Celebrate the Beat: Teaching Inspirational Music & Dance Classes
This Meeting’s HighlightsProgram: Celebrate the Beat: Teaching Inspirational Music & Dance ClassesSpeaker: Founder Tracy Straus and Executive Director Daniel Rubinoff of Celebrate the BeatMeeting for the week of December 5, 2016 to December 11, 2016Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Happy Holidays!
Members and returning guests, it's great to see you again -- welcome back and happy holidays!New visitors and visiting Rotarians, welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's meeting for the week of December 5th! My name is Mitty Chang, and I am president of this Rotary club!Members, this is a final reminder that the Rotary District's drawing for The Rotary Foundation - Annual Fund is happening this week on Wednesday, December 7th. Those of you who have emailed me already letting me know the amount you have contributed to TRF-Annual Fund will have tickets in your name. If you have not yet done so, please be sure to email me -- these are not done automatically! Please let me know at president@siliconvalleyrotary.com if we need to put some tickets in your name in the drawing. The deadline to let me know if Wed. December 7th at 12-noon Pacific Time.Guests and members, the holidays are right around the corner and it's the time of the year that the radio plays Christmas music non-stop! I'm excited for all of our members who have signed up for our members-only Secret Santa exchange! I think having an eClub with international members means working on how to get the right presents across state lines and across oceans sometimes can require a little bit of creative thinking but is sure to be well worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing your first reaction photos and videos, so please be sure to take a video of you opening your present or a photo of it and submit it to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com for us to include in our Christmas and New Years meeting!Members, I am also looking for more member spotlight videos and just photos and stories of what you have been up to. If we haven't chatted this quarter yet, I apologize for having not reached out to you yet! Please accept my humble apology, and consider taking the initiative and sending me a quick note about what you've been doing.I also want to take a moment to specially recognize member Linda Tangren. Linda celebrated her birthday last month, and last week she made an incredibly generous donation to our happy dollars in honor of her birthday. Linda, thank you so much for your generosity! We're sending you some warm thoughts right now.Speaking of warm thoughts, members -- if you have moved since you joined this club, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your updated mailing address so that I can make sure your holiday card doesn't get lost in the mail! Thank you all for being here!And enjoy this meeting!
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
President
Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Weekly Inspiration: Building a Village in Over 20 Years
Every week we bring you videos of innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story, featuring an artist in China who has for the past 20 years been working with local stone masons to build a village paying tribute to an ancient civilization.
Where some saw a wasteland, artist Song Peilun saw an opportunity. For the last 20 years he has been building a village in Guizhou, China, that stretches across 50 acres of forest and pays tribute to the ancient civilization that once lived there. But this massive project could not have been realized without the stonework and technical expertise of local residents. Today, the Yelang Valley is more than a popular tourist attraction for curious visitors, it’s a working community of painters and musicians. And it isn’t finished yet.
What long-term project would you dedicate yourself to?
Laughing Out Loud (L.O.L.) with our Lady of LOLs
We believe that laughing a little every day keeps you healthier. Every week we try to share with you something that will make you smile! This section is curated by Rotarian Yvonne Kwan, our club’s “Lady of LOLs.”
To get you in the mood for this week's program about dance, here are some jokes to get your feet tapping!
Why don't dogs make good dancers?Because they have two left feet!
What does a snail wear to go dancing?Escargogo boots.
What do cows like to dance to?Any kind of moosic they like!
World of Rotary
Rotary is a 1.2 million member organization that exists in over 165 countries. This segment is dedicated to sharing a story or an update of what is going on in the global world of Rotary. This week we are featuring Rotary International's partner organizations, ShelterBox. ShelterBox is an international non-profit organization that provides emergency shelter and aid to those who have lost everything to natural and man-made disasters. ShelterBox originally was a Rotary Club project and evolved into its own organization over the past decade.
