Highlights of December 12 Meeting

President Jim Schmidt opened the meeting asking Ted Williams to offer the invocation and Jeanie Morgan to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.  He announced that Mesa West's newest member, Shelly Romine, had served as our official greeter making Rotarians and guests feel welcome as they arrived for the meeting.  Jim also thanked Jack Rosenberg for helping at the greeter's table,since Aubrey Luma had an excused absence.

 

Jim LeCheminant won the attendance drawing, but had to accept an IOU, since Aubrey was absent and unable to bring the prize money.  Chuck Flint announced that the weekly raffle accumulating winnings was up to $811 which would be won if the holder of the winning ticket would draw the Ace of Clubs from the dwindling deck of cards.  If they would draw a joker, they would win $20 in addition to the small prize, which Chuck announced would be $50 at the December 12 meeting.  The District Governor, David Simmer drew the ticket held by Greg Okonowski, but Greg failed to draw the Ace of Clubs, so the large pot will continue to grow.

 

Don LaBarge proclaimed that the Bell-Ringing season is going well.  He was down to four openings in his schedule and had his list to pass around during the meeting, hoping members would add their name(s) in the open time slots.

 

Pam Cohen announced she was happy to be sitting with six handsome guys at her table.  Assistant Governor Lee Holmes had a shift to ring the Salvation Army bell at Bass Pro for our club from 4-6.  He had mistakenly put it on his calendar for 6-8.  He contributed $5 for the bucket and another $100 to go to Salvation Army.  John Pennypacker announced he would be leaving to spend Christmas in Virginia and unable to attend the December 19 meeting.  Dan Coons announced he wanted a new scooter for Christmas, but found he couldn't wait so he brought it with him to the December 12 meeting.  Polly Cady said they had a good time as bell ringers after the December 5 meeting.  Allan Cady announced he and Polly would be celebrating their 23rd anniversary on December 28.  Darl Andersen contributed to redeem Pam Cohen for lying - declaring he and the other five men at her table were not handsome.  Ted Williams announced that the Williams Field HS football team (on which his grandson played) had won the state championship December 7.  He was also proud of a grandchild in New Mexico who won the state spelling bee and will next compete in El Paso.  Chuck Flint thinks Pam Cohen needs to see an ophthalmologist.  Don LaBarge contributed $10.  He had to take AG Lee's place bell ringing and was fifteen minutes late in doing so.  If he knew he would get such a sincere apology and a $100 donation, he would encourage members to miss more often.  Shawn Slintz was visiting from the Downtown Honolulu Rotary Club (where the 2020 RI International Convention will be held.  He said that 20,000 have already signed up for the convention and reminded everyone that the registration fee will go up on December 15.  Shawn said his father had been a member of Mesa Baseline Rotary Club and he was glad to be attending a meeting with Rotarians who remembered his dad.  Lucinda General paid two $2.50 fines - one for the culinary tour in Cabo San Lucas she and Wayne enjoyed with Allan and Polly Cady.  The second was for the opportunity to inform DG David Simmer that he now has a responsibility until he dies to attend his club's Rotary meeting as a PDG when ever the District Governor makes their official visit at David's home club.  Davis Simmer was happy to be at the Mesa West Rotary meeting.  He was looking forward to his daughter's arrival that evening.  It had been a year-and-a-half since they had seen her.  Jim McGown told about his mother-in-law being asked, during a juror screening process, if she knew anyone involved in the trial.  She said she knew the defendant adding that she had called the police when she witnessed him burglarizing a neighbors home.  Her statement caused everyone to be sent home as the entire jury was tainted by her statement.  Polly Cady paid stating that on their recent get-away, Lucinda had danced at lunch, and they all had fun dancing and jewelry buying.  Wendell Jones was happy to report he and Carolyn would be celebrating their 27th Anniversary in the next week.

 

John Pennypacker introduced Sue Gifford with Child Crisis Arizona.  She was at the meeting to collect a replacement check from John to replace his check previously written but lost at some point after he gave it to Allan and Polly Cady.  Amanda Rosenberg introduced Val, a Rotarian Rainbird from Washington.  Tim Troy introduced Shawn from from Hawaii.

 

 

President Jim thought he should avoid accounting or lawyer jokes with the official visit of the District Governor, but he couldn't resist explaining how Noah was the first to manage assets by floating stock while everything around him went up in liquidation.

