Because of our Rotary Day at the Ball Park Friday, March 21, our regular meeting Thursday, March 20 has been cancelled.
ASU Edson Entrepreneurship+Innovation Institute and The Mesa West Rotary Club Present the Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge to Support Young Entrepreneurs.
It was recently announced to the public that the Mesa West Rotary Club, in partnership with ASU J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute (Edson E+I), is thrilled to announce the community pitch competition, Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge. This event is designed to empower young local entrepreneurs by providing a platform for them to pitch innovative business ideas that address community needs and drive sustainable impact in the creative technology industries. The Challenge is the culminating event for the 3-month Innovation Series being hosted by Edson E+I at The Studios @ Mesa City Center.
The Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge will feature a panel of esteemed judges, including successful entrepreneurs, investors, government and business leaders, who will offer mentorship, guidance, and funding for promising ventures. This exciting event showcases the spirit of innovation in Mesa and ASU, highlighting ventures that have the potential to transform the local economy and inspire the next generation of business leaders.
"We’re excited to bring the Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge to our community," said Gerald Paulus, President of the Mesa West Rotary Club. "Our Theme This year within our District, is “Rotary Means Business” and this initiative aligns with our commitment to fostering young entrepreneurship, local economic development and supporting innovative thinkers. By giving young entrepreneurs a stage to present their ideas and learn from experienced professionals, we’re helping them turn their visions into reality." Applications will open on January 27, 2025 and close on February 21st 2025. https://entrepreneurship.asu.edu/e_i_events/
The Igniting Innovation Venture Challenge in person event will take place on March 27, 2025 from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm at The Studios @ Mesa City Center. Aspiring entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit their applications by February 21st 2025. Selection criteria include the originality of the business venture and demonstrate that income is already being generated, the feasibility of the business plan, and the potential for growth and community impact.
In addition to the opportunity to pitch their ideas, selected entrepreneurs will benefit from:
- Mentorship: Direct guidance and expert advice from the panel of judges.
- Networking: Access to a network of professionals who can provide valuable connections and resources.
- Exposure: Increased visibility through media coverage and community support.
- Funding: Potential investment from the judges and other investors attending the event.
"We have created a supportive, inclusive environment where young entrepreneurs can thrive," said Kristin Slice, Director of Community Entrepreneurship, Edson E+I. "Our goal is to empower participants with the knowledge, resources, and confidence they need to succeed in today’s competitive business world."
Registration for the event may be found here and applications may also be found there. Community members are encouraged to attend to support local entrepreneurs, and witness firsthand the innovative ideas shaping our community.
For more information about the Venture Challenge, including application details and registration, please visit Edson E+I’s event page. For additional information about the Innovation Series, please visit https://specialevents.asu.edu/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=825684&. For questions, contact Edson E+I at info.studiosmesa@asu.edu
CLICK HERE or on the image to download the event flyer
For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 1-800-
RED CROSS (1-800-733-2757 or visit redcrossblood.org and use sponsor
RED CROSS (1-800-733-2757 or visit redcrossblood.org and use sponsor
code: rotarymesawest.
If you prefer to use a QR code to make your appointment, here you go:
Opening and Welcome - President Jay Paulus
Al Nunez led the Pledge of Allegiance. Dick Myren offered the invocation.
Harry Grossman enthusiastically led everyone in reciting The Four-Way Test.
Introduction of Guests
Melody Jackson introduced her sister-in-law, Carrie Wilkerson. Several members who were attending via Zoom were acknowledged: Lizzy Barron, Pai Bethea, Shawn Buntin, Shelly Romine and Gary Whitehill.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck asked Kayla Mudge to draw the winning raffle ticket, which was held by Eric Silverberg. After delivering the $35 weekly pot to Eric, he let Eric shuffle the cards face down. Eric then attempted to draw the Ace of Clubs, which would have made him the winner of the large, accumulating pot of $855. Sadly (for Eric) the card he drew was the Jack of Spades, which was destroyed. Each week the odds get better the the accumulating pot gets larger. After the accumulating pot is over $500, the raffle is not available to guests. It's not unusual for member attendance to improve when the pot reaches this level.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms - Andy Bradford
- Chad Reid announced that he has been nominated in Toastmasters for their #3 position in Arizona. He said he is the only candidate, which improves his odds of being elected.
