Open Meeting and Welcoming Remarks - President Pam Cohen
Pam indicated August 11 is National President's Joke Day. She celebrated by sharing, "What does a duck say when it buys lipstick?" It says, "Put it on my bill."
She thanked Colleen Coons for serving as Greeter welcoming members and guests to the meeting.
Invocation and Pledge
- Ray Smith offered the invocation
- Jim Erickson led the Pledge of Allegiance
Introduction of Guests
- Dan Coons introduced visiting Rotarians from Hawaii - Jim and Beth Hoban.
- Crutches 4 Africa Ambassadors Huda Muhammed and Alondra Macias were introduced
- Jaylee Alvin, an outbound Youth Exchange Student sponsored by Mesa West Rotary was introduced.
- Our inbound exchange student from France, Fanny Lienard, was again welcomed to the meeting.
- David Brauchler introduced Polo Santiago, saying Polo lives in the area. He researched us through out website and came to visit. He may want to join.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Ron Thompson
Dr. Ron asked Polo Santiago to draw the winning raffle ticket, which was held by John Benedict. Since the big pot had been won the prior week, the large and small pots were equal at $30 each. After shuffling the cards, the card John drew was not the Ace of Clubs, so he won the small pot. The large pot will keep getting bigger and bigger each week until a lucky ticket holder eventually draws the Ace of Clubs.
Happy Bucks - Dr. Ron Thompson
- Jack Rosenberg pledged $100 toward his Paul Harris giving to celebrate Frank and Amanda's anniversary and his own 68th birthday.
- Jim Erickson donated - he was happy to be seated at a table of pleasant young ladies. He was sad to report that year-to-date there have been nineteen cases of wild polio virus diagnosed worldwide.
- Shelly Romine was sad to have missed the club's visioning session. She had spent the prior two weeks in Idaho enjoying time with her family.
- Beth Hoban was happy to be at the meeting.
- John Pennypacker was happy to have someone fill out his form for him.
- Dick Myren donated his traditional $2 for himself and Rod Daniels - happy they are both part of the Ace of Clubs.
- Colleen Coons contributed. She said she would be soulmates for life with Huda and Alondra after their Crutches for Africa mission, and with Fanny as their Youth Exchange daughter, she and Dan are finally enjoying being parents of girls.
- From Zoom, Allan and PollyCady were happy to announce their Rotary daughter in Mexico will soon be leaving for her year as a Youth Exchange student. While staying on their boat in San Diego, they have made-up two Rotary meetings by attending the Point Loma and La Jolla Rotary Club meetings. Polly said it was wonderful to see so many young people at the meeting. As Membership Chair, Polly was thrilled to see Polo Santiago at the meeting.
- Ed Koeneman was happy to have Alondra and Huda at the meeting. He said they did a great job of leading the Westwood HS Interact Club through COVID, using online meetings effectively. While his wife was out of town, he was happy to have been successful in booking a sci-fi chapel to renew their marriage vows.
- Dave Brauchler was happy two Rotary friends had remembered the Rotary service project this month specifically mentioning that Shelly had brought in her collection of complimentary hotel hygiene supplies.
- Don LaBarge contributed saying odd things happen. He is currently trying to make a decision about whether to work with an author who is writing about a case Don was involved with when he was in law enforcement. The case involved a drug cartel, suicide, kidnapping. Don has two three-ring binders containing information relating to the case.
- Ron Thompson made a $29 pledge before handing wrapping up the Happy Bucks session to celebrate birthdays of his son and his wife Toni's 29th birthday.
Funds needed to support Fanny's Extra-Curricular Activity - Cheerleading!
- Dick Myren reminded members to fill out the Happy Bucks forms to indicate whether they were making a pledge or contributing cash, and indicating the intended use of the funds donated if different than the club operating budget.
- Colleen Coons announced that she had fined President Pam $100 to go to Fanny's cheerleading practice. She said they would be "passing the hat" at the meeitng to raise enough funds to cover the expenses incurred by those who are selected as cheerleaders. The fees are around $1,000 plus each member of the team is encouraged to find at least one sponsor. Colleen urged members to attend practices and games. She auctioned a bag which they brought back from the Special Needs School in Kenya. The bags are environmentally recycled and hand-stitched. Several members had already donated or made commitments. Allan Cady gave his contribution to Dan at the April 4 meeting suggesting members be urged to match his donation. After members have said they would match, then they would be told whether Allan's donation was $50 or $100...
- Bidding for the bag was pretty competitive, but Diane Ware's bid of $120 made her the lucky owner of the bag.
- Pam added that a calendar would be available at our meetings showing Fanny's activities to allow members to find a time and date they can spend time showing her a good time and getting to know her.
Announcements
- Polly Cady announced Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) will be held in Flagstaff on September 24.
- Pam made a sad announcement - for health reasons, Robin Harris has had to drop out of his position as President-Elect.
Program - Crutches 4 Africa Ambassador Mission
Ed Koeneman introduced the program. The Interact District Council encourages clubs throughout the district to gather mobility devices all year so they can be shipped to Kenya to be distributed to people in need by the team of Ambassadors which were selected to represent our district. Dan and Colleen Coons were two of four sponsors. Alondra Macias and Huda Muhammed were two of the Ambassadors selected to go this year.
Colleen provided an overview. Dave Talbot is a Rotarian who contracted polio. He led an active life as a professional photographer. He saw the lack of mobility when in Africa and started Crutches 4 Africa. Those with disabilities were often hidden away.
He started his non-profit organization to combat that stigma and provide mobility and independence. To date 120,000 canes, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs have been distributed. PDG Art Harrington has led the District 5495 Interact effort to enviable heights, encouraging and developing leadership skills in their schools, community and - in our district - participation in a hands-on international project.
Colleen said the Massai people do not have a word in their language fo depression or loneliness. They experience poverty, but no pity or sorrow. Massai people want to provide devices. Colleen has a great respect for the welcoming people they encountered. Her own appreciation has grown. She has running water and no spiders or insects in her shower. It is not so for those people.
Huda talked about their takeaways. Being able to communicate with each other helped them process what was happening. They each received Massai names. Huda's name meant "the one that crosses over."
They were able to see beautiful animals during a tour of the mara. They visited water towers installed with Rotary help that provide water for the community. With the mothers not having to fetch water, the older children could attend school rather than care for younger siblings. Education changes lives.
They learned what it was like to wash clothes by hand.
Alondra discovered that it is a privilege to serve others - something she now wants to do for the rest of her life.
After the Mara, they went to Naivasha where life was more modern. There they made distributions of mobility devices every day. While in Naivasha they visited schools and Interact Clubs and can see how Interact can unite teens from all over the world. It was tough learning that special needs kids are often locked away. They said it was inspiring to see how a community came together to change that.
The level of gratitude they witnessed was amazing. During a last-day activity, a chemistry classroom was available to visit. The improvisation employed to make sure learning could happen with extremely less spent on equipment was impressive.
