Welcome and Opening of Meeting - President Jay Paulus
Jay reminded members and informed guests of the Rotary International Theme for the year - The Magic of Rotary.
He recited the Rotary Vision Statement
TOGETHER, we see a world
where PEOPLE unite and take action
to CREATE lasting CHANGE
across the globe, in our communities
and in ourselves.
He also recited Mesa West Rotary Club's vision of
Transforming Communities, Creating Opportunities, and Impacting Youth
Dick Myren offered the invocation and Steve Ross led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introduction of Guests
- Visiting Rotarian Wayne Barefoot from Easton Pennsylvania Rotary Club was welcomed.
- Exavier King was introduced as a potential new member. He is with the Boy Scouts of America.
- Assistant Governor Dan Coons was welcomed.
- Bert Millett introduced his guest - his daughter, Sage.
- Colleen Coons introduced Amber Johnson who is a student at Rio Salado Community College. Amber hopes to start a community-based Rotaract Club in the area.
- Councilwoman Jenn Duff and her assistant Priscilla Gutierrez were introduced.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck explained that the small weekly pot is $35, and the large pot is up to $400. He asked Bert Millett to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Melodie Jackson. After shuffling the cards face-down, the card Melodie drew when attempting to draw the Ace of Clubs was the three of clubs instead.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Andy Bradford
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2, happy he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs. He contributed an additional $1 saying he had finished another session of Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) on Saturday, November 16. He now has two down and one to go to graduate.
- Harry Grossman contributed. He said that, since the Cardinals had not played the prior weekend and he had not been able to attend the November 14 meeting at Longbow Golf Club, he was wearing his red shoes to celebrate their win the prior week.
- Ed Koeneman was happy Amber wants to start a new community-based Rotaract Club. He was also happy there were only 547 days left until the release of the next Star Wars movie.
- Wayne Barefoot announced his wife was still back in Easton, PA. His snoring had been keeping her awake and she suggested they might need separate rooms. He had not understood they would be in separate states.
- Allan Cady pledged $10. He was very proud of the successful Rotary Leadership Institute his Polly and her team had conducted on the 16th in Fountain Hills.
- AG Dan Coons remembered when he was Club President of Mesa West, Colleen would make a Happy $ announcement asking that it be charged to the Club President. Dan said to invoice the Immediate Past President for $10 because he was happy to be at our meeting.
- Melodie Jackson contributed her winnings - $35. She was happy for the RLI session she attended. She learned some new things about Rotary and met some very nice people. She also announced she would be passing the McKinney Vento Students' holiday wish list around hoping members would commit to providing some of the wished-for items. She also hopes the mentors of the students will share stories about their experience. Melodie shared a bit about Isabella. She is charming, tall, pretty, and well-spoken. She is the youngest of eight siblings. She is a good student and plays in sports. She is very appreciative of our wonderful program for homeless unaccompanied seniors in high school.
- Liz Paulus was thankful for all the youth from Interact and Rotaract who helped with the College Bound Veterans Day Parade activities. She was also extremely thankful for the donation from Mesa West Rotary Foundation that was presented at the College Bound AZ Luau for Love fundraising event November 15. The auctioneer leveraged our donation to cover an additional fifteen laptops for College Bound students.
- Colleen Coons was happy to announce their son Ryan is engaged. She was also happy that the Rotaract recruitment event at her house was amazing. She also celebrated the trip she and Dan had recently taken to Chicago where thy had an amazing time. She said she had the best pizza and hot dogs ever!
- Jim McGown announced he had brought Don LaBarge's bell-ringing schedule notebook and would be passing it around to try to get more two-hour shifts covered.
- Gabby Duran pledged $10 saying she was happy to be a member and wants to jump in where needed.
- Jay Paulus was happy to have participated in the hearing project in Guaymas.
- Warren Williamson shared a story about Kayla. When she was first out of law school and working for a big law firm. When she arrived late one day, a senior partner asked her to come to his office and he asked her why she was late. She replied that a young man had been following her. The partner asked her how that made her late and she responded it was "because he was walking really slow."
- Ron Thompson contributed fining himself for being late.
Mesa West Rotarian of the Month for November Honored
President Jay asked Shelly Romine to come forward where he presented her with some Texas Road House gift cards and a certificate highlighting her service as our club's Community Service Chair. Shelly does a great job of finding projects for members to support that promote goodwill and better understanding while enhancing a sense of community and comradery.
