Opening of Meeting and Welcome from President Colleen Coons
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- Shelly Romine shared the thought for the day: In a world where many are lonely, we give thanks for friendship and community. In a world where many are despairing, we give thanks for hope. In a world that many find meaningless we give thanks for faith. In a world where many are hungry, we give thanks for this food. In a world full of needs, we give thanks for Rotary and the opportunity to serve.
- John Pennypacker led the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Colleen expressed appreciation for
- Steve Ross who served as greeter
- Dick Myren and Jack Rosenberg who checked members and guests in as they arrived for the meeting
- Chief technology officer - Ed Koeneman
- Colleen welcomed members attending via Zoom: Pai Bethea, Melodie Jackson, and Deb Koeneman
Introduction of Guests
- Visiting Rotarian Dayna Guskte was introduced. She has been a member of Tempe Downtown Rotary Club for about twelve years. She is now working at the Sprouts market near our meeting place.
- Machelle Considine took time to apologize for her recent absences, saying she'd been on her best behavior about 98.7% of the time before introducing the exchange students who were seated with her. Thilde is from Denmark. Her class schedule is very rigorous at the arts prep school she attends making her ability to attend our club meetings very rare. Olivia is from Sweden and attends Mesquite High School in Gilbert. Members are encouraged to invite the girls to participate in their fun family activities.
- Tim Troy was welcomed to the meeting. He has had work scheduling challenges for months preventing his attendance.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint
Chuck explained that the daily small pot was $40, and the large, accumulating pot was up to $1,210. He asked Polo Santiago to draw the winning ticket. President Colleen was very excited because Polo drew her ticket number, making her the winner of the small pot and the opportunity to draw a card from the dwindling deck. If she were to draw the joker, she would win an additional $20. If she should draw the Ace of Clubs, she would be the winner of the large pot. Sadly (for Colleen) the card she drew from the deck was the Jack of Hearts.
Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Ron Thompson
- Ed Koeneman contributed $13 celebrating his 13-year anniversary of being a Mesa West Rotarian. He also celebrated the fact that Thilde and Olivia had the opportunity to attend a homecoming game and go to a homecoming dance. Ed also contributed celebrating their fun trip to see their son's graduation from his Army basic training. Ed was also happy to see Tim - it's been a while!
- Dayna Guskte thanked the club for letting her be a guest. She also celebrated her father's retirement from Honeywell after a 47-year career.
- John Penneypacker was happy to be at the meeting.
- Brian Harvey was happy to be at the meeting.
- Harry Grossman did not seem very happy to still only be giving $3 - $1 for each of the Cardinals' wins so far this season.
- Pam Cohen was happy she would be celebrating her birthday in Flagstaff with her family - especially her grandson,, Wilder, who she said would be a whirling dervish. She also mentioned that she had the sobering opportunity to visit the Trinity bomb site near White Sands New Mexico. She found that experience to be very emotional.
- Warren Williamson shared a story about a man and his wife who owned a yacht near San Diego. One evening as they were having cocktails at sunset, the man was thinking about his many blessings. He'd done well financially, and had a beautiful younger wife. But he started wondering if maybe his wife had been attracted to his wealth rather than himself. He asked her, "Honey, if I lost all my money and had to sell all our possessions, would you still love me?" She responded, "Of course, I'd still love you, and I'd miss you, too!" The $20 Warren contributed was to help fund Olivia's train tour.
- Allan Cady contributed $5. He was happy he and Polly would be representing Mesa West at the USA/Mexico Friendship Conference and Grants Exchange Workshop in Prescott over the weekend. Their friend Omar Falcon, who they met at the first Friendship Conference they attended would be coming home with them and spending a bit of time before travelling back to Mexico. Allan has a budget of $4,000 which has been approved to support one or more grant projects presented at the workshop.
- Polly Cady was happy Olivia's Cross Country Team made state, and that Tilde was finally able to attend our meeting. She urged members to check Olivia's bucket list and help get some of her wishes crossed off. She said Ed had taken Olivia and Carlotta to the Friday morning Tempe South club meeting, then went on to the zoo. Neither of the girls had every been there before. He also treated them to middle eastern food and they found it delicious. Tilde is very musical - anyone planning to visit the instrument museum should take her with them.
- Dick Myren contributed - happy that he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs.
- President Colleen contributed $20. She was happy that Tesla solar wall batteries were being installed at their home. She also acknowledged that Don Boucher had joined the meeting on Zoom.
Club Assembly - President Colleen Coons
CLICK HERE to see the PowerPoint slides used during the assembly
- Colleen announced that later in the meeting seven items would be auctioned with the proceeds to benefit Polio Plus.
