July 1 - Changing of Guard Celebration Dinner

Members and guests had the opportunity to socialize in one of the small ballrooms at the Doubletree before Dan Coons opened the program by asking Dick Myren to offer the invocation.  He then asked Jeanie Morgan to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

The first celebration of the evening was formal induction of the remaining four new members from 2020-21 who had not yet been inducted.

 

Polly Cady did an amazing job as Membership Chair.  She was diligent on following up on leads generated through the Rotary International website as well as with others who showed interest in becoming members.  She invited the prospects to participate in hands-on service projects and several of the new members did volunteer with us before ever completing their membership application(s).  Thirteen new members in one year highlights her success rate

Allan Cady was at first hesitant to lead another sponsorship campaign, concerned that COVID would cause donations to be difficult to bring in.  The fact that the campaign out-performed all prior campaigns bringing over $56,000 new dollars to the Mesa West Rotary Foundation, speaks volumes about his commitment and his ability to motivate his team.  Following are the list of team captains, with the winning team captain listed at the top with his team members:

President Dan noted that both Polly and Allan are Past Presidents of Mesa West who remain extremely active in the club, and in addition Allan serves as an Assistant Governor at the District level and Polly is current chair of Rotary Leadership Institute.

 

Wendell Jones was credited, along with his team, for bringing in outstanding guest speakers.  Dan received multiple compliments throughout the year for the quality of the programs at our Zoom and hybrid meetings.

 

 

 

 

Shelly Romine was credited with having a minimum of one hands-on service project every month:

July, 2020 - United Food Bank - Distribution at Wells Fargo Bank on E. University in Mesa

August, 2020 - Feed My Starving Children

September, 2020 - United Food Bank - Distribution at Mesa Community Center

October, 2020 - United Food Bank - Packaging emergency food supplies

November, 2020 - St. Vinny's Urban Farm

December, 2020 - Salvation Army Bell Ringing.  (At this point, Dan asked Major Scott Ramsey from the Salvation Army to stand to be recognized, pointing out that pre-COVID Major Ramsey was a prospective member, and Dan hopes he soon will be returning to that status. 

January, 2021 - St. Vinny's Urban Farm

February, 2021 - United Food Bank - Packaging emergency food supplies

March, 2021 - 7th Street Food Pantry - District Grant funds put to work in flooring replacement/rehab and interior painting project

April, 2021 - Rotary Week of Service joint project with Gilbert Rotary Club packing shower kits for Paz de Cristo and emergency kits for homeless to be distributed by Rotarians

May, 2021 - House of Refuge - paint interior of a home for a client family

June, 2021 - Move classroom and library for United School for Autism

 

A big cause for celebration is the approval of The Rotary Foundation of the Aqua Africa Global Grant.  

 

President Dan invited John Pennypacker to come forward.  After he wondered around looking and sounding confused, John invited Lu General to come forward to see if she could help find what he was looking for.  Our AG, Lee Homes  was invited to help.  Having no luck, Lu invited Ted Williams to come up and help.  It didn't take Ted long, to invite Jeanie Morgan to help the growing crowd of "dignitaries."  Jeanie quickly invited Don LaBarge to help out because he's been around forever and seems to have a lot of answers.  Finally, someone looked behind the banners on display and found a new one recognizing Mesa West as the home club of Mr. Fun, who was District Governor in 2017-18 in District 5495.  Jim Erickson was happily welcomed to the front of the room where he happily removed the temporary "Mr. Fun" revealing his own name on the club's newest PDG home club banner.  

 

John Pennypacker, with the PDG's still up front, announced that recognition points had been transferred taking four Mesa West members to their first or next Paul Harris Recognition Level.  Recognized in absentia were:

Called forward to be pinned and recognized by the PDG's were:

President Dan verified that he would be honoring his commitment to donate $1,000 to Polio Plus for meeting his goal of exceeding Pam Cohen's prior presidency record of bringing new members into Mesa West.

 

Dan thanked his Officers and Committee Chairs for 2020-21

President Dan asked Logan Harper to carry a heavy award forward to be presented to Jeanie Morgan for serving as his "Doer, Fixer, Advisor, Consultant, Manager, Counselor, Mentor, Analyst, and so much more.  Seeing how heavy the award was, Jeanie was somewhat afraid to accept it.

 

 

President Dan credited Shelly's commitment to having a monthly, safe, hands-on service project while COVID isolation and precautionary measures were in place, had everything to do with how vibrant Mesa West has remained.  Those projects also greatly contributed to the ability to attract new members to our club.

 

President Dan recognized Colleen Coons as his right hand.  Her contribution of talents has run deep.  He mentioned they would celebrate their 8th anniversary on July 5.  He credited her with who he is today as he presented her with a First Lady's plaque.

 

Pam Cohen took Dan's President pin and presented him with his plaque for serving as President 2020-21 of Rotary Club of Mesa West, showing incredible leadership in an extraordinary year.

 

As she re-pinned Dan as 2021-22 President, members and guests watched a fun video with Goodbye Hello by the Beatles playing in the background.  CLICK HERE if you would like to watch it.  In light of Dan's willingness to continue as Club President for a second year in succession, two more videos were played:  HAPPY and FEARLESS.

 

 

 

Dan invited members of his incoming board to come forward to be pinned if present:

Dan spent some time thanking Jim Schmidt.  He said he learned a lot from Jim watching how he led the club with confidence as the COVID pandemic necessitated changes in how we met and conducted club business.  Jim's confidence and professionalism made following him much easier than what Dan observed was the case for far too many 2020-21 Club Presidents.  Dan never doubted that Jim would be there for him anytime he needed advice from an expert club leader.

 

He also thanked Bob Zarling for the excellent team of committee chairs he put together before realizing he needed to step aside from Rotary commitments and make family health-related matters his priority for 2020-21.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeanie Morgan interrupted to call Colleen Coons up front.  Jeanie had the honor of presenting Colleen with a gift from the club to thank her for her willingness to help and support Dan through another year serving as his first lady.  The gift was an ice cream maker and was inspired by Colleen's known culinary expertise combined with a conversation Jeanie and Colleen had shared about home made ice cream.  Along with the gift came Jeanie's promise to share an old family recipe for home made ice cream.