Newsletter - Archive  Feb 17, 2010

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P.O. Box 620700                                                   Riki Intner                                                                   Dave Hyman 

Woodside CA 94062-0700                                District Governor                                                       Club President

                                                      http://wpvrotary.org                                          

Regular Meeting                                                                                February 17th 2010

7:30 AM - 8:30 AM Wednesday with breakfast by Encore Performance Catering, fellowship, project updates and an interesting speaker from the community.  The last Wednesday of some months we meet at 6:00pm at a local restaurant for hors d'oeuvres and a no host bar and meeting new people.  Please check our website calendar for details. 

Morning meetings:  Guild Hall, Woodside Village Church, 3154 Woodside Road, Woodside, California  Guests are not only welcome but encouraged!

This Week's Program:  Your American Freedoms  Former TV Anchor, Fred LaCosse, will give a talk entitled "Your American Freedoms."

Last  Week's Program: (courtesy of Last Week Editor, Dean Babcock)   President Dave Hyman introduced Rae Schmidt, friend of "no relative" Barbara Schmidt.  Rae described for us her experiences in teaching English to Masai girls in Africa.  Rae was born in West Texas, but quickly emigrated to the Peninsula area.  She attended McKinley School in Redwood City and graduated in Education from SJSU.  She has lived in Woodside for years and was a classroom teacher and counselor.  Rae says she is a "volunteer freak."  She has volunteered, not only in Tanzania, but in Thailand and other places since 2003.  She has made 5 trips to Tanzania and feels very close to the girls.  The first class was 24 girls and the school had never had a college graduate.  Now there are girls who have become medical doctors, lawyers, social workers and 21 are primary school teachers.  93% graduate from the school and 46% have graduated from college.  There are no 60 girls in the school.  Classes are taught in English in the upper forms but the preschool in taught in Ma.  School is difficult for the Masai who are a pastoral people and must follow their herds.  Education for girls is little valued by the fathers.  They marry the girls off when they are born.  A girls is worth 5 cows.  Rae presented a slide show of the girls.  She is very proud of them and their accomplishments.  She is also sad that many of them do not live long enough to know their dreams because of AIDS.

Next Week's Program:  Vacationing in Mexico  

Rotarian, Ken Hayes, will talk about and show photos of his recent family vacation trip to Mexico...

Club News:  Congratulations to Alan Holdship who passed his test to become a US citizen.

Coming Events:

Next Board Meeting:  Tuesday, March 2nd, 7:30am, Church Library 

Rotary Means Business:  Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010, 5:30 pm Encore Performance Catering

5150 District Assembly:  Saturday, March 27th 2010, Redwood High School, Larkspur

District Conference:  San Francisco, April 16-17, 2010, www.rotary5150.org

Rebuilding Together:  Sunday, April 25th 2010

Announcements:   Have you had a look at the Rotary International website lately for what is going on in Rotary's world?  www.rotary.org   How about finding out about what is going on in the district?  www.rotary5150.org