- Penny May, our favorite visiting Rotarian from Alaska, contributed saying she was happy for support received when she recently posted about the 3rd anniversary of the loss of her husband, Charlie. She was very happy to be at the meeting.
- Eric Silverberg donated his raffle winnings to the Sponsor Campaign. He was happy Jim Schmidt and the others from Mesa West who were there enjoyed a great President Elect Training Seminar (PETS). He was also happy for the guests at his table who would be speaking later.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 - happy that he and honorary member Rod Daniels were associated with the Ace of Clubs. He added some additional $$ confessing he'd left his Rotary badge in his car. His great grandson in Washington Iowa was in 3rd place in state competition on an archery team that was also in 3rd place in the state. He was soon going to be headed to national competition in Kentucky. The school system was paying his parent's expenses to travel with the team to the competition. Dick asked to be billed $20 for the sponsor program to celebrate his second granddaughter to get married. The wedding was in Willard, Missouri (near Springfield) and her husband prepared all the food.
- Allan Cady was happy they had company from Charlotte. Polly was absent because she was with them. Allan made a pledge of $100 to the Sponsor Program for Polly's team.
- Pam Cohen contributed for her recent missed meetings and also pledged $100 to the Sponsor Campaign. She went on to mention information on the table about the sponsor campaign, saying it was time "to get this party started." The campaign will be in sprint mode between now and the end of the Rotary fiscal year - June 30. She said that, so far, $16,000 has been donated to Mesa West Rotary Foundation this year. Pam said she would use matching points from her Paul Harris recognition account to match donations made between now and the end of March. The five team leaders are: Ed Koeneman, John Pennypacker, Kayla Mudge, Ray Smith, and Chuck Flint.
- Kayla Mudge enjoyed PES. She tended bar at the hospitality suite hosted by District 5495. She confessed the drinks might have been a little heavy.
- Warren Williamson said even though he is an electrical engineer, he is not in love with technology - especially not in love with cyber security and the necessity of creating and recreating passwords. We're advised not to use pet names as they are too easy to hack. In an attempt to make life easier for himself, he named his Chihuahua 43L92&g, but the dog won't come when he calls her.
Auction - Chuck Flint Auctioneer, Melodie Jackson Donor
A bag of items purchased by Melodie Jackson on her recent European vacation was auctioned. Jim Schmidt began the bidding at $25 and the bidding was pretty lively and competitive until Connie Bunyard verified that she could designate her bid to go to her team in the Sponsor Campaign and bid $75. There were a variety of items in the bag, including a beach towel, wooden spoon, sea salt, Cypress Delights, lemon rice, an orange/honey mixture and more.
Announcements
- Jay Paulus announced that those who have signed up to attend Rotary Day at the Park March 21 will be able to pick up their ticket at the will call window on the south side of Sloan Park. He also encouraged those who plan to attend to carpool. There will be no regular meeting March 20.
- March 27 we will have a regular meeting at noon. That evening will be the Ignite Innovation competition. It will be free for those who attend. Members were encouraged to arrive at the Studios at Mesa City Center at 4:30. Because it is an ASU facility, alcohol will not be available.
- Jay announced that several possibilities are being considered for our Rotary Week of Service Project the week of April 14-19. Possibilities are House of Refuge or Midwest Food Bank. More to come in the near future on this subject.
- John Pennypacker announced that he had been looking into an alternative solution to adding a new banner for each new district governor in our club, now that we are up to seven PDG's and two DG's to be. He showed a sample of what it would look like to list several listed on the same pull-up banner. He learned he can purchase two pull-up banners for the cost of one felt banner as we have been displaying. It will make getting the room ready for each meeting much easier, and allow more space to enjoy socializing with one another.
