Meeting Notes

August 4, 2020

Here’s our news for this week:

Rotary News

President Paul welcomed everyone to today’s Mountain View Rotary Meeting. The Rotary International theme for this year is “Rotary Opens Opportunities.” Our Club theme is “We Open Opportunities For Everyone in the Community.”

From Heather: If you have speaker ideas for the upcoming year, please sign up for a week(s) or month via this spreadsheet or contact me by email (hsten@me.com) or phone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yWN7DTtzVo5i8Zk8lAeZFM8f6fZ0D5-b/view?usp=sharing.

Community Services Agency will be hosting a virtual event, “Empty Glasses 2020” this Friday, August 7^th from 4:30 to 6:00 pm. You can learn more details about the event on the CSA website at www.csacares. Org.

If anyone knows of any of our members in distress or that need anything, please let President Tom or one of the Board Members know. We want to make sure everyone knows that we are here to take care of each other.

Speaker

Sanjay introduced our speaker today, Melissa Baten Caswell. Melissa has been a Trustee on the Palo Alto School Board for the last thirteen years and she is currently the President of the Santa Clara County School Board Association. She is also a candidate for a seat on the Santa Clara County School Board.

Melissa spoke about many of the issues surrounding the opening of schools during this time of pandemic. The biggest struggles are likely to occur at the elementary level as most younger children have not developed the skills needed to learn on their own. Parents have not been trained to educate their children and it is compounded by the parents also having to work. Many rely on childcare, but that is not a certainty in these times. The situation causes a great deal of stress for both the parents and children.

Once the children get to the middle school and high school level, they may be more apt to learn on their own, but peer contact becomes extremely important. It is a dilemma for these children to continue to isolate to insure their health and that of their family, or risk catching the virus by having contact with others.

For many reasons, schools did not do a very good job with distance learning during the last school year and they will need to do better this year as it is unlikely that there will be classroom learning for a while. Most teachers are reluctant to go back to their classrooms at this point out of concern for their own health and that of their families.

In an effort to improve distance learning, many districts have provided training in this area to their teachers during the summer. The key to being successful is effective training, providing the necessary equipment to support the effort, and sharing best practices among the teachers. Ideally, child care providers can provide their support to assist with distance learning. Mental health support needs to be offered proactively rather than waiting for a crisis to occur. Keeping attendance is important to allow children who need further assistance and resources to be identified. And it is very important for children to be involved in at least some activities other than those related to academics. This is particularly true for older children.

Other Stuff

From Cathy: Every few weeks I brighten up my home with fresh flowers from the Mountain View Farmer’s market. After I bring them home I rinse them off and trim them to fit the vase on my dining table. This Sunday I rinsed off the usual dirt and loose leaves directly into my garbage disposal, and moved the cut stems into the leaf compost outside and cleaned up my sink as I always do. I didn’t think much about it one way or another until dinner time, when I saw this little guy inching its way out of my sink drain, carrying his house on his back!
I set him free in the landscaping by the parking area. Sometimes it’s the littlest things that bring you joy.

Shared by Phil:

What Love means to 4-8 year old kids ...

'When my grandmother
got arthritis , she couldn't bend over and paint
her toenails anymore.. So my
grandfather does it for her all the time , even
when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you , the
way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name
is safe in their mouth.'

Billy - age 4
??

'Love is when you go out to eat
and give somebody most of your French fries
without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile
when you're tired.'

Terri -
age 4

Love is when my
mommy makes coffee for my daddy and
she takes a sip before giving it to him , to
make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 8

??
'Love is what's in the room with
you at Christmas if you stop opening presents
and just listen.' ??

Bobby - age 7
(Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better ,
you should start with a friend who you hate. '

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on
this planet)
??

Love is like a little
old woman and a little old man who are still
friends even after they know each other so
well.' ??

Tommy - age 6

'Love is when your puppy licks
your face even after you left him
alone all day.'

Mary Ann - age 4

'When you love somebody , your
eyelashes go up and down and little
stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

'You really shouldn't say
'I love you' unless you mean it.
But if you mean it,
you should say it a lot. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8

And the final one was a four year old child
whose next door neighbor was an
elderly gentleman who had recently lost his
wife. ??

Upon seeing the man cry , the
little boy went into the old
gentleman's yard , climbed onto his
lap , and just sat there.

When his
Mother asked what he had said to the
neighbor , the little boy said ,

'Nothing , I just helped him cry'

No retro photos this week, but take the dare and send some my way. Let’s see if our members can guess who it is. If you are wondering about the last ones, it was none other than our enchanting Past President Anita

Remember, send me some stuff so we can make this interesting and keep it going. And don’t forget the photos. Send it to bbarsi@msn.com. And take good care of yourselves.

Next Meeting

Tuesday, August 18, 2020, at 12:15 pm via Zoom. This will be a member panel discussion involving “Changing Times Due to Pandemic.”. A Zoom link will be provided prior to the meeting.