayed home for 6 months. Now, Rhonda is the director of curriculum at LGUSD.
Rhonda has 2 sons, AJ who is in 6th grade and Jayden who is in 3rd grade. Family is very important to Rhonda. She enjoys creating invitations, travel, reading and watching movies with her family. She is also the co-chair of The Great Race.
Michelle Strachan grew up in Los Altos in a family of six (parents, 2 sisters and 1 brother). She is married, husband Jack and 2 children.
Michelle graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Integrative Biology and a Spanish minor. She worked for 10 years in Biotech, working with Gene Therapy (HIV and colon cancer), stem cells, High Speed Cell Sorting, lab-on-a-chip and as a PCR specialist. Michelle loves things that light up, so she enjoyed working with fluorescence.
After staying home for 5 years, Michelle took a position in the LGUSD, Blossom Hill ES as an Administrative Assistant for 6 years; then moved to the District Office as an Executive Assistant.
Michelle loves adventure and apparently has no fear as she enjoys zip lining, white water rafting and car racing on an all-woman team. She was a diver in her younger years.
She loves to garden and showed pictures of her beautiful tall bearded irises; but her true passion is her chickens. The chickens look forward to being outside to exercise and roam around, with Michelle’s dog close by, guarding them. Michelle is known as “the chicken lady” and shares her expertise with others.
Michelle started volunteering early in her youth, at a convalescent home in Los Altos. This was her first introduction to finding compassion and caring for others in the community, as she visited those that didn’t have many visitors. She is also involved in coaching softball, the LGUSD bond campaign and the Lexington Home and School Club. Michelle is looking forward to continuing to give back to the community through Rotary.
Amy Liang is a second-generation Chinese American who grew up in Sunnyvale and Los Altos and now lives in Mountain View. She is married with 2 young daughters.
She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Cognitive Science, earned her M.S. degree in Software Development and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and her M.A. Ed in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University.
Amy is a black belt in Taekwondo, loves rock climbing and delights playing with her daughters.
Amy’s professional path started at Lockheed as a Flight Software Engineer; followed by the Director of STEM Integration at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation; then, as the Director of Instructional Technology in the Cupertino Union School District. She was also an instructor in the California CTO Mentor Program and, now, Amy is the Director of Technology, Assessment, and Accountability in the LGUSD.
SERVICE PROJECT: Hygiene kits for the unhoused of San Jose.
Today, our $2,600 will help 144 people in our unhoused community at the Santa Teresa Parish obtain much needed hygiene items, such as razors, sanitizers, combs, brushes, toothpaste, nail clippers, Kleenex, soap and snacks.