 

President Jim and President-Elect Dan Coons had arranged to have a large symbolic check prepared to announce the club's $1,000 donation - in DG David Simmer's name - to The Rotary Foundation End Polio Now campaign.  The donation will be matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

Assistant Governor Lee Holmes introduced District Governor David Simmer as a great friend.  David is a retired financial advisor and has degrees in both law and accounting.  He retired to Sedona in 2010 and joined Rotary.  He is a Paul Harris Fellow, a Paul Harris Society Member, a Major Donor, a member of the Bequest Society and a Legacy Donor to The Rotary Foundation.  

 

DG David presented President Jim with an official theme banner "Rotary Connects the World."  He congratulated Mesa West for being one of the district's outstanding clubs in commitment to The Rotary Foundation.  He presented banners to the club for Every Rotarian Every Year donations to the annual fund for 2018-19.  He presented another for Every Rotarian Every Year donations.  The second recognition, though similar, had no specification as to which fund(s) the donations from club members were to support.  Mesa West was recognized as the #2 club in the district for per capita giving to The Rotary Foundation in 2018-19.  

 

DG David honored two Mesa West Rotarians as Rotary Connects the World Recipients.  He had asked, prior to the meeting, for nominations as to which Rotarian in Mesa West should be honored.  Two nominations were submitted that were so similar that he decided to honor both Pam Cohen and Chuck Flint for the extensive work they have both accomplished over many years in their own club, the district - especially youth programs, and the world with a strong focus in Mexico.

 

Polly Schumacher was honored with having achieved Paul Harris plus two status.  Dan Coons was recognized as a Paul Harris Society donor to The Rotary Foundation.

 

Joan Reimann was recognized as a Paul Harris Society member for having made the commitment to donate $1,000 per year to TRF.  Chuck Flint explained that even though Joan and Erwin are both members, Joan was the one being honored because she was the one who made the commitment.

 

DG David gave the board the choice of deciding which topic they would like to hear about during his official visit to Mesa West.  They chose The Rotary Foundation.  He initially would have been a very unlikely candidate to discuss the Rotary giving arm.  For the first three-and-a-half to four years he was a Rotarian he advocated against giving to the Foundation.  He had joined Rotary so he could make a difference in his local community.  He got very involved int he Imagination Library program in the Sedona community.  He has since transformed from TRF adversary to advocate.  The transformation took place when he attended a District Conference and seriously reading the Rotarian magazine.  With TRF, clubs can choose to work at home and in other communities.  One very influential publication was "A Century of Service - RI."  It goes back to when Paul Harris and three friends formed a networking and sharing organization.  It spread in the United States and abroad.  The individual clubs were fiercely independent.  David commented that Rotay hasn't changed much since those early years.

 

He spoke about Edgar Allan who tragically lost his son in a street-car accident.  To honor his son's memory, he formed the International Association of Crippled Children - which later became "Easter Seals."  Paul Harris was recruited to be the chair of Easter Seals.  Paul and Jean Harris were major donors stipulating the money had to be used to help children with disabilities.  Rotary International made their first donation to another organization - Easter Seals.  In the mid 1970's, Polio was eradicated in the United States.  District 730 in Pennsylvania  wanted to work to prevent disabilities.  They wanted to work to wipe out Polio in Guatemala.  They wanted to work with the World Health Organization, but at that time, they said "No."  It set the effort back by years.  Rotarians did it anyway.  They were successful in eradicating polio in Guatemala.  

 

In the early 1980's, in Evanston, the RI leaders were already looking forward to how they would celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rotary.  They had over 38,000 ideas, but kept coming back to working toward the eradication of polio.  Five years later the World Health Organization got on board.  

 

Last year there were 33 cases.  This year there has been a setback.  There has been a misinformation campaign in Pakistan trying to convince parents that the immunization effort was actually an effort to sterilize their children.  There had been 117  cases reported in 2019 as of December 2.  It is imperative to keep up the work.

 

The Rotary Foundation has six areas of focus - which David originally believed was the definition of "unfocused."  However, after analyzing the six areas, he could see that five of the areas of focus were  building blocks to sustainable peace.  He stated that 1/10 of the world's population do not have access to clean water.  "To he who much is given, much is expected."  He has personally made a commitment to The Rotary Foundation in life and in death.  He joined Rotary to make a difference in his community.  His mistake was his definition of community.  His community is now anyplace his brothers and sisters in Rotary are trying to make our larger community a better place.   

 

In closing, he asked us to share what we have been given.  To learn more about giving through Rotary Direct, CLICK HERE.  To sign up for Rotary Direct, CLICK HERE.