In Case of Emergency - ShelterBox
By Brad Webber / The Rotarian MagazineThree days after Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in November 2013, Derek Locke was tramping among the sinews of uprooted palm trees, downed power lines, and fragments of homes shattered by one of the region’s deadliest disasters. As he delivered tents and other essentials in Santa Fe, a small community on Bantayan Island, he came face to face with the crushing need and finite resources of the eight-person response team dispatched by ShelterBox. The aid recipients had been identified as families most at risk, and as Locke assisted a young single mother and her toddler, he felt a sense of dread as two neighbors, with four children of their own in tow, approached.“I turned around and they said, ‘Thank you for helping our people, ’” recalls Locke, a member of the Rotary Club of Dearborn Heights, Mich., who has spent 38 weeks as a ShelterBox first responder since 2012. He has traveled to 11 countries and participated in 13 ShelterBox response team missions, yet that moment sticks with him. “It was heartwarming, because despite their obvious plight, they were just grateful we were able to help somebody else.”“That’s the kind of thing you lie awake at night thinking about,” says Bruce Heller, a veteran of seven ShelterBox deployments and a member of the Rotary Club of Allen Sunrise, Texas. “You’re handing out that last box and you see that mom and her small baby waiting and you don’t have any more to give. There’s never enough aid.”Amid catastrophes produced by nature and mankind’s cruelest impulses, ShelterBox teams of volunteers rush forward. From the earthquake that killed hundreds of people in Ecuador in April to the continuing refugee trail out of ...Read the full story at Rotary.org
Service Blotter
This segment of the meeting is dedicated to recognizing the different service projects and volunteer opportunities our members have been doing in their local communities. This segment is managed by our Service Chair Andrew Taw.
In November, Martin Fox consulted on a non-profit merger, Nate Gildart organized a live show fundraising for clean water in the Tsayte district in Ethiopia, Racquel D'Garay-Juncal worked on a food donation campaign for the victims of Hurricane Otto, Mitty Chang volunteered with over 500 Rotarians cleaning up and renovating three Boys & Girls Clubs in Santa Barbara California,
Andrew Taw worked on obtaining computers for at-risk youth, and Rushton Hurley and Kenneth Oku volunteered in the kitchen at the JW House in Santa Clara California.
Here are some photos submitted by some of our members of the service projects they were at.
Mitty at the Santa Barbara Connecting for Good Service Project
On November 11, 2016 member Mitty Chang was volunteering down in Santa Barbara, California with over 500 Rotarians from across the nation for one of the biggest Rotary service projects in Santa Barbara history -- renovating three different Boys & Girls Clubs in Santa Barbara County. Here are some photos submitted by Mitty from the day of service - can you spot Mitty in the large crowd photo?
Rushton & Kenneth at the JW House Kitchen Service Project
On November 29, 2016 both members Rushton Hurley and Kenneth Oku volunteered at the JW House in Santa Clara, California. Rushton brought our favorite special guest, Tabitha Hurley, and both of our members encountered other Rotarians including Rotarian Cecelia Babkirk. Here are some of the photos submitted by Kenneth:
Thank you Rotarians for actively working on improving your local communities!
Members, we want your photos of service projects! Please be sure to submit the service blotter and send photos to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your project story!
Members, if you didn't see your service project / volunteer experience listed at all that's because we didn't get a service project update from you. Go ahead and submit one in the members update section below. You can also send photos and stories for even past projects to president@siliconvalleyrotary.com! We want to feature stories about what YOU have been doing!
For Members: Updates
This segment of the meeting is dedicated to our club members. This section includes announcements and new initiatives. Guests, you are welcome to read this section or just skip it.
Last call for District Drawing for TRF - Annual Fund donations by Dec 7:
Members, this is the last call for TRF - Annual Fund donations as the drawing is THIS WEEK on Wed. Dec 7th. (Those of you who check the meeting a bit late will have missed it unfortunately.)
If you didn't see the message from last week, our district is holding a drawing for some fantastic prizes. You can get a drawing ticket by making a donation to The Rotary Foundation's annual fund. This will help support current Rotary projects around the world. $200 gets you 1 ticket, $500 gets you 3 tickets, $1000 gets you 7 tickets. Any donation you have made to TRF annual fund since the start of this Rotary year (July 1, 2016) will count towards your total donated and how many drawing tickets you are eligible for. Members, I will be sending out an email with a list of everyone who has already received tickets. Please consider making a contribution at any amount you are comfortable with to TRF annual fund. Even $5 will save a child from going hungry. You can make that donation directly to TRF by clicking here.You will need to email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com and let me know if you made a qualifying donation. There is no other way I will know by Wed. Dec 7th unless you inform me.Members, be sure to use your own name / information for the donation to receive credit and select recognition. Donations must be made by 12-noon (Pacific Time) on December 7, 2016 in order to qualify for a drawing ticket. Here is a photo of the prizes:
Coffee with a Rotarian - UPDATE:
Last week on December 1st you should have all received an email from our member Tzviatko Chiderov regarding the Coffee with a Rotarian initiative! He'll be assigning members to other members to reach out to them and have a coffee session (either in-person or digitally online). The goal of Coffee with a Rotarian is just to give you a chance to get to know one of your fellow club members better, and then to report back to the club about what you learned about that person! Look for that email!
