THE LAMORINDAN 1-29-10

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Hays Englehart gave us two bits of profundity:

"Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure . . . than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they are in a gray twilight that knows not victory."
   Theodore Roosevelt (he hated being called "Teddy")

Life is tough, but life is tougher if you're stupid.
John Wayne (he also hated being called "Teddy")

VISITING ROTARIANS

Donn Black - St. Helena (and former Mayor of Lafayette)
John Moulthrop - Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise
Larry Sly - Concord and Contra Costa County Food Bank

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

Caroline Kunkel - still Robbie's daughter, and still maintaining perfect attendance
Ulrich Luscher - Joanne said he was the "better half," but we don't believe that for a moment
Kasturi Shivakumar - mother of one of our speakers
Mythri Rangan - mother of one of our speakers

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Eight days in Paris only cost PastPrezPat Flaharty $20, which just may be the best travel bargain ever.

Bob Heinen's birthday was good for a more-or-less voluntary $50 for the Foundation.

Chuck Bove's youngest turned one, so he offered up a dollar per year with a $20 kicker.

Don and Gwen Reichert have been married for 59 years. In honor of how many years it feels like to Gwen, Don ponied up two dollars per year. After some debate, it was agreed that that totaled up to $118, not $108 as some of us (we?) mathematically challenged types first thought.

Tay Wheeler celebrated Mindy turning 29 - nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more - by enriching our coffers by $40, although somehow Steve Ware contributed $20 of it. Hmmm, Steve Ware getting random fines from out the blue - it seems that we've heard this tune before . . . .

And last but mot decidedly not least, Mark Roberts not only had a birthday, shared with Eddie Van Halen (the birthday, but not the to-the-year birth date Mark previously claimed - ain't Wikipedia a bugger?), but he also graced the pages of a column in the Sun penned by Scribe Without Peer Harriet Ainsworth (we here at the Lamorindan kiss the ground upon which she walks). It seems that a certain Mark "Two Years Older Than Eddie V" Roberts was the emcee at the Orinda Volunteer of the Year dinner, and did so with great success. All of this hoopla did, in fact, come back to bite Mark in the backside, and thus his backside is now worth $50 less.

LAMORINDA SUNRISE IS THE HOME TEAM

Joe Bettencourt updated us on the HOME Team project, our up-and-coming project to help seniors by doing simple around-the-house fix-it stuff. He and Hays Englehart did a trial run, replacing a stair railing for a woman who was in desperate need and it was a roaring success. Tools and toolboxes were collected, tool kits are being assembled, and the roll-out is set for February 13.

Normally, this paragraph would be dedicated to asking, pleading, cajoling, and otherwise desperately drumming up volunteers to help out. But the response to this project has been so great that Joe and Hays report more people volunteered than there are spaces. In fact, the response has been so great that one of our visiting Rotarians last week asked if he could tag along.

Way to go, Hays and Joe, for pulling the laboring oar to get this going. And way to go Lamorinda Sunrise for enthusiastically embracing this project. This has the potential to be to a huge bang-for-the-buck ongoing project. Perhaps this can become our signature project. It is slated to happen every quarter (that's four times a year for those who are still trying to figure out how much Don Reichert contributed) and the number of crews will grow. Thus there is plenty of time and opportunity for Club Members to get out and have a whale of a time doing some direct, hands-on, one-on-one good in the community.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

Aymeric treated us to a photo-fest of some of the fun things he has done this year so far. We saw him posed with a bevy of Cal cheerleaders, and we all caught the distinct odor of George Chaffey somehow being involved. We saw Aymeric on a boat under the command of Steve Ware, our very own cross between Captains Ahab and Queeg. There were photos of Aymeric engaged in snow-type activities near Lake Tahoe, in skimming-across-water-behind-a-power-boat-type activities, on a super-secret fly fishing trip with some of our super-secret fly-fishermen, engaging in Halloween fun, and touring San Francisco. It looked and sounded like a great time.

