Gold Canyon Superstition Mountain Rotary club took a whole day shift spearheaded by their member, Ed Shockley.

 

The Mabry family took a whole day shift in honor of their father and Mesa West member, Al Mabry and his wife, Helen.  Al passed away on February 12, 2010.  Al was the chair of the Salvation Army Kettle program for our club for many years.  Helen was also involved in our club and volunteered by sewing other club’s banners on our display.

 

Chris LaBarge and her ASU Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority ladies took a whole day shift.  Some of their girls took individual shifts later because they were not available to ring on the day Chris selected for the Sorority.

 

The Gilbert High School Basketball team took a whole day.  They rang all ten hours.

 

Boy Scout Troop 451 took numerous late shifts, ringing from 600-8:00 PM on 18 of the 28 days we rang.  Their effort was coordinated by Assistant Scout Master Alan Harris.  This is the scout troop from which we have sent two boys to RYLA each year for the past few years.  We have also sponsored Eagle Scouts and donated to their new used truck fund.

 

Fountain Hills Rotary Club donated $175.00 in checks to be put in our kettle at Bass Pro Shop.  Gary Law from Tempe South Rotary Club rang twice.  Alex Gutierrez of Phoenix East Rotary also rang for us.

 

Many of the nonmembers who rang are neighbors, friends, and family of our members.  Many of these nonmembers have been ringing for many of the past years.  One such person is Marcia Shields husband, Glen.  Marcia used to play the piano for our meetings, but she has been ill the last few years.

 

Member, Steve Ross worked on the project every day delivering kettles each morning.  In addition, he took a whole day shift.

 

Tim Troy and Chuck Flint each took whole day shifts.  Chuck Flint filled in a couple of times when ringers had to cancel.  Members of Mesa West who rang three shifts or more were:  Allan Cady, Polly Cady, Jim Crutcher, Terry Diedrick, Chuck Flint, Lucinda General, Don LaBarge, Jeanie Morgan, Jack Rosenberg, Steve Ross, Tim Troy, Geoff White, Lolita Wiesner, Ted Williams, and Warren Williamson.

 

Hats off to Don LaBarge for coordinating this successful five-week-long community service project!

Aubrey introduced two additional guests - Stewart, visiting from Brazil, and her own daughter, Brittany.

 

Several people paid happy bucks at the first meeting of the new year.  Matt Rotty enjoyed spending time with his family, and especially enjoyed the enthusiasm for Christmas displayed by his five-year-old son, who really seemed to understand the meaning and joy of the holiday.  John Pennypacker was happy to announce that his daughter had resigned one job and is scheduled to start another in the new year.  Tim Troy announced that his family celebrated their daughter's late December birthday in Lake Havasu City.  Pam Cohen was happy to see several faces we haven't seen for awhile.  She was especially glad to see a server back with the hotel staff who remembered Pam and offered to get her a cup of decaf coffee, remembering how much Pam enjoyed having decaf with her Rotary lunch.  Chris Krueger paid happy and sad dollars as she was soon to leave for Nebraska where she looked forward to seeing all her loved ones, but dreaded experiencing the cold weather.  Chuck Flint paid happy dollars and talked of his new black lab puppy, who has better luck drinking water from a bowl when its front paws are in the bowl.  Dick Myren was glad to be back. He announced that his wife Sandy's recuperation from her back surgery last September has been difficult.  She is still in rehabilitation.  Darl Andersen paid happy bucks to have his long-time associate, Wayne Manning attending as his guest.

 

Announcements:

The program at this meeting was given by two members of Mesa West Rotary sharing information about their businesses.  Tim Troy led the business networking themed meeting telling about his business, TNT Schredding.  They have celebrated their tenth anniversary of being in business.  Greg Okonowski had been after him to join Rotary, but in his prior job in financial services, it was not possible for him to get away for a weekly lunch.  After starting his own business, it became possible.

 

Tim's wife is also self-employed.  She is a therapist and works with special needs kids using hippotherapy (horseback riding) as therapeutic treatment.  They live on a two acre parcel in Mesa, enabling Angie to work from home.  When he started the business, they had one truck.  He really wanted to keep the business small as he had been tired of dealing with employees in his prior job.  Over time, however, it has made sense for the business to make several acquisitions.  As of a year and a half ago, he is up to seven trucks.  He has eight, but plans to sell the oldest truck.  They run 5-6 trucks at a time.  At any given time, he has two or three of the trucks in the shop for service and/or repair.  They strive to have the best pricing, service, and security in the business.  They do service residential customers and are on Angie's List.  In addition to shredding, the also offer document scanning and document storage.  The cost for storage is 40 cents per box per month.  When documents are stored, the are indexed and catalogued, and they can scan on demand or deliver the box to their client.  He enjoys getting out on a truck when he is needed, but his primary function now is sales, particularly up-selling to expand services for existing customers. 

 

The website for Tim's business is https://www.tntshredding.com/

 

Carole Kralicek graciously agreed to fill in as a business networking speaker on short notice when Brian Goetzenberger was unable to attend the January 4 meeting.

 

Carole's first business was a little cafe in her home town in Minnesota at age 17.  She has been widowed three times and has been involved in various businesses over the years.  In 1970, she bought a motel, and through one of her staff learned to use second hand stores to replace dishes broken by the motel guests.  In doing so, she accidentally became an antique expert.

 

Thirty years ago, Carole joined Rotary.  She was working on a Governor's Council for Small Businesses.  She travelled all over the state of Minnesota advising small businesses.  People in Minnesota were hungry for antiques, so she started a businesses and had to expand square footage from original 15,000 square feet to 30,000.  She had space in a Ben Franklin Store in Mandan North Dakota.

 

Carole was a building inspector for twenty-five years.  She had to decide what to do when she retired.  There were a couple of options:  "downsize or death."  Because of her skill acquired in the antique business of knowing what to pay for and charge for items, doing estate sales made sense to her.  She could work when she wanted, and have fun working when she had an estate sale to manage.

One of her most interesting opportunities is a sale that is coming up this month.  Many Rotarians will remember Ben Johnson, an academy award-winning actor who played a Cowboy in many western films.  He is celebrated in Apache Junction with their Ben Johnson Days event each year.  He passed away 20 years ago.  His nephew was his heir and when the nephew died, Carole was asked to do the estate sale.  The estate contains some very valuable pieces of western art.  Carole suggested Rotarians Google "Joe Beeler" to get an idea of what might be in the sale.  The sale will be January 12-13 in his niece’s home in Mesa from 8 am - 2 pm at 717 North 81st Place.  (The addresses for estate sales are typically not published for the general public until a day prior to the sale)  CLICK HERE to see photos and details about the sale on the estatesales.org website.  Following the sale, some of the art will then be taken to the Western Art Show to be held the following weekend at the Mesa Convention Center. 

 

When Carole manages a sale, she charges 30% for the first $10,000 and 10% on the remaining sales.  Carole says "Life is good."  She is healthy.  She said her last sale (her 432nd) was for a couple of ladies who had lost their mother.  She says she has been involved in 22 businesses.  In her advertising, she made things personal, and it has paid off.  She is enjoying life and having fun.