Secret Santa - UPDATE!
Members who opted into the exclusive members only Secret Santa should already have been notified of their picks. If you do not know who you are the Secret Santa for, then please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com. All selections were randomly chosen by the Elfster program, and are not revealed to anyone except you. (As the organizer, President Mitty can manually reveal a selection if you tell Mitty via email you can't figure out how to reveal who you have.) Secret Santas, please make sure to mail out presents no later than December 21st. If your person is international, you may want to have that sent out earlier to account for the regular shipping time.
Welcome to December! Don't forget to update us with your service blotter!
Members, want to get your service update into the next service blotter? Please share what you’ve been up to, as it allows us to get to know each other better in the process! Just click on the link below to let us know!
For Members Only: Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)Rotary White Elephant Brunch at The Vine in Fremont, Sat. Dec. 10,2016, from 11 AM to 2 PM
UPDATED (not a potluck anymore): Members, join us for a white elephant holiday party! We will be in the back patio area of one of Fremont's famous restaurants, The Vine at 37553 Niles Blvd, Fremont, CA 94536. Once you enter, please go straight inside to the back patio area, where we will be hanging out by the firepit. Come join your fellow members and guests for drinks, appetizers, and some of the best food in Fremont, while we do a present exchange in the form of White Elephant! If you have never done white elephant before, just bring a present of your choosing that is completely wrapped in unidentifiable wrapping paper. We will randomly pick up presents, and share what we got! The budget for white elephant presents is $20 to $30.
For our members who are abroad and cannot make it in-person for this event, we would encourage you to be online during this time! We'll have our webcam on and would love to do some story exchanges with you online!
This event is open to all club members and their family members or guests. Visitors interested in attending should email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com in advance with a self-introduction to request an invitation. Please dress appropriately for outdoor seating!
Event Chairs: Mitty Chang & Yvonne Kwan
Rotary Wilderness Expedition to Big Basin (Boulder Creek), Sun. Jan. 29, 2016 from 11 AM to 3 PM
Join fellow Rotarians and friends for an adventure expedition into the gorgeous redwood giants of Big Basin Redwoods State Park. We will be meeting at 11 AM (exact location to be announced) and will aim to return to our cars by 3 PM. Please pack your own lunch and water.
Event chair: Andrew Taw
Rotary Area 8 Talent Show (Cupertino), Sat. Feb. 4, 2016
Join Rotarians from through Cupertino and Sunnyvale for an area-wide social featuring talent from every club! Details to be announced.
Happy Dollars
Each week we ask our members to share news with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal for this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each other, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it's appropriate!)
Last week's happy dollars went towards funding club projects including service grants and sending a high school student to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp! Here are messages from last week's happy dollars:
From member Rory Olsen ($15):"PolioPlus please"
From member Nate Gildart ($15):"It's been a while me thinks! Love supporting service grants and youth leadership opportunities!"
From guest Emmanuel Serriere ($15):"As a Frenchman, I appreciate the French Toast celebration - especially that French Toast did not exists in France until recently."
From member Brian Liddicoat ($15):"Took my kids ziplining at Mt Hermon Adventures in the Santa Cruz Mountains this weekend. Two big thumbs up."
From member Felmer Lenida:"First time donating! As soon as I saw RYLA, I had to donate!"
From member Rushton Hurley ($25):"Thanks to Ken for organizing our part in the JW House last week - what a great time! The donation is for the general fund."
From member Linda Tangren ($72):"This donation represents "it is better to give, than receive." In celebration of my birthday, I am donating to send a student to RYLA."
From member Kristi Govertsen ($5):No comment
Thank you all for your donations last week! The money from the donations last week went towards funding club projects including supporting club service grants and sending a high school student to RYLA!
This week's donations will go towards funding club projects such as Service Min-E Grants for members to help start local service projects!
So what are you happy about? Share with us below!
Selected Six
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are six comments selected from last week's meeting about Stop Hunger Now:
From member Kristofer Telfer (California, USA):
"Wow Carrie. Kudos to a great contribution to this week's meeting. You are completely right, people do not take action according to facts, but emotions. And you do a great job of conveying that passion!"
From member Mark Dohn (Michigan, USA):
“Phenomenal Carrie. Thank you so much. The way I describe what you've been able to accomplish is taking an image that is historically "flat" - being without any kind of context other than a place and a date - and bring it to being "3 dimensional" by adding a human context and connection to that image. You've made a living connection to history."
