Opening and Welcome - President-Elect Kayla Mudge
Kayla reminded members that the current Rotary International theme is "The Magic of Rotary." Our District Governor has a personal theme of "Rotary Means Business."
The Rotary International Vision Statement is: "Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves."
Mesa West Rotary Club's motto is, "Transforming Communities, Creating Opportunities, and Impacting Youth.
President Jay had provided Kayla with a thought for the day to share at the meeting:
"There was a farmer who grew an excellent quality of wheat, and every season he won the award for the best wheat grown in his county. One year a reporter from the local newspaper interviewed the farmer and learned that each spring the farmer did something extraordinary. He shared his seed with his neighbors so that they too could plant it in their fields.
"How can you afford to share your best wheat seed with your neighbors when they are entering their crops in the competition with yours?” the reporter asked.
“Why that’s very simple,” the farmer explained. “The wind picks up pollen from the developing wheat and carries it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior wheat, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of all the wheat, including mine. If I am to grow good wheat, I must help my neighbors grow good wheat.”
A conclusion to be drawn from this story is: "The welfare of each of us is bound up with the welfare of all."
- Chuck Flint led the Pledge of Allegiance
- Dick Myren offered the invocation.
Kayla thanked everyone who helped get the meeting underway after she arrived at what seemed to her like the last minute with her "hair on fire."
Introduction of Guests
- Connie Bunyard introduced her guest, Denise Siemen.
- Polly Cady introduced Braly who will be starting at Benedictine Monday. There is a Rotaract Club there which Braly will be joining.
- John Pennypacker introduced his guests,
- Colleen Knight - Past President in 2011-12 of the Cordelia Rotary Club
- PDG Dave Dacus - District 5160 2011-12. At that time, he resided in Fairfield, California.
- Tara Dacus - Past President of the Fairfield Suisun Rotary Club in 2014-15. (both Dave and Tara are currently members of the Gilbert Rotary Club)
- Attending via Zoom were Pai Bethea, Jeanie Morgan and Shelly Romine.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
After explaining the raffle for the benefit of the guests, Chuck asked Ted Williams to draw the winning raffle ticket. The ticket he drew belonged to Tim Troy, making Tim the immediate winner of $40. Tim shuffled the cards face-down before attempting to draw the Ace of Clubs, which would net an additional $95 in winnings, if drawn. Unfortunately (for Tim) the card he drew was the Four of Hearts.
Happy Bucks - Andy Bradford
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 - happy that he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are affililated with the Ace of Clubs. He fined himself an additional $3 because his cell phone had rung, disturbing the August 15 club meeting.
- Pam Cohen was happy to see Wayne and Lucinda General and Braly at the meeting. She said she was really glad to see Tim Troy who can rarely attend and reminded him "It pays to come to Rotary."
- John Pennypacker contributed. thankful for his three new friends. Part of his contribution was sad bucks remembering his recently deceased Rotary friend, Candy Pierce.
- Jim Erickson contributed. He had been on a Zone Polio Plus call. So far in 2024, there have been 27 cases of wild poliovirus diagnosed. Fourteen in Pakistan and 13 in Afghanistan. The numbers will get worse as the year progresses. It's a solemn reminder that the end of the battle to eradicate polio for good is far from over.
- Ron Thompson contributed saying he was headed to Cordelia the following weekend. His sister lives there. He was glad to see someone from there at the meeting.
- Polly Cady was happy to see Tim, Lucinda and Wayne that the other guests at the meeting.
- Tim Troy was happy to be at the meeting and to have won the pot.
- Mike Lutcher contributed. He was thankful that he would soon be departing for a much-needed vacation before the busy Christmas season hits. They will travel as far as Crater Lake in Oregon and spend another week in Flagstaff RVing.
- Harry Grossman contributed sad bucks saying the Cardinals have yet to win a pre-season game. They have one more chance to do so in Denver - then the "real deal" starts.
- Lucinda General contributed sharing some happy memories from District 5160. She had the opportunity in 05-06 to be a President's Rep at a District Conference. She was assigned to go to District 5160. The time was one week before Zone Institute. District 5160 took she and Wayne in and enveloped them in everything they did. She will always have special feelings for District 5160. They have a huge reputation which is well deserved across the zone. She also was sad about the loss of PDG Candy Pierce.
- Connie Bunyard was thankful that her friend came with her to the meeting. She was also thankful Deb Koeneman spent time with her providing some insights.
- Ed Koeneman said the first Interact meeting at Westwood High School was held August 21. He attended their meeting viz Zoom and said it was a good experience. He reminded members that the Rotary Magazine he collects from members are used by the Interact club. One use is to create an informative bulletin board in the hallway at school. They also use them for recruitment. He asked members to go through their drawers and closets looking for "ratty old t-shirts" to donate. The Interact members will use them to create dog toys again. Ed said he was a day shy of three weeks since his knee surgery, he is down to "one stick." and all is "going well."