- As President, Colleen is making it a priority to recognize a Rotarian of the Month at each club assembly. In September, Ed Koeneman was recognized. In October, she elected to recognize someone who puts a smile on everyone's face at every club meeting. He has a wife who does amazing things. She recently made back packs that were hand crocheted for the ambassadors to Mexico and Kenya. More recently, she made blankets for the McKinney Vento students. Warren Williamson is the October Rotarian of the month.
- Colleen announced that several members would be attending the Child Crisis Arizona Lunch for Love on October 31.
- Volunteers are needed to help coordinate parking at the Canyon State Academy event to be held November 4.
- John Pennypacker represented Mesa West at the the District's Pints for Polio event to raise funds for and awareness of Polio Plus. John said the Iron Lung Lager is still available and is very good.
- Don LaBarge announced that he would soon be looking to fill shifts for this year's bell-ringing shifts at the Bass Pro Shop. If each member would do three 2-hour shifts, he could fill the available slots. Anyone who can should volunteer to do more, because their will be some members who simply cannot volunteer. He wants to get someone to take of what he does in scheduling the shifts after this year. He said anyone who plans to donate to Salvation Army should do it though our kettle, so the funds will stay in our community. The Bass Pro collection station is the only collection station that is totally voluntary, and it is the highest yielding station in the entire southwest region.
- Lucinda General said that when she and Wayne were in Portugal, they visited the Rotary Club of Lisbon. They have 40 members and met in a suite of offices. There were only eight there. It was in a living-room type setting. The meeting was much like a club assembly. They did not have a guest speaker. It was all business and about service, service, service. She brought back a deck of cards to use for our next Raffle round (after the Ace of Clubs is finally drawn in the current round.) The cards have scenes of Portugal on them. Rather than post a picture of she and Wayne in swimwear on Facebook, she was inspired to post a picture of their feet with someone attractive between them and the water.
- Shelly Romine reported on our October 21 service project at Desert Chapel in Apache Junction. It was a joint project with the Superstition Mountain Rotary Club. It was fun seeing the guys chopping vegetables. There was a good turnout from both clubs. Their President Jeff Mitchell and Sabrina were great help. They made close to 200 meals to serve the homeless. Colleen thanked Shelly for all her work. She planned it, shopped for the food, hauled it all out there ad organized and coordinated the shifts. She said Dan now knows how to chop vegetables and can cook for Colleen now. Shelly said that when she understood we would have to plan, shop, cook and clean up, she wondered what she had gotten herself into, but said looking back, it was a good team building exercise.
- Colleen is happy that we have a commitment from a volunteer to create an inventory management sheet that can be turned into software to be used in the Working Warrior's program at Westwood High School. Once it is all in place, the kids that participate in that program will have acquired a marketable skill to place on their resumé. The volunteer will finalize the list of equipment needed and may be able to get some of it donated.
- Nine McKinney Vento students have now been identified. Days are scheduled for meet and greet opportunities. They are homeless twelfth grade students without parent or guardian.
- The first items to be auctioned was a bracelet purchased by Dan Coons while on the Crutches 4 Africa Interact Ambassador Mission this past summer. Machel Considine was the top bidder at $15.
- The second item to be auction was a similar bracelet from the same place. Machel said she would match her $15 bid and no one bid against her.
- A hand-carved wooden box with a rose on the lid was purchased by Colleen when she was in Mexico. Warren Williamson's top bid of $20 made him the new owner of the box.
- A handbag from Africa was the next item auctioned - Shelly Romine became the owner of the bag with her $50 bid.
- A bag containing Mescal was won with Allan Cady's $55 bid.
- Machel Considine's top bid of $55 made her the proud owner of a beautiful hand-stitched cloth from Cuernavaca Mexico.
- Jim Erickson provided an update on Rotary's polio eradication efforts. He said that the cases of vaccine derived polio happen when the virous gestates and ends up in the waste environment making it possible for those who are under-immunized or non-immunized can get it. CLICK HERE to view the fact sheet he had on the tables.
- He said the Novel 2 Vaccine is more effective and with it there is less risk of vaccine-derived polio.
- For those who are wondering when we will declare the world to be polio-free - there is talk about moving the goalpost. Right now the goal is by 2026. October is World Polio Month and October 24 was World Polio Day.
- Until that polio-free declaration can be made donations are essential to continue effective immunization efforts. Three doses are necessary to be effective.
- The two countries where cases have been reported this year are Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Taliban is becoming more cooperative.
- Jay Stuckey had some tickets to the OdySea Aquarium and Butterfly Museum to auction. Tim Troy's was the top bidder at $100..
- Lucinda General had a white bag of items Wayne selected in Portugal. John Pennypacker's bid of $50 made him the proud owner.