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| The Summary of the August 1st Meeting |
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After the customary ceremonial items and warm welcomes, President Mike Blach called upon Past President Bert George to update club members on the progress of the Rotary PlayGarden, our centennial legacy project.
The George family has made a generous commitment of $100,000 to this unprecedented initiative and this year will contribute $50 of each ticket a Rotarian purchases to their annual wine event at Montalvo. It takes place August 12, and tickets are $100. Bert encouraged club members to participate as donors in some fashion, irrespective of the size of the gift, to exhibit to prospective foundation contributors that the PlayGarden enjoys broad support from RCSJ membership.
Chris Di Salvo then introduced Josh Burroughs who drew laughs by comparing participation to an eggs and ham breakfast. The chicken is involved by way of furnishing eggs, whereas the pig is committed. Josh says that you get out of Rotary what you put into it. Obviously from a commitment standpoint, it’s better to be a Rotarian than a pig. For instance, we get to transform lives around the globe by distributing wheelchairs while traveling to exotic destinations. Josh, who popped the question recently (Congratulations!), showed pictures of the committee’s trips to Peru, Shanghai, Thailand, Oaxaca and Bangladesh. The next trip, to Split, Croatia, will be in 2015.
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Lynn Devau, filling in for Elaine Sullivan-Digre, invited Rotarians to attend the upcoming “shotgun” tournament Sept. 6 at San Jose Country Club. There’s room for a few more. Email: lynn@metromedicalbilling.com
Carl Honaker reminded everyone about the Annual Fish Dinner & Auction coming up on Aug. 15 at Club Auto Sport.
President Mike advised everyone to look for an email headed their way with two attachments regarding Rotary committees. Please review the committees and choose two to serve on. The deadline to return your choices is August 15.
The Rotary Office is looking for two or three Rotarians to volunteer on Tuesdays mornings. Volunteers will assist with attendance, committee support, mailing, reporting and special projects. If interested please contact John Kennett.
District Governator Joe Hamilton will visit August 15 (wow, that’s shaping up to be a busy day!). His wife, Kathi, will collect infant receiving blankets to donate to families who need one to wrap their newborns in when the leave the hospital. Please bring a blanket to the meeting if you wish to be involved (like the chicken, not the pig).
Larry Stone then approached the podium sporting a ridiculous pair of multi-colored glasses adorned with huge dollar signs, which drew the customary boos. He introduced San Jose Rep’s Rick Lombardo who talked about why theater matters to a community. He traced the its history from prehistoric storytelling around the fire through the Greek amphitheaters during Festival of Dionysus days to Elizabethan England. He reminded us of the art form’s importance as a cultural force, noting the Puritanical resistance it faced and the burnings of theater buildings in London in the 17th Century.
“Theater is an opportunity to explore who we are, as human beings and citizens,” Mr. Lombardo said. San Jose is fortunate to have “one of the finest physical theaters in the United States. [The Rep] is a spectacular space.” A good theater supports the relationship between an actor and his audience.
Regional theater was a reaction to the “centralized control” of Broadway, which charged high ticket prices and sent inferior touring versions of New York productions on the road. Regional theater “reflects the values and local culture and identity.” He said “communities should be deciding what kind of theater they want to see.” The regional theaters are nonprofit and ticket prices are kept low to reach beyond the moneyed classes.
Mr. Lombardo was applauded for bringing theatrical productions to more than 10,000 students. The program is being expanded. (The schools outreach is enabled by Symphony Silicon Valley’s ArtSPARKsv.) For 65 percent of the students who get to see classics like Of Mice and Men and The Glass Menagerie, it is the first live performance they have experienced.
Mr. Lombardo credited a newspaper writer from Metro for coining a phrase, “Robustly entertaining, intellectually stimulating.” He said “those four words are exactly what I try to do.”
A lively Q&A followed, touching on corporate philanthropy in the valley and the potential loss of another downtown theater.
The meeting was adjourned in a timely fashion.
Respectfully submitted by Dan Pulcrano
Photos by Bryan Kramer
Watch the slide show of the meeting by clicking here. |
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