Editor's note: It is not too late to have a great time with Aymeric and help show more of our part of America. It's really just invite him. It doesn't have to a big deal - dinner or a movie is fine - and some of the best time our Youth Exchange students have had over the years came from being invited along on stuff you are doing anyway. So call Aymeric or talk to him at a meeting (his English is probably better than yours) and invite him along. You'll be glad you did.

AND SPEAKING OF YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENTS . . .

George Chaffey, who has probably spent more Youth Exchange Student hosting time than any other member, rose to remind us that having a Youth Exchange student come is not a "one and done" deal. No, these are relationships that go on as the students come back to visit and check in with us.   Today's reminder was an e-mail from Sayaka, who graced our Club in the 2000-01 school year.

Sayaka had other information for us (she's married and has a child) to go with what we already knew (she has tons of energy and teaches English). But far and away the most important bit of info is how she enjoys receiving and reading The Lamorindan, savoring each and every morsel of brilliant writing and stunning photography. At least that's what the editorial board of The Lamorindan unanimously thought was the most important bit of info.

"WE DON'T NEED NO STEENKEENG BADGES . . ."

That may have been true in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," but it isn't true at Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary as Paul Fillinger realized upon handing a ten-spot to King John to get his badge back.

MOTORAMA UPDATE

Krysten Laine reports that the Exhibitor Committee met this week and their work is moving forward apace. The current need is for volunteers on the Advertising Committee as that work needs to get started.

We also need one person to be the Collector And Organizer Of All Incoming Info. This person will not be responsible for generating the Exhibitor info or the Advertising info or the Sponsor info, etc., but will be the central repository of all that information so that it can be passed off to the printer of programs, the sign-makers, etc, smoothly and efficiently. Any takers?

Also, the Motorama website (www.motorama.biz, I do believe) will soon be up and running, so check it out.

INTERCLUB MEETING COMING UP

The Umpty-umpth Annual InterClub Meeting is fast approaching. This is the one time a year when the Lamorinda Sunrise, Orinda, Lafayette, Moraga and Rossmoor Clubs all get together to mingle, break bread, and get caught up. It's the Lafayette Club's turn to host the event this year. They have chosen the new Lafayette Library for the venue. It will be at lunchtime on Thursday , February 25. You can sign up on the list that will be going around at the next meeting or two, or contact Buddy Burke for a ticket. The cost will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $20, and it's always a good time.

ANOTHER EVENT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Buddy Burke just keeps on bringing in the good stuff. He informed us that on Friday, February 5, from 5:30-10:00 p.m., the Wellness City Challenge (in cooperation with the Lions Club of Rossmoor, but it's still a worthwhile event) will be Puttin' on the Glitz, the theme for this gala event. The Sierra Room in the Del Valle Clubhouse at Rossmoor will be the place to be for this black-tie optional event. Featured will be the premiere of the documentary short, "The Challenge of Wellness - The Contra Costa Project." Among the entertainers will be world-renowned harpist and violinist Carlos Reyes and opera star Alyssa Stone. Tickets are $100 each ($150 gets you VIP treatment, including valet parking and front-row seating).

The proceeds will benefit Wellness City Challenge's education programs and the Contra Costa Project. You can purchase tickets online at http:/putt(?)inontheglitz.eventbrite.com, and more information can be had by calling 925-899-6289. Or you can just contact Buddy - dollars to donuts he can hook you up.

PROGRAM

Today's program was the perfect antidote to the seemingly endless parade of "horribles" that infests news reports, regardless of the medium. War, famine, corruption, pestilence, natural catastrophe and Paris Hilton all compete for attention. It's enough to make you want to give up.

Until, that is, you have the privilege of hearing from young people such as Adarsha Shivakumar, Apoorva Rangan and Callie Roberts, all from the College Preparatory School in Oakland. They brightened our day by telling us about Project Jatropha, a project they have started and are growing into a major success story.

In a nutshell, Project Jatropha is about getting farmers in India to grow jatropha curcas, the bean of which (or fruit or nut - I never did figure out which) can be used to make high-quality bio-fuel. The jatropha plant is sustainable and eco-friendly, and it replaces fast-disappearing rainforest wood as a fuel source.

