President Kayla Mudge opened the meeting, Jack Rosenberg led the Pledge of Allegiance, and Ted Williams gave a Thought of the Day.
Today’s guests included Bill Peters and Lou Guevara from the Mesa Police Department, Tom Parker and Stephanie Jewel from the Apache Junction Police Department, Sandrine Coniau (a Rotarian from France), our RYE host families, Rory Gilbert, Kelli Millet, Seongjun An and Augustine Tessier, and Harry Short from Seattle. To continue, click on the blue "Read More" to the right below!!
For today’s raffle, the winner of the small pot was Augustine. However, she did not draw the Ace of clubs, so the big pot carries over.
Next, John Bunyard collected Happy Bucks and announcements:
- Harry Grossman was happy that his daughter finished 287th out of 1216 in her age group in the largest cross-country ski event in the USA
- Jack Rosenberg was happy to update that Dick Myren is improving and may be able to come to the lunch meeting next week
- Ted Williams was happy that one of his granddaughters placed 3rd in her weight class in the state of Arizona for wrestling
- Captain John Birks was happy that his wife was returning from a business trip and that additional kids had joined their youth program
- Connie Bunyard was happy to have gone to PELS (President-Elect Learning Seminars), and she announced that the annual Sponsorship Program has started
- Don Boucher was happy that we had law enforcement officers in attendance
- Bill Peters & Tom Parker requested support for the Police Unity Tour bike ride and a poker tournament to raise money so that Apache Junction officers can go to Washington D.C. in May when Officer Gabriel Facio, who lost his life in the line of duty, will be honored by the President
- Brian Harvey was happy that law enforcement officers were in attendance
- Rory Gilbert was happy to be here today
- Harry Short was also happy to be here today
- Augustine was happy that she started track and announced that she and Seongjun were still fundraising for the train trip
- Polly Cady was happy that the exchange students and host families were here
- Allan Cady was happy to donate to the Annual Fund in honor that his second great-grandchild was born
- Erwin Reiman was sad to announce that his grandson died in a bicycle accident
- John Pennypacker was happy for a lot of things
- Ed Koeneman was happy that he would attend the Interact District Conference and that he and Debbie would take Seongjun and Augustine to the Lost Dutchman Days rodeo
- Kayla Mudge was happy to donate in honor of her Mom, Angelia’s birthday (Angelia attended via Zoom today!)
- Warren Williamson was happy to tell his weekly joke
President Kayla made some more announcements:
- Sat Feb 28 - the Traveling Museum will be at Mesa Public Library (Red Mountain branch)
- Sat Mar 7 – CLA at Paradise Valley Community College or by Zoom
- Sat Mar 21 – the club will sponsor 10 Mesa students to attend the Mesa Aspire Leadership Program; volunteers are needed to make/serve meals that day
- May 1-2 is the District Conference, which will be held in Mesa
The speakers today were Seongjun and Augustine, who spoke to the club about their experiences at the RYLA weekend (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). They enjoyed meeting other students, making connections, the team challenges, and creating memories. They learned that real leadership is about taking responsibility and that listening to others helps one to understand different perspectives and helps all to work better as a team.
