Highlights of February 8 Meeting

Opening and Welcome to Meeting - AG Dan Coons
 
 
AG Dan Coons thanked
  • Andy Bradford for leading the Pledge of Allegiance
  • John Pennypacker for offering the invocation
  • Ray Smith for serving as Greeter
  • Dick Myren for handling the raffle
  • Diane Ware for handling check-in
  • Ron Thompson for serving as Sgt at Arms
  • Pam Cohen for serving as Chief Technology Officer
Introduction of Guests
 
 
  • Penny May was introduced as a visiting Rotarian from Alaska
  • John Pennypacker introduced visitors from Oregon:  Tim Mobley (a PDG classmate of John's) and his wife , LeeAnn Mobley who is also a Rotarian.  With Tim and LeAnn were their friend Eric Hodnett and Tim's brother and sister-in-law, Joel and Sue Mobley.
  • Eric Silverberg who has been elected as a new member, but not yet formally inducted, was introduced.
  • Polly Cady introduced Gilbert Rotarian Carla Rowe-Malcolm, and her Youth Exchange daughter from Sweden, Olivia as well as Thilde, inbound Youth Exchange student from Denmark.
  • Andy Bradford was introduced as a newly elected member who has not yet been formally inducted.
  • Carla Rowe-Malcolm said she had recently been going through a lot of old stuff which had been accumulated by her late husband.  She found a Rotary book dating back to 1981-82 where the spouses of Rotarians were listed as "Rotary Annes." 
  • The speaker was acknowledged, but would be introduced later in the meeting.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Dick Myren
 
 
Happy Bucks - Sgt At Arms Ron Thompson
 
  • Ron took time to acknowledge some recently arrived guests - former member Warren Haeussler had arrived with a potential new member, Mike Whang and Sue Patterson.  
  • Don Rauh had also arrived since guests were introduced.  Don was a visiting Rotarian from Turkey.  Don and Ron were both fluent in German and exchanged a few words, after which Ron took Don up front where he exchanged club trading banners with AG Dan.
  • Warren Williamson contributed and shared a story about George, who was on his deathbed.  George's wife, Sara, was lovingly sitting with him.  George said, "Sara, we've been married over 40 years and going together long before we were married.  I can't remember a time when you weren't right at my side."  Sara said:  "You're right.  I was there!"  George said, "Times haven't always been easy.  Remember when I lost my job?"  Sara said, "I was there."  Then, George asked  "Remember when our house burned down and what a time we had fighting with the insurance company and getting it rebuilt?"  Sara said, "I was there,."    George said, "Now, I'm laying here dying."  To which Sara replied, "I'm beginning to think I have bad luck.
  • Ted Williams said his grandson in Flagstaff was #1 in high school wrestling.  His younger sister was also wrestling and is a state champ.
  • Allan Cady was happy to be at the meeting.  He said Jeanie Morgan had commissioned him to go to a 6:45 AM meeting of the Four Peaks Rotary Club in Fountain Hills where he was presented with a $5,000 donation to TRVFA from their club foundation.   He said he and Polly had left home before the sun was up, but had enjoyed a good meeting.
  • Polly Cady also contributed.  She said she had been up since 4:30 AM and actually saw the sun come up.  She said it was a great club meeting.
  • Thilde contributed some happy/sad bucks.  She was happy to have been able to play soccer for her school.  They went all the way to the playoffs, but lost there.
  • Olivia said she would be selling cookies from Sweden at the February 15 meeting - sugar cookies and Love Squares.
  • Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 for he and Rod Daniels being associated with the Ace of Clubs.  He contributed some additional bucks for Kaitlin Clark, a University of Iowa basketball player in the NCWA who has been setting records had recently played a game where she scored an amazing 38 points, but missed her final shot.
  • AG Dan said that he had been in California the prior weekend attending PETS.  He said everyone there seemed to "have drank the Kool-Aid".  He said there were flight issues following PETS and that he and Jim Schmidt were forced to wait from Noon Sunday until 6:00 AM Monday to fly back to Arizona.  He was happy for the quality time he had the opportunity to spend with our DG to be Jim.
  • Harry Short said his grandson was headed to Pinetop with his Scout Troup.  They'd had 3' to 6" snow drifts and they were hoping they could get to their cabins.  His grandson will be a third generation Eagle Scout.
  • John Pennypacker was happy to have so many guests at the meeting.
  • Tom Yuzer was happy he and his wife left the house at 11:00 AM one day and they were back home the following morning and she had a new hip.
  • Warren Haussler wanted to talk about a couple of our members.  Chuck Flint has now been in the hospital six weeks.  Members who have stayed in touch are helping him focus forward.  Pam Cohen has been on call 24/7 to help and has been a real blessing.  Melodie Jackson's husband, Ramdy, passed away February 7.  Warren wants to donate $100 to Melodie's Paul Harris fund in his honor.
  • Penny May said "TGIAF - Thank Goodness It's Almost Friday."  She was glad to be at our meeting.
  • Harry Grossman had been channel surfing and saw snow-blowers which couldn't keep up with the accumulating snow on the platform at the Flagstaff Amtrack Station.
  • Carla Malcolm-Rowe said finding that book referencing "Rotary Annes" and knowing the huge difference in how women are viewed in Rotary today made her even more thankful for the "Women in Rotary" pin she received from John Pennypacker at a recent Mesa West Rotary Club meeting.
  • Pam Cohen said she was going to provide dinner for Melodie and her family that evening, and that Warren had said he would handle food for them on Friday.  Pam was hoping others would step up so their needs would be covered for the next six days.  She said Melodie said she was thankful for their daughters, their amazing family and 41 years with an incredible man.  Pam did report that Chuck is improving and expected to be moved to a Post Acute Care Rehab Center next week.
Announcements
 
