Opening and Welcome - Past President Pam CohenPam asked Ron Thompson to offer the invocation. Polly Cady was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Pam thanked Steve Ross for serving as greeter, and Ed Koeneman for managing the technology allowing those attending via Zoom to participate in the meeting.
Pam apologized for the "green screen."
Pam noted that in addition to Pai Bethea, who regularly attends via Zoom, Exavier King had some guests on-line as well: Chaundrissa Smith, Kama-Charmange Mott, Benjamin King and Patricia Oyeshiku.
Introduction of Guests
- Chuck Flint introduced his long-time friend Reid Douglas, who had travelled from Massachusetts to help celebrate Chuck's 80th birthday.
- Bill Peters, was a visiting Rotarian from the Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club. He was attending with a purpose. He spoke about the partnership between Law Enforcement and Special Olympics. His own club had agreed to help sponsor a conference to prepare for all the various activities associated with Special Olympics by donating $1,000. Bill was hoping that Mesa West would match their pledge. Bill has been with the Mesa PD for 35 years. He says that those working in law enforcement see a lot of things that pull them down. They are "hooked" on the positive things they see in their partnership with Special Olympics. It's not just about the games. Participants of all ages grow in leadership, social skills, self-confidence and overall health. The conference at the San Marcos in Chandler is what he was fundraising for.
- Exavier King introduced his best friend Nolan Saddler and his mother's long-time friend Liz Rothwell who were attending in-person and thanked his entourage who were attending online.
- Machel Considine introduced her husband Tom who was an Eagle Scout Scoutmaster.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck FlintChuck explained the large pot was up to $1,155 and that there were 25 cards remaining in the deck.
He asked Caby Cutlip to draw the winning ticket, the stub of which was held by Ron Thompson.
After shuffling the cards, when Ron attempted to draw the Ace of Clubs, he instead drew the Eight of Clubs. Next week the large pot will be even larger and there will only be 24 cards remaining in the deck.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Andy Bradford
- Ron Thompson was happy to support Special Olympics' funding request.
- Connie Bunyard was happy to report she was looking forward to a trip to California to visit her 91-year-old father. Her daughter and granddaughter would be going with her.
- John Bunyard was unhappy - he does NOT recommend food poisoning!
- Polly Cady was happy to be at the meeting.
- Harry Grossman reported that he lives in a six-story building with about 60 apartments. They were notified Monday that their hot-water system would need to be replaced, and hot water would not be available from 8:00 AM until the job was done. He said he had made arrangements to get a shower elsewhere before the Mesa West Experince on Saturday if the system had not been restored by then.
- Dick Myren made his traditional $2 contribution - happy he and Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs.
- Pam Cohen was unhappy about a flat tire she recently had to deal with.
- Jeanie pledged $100 to Ray Smith's sponsor program team. Ray had called her to try to get a handle on where his team stood. During that conversation, Jeanie learned that Ray is currently lovingly living the "in sickness and in health" part of his marriage vows. Vickie recently tripped in their home and broke both shoulders. They weren't compound fractures, so no surgical repair was needed, but she has both arms in slings and can do virtually nothing for herself.
- Warren Williamson told about a couple of men who were neighbors. Charlie had a little boy named Timmy and Timmy was very fond of his pet rabbit named Fluffy. Joe had a hunting dog named Ruff. One day, Joe looked out his window and saw something in Ruff's mouth that looked to be about the size of Fluffy but was a mess. He went outside and was able to get Ruff to release his treasure. Sadly, it was Fluffy and Fluffy was obviously no longer alive. Joe bathed the little bunny and blew it dry. He snuck over to Charlie's back yard and carefully put fluffy in the rabbit hutch. The next time Joe saw Charlie, he asked him how everything was going. Charlie said, "Timmy found Fluffy dead in the hutch and we helped him grieve over his loss and helped him bury Fluffy. Then it got worse. Some sick person dug Fluffy up, cleaned him up and put him back in the hutch. Our poor little Timmy is having to go through all the grief again."