- Members were encouraged to register for the District Conference which will be held May 2-3. Thursday evening May 1, there will be a steamboat cruise on Saguaro Lake to raise funds for The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona.
- Members were reminded of the Blood Drive to take place at the YMCA on April 2.
- Ed reminded members to put the April 5 Spring Olympics on their calendar at the Koeneman hacienda. There might be a new event - the Great Chicken Chase!
- President Jay was happy to have completed what was needed for the etched disk that will be launched to the moon in September: it will include our club photo, our roster of club members, the Rotary Four Way test and a letter from our President to the future - for whoever might one day find the disk as part of a Time Capsule on the moon. Exciting Project...
Opening and Welcome - President Jay Paulus
Colleen Coons led the Pledge of Allegiance and Exavier King offered the invocation.
Introduction of GuestBert Millett introduced visiting Rotarian, Blaise Vitale from the Grantsburg Wisconsin Rotary Club.
Partaking of Rotary KoolAid
Colleen Coons was obviously impressed with the way Jim Schmidt showed his leadership skills at PETS. She said the District 5495 hospitality suite was rated #1 by the attendees. Jim and Rosalyn had made home-made guacamole involving around 100 avacados. She said the District Session Jim ran was amazing!
Jim said that the prior weekend, he had been at the International Assembly in Orlando with 530ish other District Governors-Elect. He was very impressed with the experience of spending that much time with leaders from all over the world who were united by the purpose of doing good in the world. After he got home from that amazing experience, he was off to PETS for more Rotary Kool Aid. He thanked the club for all the support and pledged to donate $100 to Polio Plus.
Jim said District 5495 had quite a presence at PETS. PDG Bret McKeand was the PETS Chair and PDG David Simmer had lined up the speakers. Mesa West is the Ace of Clubs and District
5495 is the District of Choice.
Auctio - Chuck Flint
Our Club President is involved with the Hohokams, so spends a lot of time at Sloan Park during Spring Training. He enjoys shagging balls. He brought one that had resulted in a home run and asked Chuck to auction it at the meeting. The bidding was pretty brisk, but Don LaBarge's $30 bid made him the lucky owner of the unsigned home-run baseball.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck asked Erwin Reimann to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Jim Erickson making him the winner of the $40 small pot.
While he had a little down time, Chuck shared some Forrest Gump wisdom:
- How many T's are there in the days of the week? - Two - Today and Tomorrow
- How many seconds are there in a year? - Twelve - January 2nd, February 2nd...
- What do you call an overweight Psychic? A four chin teller.
- Why can't leopards hide? - Because they are always spotted
After Jim shuffled the cards, he tried to draw the Ace of Clubs which would have resulted in him winning an additioanl $820. He would have been mildly happy if he'd drawn the Joker and won $20 more. The card Jim drew, however, was the Jack of Diamonds, which was destroyed. March 6 the large pot will be even bigger and the odds of winning it just a little bit better.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Andy Bradford
- Frank Rosenberg was happy that his daughter Danielle had made him a grandfather on February 19. He pledged $219 toward his Paul Harris account.
- Colleen Coons was happy to announce some news about Danny White who was a quarterback for the Cowboys, also attended and played for ASU and prior to that, Westwood High School. He will be at the District 5495 District Conference the first weekend in May along with his daughter, Heather Kennedy who is a motivational speaker.
- Brian Harvey wanted to thank the Koenemans for the eggs he had gotten from them, so he pledged $100 to the McKinney Vento program where our club changes lives one person at a time.
- Lucinda General contributed saying that next week, she would be getting off a plane in San Juan Puerto Rico where she plans to scuba dive.
- Connie Bunyard contributed saying that John's mom has been successfully placed in a good home and is happy to be there.
