Leslie Hay introduced our special guest Jeana Blackman Taylor, daughter of Suzi Blackman, who ran away to join a circus - and is still loving it, even after years of twice-a-day performances.

Jeana is playing the Nursemaid in KÀ, a Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. Educated as an actress rather than an acrobat, she was quite surprised that Cirque invited her for an audition, and astonished when their "we'll contact you at a suitable time" letter actually meant what it said. Once a position opened up, Jeana joined the troop, moved to Vegas, and has been performing with them ever since.

A few fun facts about the show:

• It never travels - the set is huge and cost over a hundred million dollars to construct.
• There're several hundred people in the show, most of them offstage. It shuts down for vacation, which everyone must take at the same time, and there's just one stage rehearsal per week.
• Twelve layers of make-up is considered simple. Jeana has managed to get her 30+ layers make-up routine down from two hours to twenty minutes.
• At five feet two, Jeana is one of the taller performers.

To learn more about KÀ, watch their video clips or browse through their photo gallery.

Gates Foundation announces an additional $50 million to end polio.

SAN DIEGO, California (Jan. 17, 2012) — Despite a sagging global economy, Rotary clubs around the world have succeeded in raising more than US$200 million in new funding for polio eradication.

The fundraising milestone, announced today at Rotary’s annual International Assembly in San Diego, was reached in response to a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All funds have been earmarked to support polio immunization activities in affected countries where this vaccine-preventable disease continues to paralyze children.

Read the entire story on the district's website.

Suzi Blackman and her husband contributed to the Rotary Foundation in the names of their daughters' husbands, Ben Crosson and Scott Taylor, making them Paul Harris Fellows.

Inspiration. The inspiration was delivered by Suzi Blackman who spoke of her daughter, the star of the special night's program.

Visiting Rotarians. Our Rotarian visitors were Mete Levik from the Sunnyvale Star Sunset club, Chirs Mohammed from the Rotary Club of Livermore Valey, and Judy Bruzus from the Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club.

Rotarians with Guests. As befitted the special occasion, we had a house full of guests of all ages.

President's Club. Two members joined the president's club - Orrin Mahoney and Janice Chua. Janice's new business, Bitter+Sweet, has made the cover of the Specialty Coffee Retailer magazine.

Crab Feed Report. Tom Dyer thanked the club for the successful fundraiser and noted that, for the first time, high school students had contributed the majority of the volunteer hours to this annual event.

New Member Induction. The club welcomed our newest member, John Nadolski of Living Water International, sponsored by past president and past district governor Jim Walker. John's explanation of the photo on top of a crocodile was delayed to a later date.

This is particularly important for club chairs who want to announce meetings, accomplishments, or details that are better covered with more than a one minute verbal overview. Send Gary bullet points and he will do the rest.

Deadline for Article Submission: To help the editors in the work they do, please plan to make your submissions by the end-of-the-day Thursday. Please email them to cupertinorotary@gmail.com. Later submissions might be deferred to the next week's Rotator, depending on how far along the editor is in processing the meeting and program staff reporting for the current week.

Our editors are assigned as follows: First Wednesday - Gary Latshaw; Second Wednesday - Stuart Rosenberg; Third Wednesday - Alex Verstak; Fourth Wednesday - Helene Davis; Fifth Wednesday - Peter Troop.