Announcements
- The Mesa West Experience to be held at Pam's home Saturday May 17 was announced.
- Ed Koeneman announced that following the event at Pam's volunteers were encouraged to caravan over to his house to help sort through four pallets of books which had been purchased to be used for various purposes.
- Our May 22 speaker will be our outbound exchange student from last year - Danielle Hansen
- Members were reminded about Sammy Rosenberg's graduation celebration to be held at Frank and Amanda's home Friday, May 23.
- Connie Bunyard announced the May 29 5th Thursday tour of the Alcor facility in Scottsdale
- Pam Cohen announced the May 30 placard dedication at 6:00 PM in the evening in the Rose Garden at MCC
- RLI will be held in Anthem on Saturday, May 31.
- Jim Schmidt will be installed as District Governor on June 14. To encourage member to register to attend, they were told we would not have a lunch meeting on June 12, and full dues members who register and attend the installation will get a $25 credit on their July 1 dues invoice.
- The Mesa West Rotary "changing of the guard" celebration of 2024-25 and installation of Kayla Mudge as our 2025-26 President will take place Thursday, June 26.
Auction - Bag from Melodie Jackson's most recent travel experiencePam Cohen made an $80 bid to go to the Sponsor Program to honor Chuck Flint's 80th birthday. Nobody topped her bid. She asked Deb Koeneman to open the bag and describe the items found in it, which were placed on a table at the front of the room and those in attendance were encouraged to leave money on the table if they wanted any of the items found in the bag at the end of the meeting.
Program - Exavier King - Scouting Arizona
Polly Cady introduced our speaker - one of our newer members - Exavier King and welcomed his family members who were attending via Zoom and friends who were attending in person.
CLICK HERE or on the image to view the slides Exavier used during his presentation.
Exavier passed around his Eagle Scout project book so those present could see what he did to reach that status in scouting. He is the young man in the middle in the bottom image shown above. He put on his sash - the same one shown in the photo.
In the beginning of his presentation, Exavier showed two screens - one was a photo of the way scouting used to look (all white boys) and another showing a variety of photos showing the way scouting is today - with much more diversity. He strongly feels every child should have the life-changing opportunities he enjoyed through his scouting experience. He talked about the similar impact on scouts to the impact our four-way-test has on Rotarians. The scout law is: "A Scout is: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent."
There are various programs targeting different age groups and purposes.
- Cub Scouts (for grades K-5) dates back to 1930. Since 2018 girls have been included. They have 4 aims
- Leadership
- Character
- Citizenship
- Fitness
- Scouts since 1910 formerly known as "Boy Scouts" is for ages 11-17. They have boys and girls in single-gender troops with the same four aims, but slightly different methods.
- Venturing since 1998 is fully co-ed and is for 14-21 year-olds. They also have the same four aims. One of their seven methods is "high adventure and sports."
- Exploring has been around since 1935. It has been fully co-ed since 1971. It is for sixth grade through age 21. It is jobsite-based career exploration and is designed to help youth explore career opportunities and assist industry with developing a talent pipeline.
- Sea Scouting has been around since 1912. It is co-ed for 14-20-year-olds. Their pillars are
- Seamanship
- Scouting
- Service
- Social
The Grand Canyon Council has served Arizona since 1921. Today there are around 6,000 youth in nearly 270 units. The work of about 3,000 volunteers drive scouting in Arizona. There are 33 paid staff. There are four camps for scouting in the area served by the GCC. The northwest section of GCC includes Las Vegas.
Exavier said that the camping practice of leaving nothing behind is part of who he is today. He can't walk by a piece of trash without picking it up and discarding it appropriately.
It took 21 merit badges to be an Eagle Scout. His parents implored him to be an Eagle Scout. Ace Hardware helped him with his Eagle Scout project. Exavier wants to do right by everyone who helped him along his way.