- Harry Grossman said he had talked to his daughter in Minnesota. She had participated in a 21-mile cross-country skiing event and she finished. He said he didn't know where she got her athletic skills.
- Ed Koeneman was happy that Exavier had attended his first Interact meeting.
- John Pennypacker contributed for the privilege of - again - explaining how to effectively use a microphone. It needs to be held high up on the handle - near the mouth piece. And the mouthpiece needs to be almost close enough to touch the speaker's mouth. It's also helpful if the speaker takes time to carefully pronounce the words they are saying slowly enough to be clearly understood.
- Don LaBarge said that since the beginning of the year, he has received several donations for our "Salvation Army" kettle. For us to get credit for our kettle contributions, they need to be received by January 1. The local Salvation Army does get full credit for the additioal donations, but they don't count toward our collecton total.
- Erwin Reiman said that fifty years ago, he participated in the first cross-country skiing event in his area. He said he'd never been so tired in his life.
- Warren Williamson asked what you call a snake that is 3.14 meters long. It is a pithon. He also told about a preacher's sone who wanted to use the family car. His dad told him he hadn't done well in math, didn't know the New Testament very well and hadn't had his hair trimmed in a very long while. The boy brought his math grade up a full point, studied the New Testament and talked about what he was learning frequently. He got up the nerve to ask his dad again about using the family car. His dad complimented him on the progress he'd made, but said his hair was still too long. The boy replied that Moses, Noah and Jesus all had long hair. His dad responded, "Yes, and they walked everywhere they went."
AnnouncementsClub Leadership Academy (CLA) is March 8.
Rotary Day at the Ball Park is March 21
The Ignite Innovation Event is the evening of March 27
The District Conference is May 2-3
Ed spent some time talking about the April 5 Spring Olympics which he and Deb are again happy to host at their home.
Mesa West Rotary Club's volunteer service vests were very visible the evening of November 8 after the Gift of Hearing 2023 volunteers arrived at their destination and were enjoying an evening meal.After returning to Arizona Sunday, Erica Williams expressed appreciation for all the volunteer hours invested in this year's mission. She reported 232 patients were served, again making an impact for the hearing health of the Guaymas community. True to the Rotary Service above Self motto, Rodolfo will continue to travel back a few times during the year for mini clinics to help meet needs until next November. She said they have been training the Mexican doctors on some of the more advanced testing needs as well to bring back to their community.
Erica said they are targeting the same week/weekend for 2024, with more information to follow in the future. CLICK HERE for a link to an article Bob Jensen came across to reflect about why the team does what they do.
If you haven't already seen the reel about the project that was posted on our club's Facebook page, CLICK HERE or on the image to view it.
As most of you know, Arizona has a very unique state tax credit program. If you pay taxes to the state of Arizona, you can specify where your tax dollars go (state taxes only). These instructions are for your reference only. Please consult a tax prep professional with any specific questions about state tax credits.There are many different nonprofit organizations that AZ recognizes as authorized recipients of these tax funds. Mesa West sponsors the Interact Club at Westwood High School, and they are a qualified recipient of these tax credit funds in the Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) category. Here's how you can donate up to $200 as an individual or $400 as a couple filing jointly and deduct that amount from your state tax burden.
Or go straight to 
https://mpsaz.sites.thrillshar
https://mpsaz.sites.thrillsharIf you have children currently enrolled in Mesa Public Schools, you can use your existing login information. Otherwise, it's easy to setup a guest account.
Once you are logged in, select 'Items At All Schools' under the 'Shop/Donate' list on the Home page.
On the next page select 'High Schools', then select 'Westwood High'
Select the link for 'ECA Tax Credit', and then 'Programs G-K' on the following page.
Interact - ECA is under code 8646. Enter a dollar amount in the box, and click the Add button. That dollar amount should then appear in your cart (highlighted in green at the top of the page).
You can then proceed to the Checkout process and pay with a credit card. You will receive a receipt that you can print out and save for when you do your taxes.
