A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC Aymeric is becoming a real Cal fan. He has now been to two - count
'em, two - Cal football games, courtesy of George Chaffey and Don Reichert. He is making friends at school - no surprise there - and spending time playing the guitar and the piano. Do I hear the keyboard equivalent of "Dueling Banjos" between Aymeric and Cal Lee in the offing?
AND SPEAKING OF YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENTS . . .
As you will recall, we also sent a Youth Exchange student off into the world. Becky Ware is in Argentina, and Proud Papa Steve reported on the e-mail recently received from his eldest daughter. She has started school, has figured out that our Club is a bit, shall we say, rowdier than most, and is the translator for the other exchange students because her Spanish is the best.
Those are just the highlights. The full text of Becky's report is at the end of this edition of the Lamorindan, yet another exclusive scoop of the kind with which we regularly taunt the Contra Costa Times.
And feel free to e-mail Becky at ware.becky@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE AT LAKE TAHOE, OCT 1-4: YOU SHOULD GO
I think the headline pretty much says it. Talk to Pat Flaharty for more info.
WE NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD IN PRINT
Ron Brown showed the Club the latest mock-up of the new Club recruiting brochure, and is it a beauty. Ron has been moving this project forward, and with the help of Tom Black and Paul Fillinger's photos and Paul's great lay-out efforts, it is shaping up to be a real attention-grabber.
INPUT NEEDED 
Krysten Laine thanked everyone for participating on the "What we are interested in doing" fund-raising questionnaire. She and majordomo Mark Roberts have gone over the results and have announced that what the Club really wants is something that makes a lot of money with absolutely no work.
Okay, I made that up. But they have tallied the results and will be presenting some ideas to the Board, after which they will be presented to the entire Club, at which point we will all discuss and debate and argue and come to some decision or other. At least that's the plan.
Thanks for your hard work on this, Krysten and Mark.
HELP NEEDED FOR THE LAFAYETTE ART & WINE FESTIVAL
Alex Arnold reminded everyone who signed up to volunteer for the Art & Wine Festival (and thus helped humiliate the Lafayette Club by overwhelming their paltry effort to scrape up volunteers) to show up 15 minutes ahead of their assigned times. He expressed confidence that everyone would do so.
On a related note, it was learned that Alex still believes in the tooth fairy.
OH, AND WESTIVAL IS COMING UP
Alex Arnold went on to remind us that we will once again be selling hot dogs at Lafayette Elementary's annual Fall/Halloween carnival, Westival. It'll be on October 10 at . . . wait for it . . . Lafayette Elementary. Mark your calendars.
A WAY TO SUPPORT A FINE PROGRAM
Dan Herbert rose to tell us the Oakland Strokes Annual Gala is coming
up on October 16 at the Cal Boathouse. The Herbert clan has long been involved with the Strokes, which is the area competitive rowing club. This event supports making the Strokes' top-drawer program available to inner-city youth and supports adaptive rowing. The Oakland Strokes is a truly fine organization that uses this ultimate team sport to instill values that will serve its members well for the rest of their lives. What values? Oh. Little stuff, like the value of hard work, the value of teamwork, the need for and rewards of self-discipline, the joy that comes from setting challenging goals and then meeting them. So contact Dan if you are interested. It's $100 a head, but you'll be hard pressed to find a program that has a bigger positive impact on the kids it touches.
TGITLFOTM UPDATE We learned two things about TGITLFOTM this week. Number one,
Steve Ware does not know how to pronounce it. (It's tuh-GIT-uhl-FOE-tum. You're welcome.) Number two, the next one will be held at Casa de Ware this coming Friday. You have been warned.
PROGRAM
Susan Bonilla is a Contra Costa County Supervisor. She is also a former high school teacher. The two have combined to give her a special interest in foster children. Supervisor Bonilla spoke to us today about what happens when foster kids turn 18 or complete high school. The short answer is that they are
"emancipated," meaning they are turned loose into the world as adults.
The longer answer too often is far less optimistic. The reality is that many, probably most, of these kids simply do not have the skills needed to make it in the proverbial real world. This is most often not their fault as Supervisor Bonilla noted. These kids came into the foster care system because they were victimized at some point, often at a very early age. Many spent their school years so focused on simple survival that they do not have the time or energy to think about college or careers or developing job skills. One-third of foster kids end up homeless after emancipation.
That's what Supervisor Bonilla wants to change. There are about 1500 foster kids in Contra Costa County on any given day (a fact that President Fazel apparently forgot when he asked how many foster kids there are in C.C. County, a slip that Sergeant-at-Arms du jour Rich Shearer used as an excuse to relieve John of $10), and about 150 or so are emancipated every year. Some of them attend Diablo Valley College. Some get help obtaining their GED. Some are now getting help from a new County initiative that Supervisor Bonilla is actively supporting: the Foster Youth Employment Program. This program is designed to get emancipated foster kids into jobs. Not just any jobs, but ones that have a future and provide skills and training that lead to real careers. Who are the employers? Both private industry and C.C. County. About 1,000 received summer jobs through County efforts, about 130 of whom were emancipated foster kids. And 30 of those got jobs from the County.
