Foghorn July 14, 2016 Mtg -History of Our Club

Dave Cresson and John Evans guided our tour of the 80s. John came to Rotary when a friend asked. He wondered "where's the crooks?"  It turns out Rotary was a nice, sincere group. What caused changes/made a difference during the 80s? Greg Miller changed the nature of the club to something less like a "good old boys club" to one that was more family oriented.W e had no fundraiser, the Rotary Bluegrass Festivals began.  As President he started having more family events, Joy Enriquez and Shirley Olea were our first female members after women were eligible to join in 1987.

               

Dave Cresson (1985). Dave reminisced on leaders of business and professions; years of community service and good friends. Rotary was filled with "fellowship and fun", women and more family fun. The emphasis was on the four avenues of service, community, international, club, vocational.  Bob Rathborne and Greg Miller initiated change. In 1988 we had our first hands-on project, Colonet, Mexico, led by Dr. Joy. It eventually generated Rotacare.  Paul Harris fellowship started and we initiated our first PH Fellow.  The Bluegrass Festivals ran for four years led by Mark Heath.  During this era we broke 50 members, Shirley led a trip trip to New Zealand and we started the fundraiser that led to Magic.

On to the 90s with Irwin Cohen and Bill Johnston.  Irwin joined Rotary in 1973 in East Palo Alto, Eric invited him to join HMB later. Rotarian Dr. Serra moved Irwin with his work on Polio victims.  The club sent him to Australia before his year as Pres. Projects--got Seaton to donate supplies to S. America and start a hospital. Tried to do same in Russia, but the boat was lost, it was eventually found.  Bill Muth and Jim Tjogas convinced Bill to join. 

 

There were more people from Camichinas than any other Mexican town in HMB which led to a project there. Some other memories--John Parsons in Frankenstein costume selling balloons at the PK Fest; the decision to have the incoming Presidents organize the PK Fest activities; preparing and selling French Fries (a hot, dirty, greasy job). 

 

Our tour of 2000-2010 was led by Robin Jeffs. Robin (1996) had been a Los Gatos member since 1989, his Dad originally convinced him to join.  Robin became really active in HMB. Shirley was president at the time.  Robin served as President in 2002. At a time when we experienced a slump in fundraising, we also faced a $10,000 commitment to Rotacare. A committee was formed to initiate a major fundraiser.  Rotary at the Ritz was started and ran for 10 years. We had 500 attendees the first year; it was very successful, but got too big.  Funding enabled us to take wheelchairs to Mexico, work in Equador--six club members actually went led by Charles Nelson. The projects were mostly water projects. They were exciting times, especially the celebrations.  We established an Endowment fund (Robin's idea) which receives 10 percent of our fundraising.  The Endowment Fund is now at $150,000.  The Endowment funded a room at the Senior Center. Charles Nelson and Natasha Martin led us to fund scholarships to AIDS orphans in Africa, in conjunction with the GRACE organization.  We also held an International Question Contest with the schools, Robin would like to see that reinstated.  Some other achievements--there was a major increase in High School Interact Club participation; Laws of Life essay contest replaced high school scholarships; participation in the 4th of July Parade began; distribution of dictionaries to 3rd graders...

Although Rose Serdy was unable to attend, her surrogate, Liz Shuck, filled us in on 2011-2016. We changed meeting places to the Portuguese Cultural Center; our fundraiser, Magic of the Coastside, begins; spaghetti dinners to "end polio now" are started, organized by Joe Brennan in conjunction with the Oddfellows organization. We sent Shelterboxes to the Philippines; formed a team for Relay for Life; started the Big Coyote, Little Coyote program at Pilarcitos High School.  And our latest program, used our funds from Magic to support Purple Heart Anglers.

Things to come--

Onward and upward, infrastructure projects in Mexico and others. Stay tuned in, there's more to come!