Woodside/Portola Valley Rotary - Newsletter

7:30 AM - 8:30 AM Wednesday with breakfast by Encore Performance Catering, fellowship, project updates and an interesting speaker from the community, when available. Guild Hall, Woodside Village Church, 3154 Woodside Road, Woodside, California. Now that we've been "Over the River and through the Woods" isn't it time you invited a friend, neighbor or your business partner to share a Rotary meeeting with you?

Last Week's Program;

Our meeting was down on Spring Street, a little South of David's catering works, at Ken Hayes architect works for our annual DICTIONARY LABELING event. President Sandie compensated for David's absence by baking a scrumptious "hot dish" in her home oven and recruiting members to bring the rest of the vittles.

While we waited for Sandie's offering, IPP Barbara Schmidt rang the bell, led us in the salute to "Old Glory", passed the collection plate and discussed the schedule for distributing the books. We do a bunch of schools with pupils who are at risk because of a lack of capability with the English language. Often the Dictionary we give them is not only the the first book they have owned, but also the first book in their home! For those of us that have lived our lives in homes crowded with books, magazines and newspapers, this hardly seems possible!

You might ask "Can one book make a significant difference?" The MacMillan Children's Dictionary we present to the needy children is not just an ordinary book, it is the beginning of their very oown reference library. It has 35,000 entries, 1,100 color photographs and a reference section that includes a Thesaurus and maps of the world. Further, it presents spelling tips, brief etymologies for selected words and expanded illustrations with labeled parts.This is a recently revised edition and is intended for ages 8 to 12. In a recent industry survey it was found to be the best for students at the upper level of the age range.

After breakfast nine stalwart members; Pres. Sandie, IPP Barbara, Bill Alfano, Dean Babcock, Art Barker, Donna-Barnaski-Walker, Ken Broome, Ken Hayes and Allen Carey went to the architect's works to attack a pallet carrying 38 boxes containing 304 dictionaries and a couple of boxes of labels. Each book gets a "Four Way Test" lable and a student's ownership and Rotary donorship label, 608 labels!

In the coming weeks these Dictionaries will be delivered to schools in the depressed neighborhoods, e.g King's Mountain, Garfield, Taft and Castanio. The Rotarians on the distribution teams will have an unforgetable experience as the children respond with a simple "Thank you." Or maybe a quiet question like "Can I let my mother use it, too?"

This Week's Program:

Pres. Sandie is awaiting a dispatch from Program Chair, David Hyman, on whether he has completed arrangements for an interesting and informative speaker, presentation or performance.

Rotary News:

International Service Chair Ken Broome reports that he has moved at the Woodside Terrace. He is now in a suite with his friend and will notify us when telephone re-arrangements have been completed.

Taste of Woodside: Sunday, September 9th, 5 - 9p.m. Contact Ken Hayes for details.

Announcements:

Your suggestions on a speaker, presentation, performance or information on one of our members need not be formal, complicated or extensive. If you wish to remain anonymous you may leave them in our mail box in a plain brown envelope. If you can do it accurately and circumspectly, you may scribble them on a paper airplane and sail it over to me during a meeting.

Pray for rain, we had zero, zilch, nada during December!

Dean,

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