It’s been a busy September, and things are only going to heat up as we cruise through the rest of the year! Many members have been traveling, which has made attendance a bit low—too bad, because we had an amazing month of speakers.
Our programs this month continue to be informative, exciting and fun:
October 3: A high-energy visit from the BollyX team at our local YMCA.
October 10: Our Club Assembly – a chance to learn more about our committees and shape the direction of our club together.
October 17 & 31: Guest speakers covering “Empowering Future Innovators” through science fairs and one member’s reflections on his experiences in the Vietnam War and returning home after.
October 24: Our annual Operation Care and Comfort event, always a club favorite.
Our club is also very busy outside of our regular meetings. Here are some of our recent and planned activities:
Fellowship: We just held a successful Tailgate TGIF and are planning another gathering later this month (details coming soon).
Community Service: On October 25, we’ll partner with Cupertino Rotary on a home restoration project for a 92-year-old Saratoga resident. Sign-ups are due by October 5, here is the link: RebuildingTogether. This is a great opportunity to roll up your sleeves and make a tangible impact.
Community Service (cont.): We also continue to support West Valley Community Services with food distribution on a regular basis, let Cathie know if you’d like to help.
A too well-kept secret in our club are our affinity clubs; here are a sample of them:
Book Club – October’s just happened but contact Verna Wong to find out what’s coming up for November.
Walking Groups – Two groups meet weekly, one organized by Barry and the other by Cathie; all are welcome.
Bocce Ball – Join in the fun! Contact Barrie for details.
Networking Dinner – Next dinner will be on October 9th, place TBD. Contact Jenny for details and it’s open to non-Rotarians so bring your friends.
Theatre Group – Attend shows with fellow members. Contact Bruce for information on the latest show he is organizing and look for more opportunities in the future.
As you can see, our club has something for everyone. And if you don’t see what you’re looking for, start your own affinity group or work with a board member to create something new.
Finally, please continue to invite friends, colleagues, and neighbors to experience Rotary. It’s wonderful to see so many guests at our meetings, and we look forward to welcoming many of them as new members soon.
As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with ideas and suggestions at dguidry@yahoo.com.
Mateo currently serves as the Director of Client Services at West Valley Community Services in Cupertino, where he leads a comprehensive portfolio of programs aimed at preventing homelessness, improving food access, and delivering critical resources to low-income and unhoused residents across Santa Clara County.
With nearly two decades of experience in public health and nonprofit leadership, Mateo has developed, implemented, and managed a variety of impactful initiatives. Throughout his career, Mateo has led multidisciplinary teams, designed culturally responsive programming, and leveraged data- driven evaluation to improve large and complex systems. He is deeply committed to health equity, community empowerment, and advancing sustainable solutions for vulnerable populations, specifically people of color.
Heath Rocha currently serves as the Superintendent for the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD), one of the top-ranked school districts in California (Niche.com). With a deep commitment to student well-being, Heath has dedicated his career to fostering supportive, inclusive, and high-achieving school environments.
Before stepping into this role, Heath served for nine years as the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services at LGSUHSD, where he led efforts to support at-risk students and those with disabilities. In response to the growing mental health crisis among adolescents post-pandemic, he spearheaded the creation of Wellness Centers at each high school, providing targeted, school-based counseling services. Thanks to these efforts, reports of students feeling persistently sad or hopeless for two weeks or more dropped by over 40% in just four years.
It’s time to kick off our annual The Rotary Foundation (TRF) contribution. Thanks to your generosity, we’re able to change lives every day by providing clean water, sanitation, hygiene, supporting education, promote peace, develop communities and more! We need your help to keep moving forward to spread health and hope in areas that were once ravaged by diseases like polio. Every gift makes a difference!
What impact can one donation have?
For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
$50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
$500 can launch an anti-bullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.
Goal for the year 2025-2026 is $30000 for TRF and $3000 for polio plus. You can contribute on our Saratoga Rotary Club website (login to myRotary) or simply write your check to "TRF" and pass it to Moe Baniani or Sheree Williams.
The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District, in partnership with the Los Gatos HS Home & School Club and the Saratoga HS Parent Teacher Student Organization (PTSO) invite students, families, staff, and community members to attend an upcoming virtual workshop, Finding Balance in the Age of Addiction, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 6:00 pm. The webinar will feature Dr. Anna Lembke, Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. A nationally recognized expert in the field of addiction, Dr. Lembke is the author of Drug Dealer, MD and the bestselling Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. She also appeared in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma.
This year, the The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District (LGSUHSD) celebrates 48 students who are 2026 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists. These students now have the opportunity to continue in the competition for nearly 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million, to be awarded in spring 2026.
Saratoga High School Seniors Celina Ren, Sophia Faraone, Christina Labban, and Joshua Chan have won a $500 Environmental Activism Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for their short documentary, “Speed Bumps Ahead.” The award is sponsored by the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC).