- Jim Schmidt was thankful for all the club's PDG's saying they are "all wonderful." He contributed $5 because Braly is planning to major in Accounting at Benedictine.
- Chuck Flint was happy to announce he would be spending four nights in Alpine with some retired friends, and added that his dog would enjoy hanging out with their dog.
- Warren Williamson told a story about a man in a bar who seemed stressed out. The bartender said "You look like you're kind of sad." The patron responded that his wife was leaving, adding that she things everything he does is something to do with football. He bartender then asked, "How long have you been married.? The patron responded "For fifteen Superbowl games."
Paul Harris Fellow Recognition -- Foundation Chair John Pennypacker
John invited Tim Troy to come forward to receive his Paul Harris Fellow Plus 3 recognition pin. For each $1,000 in donations or (transferred recognition points) to The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund or Polio Plus, members receive a recognition pin. The pin received by Tim represents a total of $4,000 in generous support of the good Rotary does in the world through The Rotary Foundation.
Tim was thankful to be a part of Mesa West. He keeps trying to find a way to arrange his schedule so he can attend more often, but it never seems to happen.
Ray Smith wanted members to know about another way that Tim is generous. Each year when the volunteers head to Guaymas for the hearing project, Tim allows them to meet at his property and leave their cars safely parked there, making coordination of departure and return of the volunteers much simpler.
Club Banner Exchange
President-Elect Kayla exchanged club banners with visiting Rotarian Colleen Knight from the Rotary Club of Cordelia California.
Announcements- Shelly Romine reminded members of
- August 27 Blood Drive at the Ross Farnsworth YMCA. She said 16 of 25 slots have been filled, and said we need to fill the rest.
- Day of Service (actually three days) September 7, 11, and 14 from 7:30 to 11:00. There will be a variety of activities refreshing and upgrading the Rose Garden at MCC
- September 28 - Sleep in Heavenly Peace will honor Mesa West Rotary Club on their Wall of Dreams. There will also be a bed build going on that day that members can participate in as well. A signup sheet will be forthcoming.
- Polly Cady added that Rotary Leadership Institute will also be held Saturday, September 28. All three sessions will be offered at Thunderbird School of Global Management, where our member, Lizzy Barron is the person Polly works with to arrange the use of their facility. RLI is a great time to refresh and learn what is going on in Rotary. Deb Koeneman and Andy Bradford will be attending Session II that day. Mesa West Rotary will reimburse the registration fee for members who register and attend. As membership chair, she is glad that Mesa West makes it easy for younger members with busy work schedules to be members of our club.
- Kayla reminded members that the 29th will be a 5th Wednesday, so no in-person meeting will be held at the Doubletree. Instead, members will have the opportunity to tour the Arizona Museum of Natural History.
- Saturday, October 5, a social, orientation "Soup to Nuts" event will be held for the benefit of our newer members.
- October 10 - There will be an open house at the Public Library to introduce the virtual reality headsets purchased with our Meta Grant.
- Colleen Coons received word that Mesa West Rotary Club had qualified for the Rotary Citation for the 2023-24 fiscal year. The message she received went on to say, "The Rotary Citation, is the most significant award a Rotary club can achieve, for 2023-24. This past year, your club demonstrated a commitment to achieve its goals, which ultimately helps strengthen Rotary and shape our future.
Program - Know Your Fellow Rotarian - Dick Myren
Program Chair, Eric Silverberg briefly introduced Dick Myren indicating Dick would tell his own story.
Dick began by saying he has been in Rotary for fifty-four years. At age 88, he said he doesn't have a command of computer technology, so had no slide show to show during his presentation. He said he was born March 12, 1936 in Sioux City Iowa. Shortly thereafter he weighed only four pounds - his mother's milk was poisoning him. After they figured out the problem he recovered and began to thrive. He went through the fifth grade in Sioux City. During his early years in school, the youngest children had "nap time." One afternoon, during naptime, he proposed to the girl next to him. Shortly thereafter, she went to his home and asked his mother when he was going to give her a ring.
During WWII, they had a large garden in a field next to their home where they raised potatoes, tomatoes, and sweet corn. They had a walnut tree in their front yard. They would clean the walnuts in their basement. They had two coal bins. They did not have plastic gloves back then. Dick's hands would be stained black from cleaning the husks off the walnuts..
Dick's grandfather got him a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. Dick took it out to show his friends. They decided to play catch with it. The ball went down a storm drain and was lost forever. The kids in the neighborhood would play hide and seek nearly every evening in the summertime. They had to be in by 9:00 p.m. When he was eight, his parents would leave him home to care for his 3-year-old brother while they played cards with neighbors. One night, they heard a strange noise in the basement. They were both frightened and huddled in a chair til their parents came home. It turned out their father had bought a live chicken which he put under a metal tub in the basement and was planning to kill it the next day to have for Sunday dinner. As a boy, Dick made model airplanes from scratch and also built a crystal radio that worked!