First, a little background. Adarsha's and Apporva's families come from the same area of India, and every year they return for visits. They come from an area that is near a rain forest. The main crop for many farmers in the area is tobacco. Tobacco has to be cured, which requires a heat source. The primary heat source is wood fire. The area has been largely stripped of wood. So what's a poor, struggling tobacco farmer to do? Poach wood from the rain forest. Consequently this leads to a number of less-than-desirable results, not the least of which is a shrinking rain forest.

Adarsha and Apoorva saw this and thought there had to be a better way. As it turns out, there is. It turns out that encouraging farmers to grow jatropha has real advantages. Why? First, it produces excellent bio-fuel.. One of the successes of the Jatropha project is that some farmers in the region are now using bio-fuel from jatropha to run irrigation pumps. The users report that it is a good product, down to producing good-smelling exhaust. (You can't say that about regular diesel!)

Another advantage is that jatropha is neither edible nor toxic. That means that using it for fuel purposes is not putting a farmer to a Hobson's choice of eating it or burning it. At the same time jatropha is not harming the soil or causing other ecological problems.

Third, jatropha does not require good soil areas that can be better used to grow food Jatropha can grow in relatively poor soil. For the average (meaning poor) tobacco farmer, this means that jatropha can be sown to grow hedges between fields, something the farmers already did with other plants. That also means that the farmer does not have stop growing his or her primary crop and instead can use jatropha growing as a supplement. This means no dislocation in starting up the process, something that is essential to the program's success.

Is this a permanent solution for the tobacco farmers? Adarsha, Apoorva and Callie emphatically say: No. The Indian government is committed to decreasing the amount of tobacco grown in the country, and jatropha cannot replace tobacco as a cash crop. Jatropha can, however, remain an economically and environmentally friendly crop as the transition takes place. Oh, and it will help preserve rain forest land because there is a viable alternative to wood for providing fuel.

Adarsha is one of the founders of the Jatropha Project and provides a huge amount of the energy behind it. Apoorva is the financial person. Callie is in charge of fund-raising. In just a few years, these high school students have succeeded in setting up an impressive program. They have set up an interlocking collaborative team, including Labland Biotech, the firm that provides the seed, Parivarthana, a non-profit that helps organize farmers, and a number of self-help groups in the area. Project Jatropha is there to help coordinate the efforts, making sure that the seeds and the know-how come together at the same time and place so that the farmers can reap the benefits.

In 2007, Project Jatropha established the collaborative network. In 2008, it visited villages in the area, getting people in self-help groups interested and educated in the advantages of jatropha and making sure that the recipients know that Project Jatropha will finance getting the seeds to them. Project Jatropha was also involved in negotiating seed prices, distribution of the seeds to the self-help groups and arranging visits by the self-help groups to Labland Biotech to further understand how the process works.

So far, 12,000 jatropha seeds have been planted in Phase I. Phase II is being implemented and Phase III is in the planning stages. As Phase I now exists to be a model for success, Phases II, III and the rest to follow will bring only more success to Project Jatropha.

Adarsha and Apoorva set the stage, explaining the origins and logistics of the project. Then came Callie, the fund-raising arm of this impressive triumvirate. She told us how we can help. There are two words to describe that: donate and volunteer. The best way to find out how to do either is to visit www.projectjatropha.com or www.projectjatropha.blogspot.com. Either one can tell you how to help.

Callie also covered some of the other areas Project Jatropha is looking into. She described how the Project Jatropha team has come to realize the enormity of global warming and its potential impact. Thus was born the idea for the "Global Call to Youth," which encourages young people to plant a useful seedling tree. (In light of recent events, Project Jatropha is trying to organize a program to plant fruit trees in Haiti.) The goal is impressive - one million trees to be planted in ten years.

Much of Project Jatropha's efforts are directed at kids. As Callie noted, kids respond to other kids in need, as they can identify with their peers around the world.

Thank you, Adarsha, Apoorva and Callie for speaking to us today. It was good to be reminded that, with young people such as you, our future is in good hands.

CALENDAR