Mesa West Rotarians Enjoying Rotary International Convention in Calgary
The building seen in the top photos is huge. The House of Friendship is there, meals are served there. John Pennypacker is shown sending a big Yahoo! waiving his cowboy hat which he wore to Calvary Stampede activities. Several photos of the Calvary tower were shared. Jim Schmidt is showing "toasting" DG Michelle Holcomb at a Big West gathering at the convention. John Pennypacker chose to get his photo taken supporting the End Polio Now movement. Chad Reid is listening attentively during a session. People from every part of our globe attend Rotary International Conventions. Some advertise their home clubs more openly than others. The Ferris Wheel sports a Rotary wheel at its center.
The Coons and Koenemans participated in a home-host event They are shown with Moe and Brennan from the club hosting the activity. The Parade of Flags representing all of the countries of the world which have active Rotary clubs in them is always impressive. The Rotary Foundation is very close to reaching their bequest goal of $2.025 billion by 2025. They hope to be there before the conference ends. The middle photo on the left shows some avid listeners in one of the breakout sessions. Running into friends from home to sit with at a session is always fun. John Pennypacker is shown with a young lady on the right - Cassie Howder - who works for RI in Club Support. She brought five interactors from her district in Seattle to their first RI convention. Two are shown in the photo. John was able to catch up with Past Rotary International President Gary C K Huang and his wife Connie and was able to enjoy a nice lunch with them. PRIP Huang was RI President the year John served as District Governor in 2014-15.
We know that some of our Mesa West members played hookie long enough to capture some photos of scenery in the beautiful Canadian Rockies. John Pennypacker is shown sporting his end polio now (fake) tattoo visiting with a polio victim. Colleen and Dan Coons are shown in a photo with a mounted officer of the law. They are also shown with David and Candace Talbot from Colorado. They founded the Crutches 4 Africa charity. Melodie Jackson is shown next to Ed Koeneman at one of the general sessions. Mesa West met up with Tempe South at the convention.
Ed and Debbie are shown with another gentleman from the home host activity they enjoyed. The brochure at the bottom right is about ending Shistomiasis which impacts 80 million children every year. The right panel shows "presented by District 5495 Interact."
In case you weren't paying attention, we have documented photographic evidence that nine active Mesa West Rotarians (Colleen Coons, Melodie Jackson, Deb Koeneman, Ed Koeneman, Jay Paulus, Liz Paulus, John Pennypacker, Chad Reid, and Jim Schmidt) are all at the Rotary International Convention. That's 14.5% of our total active membership. Very impressive!