President Phil called the meeting to order and yours truly led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. New member Nimisha Melag provided a thoughtful introduction to one of the most important and sacred celebrations in the Indian culture--the magnificent five-day festival of Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, which celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil and hope over despair. This festival is celebrated by Hindus and includes prayers to the goddess with zillions of colorful ceramic candle pots, firecrackers, and torches to symbolize eternal goodness. She explained that it’s a wonderful time of prayer, fellowship and feasting. With so much negativity in today’s world, I’m all in on Diwali! Thank you, Nimisha. You, madam, are a joyous and welcome member to our club and I, for one, am proud to call you my friend!!!
Club Secretary Marilyn Orr shared a little sunshine with the announcement of a beautiful baby boy to members Christine and Jeff Krolik’s son! Whooo hooo….welcome to the cool grandparents club. Proud times for the Krolik clan. Not that you guys weren’t already super cool😊Our dear friend and Past President Mike Horwitz is feeling better and enjoyed the recent Blue Angels airshow during Fleet Week in San Franciso. Utterly glorious week indeed! I know this because this intrepid reporter spent the day with many Italian relatives on Washington Square watching the parade and flyovers of our incredible aviators. Trust me when I say, no one was feeling any pain.
Past President Fritz Brauner acknowledged a slew of birthdays and anniversaries amongst our esteemed members. Fritz always delivers. This guy’s a keeper. Jennifer Pense got into the act by reminding us about the upcoming Halloween costume contest. I just know that she is working on something creative and fun for this contest. How do I know this you ask, why it’s because she’s super creative and fun! Her recent 23 and Me test results confirmed what we all already know…it’s in her DNA.
Program:
Our dynamic International Committee member Charlene Drummer introduced our distinguished guest, Bruce FitzGerald. Bruce is a UC Berkeley grad and is a longtime Los Altos Rotarian who worked for many years in finance and operations at HP. He currently serves as President of Coastline Properties. Bruce provided an interesting overview of his Club’s international projects, including his passion project---providing essential funding to enhance maternal and newborn health in rural Napal. He shared numerous statistics that painted a dismal picture regarding birth risks and infant mortality in this majestic but remote corner of our planet. Each year in Nepal, 1,500 young mothers and 12,000 newborns die from preventable causes related to pregnancy or the challenges of childbirth in the remote high country at the top of the world. The Rotary Club of Los Altos along with others, have taken a serious interest in providing critical supplemental medical assistance in form of well-trained Skilled Birth Attendants at delivery, Rotary Global Grants have been secured to fund these adventures.
Bruce, his Rotary Club and all those engaged in the honorable work are to be congratulated for their diligent support in this important area. Then came the questions from our own club members that expanded this conversation.
President Phil and awarded Bruce a certificate for five Polio vaccinations in his name and he adjourned the meeting.
