FogHorn July 30 Meeting

Posted by Editor: FDBobko

The FOGHORN

ROTARY CLUB OF HALF MOON BAY

Article by Dwight Wilson

Program: Jeff Scanlon on the Palo Alto Ronald McDonald House

"Together it all makes Ronald McDonald House at Stanford the place “where hope has a home.”

EJ Dieterle introduced today’s speaker - Jeff Scanlon, Strategic Partner Relationships from the Palo Alto Ronald McDonald House.

Jeff has been with them since 9/14.
Fred Hill of the Philadelphia Eagles football team initiated the effort 40 years ago when his daughter came down with leukemia. He was impacted by the energy and amount of time and effort required with the ongoing treatment for both the children and their families.
Through his efforts with the football team and McDonald’s corporation, the first Home opened in Philadelphia in 1975.
Stanford’s Ronald McDonald House opened in 1979 which was the 4^th one. Now there are 176 in the USA and 340 worldwide.
Their Mission statement is that "Ronald McDonald House creates a home-away-from-home and supportive community for families of children with life-threatening illnesses receiving specialized treatment at local hospitals."
They now have 47 rooms with many on the waiting list. They have started construction on another 52000 square feet that will add 76 more rooms to be opened next year.
They sponsor a 10 week summer camp and a hospitality cart.
Families need to be at 50 miles away from the Stanford hospital to qualify.

Funding mainly comes from donations. Families are asked to provide $10 a night, although only 30% of the families can do that. Annual budget is about $3.2 million, and it will rise to nearly $5 million with the expansion. Their Spring Gala is their major fund raiser.

July 30 Meeting Recap

Article by Dwight Wilson

Dave Andrews began the meeting, and Liz Schuck lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

Andrew Boyd-Goodrich gave the inspirational moment by talking about his visit to the Liberty Bell and our nation’s effort to be a “more perfect union.” Going forward, after saying how glad he is to be with us, he encouraged us to form a “more perfect union.”

Guests

Liz introduced Jane Yuster, newly appointed Superintendent of Cabrillo Unified School District.
Eric Shapiro – his mother Betty
Warren Barmore – 5 Interact leadership students, Trisha, Kitty, Elyse, Jackie and Dalisa.

Happy/Crappy

Dianne Bobko - Just came back from both Houston and Denver. She talked about the event marking the opening of the Air Force Academy that she attended with Bo who was inducted that day as a member of the first class. The building is now a museum filled with airplanes. Great moment. In addition she also shared that she saw Judy Macias at the grocery store (our 2015 Service Above Self recipient) who said how much she enjoyed Magic of the Coastside and being honored and that it had brought very positive publicity and awareness to her Virtual Village project.

Kevin O’Brien – Referring to his visit to the Air Force Academy to visit his brother, talked about attending a Tina Turner Concert there with the thousands of young male cadets, way back when.

Charise McHugh – Reminded everyone of Friday’s Passaporto and that Judy Macias' project is included in the new Chamber booklet as an insert.

Dianne Bobko – Her husband Bo is presenting at Mullins on Monday at 7:00 on his experience as an astronaut in the NASA Space program and the development of the Space Shuttle. This will be in more depth than the presentation he gave to Rotary.

Liz Schuck – Thanked Rusty for her leadership of our Rotary Team for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life this past weekend.

Announcements

Report on Relay for Life from Rusty Reilly-Pond

Rusty said it was an honor and privilege to lead Rotary, and it has inspired her as to what it is to be a Rotarian. A big thank you to all who participated.
Rotary raised $5800+ (far exceeded original goal of $2000), and the overall event raised $60,000+. Rotary had 24 hour participation.
Special thanks went to Dave, Liz and Rose for helping with set up, Interact Club for showing up and participating at the last minute, Wee hours folks (Paul Wrubel and Dan Miller) and early bird (Kevin O’Brien and Rose) .
Rusty wants to lead the effort next year, and this was greeted with applause from the group.
Dave thanked Paul Wrubel for helping him with the take down and clean up saying that Paul is always around to help pick and clean up after many of our events.

Dave reminded everyone that the Pumpkin Festival is the weekend of October 17^th.

Liz Schuck is already getting geared up to lead our effort.

Ed Daniels once again thanked everyone who has honored his wife Kris by matching his $500 donation (actually about tripling) to the fund for Tammy Townsend who is fighting a valiant and determined battle against recurrent breast cancer. He had decided helping her was a way to honor and remember Kris since so many of us had wanted to do that.

MORE GOOD NEWS - Our International President "Ravi" Ravindran announced that Nigeria has been polio free for a year now. They are hoping to be able to remove it from the remaining 3 nations still on the list. If there are no more cases by September this year, then it will be declared polio free and there will be only Pakistan and Afghanistan remaining. Rotarians who have donated $688.5 million to fight polio throughout Africa, including more than $200 million to Nigeria. Rotarians from Africa and around the world have also devoted countless hours to immunize the children who now have the opportunity for healthier, happier lives.

Dave's Quiz of the week was about Cancer: 1) How many new cases; 2) Most common cancers; 3) Cancer Mortality rate; 4) Gender most impacted; 5) Race most impacted; 6) Percentage of the population impact by cancer during their life time. Check with him for the answers.

Dianne presented the HMB Rotary Club website live on the screen to the group. Dave's goal is that everyone will consistently use our website and that all of our important information and news will be there. It has everything you want to know including the latest FogHorn, links to articles and membership information, roster information and member lists. Everyone is encouraged to access it ASAP to update their personal data. Dianne showed us how to do that. She has the login names for everyone if you have forgotten yours; let her know then she will send it to you so you can get started. Remember to be able to read the FogHorn, you have to use the linkin the emails she sends us. This link will take us to our Home Page, or you can go there directly to stay up-to-date. Dianne is now our webmaster and FogHorn editor.