So what can the community do? Well, St. Matthews Church in Walnut Creek has started a pilot program that places emancipated fosters in private homes for the transition period between emancipation and when these young adults can get their feet under them. A group of professionals donate time mentoring foster kids who are seniors in high school to help prepare them for the challenges to come.
When asked what organizations like, say, Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary, can do, Supervisor Bonilla said that she believes that the best thing is to contact her office and let her and her staff customize a program that matches the group's interests with the needs of the young adults.
Thank you, Supervisor Bonilla, for letting us know of the needs of these emancipated foster kids and for showing us what is being done and what still needs to be done.
BECKY WARE'S E-MAIL FROM ARGENTINA, AS PROMISED (Okay Steve, now will you tell me where you're holding my Mother?)
Hello everyone!!!!
I thought I would send an update on what I've been up these past few weeks here in Argentina. I left from SFO on August 23rd and arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia around 5pm local time on August 24th. The trip down here was quite the adventure. I first flew from San Francisco to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Buenos Aires, Argentina. That was a really long flight, about 9 and a half hours. The time passed pretty quickly because I was sitting with 2 other exchange students and we had a blast, plus we were sitting in the back of the plane so we frequently got up and hung out in the galley. On the flight to Buenos Aires, there were about 9 other exchange students, all headed to different destinations in Argentina. We arrived in Buenos Aires at 720am local time and there were 4 students, including me, that had to transfer from the international airport to the domestic airport. My counselor here in Argentina arranged the transfer, and the drivers spotted us by our blue blazers. After a 1 hour car ride to the domestic airport, 3 of us had long layovers and we hung out in a cafeteria area until our flights left. I finally arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia and was greeted by my entire host family and my counselor. As soon as we got home, I went to sleep. I was exhausted and my host family understood.
SO, I actually do not live in Comodoro Rivadavia. My first host family lives in Rada Tilly, a small town about 10 minutes away. AND it is located near a gorgeous beach. I have 3 host sisters and 1 brother, so that makes 7 of us in this house. I have my own room and my host family is really great.
I arrived on a Monday and my first day of school was Wednesday. My school is called Instituto Martin Rivadavia and its about a 15 minute drive from my house. The school requires that the students wear a uniform. For the girls, a grey pleated skirt, a white polo with a green and yellow collar and the logo of the school, and a dark green or grey v-neck sweater. School starts at 7:25 and ends at different times each day, usually between 12 and 1:30. When the bell rings, each grade lines up. Then two students raise the Argentine flag while the rest of the students recite the Argentine "Pledge of Allegiance". Our teacher then leads us to our classroom. Here, the students stay in one classroom and the teachers cycle in and out. I was really nervous on my first day, but my classmates were all really nice and wanted to know everything about me. I made fast friends with my classmates, which has made these past few weeks really easy.
I have already been to a Rotary meeting, and I'm actually going again tonight. The meetings are Thursday evenings at 9:30 and we are served dinner. And it has to be said that my host club is extremely boring, I really do miss Lamorinda Sunrise. There are 28 members and 6 women. Although in attendance that evening, there were 17 members. My counselor has been a member for 6 years and the club was founded in 1969. It was really boring for us exchange students. I was the only one who could understand even a little of what was going on. It was all business talk until about midnight when us exchange students gave a brief introduction of ourselves. My host club is hosting 4 other students, a boy from France, a boy from Switzerland, a girl from Germany, and a girl from the US (New Mexico). We left the meeting at 12:30. I had no idea it was going to run so long and I had to get up for school the next morning. At the meeting, my counselor informed us that we are to attend the Rotaract meetings as well. Rotaract meets Saturday evenings at 7:30. I attended one this past Saturday, and I had a blast. There were 8 members with ages ranging from 20-28. We all chatted for awhile and I translated for 2 of the other exchange students. Then we had dinner and chatted more. Then at midnight, they asked if we wanted to go bowling with them. 3 of us students went and it was a lot of fun.
This is only a few of the things I have done since I've been here, and I am having the time of my life. I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity and I will be sure to keep sending updates. Also! pictures will be coming soon, I hope.
love Becky
p.s. feel free to email me if you have any questions or just want to say hi! www.ware.becky@gmail.com
in training with him this morning. He did agree with the thought for the day. Unfortunately Buddy's expression scared the b-jeepers out of him. We hope he will still make the grade in spite of his traumatic experience this morning!
The dog ate the list (hey, that's what our intrepid B&A person said), so volunteering was the order of the day. Except that no one volunteered. Someone or other ratted out Thomas ("Come July, You'll Pay") Peeks, who acknowledged that his birthday was this very day. He assured us that Yolanda had something or other in the works, and that one or more of his brothers were coming to town. A $25 donation to the cause insured that our "no singing" policy remained firmly in place. 
Brad "Mr. Tact" Davis presented "Little Davy" Waal (Brad's rendering of Dave's name, not mine) with his very own Blue Badge, making Dave Brad's equal. C'mon Dave, surely you can aim higher than that, can't 'cha?