From member Rushton Hurley (California, USA):
“Carrie, I love seeing an artist use technology to bring a new understanding of history to the viewer - amazing! Great video choice with the blind sailing team this week, too. That should force all of us to think again about what we assume others can and can't do."
From member Brett Sham (Sydney, Australia):
“I'm always so blown away by how many people that have a disability never let it stand in their way and have such a positive outlook on life, such as the blind sailors. Happy birthday to our November babies! Carrie, the concept of your work is brilliant and the way you bring it to life amazing but also slightly haunting!"
From member Martin Fox (Utah, USA):
“Amazing Carrie. I could have listened to you for hours. Your research, haunting images, and stories came together in a beautiful way. I also had family members in the major engagements from the Revolutionary War onward. You transported me into seeing the same conflicts from their eyes. Well done.“
From member Nathan Gildart (Tokyo, Japan):
"Carrie, that was moving, if not haunting. Your art is inspiring. I'm a History teacher and love your themes. (the WW1 trench image reminds me of a painting, The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, a WW1 battle that arguably defined Canada as an independent nation) As Rushton noted, it would be great to see some of your art used in classes. I can see using them in my History and Theory of Knowledge classes. It's heartening to see you using your talents as an artist for acts of kindness.
Thank you everyone for attending last week’s meeting!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
The Program
Every week we bring to you a program on innovation, education, entrepreneurship, and humanitarian service. Our guest speakers this week are Founder Tracy Straus and Executive Director Daniel Rubinoff of Celebrate the Beat!
Celebrate the Beat is a non-profit based in Colorado, USA. Their mission is to provide the highest quality in-school and after-school dance programs for all children that will improve their physical health and well-being, inspire them to believe in themselves, and establish a standard of excellence that impacts all aspects of their lives. The majority of Celebrate the Beat's students are at-risk students who are on reduced and free lunch programs at school. This week our program guests are both the Founder and the Executive Director of Celebrate the Beat.
Meet TracyStraus, the Founder & Artistic Director of Celebrate the Beat.Motivated by the belief that the arts have the unique power to help children discover their potential, Tracy founded “Celebrate the Beat” (CTB), the Colorado associate of National Dance Institute (NDI). CTB currently partners with 30 schools throughout Colorado and in Nayarit, Mexico, inspiring 4,000 children a year. Tracy is also the Artistic Associate for NDI, where she is a Master Teacher, conducting residencies in New York City public schools and developing Teacher Training workshops. Ms. Straus began her performing career at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. An actress as well as a dancer, she trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and performed in various off-Broadway venues. Other work includes choreographing for “America’s Next Top Model” for CBS, and associate producing the Tony Award-winning Broadway productions “Spring Awakening” and “American Idiot". Her experience as an arts educator includes teaching and designing curriculum for The After School Corporation, started by international philanthropist George Soros, to bring high quality after-school programs into the public school system. As an arts consultant, Ms. Straus has worked to develop multicultural arts programs for schools across the USA and in Mexico and India.Ms. Straus is a recent graduate of National Arts Strategies' Chief Executive Program and was a fellow the NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts. Tracy holds an MA from Bank Street College of Education, and a BA from the University of Michigan.
Meet Daniel Rubinoff, the Executive Director of Celebrate the Beat.
Dan Rubinoff joined CTB as the Executive Director in 2009. Dan has extensive experience in nonprofit education, administration, and management. Dan began teaching in 1994 in Colorado. There he moved quickly into administration, where he became director of several programs and eventually head of school. Dan has served on several Boards, including education and arts organizations. He received his BA at the University of Colorado and his Masters Degree in Education Administration from Regis University. In 1999, Dan was recognized as one of Colorado’s top 40 teachers by the Boettcher Foundation.
Members and guests, please join me in welcoming Tracy and Daniel!
Related Links:
Reach out to Tracy or Dan
If you have any questions for Tracy or Daniel, please feel free to leave a comment or question at the bottom of this meeting page.
Meeting Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 to 45 minutes long and are subject to change without notice. (Sometimes speakers cancel on us!)
Upcoming Recordings:
Recording with member & Master Photographer Keith Marsh on Monday, December 5, 2016 at 5 PM Pacific Time
If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your request. Requests will be checked up until 5 minutes prior to the recording time. Please note the timezone is all California, USA time.Upcoming Meetings:
Week of December 12 - Photography Mastery with Master Photographer Keith Marsh
Week of December 19 - TBA
You’re Almost Done! One last thing: The Attendance Survey...
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done. First, we have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