For 5th and 6th grade, Dick's family had moved to Dewitt Iowa in the eastern part of the state. They would go to a creek outside of town to swim in the summer. Once Dick and his friend took Dick's little brother with him. As they were crossing a field, some cows in the field started to chase them. When they got to the fence, the little one couldn't climb over so the friend took one am and Dick took the other and threw him over the fence before they climbed over. They went home on the highway side of the fence that day.
In 7th grade, the family had moved to Maquoketa. He played baseball, basketball and football. He played center at 135#. He sang in the chorus, in quartets and soloed.
In 1954, Dick started college at Iowa State College in Ames. He spent one year in Navy ROTC, took a summer cruise to Scotland, Denmark and Cuba. When he started, he intended to be an Architect. He ran into calculus which ended his ROTC and Iowa State Career. He took an aptitude test which showed accounting to be a srong point. Since Iowa State did not have a good business curriculum at the time, he transferred to University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Dick married his high school sweetheart in 1959. He went to McGladrey, Hansen and Dunn CPA's and applied for a part time job as he only had a few credits to go to finish his degree. At that time, they had only 8 offices. He was their first intern! He believes it is now one of the top ten CPA firms in the nation.
They bought their first home in 1962 for $16,000. He purchased his first new car - a 1963 Chevy convertible for $2,800.
In 1967, Dick was working for Highway Equipment Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They had their first child. The company went through a strike where one employee set one of the buildings on fire! He made the mistake of having his girl friend with him and his wife turned him in.
In 1970, Dick interviewed for job with McCleery Cumming Co., an advertising calendar manufacturer in Washington, Iowa. They asked for his wife to come with him for the interview. He got the job as Treasurer. At the time , they were the largest manufacturer of religious calendars in the US. They also published the Playboy calendar. When they had school tours, the Playboy pallets were covered with tarps. At that firm, they excelled at valuing their people. The management team regularly visited the factory to let employees know how much they were appreciated. Their average employee tenure was 14.5 years. In 1992, they were bought out by an English firm. That firm had a plant in Indiana where their average employee tenure was 4.5 years. In 1993, Dick was let go.
During Dick's time with McCleery Cumming. Dick got involved in theatre. He played Captain Von Trap in Sound of Music. The owner of the company was very interested in theatre and challenged the city to raise money to build a theatre. He matched 100%. It was successful and the theatre opened with Of Thee I Sing in which Dick had the lead male roll of candidate for President.
Dick's first marriage ended in 1990. Dick and Sandy had married in 1991. They had travelled to Arizona for their vacations. After being let go in 1993, Dick was ready to relocate to Arizona and Sandy was ready to leave Iowa too. They put their house of for sale and left for a vacation in Arizona. Their home in Iowa sold in one week. They found a home in Sun Lakes and have lived there ever since. He knows his neighbors and feels "settled in." Their blended family now includes five children, 15 grandchildren and - as of 2023, six great grandchildren.
Dick had always enjoyed playing golf. He was a board member for the US Golfing Fellowship of Rotary that was founded in 1991. He has played in tournaments in North Carolina, Main, Illinois, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Florida, Missouri and California. In September, 2001, he organized the annual tournament in Prescott AZ. They were there on September 11 - one of the darkest days in US history. Players were there from all over the US. Getting them home the following weekend was a chore. One of the Rotary members in Prescott was a Travel Agent so she helped everyone.
Both Sandy and Dick felt God was guiding them in their move to Arizona. They have never regretted it. They joined Chandler Christian Church where they attended the first Sunday after driving to Arizona. They have gone there ever since. Sandy worked in their office from 1998 until 2013 when she retired.
The first year in Arizona, Dick played golf almost every day. He realized he missed working with people and a fellow Rotarian in Sun Lakes asked if he would be interested in working for him preparing taxes. He did that, and since then worked for different companies until starting with Dean Johnson in 2013. He worked for him until 2021 when - after 61 years - he felt it was time to retire.
The sales manager at McCleery invited Dick to join Rotary in 1970. He served in several capacities with that club and was President in 1975. After moving to Arizona, Dick joined the Sun Lakes Rotary Club. He served in various positions there and was President in 2005. As an active volunteer with RYLA, Dick became well acquainted with several Mesa West Rotary members. Because he was working in Tempe, he decided to transfer to Mesa West. He has served Mesa West as Director, Treasurer and Executive Secretary. As many members have said, this club truly exemplifies the meaning of Rotary in every way.
Dick thanked the members for their time and Kayla thanked Dick for sharing his story.