expression of misplaced allegiance.
VISITING ROTARIANS
John Sherry - Ubiquitous member of the noon club.
Alicia Cragholm - Ditto
Don Jenkins - Past Prez of the Orinda Club
Rick Ashburn - Back in the fold from leave of absence
GUESTS
Budd McKenzie - Always welcome guest speaker
Teresa Gerringer - Lafayette Community Foundation Pres.
LAFAYETTE RESERVOIR STAGE A FAIT ACCOMPLI
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Teresa is in a thankful mode
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Teresa was pleased to announce a long sought enhancement to the reservoir was completed in December. She gave high praise in particular to John Sherry, but also the noon club, for their extraordinarily dogged determination to accomplish this mission. She also graciously acknowledged the LSR generous financial contribution emanating from the proceeds of the Tippy Canoe highly successful raffle. Official inauguration of the stage will take place at the Lafayette Clubs upcoming Concert at the Rez in April.
4-WAY TEST SPEAKERS COMING BACK
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Dave "you're gonna love these kids" Waal
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Miramonte High School has long been noted for one of the foremost speech programs in the country, having won many national awards. Contestant winners will again be back to showcase their wares at our Friday morning meeting, March 2.
As Dave Waal noted, this particular event has always been an annual crowd pleaser as these extremely articulate young people demonstrate the fine art of public speaking.
BIRTHDAYS AND ANIVERSARIES
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Chuck knows how to treat a wife!
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Chuck Yeager went out to dinner to celebrate his 18th wedding anniversary. He very wisely invited Mariam to be an important participant in the festivities. Chuck upped the ante to $20.
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Think young and it shall be
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Ernie celebrated another birthday. His donated $56 suggests this is a strong clue that he is approaching his 40th b'day.
Kevin Croak, Paul Fillinger and Gillett Johnson all joined LSR the same week in January, different years. This was way too complicated for this group to calculate accurate individual penance, so Alex cleverly invoked a $10 per head fee. They got off easy!
OTHER STUFF
On Wednesday, February 8, the annual interclub luncheon will take place at the Fireside Room at Rossmoor. The Moraga Club is in charge of this year's festivities. They will be headlining the magical mayhem of Timothy James. Members are encouraged to attend this event. The good news is it will be a no charge affair for all club members. As per usual custom, the regularly scheduled Friday morning club meeting on February 10 will be DARK.
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Buddy's going native?
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Buddy Burke announced this month's TGITLFOTM will be hosted mostly by Buddy Holly next Friday, January 27, at 5:30 pm. He suggested tropical attire as appropriate for the planned festivities. Anyone not familiar with tropical attire should check with Michael Edwards who is the acknowledged club expert on this subject.
PROGRAM
Budd McKenzie is no stranger to LSR. His Trust In Education (TIE) program for Afghanistan is now in its eighth year and growing stronger every day. Despite the
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Budd has found his destiny
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constant turmoil within the country, Budd has never been warned that he should abandon his efforts on behalf of the Afghan children. He is careful when in country to keep his whereabouts and movement a secret, because there is always a threat of kidnapping of any individual who represents financial ransom opportunities.
In an interesting historical sidelight Budd said he has recently learned the U.S. had begun a financial investment in an internal Afghan war before the Russians invaded the country in 1979. Jimmy Carter's administration, led by Sec'y of State Brzezinski, was financing that war in the hopes it would help promulgate the ultimate invasion by Russia, thereby turning it into the cold war foe's Viet Nam disaster. The lesson...be careful what you wish for!
TIE is a grass roots organization, founded by Budd, providing educational and economic assistance to villages in Afghanistan. It serves as a tie between villages and American communities because person-to-person reconstruction works. Education has always been a top priority because the literacy rate in Afghanistan is 30% TIE pays 25 teachers in 10 villages, educating more than 1,000 children, over 2/3 of which are girls. Classes include science, math, English, computers and art. Students dream of becoming teachers, engineers and doctors. Only one of a thousand wants to be a lawyer (Budd's true profession as revealed by Rich Shearer in an introduction).
In addition to education TIE also teaches solar cooking (for rice) and water heating (for tea) in a country literally lacking in trees, and therefore having very limited access to expensive wood for heating use. Volunteers have built and delivered 90 solar ovens and 200 smaller solar cook kits to Kabul, with another 625 cook kits being delivered by spring 2012.
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Yes, the girls play soccer
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Building village soccer fields is another major undertaking. Three fields have been built thus far. There are eight soccer programs, five for boys and three for the girls who, until now, were not allowed to engage in what has always been a male exclusive sport. Play increases school enrollment and attendance. Children are happier, healthier and have fun!
Street children are welcomed into the programs. They have the incentive to be sponsored by families who are willing to make contracts between the father and the child. The child is paid $40 a month to faithfully attend school. This is more money than anyone else in the family makes in most cases.
Budd has learned to effectively use fund raising through American kids in a "kids earn money" program. This has resulted in primary school students banding together to earn significant money through such things bake sales for Afghan kids, just accomplished by the Corte Madera school in Los Gatos, with a check to TIE for $2,545. A similar program is being initiated at the Happy Valley School in Lafayette.
In the Q&A Budd was asked to comment on the difficulty in allowing girls to go to school in a culture which does not condone such activity for them. He said the uneducated men simply do not see the value in education, and therefore consider it a complete waste of a girl's time who instead could be helping around the home or in the field. It is the Afghans, and particularly the women who are running the TIE programs, who are making inroads with the population, and the reason why the programs are succeeding. Budd is the reason why there is a program! We salute him as an extraordinary human being.
CALENDAR
Friday, 1/27, Postino, 7am - Steve Isaacs, Education
Friday, 1/27, TIGITLFOTM, 5:30 pm - Buddy Holly Burke home
Friday, 2/8, Postino, 7am - Dr. Barbara Persons, Plastic Surgeon
Tuesday, 2/7, Board Meeting 7 am.
Wednesday 2/8, Interclub luncheon, Fireside Room, Rossmoor
Friday 2/10 - DARK
HOME Team
March 10, May 5, June 3
