Newsletter - Archive  Apr 14, 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                                                                                      April 14th 2010

7:30 AM - 8:30 AM Wednesday with breakfast by Encore Performance Catering, fellowship, project updates and an interesting speaker from the community.  Guild Hall, Woodside Village Church, 3154 Woodside Road, Woodside, California  Guests are not only welcome but encouraged!

This Week's Program:  MACHI Project and the Xolsacmalja Library 

Roving Newsletter Editor, Joan Fuetsch, will introduce Shoshi Parks with the MACHI Project.  Shoshi who recently completed her PhD in Anthropology is working with the library that our club has been assisting in Xolsacmalja, Guatemala.  Shoshi will talk about the MACHI Project and also about the community impact of "our" library.  www.machiproject.org

Last  Week's Program:  (courtesy of Last Week Editor, Dean Babcock)   President David Hyman introduced Last Week Editor, Dean Babcock, to tell of his experiences at the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. Dean started by telling us there were two stories; one about Squaw Valley and one about the National Ski Patrol.  Dean was born in Minnesota and started his ski patrol career by taking a ski patrol course in St. Paul in 1947.  The Squaw Valley story starts about 1938 when Wayne Poulson became a Pan American pilot and started buying lots in the valley.  In 1947 Wayne met Alex Cushing, a wealthy New Englander, who had recently moved to California.  Wayne showed him the valley and convinced him that it was a wonderful place to build a ski area.  Squaw opened in 1949, advertising “The largest ski lift in North America”. In 1955 Cushing heard that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was seeking proposals for hosting the VIII Winter Games.  The Squaw Valley bid was accepted and Cushing and other investors got right to work and built more lifts, a covered venue for Hockey and Figure Skating and as a covered seating area for guests to watch the Speed Skating, Ski Jumping and the Lady’s Downhill and Slalom races. The Olympic Games started on February 18 and closed on February 28.  Dean and the ski patrolmen spent the whole month of February at Squaw. About 250,000 people attended the Games. They watched 750 athletes from 14 countries compete in 27 events for 81 medals. The U.S. won 3 Gold Medals; Hockey, Ladies’ Figure Skating and Men’s Figure Skating. There were many things that happened for the first time in a Winter Olympics, including the first computer and the first network Television coverage. Although the ski patrol never had to evacuate a wounded competitor, they did have a memorable experience.

Next Week's Program:  Biospheric Micro Farms  Allen Cary will introduce Paul Giacomantonio from INKA who will hopefully explain just what "biospheric micro farms" are.  Allen met Paul at the flower show.  According to their website "by combining the arts, science and technology, Inka has developed the new science of 'Biospherics,' the art of living in balance with Earth's delicate biological systems."  www.INKA.fm

Club News:   Dana (rhymes with banana) is not married to Alan Holdship or Tom Mohr.  We have reason to believe that she is married to Jim Sanderson.

Coming Events:

Next Board Meeting:  Tuesday, May 4th, 7:30am, Church Library 

Rotary Means Business:  Wednesday, April 14th, 2010, 5:30 pm Encore Performance Catering

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

Rebuilding Together:  Saturday, April 24th 2010

Pancake Breakfast:  Saturday, May 1st 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