Highlights of February 23 Meeting

Welcome and Opening of Meeting - President Pam Cohen
 
  • Thought for the day - John Pennypacker
 
  • The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Brian Harvey
  • President Pam thanked the Greeters - Mike and Gina Schroeder - for welcoming members and guests as they arrived.
Introduction of Guests
 
  • Colleen Coons introduced Mike Flores, past President of the Gilbert Club, who moved from there to the Queen Creek Satellite Club, and now may be looking for another club to call his home club.  Mike serves as the District Membership Chair.  He gave a brief Membership pitch about making it easier to grow membership if clubs work on their ability to engage and retain members.
  • John Pennypacker introduced Curt Ward and Steve Faust who were visiting from the Gilbert Rotary Club.  He also introduced Joel and Sue Mobley of the Clackamas Rotary Club in Clackamas, Oregon as well as PDG Tim Mobley (who was a DG Classmate of John's) and our speaker for the day, LeAnn Mobley.
  • President Pam noted that Pai Bethea, Lucinda General, Bob Jensen and Warren Williamson were all attending the meeting via Zoom.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
 
 
Chuck briefly explained that each week 1/3 of the proceeds of raffle ticket sales goes to the club operating fund, 1/3 goes to the holder of the stub of the ticket drawn.  That same individual also wins the opportunity to try to draw the Ace of Clubs from the cards remaining in the deck.  Should they be so lucky, they would also win the accumulating "big pot," which is where the other 1/3 goes.  At the February 23 meeting, the small pot was $40 and the large pot was $120.  Chuck asked visitor Sue Mobley to draw the winning ticket.  The ticket she drew belonged to Allan Cady.
The card Allan drew was the King of Diamonds.
 
Happy Bucks - Ron Thompson
 
  • John Pennypacker contributed $118 to the Mesa West Rotary Foundation to support our sponsor campaign and celebrate the 118th anniversary of the formation of Rotary.  President Pam was ready for this celebration and had some members ready and waiting to serve some sparkling cider and other bubbly for members and guests to enjoy.
  • Allan Cady was very happy.  He and Jeanie Morgan had attended the Four Peaks Rotary Club meeting at 7:00 AM in Fountain Hills where they were presented with a $15,000 check from the Four Peaks Rotary Foundation.
  • Bert Millett contributed $20 to make a plea for help from the Mesa West membership in finding an Administrative Assistant for his office.  If his search is successful and a Mesa West Rotarian is responsible for steering the successful candidate his direction, Bert pledged he would contribute $200 to the sponsor campaign.  CLICK HERE for the details of Bert's ideal Administrative Assistant.  Bert also pledged to attend more regularly once this person is hired and trained.
  • Brian Harvey announced that over COVID he became an American Citizen.  He went on to say that he found Ron Thompson's presentation at the February 16 meeting immensely moving.  In the coaching Brian does, he is very aware that people fear snakes less than they fear public speaking.  Brian pledged $100 to the charity of Ron's choice, which was TRVFA.
  • Joel Mobley contributed $20.  As a Past President of the Clackamas OR club, he was proud to have the opportunity to hear his sister-in-law speak about international grants.
  • Curt Ward contributed - happy to have enjoyed two of his favorite things - macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake.
  • Don LaBarge fined himself for leaving the cold meeting room on February 16 and missing Ron's presentation.  Maybe in five years or so Ron will do it again and Don will stay to hear it.  Don went on to say that a company rep had invited Don to attend a convention in Jamaica.  The last time Don was in Jamaica was in 1966.
  • Dick Myren made his traditional $2 contribution, thankful that he and honorary member Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs.
  • Pam Cohen pledged $100.  On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr Jonas Salk.  Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st century, polio cases were reduced by 99 percent worldwide.  It was in celebration of that event that Pam was wearing her Polio Plus scarf and shoes.
Announcements
  • Don LaBarge is partnering with Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club.  The vision is to help small struggling clubs grow.  Mesa Sunrise only has about five members at most of their meetings, but they do lots of projects.  They are currently collecting items for a shelter.  He asked that we bring stuff.
  • Dave Brauchler pointed out that there were flyers on the tables with the list of items needed which Don just spoke about.  CLICK HERE to download the New Life Shelter Wish List if you were not at the meeting in person or failed to take a flyer when you left.  Dave said if items were brought to our meeting, he would see that they were delivered where they needed to go.  New Life runs an emergency for those who are displaced as a result of domestic violence.
  • President Pam reminded members that Shelly Romine is working on the 50th Anniversary Gala to be held June 29.  All members are on her committee.  At the event, two individuals will be recognized as People of Action.  One Rotarian and one non-Rotarian will be recognized.  Shelly recently sent an invitation to nominate a non-Rotarian to receive the award.  If any member is aware of a volunteer who should be recognized for their efforts, please make sure a nomination form is completed about their work. 
  • Ed Koeneman announced he is working on a pictorial slide show.  He would like members to send photos of themselves taken in 1973, when they were Club President, When they were District Governor, when they were participating in a favorite Rotary Event.  If anyone has photos, but not in digital format, they can give them to Ed in a clearly marked envelope.  He will scan the photos and return them to the member.
  • Ed also reminded members that Spring Olympics will be held at his and Debbie's home April 8.  There will be some new games added.  A planning committee will be held soon.  Possibly one evening next week.
 