Rotaplast mission at AIIMS New Delhi — restoring form, function and hope
In a high-impact, short-term partnership, Rotaplast International joined hands with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and local Rotary clubs to run an International Reconstructive Surgery Mission & Education Clinic focused on burn scars, post-burn contractures, acid attack burns, and related deformities. Between August 19–29, 2025, the program combined free reconstructive surgeries for under-resourced patients with hands-on training for residents, nurses, and allied health staff — a model that addresses urgent back-log needs while building long-term local capacity.
Burns and acid attacks remain a major public-health challenge in India. An estimated 6–7 million people sustain burn injuries each year, with a substantial proportion requiring hospitalization and many developing contractures and functional impairments that persist long after the wounds have healed. Survivors of acid attacks face not only severe disfigurement but also significant psychological trauma, stigma, and barriers to education, employment, and social participation.
Contractures - the tightening and shortening of skin and underlying tissues after deep burns — can severely limit movement (for example of the neck, shoulder, elbow, hand, or knee), cause pain, and restrict independence. Effective reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation are vital for restoring range of motion, reducing pain, improving appearance, and dramatically enhancing quality of life and confidence.
In 1960, I was a 7-year-old boy growing up on the Stanford campus, the son of an astronomer. Our next-door neighbors, the Watermans, also had a rich scientific legacy (Antarctica’s Mt. Waterman is named after them. When perusing their library, I came across a shelf full of National Geographic magazines dating back to 1925. In one issue from about 1934, there appeared an article on the dragons of Komodo, an island west of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago.
The article, complete with somewhat grainy black-and-white photographs, may have been the first time the western world had been made aware of these giant reptiles, the world’s largest lizards, that rule this tropical island. I was transfixed! I dreamt that, someday, I would experience them for myself.
Sixty-five years later, that dream was realized. Lucy and I, thanks to her employer (Edward Jones) qualified for a trip to Bali. Studying Google earth, I saw that Flores Island, where one could charter a boat for a day trip to Komodo, was just a one-hour flight from Bali. I could not pass up this opportunity!
It would require a long day of traveling: Sixteen hours to Singapore, three and a half hours to Bali, then an additional hour to the town of Labuan Bajo, Flores. Two days later, accompanied by a Dutch couple and a family from England, we boarded a small boat and set sail for Komodo.
After months of planning and training, we set out on our quest to hike to Uhuru Peak, “The Roof of Africa” in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania. Uruhu Peak sits at 5895 meters (19341 feet) above sea level.
We started in the dense rainforest of Kilimanjaro National Park on August 23, hiking on trails through towering trees active with birdcalls and monkeys jumping through the branches. Over the next several days, we moved through the different ecosystems of Kilimanjaro: heath and moorland, volcanic desert, rocky valleys, and alpine desert.
On August 28 after four-hour nap and a quick meal we put up in our warmest layers with their headlamps on stepped out of our tents at 11:30 PM into below freezing temperatures and winds whipping across at about 30 miles an hour. It was time to start walking up towards the summit. Breathing was hard and every step was slow and took effort. In front and behind us we could see light from the headlamps of fellow hikers scattered across the endless switchbacks. Just as we stopped to take a break and have some hot tea, the darkness of the night started to go away, and we saw the most amazing sunrise ever. It was unbelievably beautiful. We were still about an hour from the summit, so we kept on trudging up.
In September, Russ and I visited Patti and Tom Larkins who were staying at a lovely beach house in Avalon, New Jersey. The beach there is huge and perfectly groomed. We then drive to New York and drive along the Hudson River, a beautiful area. Stayed in two cute towns: Beacon and Hudson. Toured West Point, Storm King (huge outdoor sculpture park) and went on a little river cruise. We also saw Bard College in Annandale, where Steely Dan started out. Highly recommend this area and it gets overlooked.
It’s time to kick off our annual The Rotary Foundation (TRF) contribution. Thanks to your generosity, we’re able to change lives every day by providing clean water, sanitation, hygiene, supporting education, promote peace, develop communities and more! We need your help to keep moving forward to spread health and hope in areas that were once ravaged by diseases like polio. Every gift makes a difference!
In a high-impact, short-term partnership, Rotaplast International joined hands with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and local Rotary clubs to run an International Reconstructive Surgery Mission & Education Clinic focused on burn scars, post-burn contractures, acid attack burns, and related deformities. Between August 19–29, 2025, the program combined free reconstructive surgeries for under-resourced patients with hands-on training for residents, nurses, and allied health staff — a model that addresses urgent back-log needs while building long-term local capacity.
After months of planning and training, we set out on our quest to hike to Uhuru Peak, “The Roof of Africa” in Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania. Uruhu Peak sits at 5895 meters (19341 feet) above sea level.