 
  • Steve Ross announced that he agreed to chair this year's Sponsor Program.  He said he will be mostly a cheerleader with Allan Cady mentoring him and a lot of help from Janie, Colleen, and Polly.  The Sponsor Program is our primary funding source for our charitable programs.  The campaign starts in late winter and continues for the balance of the Rotary year (June 30).  There will be five teams this year, each led by one of the Trustees of the Mesa West Rotary Foundation.  The team leaders are:  Bob Jensen, Ed Koeneman, John Pennypacker, Ray Smith and Ron Thompson.  Steve said he was proud to have brough Pam Cohen into the club.  The first three speakers were sports programs, so he was kind of surprised Pam stayed.  For a long time, she was the only woman.
  • Jim Schmidt said he attended the Taiwan International Rotary Convention in 1994.  He said there were many Japanese groups there.  When asked how they were handling women in Rotary in Japan, they were told they figured out a way.  They started a new club that was an all-woman club.
  • Shelly Romine said help was still needed for our February service project to provide meal service Friday February 16 at Paz de Cristo.
  • Dan Coons thanked the club for allowing him to be President for two years.
 
Program - Tim Kelley - Center for the Rights of Abused Children
 
Tim shared a couple of fun facts
  • Their family dog has 12,000 Instagram followers
  • He and his wife, Lisa, hosted two young people from foreign countries.  One of them - Julianna from Sao Paulo Brazil stayed with them in 2016.  She kept coming back every year.  Last August she married their oldest son, Daniel.
Eventually, he and Lisa became licensed Foster Parents and have welcomed a number of children into their home.  Many foster children have experienced abuse or neglect.  The goal of the state is to reunite them with their parents or find a permanent home for them.  
 
At one point, he and Lisa were almost to adopt two little girls, and a judge sent them home to their parents.  He said it was a very difficult moment for he and Lisa. as they really feared for their safety.  At that point, they switched from fostering to providing respite for foster parents.
 
At one time, they provided a two week placement of a little girl named Maggie.  They knew here.  The respite started immediately from the time they got the call.  She was having problems in her adopted placement.  She had been in the foster system starting at age 3.  She had eight siblings.  Because they tried to keep the siblings together, they were mostly housed in shelters and group homes.  When she came to them for respite care, she had been bounced from home to home.  Her brother had been taken.  After they said "yes" the adoptive dad brought her with an enormous box and just drove away.  It was weird.  They were pretty sure he would not be coming back.  Maggie was now homeless.  The two weeks became a year.  They became her foster placement and wanted to be the last before permanent placement.  Permanent placement was found.  They are now Maggie's Aunt and Uncle.
 
As a practicing attorney, Tim was appalled at the lack of rights.  He began planning what could be done.  
 
The Center for the Rights of Abused Children provides pro bono (free) service for children in the foster care system.  When a child has their own legal representation, they have to focus on the needs of the child.  They are able to operate with donor and foundation support.  In court, he was told the mom's rights are constitutional but the baby's rights are statutory.  Tim says that is not correct.  Tim believed children are fundamentally protected by the constitution.  
 
He has worked since then to change that .  In Arizona, a bill in the state legislature to protect the rights of children was successful.  Since then, the number of children in the Arizona foster care system has dropped from 14,000 to 9,000.  Some still fall into the cracks.
 
They try to influence similar action in other states, but their pro bono clinic just operates in Arizona.
 
In one situation, they provided representation for a girl who was adopted by her grandparents after her parents denied sexual abuse.  The grandmother claimed the abuse did not occur.  The girl's story was different.  The legal representative became the epitome of hope for the little girl who thanked the attorney for giving her a voice..  The girl wanted to stay with her foster parents.  She was eventually adopted by them.  She was told she could change her name as part of the adoption process.  The girl took the name of her attorney.
 
Another little girl with physical disabilities was in foster care for four years.  Her mom struggled with addiction.  Her biological father was visiting, and domestic violence was added to the mix.  The little girl was regressing.  To help her they needed to cease the supervised visits, terminate parental rights  and find permanency for her.  Some time later, they saw her at a basketball game with a service dog.  The difference in her was apparent.  There was a difference in her eyes.  The change was impressive.
 
Right now, they are trying to raise $25,000 by Valentines Day  Donations qualify for the Qualifying Foster Care Charitable Organizations Tax Credit.
 
He spoke of one foster child who was behind in his high school credits.  He had been in fifty foster placements.  The attorney appointed was gong to try to help him document his credits.  He had a plan.  when he aged out of foster care, he planned to commit a small crime and plead guilty so he could go to prison where he would get three meals a day and be able to get some college credits.  The attorney adopted him and changed that plan.
 
CLICK HERE  to visit their website and learn more