Meeting Summary, April 7, 2015

Posted by Paul Reinhart 
on Apr 07, 2015
 

Mountain View Rotary Notes - April 7, 2015

By Bill

As always president Alan played Hail to the Chief along with his “club held hostage” theme. After our pledge of allegiance and thought for the day, President elect Twana, introduced our young guest Valerie Thys.

Valerie is a foreign exchange student from Belgium and spoke of her extensive travels around the United States including her most recent trip to Hawaii. Valerie was adorned with pins that she collected by exchange with other students from around the world. It appeared that she had a hundred or more pins on her vest. Many commented on her enthusiasm about Rotary and international travel.

Announcements

Please keep in mind the following upcoming events:

  • April 11 Friends of Steven’s Creek - If you’d like to participate please meet at Whisman Park at 9:00 am
  • April 17 – 19 Rotary district conference - The theme is on opportunities and friendship. Forums will take place on Friday with the annual dinner Saturday evening. Please consider attending one or more of the functions
  • April 25 Mountain View Rotating Dinner - With additional volunteers today, the Mountain View rotating dinner has 6 locations. Cost should be about $35 per person. Signups will be available starting next week.
  • May 5 - We will have no speaker on this day. We will however, be having a scholarship presentation for those young students who will be receiving scholarships from the Mountain View Rotary.
  • June 12 Annual Golf Tournament - Will be at Shoreline Park with dinner afterwards at Michael’s restaurant.
  • June 19 - Please consider attending Monique Kane retirement party at Fremont Hills Country Club at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $50 per person. RSVP celebratemonique@chacmv.org
  • June 26 - Get ready for the annual Kick Out party which will be held at Michael’s restaurant. Our president Alan is ready to retire. Twana will take the reins. Reserve this date for your mandatory attendance.
  • Month of August – We need someone to volunteer for our speaker series. You only need to organize 3 speakers for the month of August. Please volunteer at our next Rotary meeting.

With the conclusion of announcements, our president Alan, reminded all of us that Nick Spangler (Jim Spangler’s son) is now staring in a new Broadway production of “It should’ve Been You” in New York City. Alan was able to see Nick Spangler in person during his most recent trip to New York and spoke accolades about the performance.

Club member Paul confessed that he had spent a wonderful trip in Ecuador and Peru taking care of a couple of items on his bucket list. From the sounds of his stories we should all add it to our own.

Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker for the day was Missy Zielinski who is part of the public relations team for the Sharks Foundation in San Jose. The mission statement of the foundation is to enhance the lives of youth through education, safety, and character building. Missy gave a wonderful presentation about all of the different events that the Sharks Foundation hosts on a yearly basis. Her overview of the events was quite impressive. Annual events include:

  • Golf tournament
  • Bowling tournament
  • Wine tasting
  • Fantasy Shark game where winners participate in actual hockey game with the Sharks team
  • Sharks Fitness Faceoff Run/Ride/Health event which includes a 5k and 10k run plus a 20k and 50k bike event

Other events staged throughout the year include:

  • Silent auctions
  • Mystery Pucks
  • Signed jerseys for sale
  • Participation in the second harvest food bank
  • Collection of “Share the Warmth Winter Coats”
  • Participation in the “Marine Core Toys for Tots”
  • Gift basket options
  • Participation in “Reading is Cool”
  • Participation in the “Save a Life” blood drive
  • Participation in the “Hockey Fights Cancer Initiative”

It’s amazing to think that the Sharks foundation participates in so many fund raising activities in the course of a single year. In 2014 the Sharks Foundation raised enough money to give out more than $525,000 in grants to local charities and initiatives within Santa Clara County. No wonder Missy sometimes works 15 hour days! At the end of her talk most Rotarians were surprised that the Sharks Foundation is such a well-kept secret and look forward to working with the foundation in the future.

Next Week’s Speaker: Will give us a Polio Plus update and the difficulties of meeting the goals with the unrest in Africa.