Foundation Chair - John Pennypacker
John mentioned that it appears Mesa West is on track to make their fundraising goals for the Annual Fund of The Rotary Foundation as well as for Polio Plus. He said that some members have not given to either for a few years, and held up a document that was available on all the tables telling how members could look up their own contribution history. He also said he would be happy to help anyone who asked for his assistance in setting up an automatic monthly donation through their "My Rotary" account on the Rotary International website.2024 Guaymas Hearing Project - Lizzy Barron
CLICK HERE to see the slides Lizzy shared while she spoke briefly about her recent experience participating for her first time as a volunteer on our club's annual Guaymas Hearing Project. She shared a little about herself. She first joined Rotary in 2014 when she joined the Santa Clara club while living in California. She still went back to help that club after relocating to Arizona. One thing that attracted Lizzy to Mesa West was our hearing project. Guaymas is her mother's home town. They had a summer home there. One of the photos she showed was an area near Guaymas where she has hiked. The Rotary sign about our program displayed at the school where the clinic is held translates to "Help me Listen." Lizzy works in higher education. Her daughter, who she calls her spawn, was unabled to go with Lizzy this year.
She said there were 34 volunteers from Mesa and Tucson who rode a bus twelve hours each way to help with the clinic. This year, 278 patients were seen. 98 were children and 180 were adults. 224 earmolds were made and 119 hearing aids were delivered.
We do leave a legacy. Lizzy told about seeing one of the volunteers from the Guaymas Rotary Club who had tears after understanding that a child who was helped had heard a bird for the first time. She met a 25-year-old who has been at the clinic every year since she was a young child. She had a childhood illness affecting her hearing. It was so severe, she only had an 11% chance of surviving. She now has a college degree and helps at the clinic as a translator.
A hidden benefit to our club is the legacy for future Rotarians like Sammy Rosenberg who made the trip for the first time with Frank this year. Although Lizzy's own daughter didn't get to go, the passion she observes in her mother's Rotary efforts. It's easy to write checks to do good. It's not so easy to give time, but the real-life experience improves family ties and real communication enabling us to recruit next-gen Rotarians. Then, there are those common experiences to share, like a hotel room with no hot water!
President Jay added that the Magic of Rotary may rub off on the Guaymas/Mesa sister cities relationship. He believes the school might benefit from that relationship through our hearing program.
Dick Myren Promotes Rotary Leadership Institute
Dick reported Mesa West is very active in RLI. Nineteen of our members are either graduates or in process of taking RLI courses. He shared that he has been an active member of Rotary since 1970, but has been amazed at what he didn't know about the larger world of our great organization.
Dick suggested that not only new members should attend, but long-time members like himself, will gain a lot from participating.
Announcements
- There will be no in-person meeting November 28 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
- Officers and directors for our club for the 2025-57 year will be elected December 12 at our Annual Meeting.
- January 31 is the 5th Thursday in January. Instead of meeting at the Doubletree, we will visit the Mesa Historical Museum.
- Mark your calendars for January 11 when our annual post-holiday celebration will be held.
- We will not meet at the Doubletree December 26 or January 2. ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY!
Program - Council Member Jenn Duff - The Transformation of Downtown Mesa
President Jay introduced Council Member Jenn Duff, who has a very impressive resume which can be viewed here: https://www.mesaaz.gov/Government/Mayor-City-Council/Councilmember-Jenn-Duff. CLICK HERE to view the slides shared during her presentation.
Councilwoman Duff represents District 4 - Downtown Mesa. Mayor Giles is terming out. She said it has been an honor to work with him.
The studios is the old library. It is now an open space where the community can come together. Through the center, collaboration, idea generation, new or growing businesses can get stimulation and ability to follow their dreams. They can learn about what licenses are needed, what resources they will require. It's not just to attract, but to expand existing and build new businesses.
Residence on Main will have 198 housing units. She shared many details about various projects. She told about one called Neon Garden where someone utilized the "boneyard" of neon signs to created a meeting location that will be opening in the spring.
There is a restaurant incubator program at 111 W Main Street that is like a restaurant boot camp where ideas can be explored with lower initial investment.
She spoke about a facade improvement project that would get rid of the long red canopy that covered up some of the original architecture and actually made it difficult for individual businesses to stand out.
She said the council had recently heard a presentation on the redevelopment of the Fiesta Mall property. It is not yet approved, but good to know some plans are progressing.