Plan to enjoy a "Conversation with the Commander" Thursday, September 17, and our Mesa West Rotary Zoom Meeting.

 

Commander Peters has served with the Mesa Police Department for over 30 years.  He currently oversees the Superstition Patrol District.  He has a very diverse background in police leadership.  He has supervised the Technical Services Division, Traffic Unit, Organized Crime Bureau, Asset Forfeiture Unite, Air Unit, SWAT, K-(, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Police Operations, Forensic Services Section, Support Services Section, Criminal Investigations Division and Communications.  

 

Commander Peters has degrees from all three major Arizona universities, ASU, NAU, and UofA.  He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute for Police, and a member of the International Association of Police Chief's Drug Recognition Expert Subcommittee. 

 

He is a two-time President of the Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club.

Saturday, September 5, President-Elect Bob Zarling and Vocational Service Chair Bryan Goetzenberger utilized Zoom to participate in an online interview with Nicholas Phair.  The interview was to determine if Nicholas would be a worthy candidate to be sponsored by Mesa West Rotary for a grant from The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona (TRVFA).

 

Nicholas plans a career in medicine and has a passion for serving the needs of geriatric patients.  He applied for the grant to study and be certified as Certified Nursing Assistant at East Valley Medical College.  He believes the practical experience he can gain with that certification will enable him to earn and gain practical knowledge while he continues to work toward his eventual goal of becoming a physician's assistant.

 

Following the interview, the sponsorship agreement was submitted and Nicholas began his studies September 14.

Thirteen members of Mesa West Rotary gathered at the Feed My Starving Children Food-Packing Facility Thursday evening August 27.  Before being allowed to stay to work, everyone's temperature was checked and masks, hairnets, and gloves became mandatory apparel.  Secure lockers were available for purses, jewelry and any other personal belongings.

 

Volunteers gathered in a large assembly room and were seated for orientation far enough apart to maintain safe social distancing.  Some startling statistics were shared.  In our world today, one out of nine children will go to bed hungry.  Hunger is the cause of nearly half of the deaths of children under the age of five.  Feed My Starving Children believes hope starts with food.  CLICK HERE to watch a video from their website.

 

After the orientation, the volunteers scrubbed before reporting to their stations.  In the workroom, they found well-organized areas where teams of five could work together to fill bags.  Each bag contained essential vitamins, dehydrated vegetables, soy protein, and rice which were carefully measured by the volunteers and poured into a funnel through which the ingredients would fall into a bag.  The order with which the ingredients were added was very intentional.  The items with the most nutritional content were added first, followed by the protein and the rice was added last.  The volunteer who had held the bag removed it swiftly so the partner on the opposite side of the table could place the next bag under the funnel.  After each bag was removed from the funnel, it was weighed.  If it was too light, rice would be added.  If it was too heavy, rice would be removed.  The bags were then placed in a rack and the fifth volunteer had the job of sealing the plastic bags and organizing them for placement in a box for shipping.  The volunteers doing the sealing would help each other pack the boxes.  The count in each box had to be identical.  Filled boxes were placed on a pallet.

 

Feed My Starving Children staff kept the volunteers stocked with the necessary supplies.  It was rare to wait more than a few seconds for the supply replenishment to happen.  Even so, it nearly always slowed the process as the distraction broke the rhythm of the team.  Adding to the ability to move methodically, was fun music with a strong beat which played throughout evening.  Some Mesa West Rotarians were more skilled than others at getting in some dance moves without missing a beat in their responsibilities.

 

There were other volunteers working with Mesa West at FMSC on the 27th.  Twenty volunteers in total.  At the end of the evening, the group again gathered in the large assembly room to be thanked and to get a summary of what they had accomplished.  Typically, they expect volunteers to average about one box per person during a shift.  This group far exceeded that expectation.  46 boxes were packed.  Enough food to feed twenty-seven children for a year.

 

Way to go Mesa West - this is that People of Action can do!