Program - LeAnn Mobley - The Rotary Foundation - District and Global Grants
 
John Pennypacker introduced LeAnn Mobley.  LeAnn has over 10 years of extensive experience training club and district leaders on all aspects of The Rotary Foundation, with special emphasis on grant programs. LeAnn has written four global grants and participated in twelve international projects since 2000 (Mexico, Uganda, The Dominican Republic, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand).She has additional experience writing grants for other non-profit organizations that resulted in approximately $1 million in funding since 2013. LeAnn has served in various Zone and District positions, including Assistant Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator, GETS and GNATS faculty, PETS Curriculum Development Team, Grants Sub-committee Chair, and Fund Development Chair.
 
LeAnn has an interesting and challenging background.  She studied micro biology at Oregon State.  She has been in Rotary 25 years.  Her first experience in Rotary service outside the US was with a mobile vision clinic.  She has been involved n projects to address food scarcity.  With her club, she has been involved in implementation of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in her own community.  
 
As a young woman, working in a hospital, LeAnn kept feeling something was missing.  She would hear others in the medical staff come back excitedly talking about their experiences in projects like "Doctors Without Borders," and knew she wanted to be involved in something like that.
 
She joined Rotary in the mid 90's.  Two years later, her husband joined.  In 2000, they had an opportunity to do a mobile vision clinic in Mexico and they jumped at the chance.  They knew a need was there to be met.  There were 12-14 on the team with no clue what they were doing.  The first year, they saw 760 patients.  They are now up to 2,000 patients each year.  At the end of the day the first year, the team was recapping their day.  A waitress handed LeAnn a napkin on which she had drawn the letter "I", a heart, and the Rotary Wheel.  LeAnn still has - and cherishes - the napkin.  That first year started LeAnn on her journey with international Rotary volunteer work.
 
Circumstances have been such that LeAnn has become a resource for writing and implementing disaster relief grants.  February 24 marks the 1st anniversary of the war in Ukraine.  Rotary International responded very quickly with creating a disaster relief fund and received $15,000,000 in donations to support the needs there.  Those funds were spent by December, 2022.  Our Zone (LeAnn is in the same Rotary Zone as we are) has committed $1,000,000 for ongoing work there.  She has made more connections in Ukraine, Poland, and Italy - with lines crossing.  Meeting medical needs has become challenging - not just for war injuries, but for everyday emergency health care needs.
 
 
 
As a result of productive meetings held via Zoom, they have come up some conclusions:
  • Healthcare system is destroyed where people are dying from small untreated injuries and infections.
  • Medical treatment is done in dirty basements without medicaments and qualified doctors.
  • There is no direct help to get in the war zones.
  • No communication to medical care, people must search own help.
  • Water is contaminated, no clean drinking water.
They were able to come up with a prototype of a mobile unit that could be replicated and deployed in multiple locations.
 
 
 
A mobile unit deployed in the northeast corner is seeing 100 patients/day with problems ranging from dental, heart, COPD, diabetes.  85% of the needs can be provided in the mobile units.  One lesson learned.  The slick ramp on the first unit has been replaced with a grated ramp.  With the nature of their soil and their weather, the unit might be in an area where the mud is 3" deep making the slick ramp nearly impossible to negotiate.
 
 
The cost for each unit is $37,000 USD
The total value is $1,125,000
30 Units are needed
Goal is to complete in the first six months of 2023
To date 14 International sponsor districts and clubs have committed
 
GRANT IN A BOX - SEEKING SPONSOR PARTNERS
TEMPLATE - 15 minutes to copy and paste
Host Club will be provided
A Memorandum of Understanding with a regional hospital will be provided
All support documents will be provided
They are pre-vetted - the first one was approved in 15 days
NEED
Identify funding and three contacts
Your Rotary logo (to be placed on the unit)
 
When the war is over, the mobile clinics will become permanent neighborhood clinics.  The stated cost is for a fully stocked unit.  Training will occur to get.  With global grants, communication with the host club can be difficult.  The Rotarians in Ukraine are very capable and motivated.  They are on top of things.  Medical services are currently being provided free of charge.  Many patients have never seen a dentist or doctor.