This Reporter confesses to usually missing the Thought for the Day, either by not being able to hear it or not being able to write fast enough. The Thinker him/herself must be relied on to produce the reference notes. Paul Bettelheim did more than that. He produced a sheet with a bunch of Woody Allen quotes showing what a great Rotarian Woody would have been, as an ambassador for Rotary's can-do optimism. The following may be the quote Paul gave to the group, but if it isn't, they all are similar anyway: "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

Rotarians:

A whole brigade from that Other Lafayette Club:Larry Duson, banker next door to us, who'll be happy to take your $$ for tickets to the Noon Club's excellent "Concert at the Res", featuring local jazz groups. Whoops, too bad if you didn't jump on it - it happened May 15.

Larry Blodgett, floor man and pitchman for the Chamber of Commerce, pitching the Annual Taste of Lafayette, Tuesday May 18 at Plaza Park, 5:30 - 9:00, $45 per.

Others:

Speakers Amy Maggiore and Tom O'Keefe

Tom Black, entering his second quarter-century of marriage. Celebrated by picking Pat up at the airport.

Walter Nelson, having seen the light and joined LSR 5 years ago. The amount of his recognition didn't take much imagination.

Pat Flaharty looked forward to a future celebration of some unnamed person, a surprise, the place not yet determined, but the date, to be saved at all costs, will be JUNE 18.

Y'all should mosey on up to Yin Ranch on Saturday, May 22. A beautiful setting outside Vacaville, featuring the next level of the 4-Way Speech Contest, a whole lot of exchange students, some education about the Rotary Foundation to justify your existence, and the temptation of Joanne's cookies and fudge. Ad hoc carpools will doubtless be formed.

Well, not quite y'all should come, because a rival event is happening the same morning. Alex Arnold will fraternize with the Lafayette Ladies' Garden Club and paint the Lafayette Gazebo. This setup motivated Gillett Johnson to volunteer also. Other self-sacrificing members will doubtless be welcomed.

Another ranch event was the Rush Ranch. But, like the Concert at the Res, it happened on May 15, so you really had to Rush to get there. John Fazel and David Waal formed the world's smallest carpool.

The Main Woman right now is Krysten Laine, who is dragging us to glory with the Motorama. She announced that Larry Blodgett and Ken Kosich are sponsors. Lafayette Today newspaper devoted a whole page to the Motorama, Rene being the modest author. Simone Raeth is doing the program layout, which is a whole lotta work. Needed are DVDs and players and big TV screen (for the booth), ads, sellers, biographies, and wristbands, among lots of other things, to be turned in by June 1.

The leader of Acalanes Interact, Akoni Viray, said the kids will assist at the Motorama, and in return asked that we bring our old shoes next week for their project to help Haiti (there will be a box here).

Joe Bettencourt is another achieving leader. However, he showed he can be a little laid back, by simply saying that there will be another Home Team event next month sometime.

And then there's Coach Bob Heinen, who exhorted all athletes to join our Bocce Ball team for the big one on June 5 against the Lafayette Lightning. He rattled off a series of fearsome names of future opposition, including Gekos, Legends, and Grizzlies and others. It was unclear what our own mascot might be.

Ernie Furtado, certainly known as a leader interested in the club's finances, told a story about being held up in the yogurt line, and donated his virtually worthless yogurt shop card to the cause.

Not to be outdone, the Prez imposed some rare discipline by asking that unsolicited emails to the membership be minimized. There will probably be a responsive First Amendment lawsuit.

However, the Prez wasn't disciplined enough himself to remember that we have an exchange student who was eager to give his weekly report. After $10 was extracted from JF for this misfeasance, Aymeric gave his full report anyway, saying "I have nothing to say."

Once in a while it does us good to actually quiet down and listen to a presentation of an important and serious local problem.

Since 1986, Shelter Inc. Has been working to prevent homelessness and promote self-sufficiency. Thomas Peeks introduced its executive director Tim O'Keefe and development department representative Amy Maggiore (she used to work with Chuck Yeager).

Tim, who has had long experience with Catholic Charities, Boy Scouts (where he became acquainted with Ernie Furtado), and a number of other nonprofits, reminded us that the fragile economy greatly affects the poor, who have no portfolios or housing to fall back on. They are the first to lose jobs and the last to be hired. Shelter Inc. traditionally helped mostly young mothers and kids, but lately the clientele has a much more middle class look. Over the past 10 years around 3,000 people have been served, but this jumped to 4,100 in 2008 and 5,200 in 2009, including both working poor and those without jobs. And homes are being lost, especially by two-parent families.

One chilling story was of a woman tenant of a residence. A bank representative showed up one day and asked her to leave because there had been a foreclosure. It seems that when the notices were posted on the doors of the tenants' units, the landlord followed close behind and ripped them down, then continued to collect rents while the tenants had no clue what was happening. The woman had two grandchildren and income of $800/month. Shelter Inc. helped her find housing.

Tim related that his wife, who served with Ernie's wife Barbara on the PTA of Lafayette School, knew of at least two parents at the school who were homeless. You don't see them, but they're there. Due to budget cuts, there is no city or county funding to help. In fact, Contra Costa is the only California county with no funding for the homeless.

It's important to prevent homelessness, which is a hugely embarrassing situation. Kids at school, when they are able to attend, can't participate with others or even look them in the eye. For every 6 months a child is homeless, he/she falls behind one year in school. Families don't want to ask for help. Women tend to be a little more resilient, but men just look at the floor. There are live-in cars in parking lots at Safeway, St. Perpetua, etc. Funding would help keep the family stable, especially with tutors' help. There is one family in Moraga which certainly recognizes the problem, donating $120,000/year to support Shelter Inc.'s works.

Facilities for the homeless would also help. Shelter Inc.'s Mountain Home in Martinez provides services to alleviate the immediate problem, such as short-term housing and day care for kids. After the short term, transitional housing is available in Pittsburg and Antioch through Home Aid, an organization of Contra Costa builders who donated the buildings. A portion of the occupant's income goes to rent.

None of this is a handout; it's a hand up. To benefit, there has to be an active desire to end homelessness. There are success stories, such as the teenage girl, drug addict and living on the street with a baby son, who found a tutor to help her to obtain a GED, took job training, got a job for $40,000/year plus benefits, and has adopted a family which she herself can help. Her son now plans to go to college.

Shelter Inc., which has a very low overhead cost of 7.5%, needs support.

Amy Maggiore then told of some of the ways to help. Cooking meals for events, adopt-a-family program, backpack drive, landscaping, painting, furniture donations. They can tailor projects to a particular group. There are about 1,000 volunteers/year.

Two ways to support while having fun are the Swing for Shelter golf tournament taking place on July 26^th at Round Hill Country Club, and the Hike for Shelter which last year took place at the Grand Canyon, no less. Dominic Porrino volunteered to organize a group for the golf tournament. He didn't say anything about hiking the Grand Canyon.

But seriously, folks, this is a problem deserving much thought.