Thank you for supporting Westwood Interact and all of our youth programs.
As Rotarians, we are regularly exposed to opportunities to support various causes with our time, talent and treasure. Sometimes it is hard to sift through all the information and decide where we are going to use our available financial resources.
It would be wonderful if every Arizona Rotarian would make the following BIG FOUR their Rotary charities of choice and support every one of them every year, we could make a bigger difference than we are making today.
The Rotary Foundation (TRF) Annual Fund - The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world." Giving a small amount each month adds up. CLICK HERE to download a form you can use to sign up for Rotary Direct, electing "Annual Fund - Share" for your recurring donation. - The Rotary Foundation (TRF) Polio Plus - Rotary's commitment to eradicate polio is so well known and respected that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation matches donations $2 for $1. To take advantage of this opportunity to multiply the effect of your giving, CLICK HERE and download a second Rotary Direct form, this time electing electing "Polio Eradication" for your recurring donations. Those who donate $100 or more annually to Polio Plus qualify in District 5495 as Polio Plus Society Members. If you would like to make that commitment, CLICK HERE to download the commitment form.
The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona (TRVFA) provides vocational education grants to Arizona Residents who meet specific low-income guidelines. The grants enable the recipients to lift themselves out of poverty, benefitting themselves, their families and the economy of our state. TRVFA is a 501(c)(3) charity. They also are a Qualifying Charitable Organization for Arizona Tax Credit Donations. Their QCO Code is 20698. Many Arizona Rotarians say giving to TRVFA is a "no brainer." If you can help someone lift themselves out of poverty and it won't end up costing you anything why would you not do it? Mesa West Rotary has the highest number of members who have signed up for automated monthly recurring donations by electing that option on the "Donate Now" button on the TRVFA website. Click the image to learn more or CLICK HERE to DONATE NOW. 
Mesa West Rotary Foundation, Inc. is the funding and fundraising arm of our own Mesa West Rotary Club. It is a 501(c)(3) charity. We have had successful sponsorship campaigns the last few years enabling us to spend our energy on service rather than on holding fundraising events. Charitable grants that we get involved with are funded through our charitable foundation, Our signature Gift of Hearing Project in Guaymas Mexico is funded through this foundation. Scholarships are awarded annually to Westwood High School Students (the high school where Mesa West Rotary sponsors an Interact Club). Funds are used to support a variety of activities in four of the Rotary Avenues of Service:- Community Service
- International Service
- Vocational Service
- Youth Service
The process isn't quite automated at this point in time, but we hope it soon will be. For now, you can email our executive secretary who can help you work out a recurring donation plan should you wish to make that arrangement to support our own club's charitable activity.
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Welcome to our Rotary Club of Mesa West!
Executive Secretary/Director
President
President Elect
Secretary
Treasurer
Director '26
Director '26
Director '25
Director '25
Director '25
Membership Chair
Rotary Foundation Chair
Club Service Chair
Community Service Chair
Fundraising Chair
Public Image Chair
Sergeant-at-Arms
Vocational Service Chair
Youth Services Chair
Executive Secretary
Mesa West Foundation President
Mesa West Foundation Vice Pres.
Mesa West Foundation Secretary
Mesa West Foundation Treasurer
Mesa West Foundation Trustee
Mesa West Foundation Trustee
Mesa West Foundation Trustee
Mesa West Foundation Trustee
Mesa West Foundation Trustee
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Mesa West Blood Drive at Ross Farnsworth YMCA
Ross Farnsworth EV YMCAApr. 02, 2025
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. -
Mesa West Rotary Board Meeting
Via ZoomApr. 15, 2025 5:30 p.m.
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Rotary District 5495 Conference of Clubs
Fountain HillsMay 01, 2025 5:00 p.m. –
May 04, 2025 1:00 p.m.
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Transforming Communities, Creating Opportunities, Impacting Youth
Doubletree, 1011 W Holmes
Mesa, AZ 85210
United States of America