Meeting Notes - November 8, 2016

 

Mountain View Rotary Club
Tuesday, November 08, 2016

Thanks to Bill Maston for providing dessert today and also his thoughtful comments about voting in America.

 
Announcements –
Bruce Barsi reminded us of the Cops and Gobblers Thanksgiving packaging later this month. Check with Bruce for the exact dates if you would like to donate your time to that great cause.
 
Judy Hannemann reminded us that additional donations for the district governor’s “Read me a Picture Project” are still needed. Your donations would be greatly appreciated.
 
Burt Rafael gave us an overview of his colorful career. He shared his education in mathematics and sciences and his history with artificial intelligence which brought him to Silicon Valley in its early years. After many years working on very significant projects in the valley, Burt went into semi-retirement to help his wife run compass point travel, again another successful venture. Today Burt enjoys traveling and community service projects.
 

Speaker –
Dick Lubman introduced our guest Reverend Michael Love from Hope’s Corner. Hope’s Corner is right here in downtown Mountain View on the corner of Hope and Mercy Street which is the reason for Hope’s Corner’s name. Reverend Michael explained that Hope’s Corner came about in response to a very important need; feeding and providing limited services to the homeless. Hope’s Corner started barely four years ago and has already served more than 40,200 meals noting that 10,000 of those meals have been served in just the past 9 months emphasizing the need. Hope’s corner averages over 250 meals on Saturday mornings alone. When Hope’s corner was created there was only a partial understanding of how great the community need was. Philosophically, Hope’s Corner believes that in order to have a sustainable community, acknowledging the homeless community and providing their needs is what helps make our community sustainable.  Hope’s Corner has lots of friends in the community including CSA, Second Harvest, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, our Rotary Club, and many others.

 

Homeless people come in many sizes, shapes, and needs. For the most part, what surprised Hope’s corner the most was that homeless people in our community don’t fit the stereotype. Many of them are working but can’t afford the high prices to live here. Many have also been forced out as the local economy has passed them by.

 

In addition to providing food, Hope’s Corner recently started providing a place to take showers. This new service was in response to their patron’s needs. The next big project is the building of a new commercial kitchen that will be certified by the county health department. This will allow Hope’s Corner to make better use of the different food sources that are available to them. However, this large project needs our help. The estimated cost for this new commercial kitchen is approximately $680,000. Contributions totaling over $200,000 have already been committed. They are looking for additional financial help.

 

Going forward, Hope’s Corner hopes to strengthen their relationships with a number of different organizations including our own Rotary. The Mountain View Rotatory will be participating in a Saturday breakfast on November 19 from 8am – 10am. Please consider donating your time and/or your other resources to this valuable community organization.

 

Thank you reverend Michael for sharing with us this valuable service to the community.