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Opening and Welcome - Past President Allan Cady Allan reminded everfyone that the 2024-25 Rotary International theme is "The Magic of Rotary." He also recited the Mesa West Rotary guiding principals - "Transforming Communities, Creating Opportunities and Impacting Youth." He then thanked - Dick Myren for offering the invocation
- Jack Rosenberg for leading the Pledge of Allegiance
- Chuck Flint for handling the raffle
- Dick Myren for handling check-in
- John Pennypacker for handling room setup
- Ed Koeneman for having the av system ready-to-go and Pam Cohen for helping.
Introduction of Guests - Pam Cohen introduced Mark Newell. Mark had reached out to the district indicating an interest in becoming a member. Pam responded to that inqiry and provided him with information about several clubs he might want to visit. After visiting Mesa West, he was sold and has submitted his application for membership.
- Pam also briefly introduced Carmen Guerrero, who would be introduced formally later when time for her to present the program for the meeting.
- Member Logan Harper, who rarely gets to attend was welcomed.
- Zoom attendees Pai Bethea, Deb Koeneman, Jeanie Morgan and Shelly Romine were acknowledged.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint After asking Logan Harper if he had to get a building permit for the pile of food on his plate, he asked Logan to draw the winning raffle ticket. Polly Cady was the lucky winner of the $20 daily pot. After shuffling the cards remaining in the deck face down, when she attempted to draw the Ace of Clubs, she instead drew the Eight of Hearts. After some prodding from the podium from Allan, Polly, donated her winnings to the Mesa West Rotary Foundation. Happy Bucks - Sgt at Arms Andy Bradford  - Ed Koeneman was happy he would only have to live with his old knee for one more week. He also had a "snitch buck". He had blind-sided Debbie with a visit from their son James who was on leave unexpectedly. Ed and Deb had taken Margo to the airport to catch her flight home to Belgium. While at the airport, James was able to wonder up behind his mom and surprise her. Ed said he'd never been yelled at so much for doing a nice thing.
- John Pennypacker was happy to be at the meeting and see all the others who were there.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 for he and honorary member Rod Daniels being in the Ace of Clubs. He was also happy the Ace of Clubs was still in the deck allowing the accumulating pot to get bigger each week while the odds of winning keep getting better.
- Pam Cohen was happy about Mark Newell's membership application. She was sad to have taken Olivia to the airport to go back to Sweden via Copenhagen. Olivia had to spend some extended time on the tarmac in Chicago because of Tornado warnings - a weather phenomenon Olivia had known little about until seeing the news showing their results while in the US. She is now more than a little terrified of tornadoes.
- Colleen Coons was happy that the chocolate treats she purchased at auction went over well as an anniversary gift for Dan last week. Her gift from Dan was a new stove.
- Polly Cady was happy about our prospective new member. She was also very sad that Olivia had gone home. She spent enough time with Olivia it was like a daughter leaving.
- Ted Williams said between he and his wife Susan, they have a lot of grandkids. Three of Susan's youngest grandkids had stayed with Ted and Susan recently. They were very happy to have them there, but also happy they were going home. After the recent current events, Ted hopes we will do what we can to "calm it down a little in this country."
- Allan Cady contributed bring all up to date on progress of his grandson who enlisted in the Navy in February. It seems he has accumulated a significant amount of savings by electing to eat on base. When finished with training in Pensicola, it looks like his next assignment will be on the north Island of Coronado.
- Ed Koenman made another contribution to celebrate the fact that he would be driving a van of Interactors to the Interact District Council retreat at Camp Wamatochick near Prescott.
Program - Carmen Guerrero - Cultural Coalition Pam Cohen introduced the speaker, Carmen Guerrero. Carmen is one of the founders of the Cultural Coalition and is a jewelry designer. She learned her craft from her grandmother while growing up in Brazil. The designs include metal pieces as well as bead work. Carmen has a Rotary Connection. In 1940, her grandfather was District Governor. CLICK HERE or on the photos above to see the slides Carmen used during her presentation. Cultural Coalition was founded by Carmen and her husband eighteen years ago. They have held the "Mask Alive" festival at Pioneer park for about twelve years now. It is a festival of diversity. They invite different cultures to participate. Many different cultures are represented. The festival includes dancing and music. It is typically on the first Sunday in March each year. They have a daily after-school program at El Ranco del Arte just east of the Tempe in downtown Mesa. The facility houses 110 families. They have 88 kids in their program. They provide a free meal and a safe place to do homework and participate in art projects. It is sometimes messy and other times include dance and music. They can participate in a gardening partnership where there are grow boxes in the back. They partner with the City of Tempe with the El Puente Fest in April. Participants are inside for the first three hours then go outside at sunset to march over the bridge. Cultural diversity is celebrated at the festival. Coming up October 27 will be a large festival in Phoenix. Participants create their own masks and costumes. One of the slides she showed was of a Chinese dragon which was 30' long. It is the largest of the festivals they participate in with around 15,000 attending. It is a day in the park where life is celebrated. 10' puppets will be seen there (with people under them). The S'edav Va'aki Museum (formerly known as Pueblo Grande) will celebrate the Hohokam canal system. Entertainers from local tribes will be seen. A light rail station is being created in South Phoenix. There will be a 24' tall bronze monument at that station. Carmen's husband won a fellowship in the 880's to study mask-making in Japan. In order to keep everything free, they write a lot of grants and partner with municipalities. They were going to be at the Heard Museum Saturday, July 20, to present a program. She had flyers and business crds for those who were present. They have a program where they provide backpacks for kids. They will accept money and supplies to be donated to support that project. They are located at 719 East Main Street in downtown Mesa. Allan presented a small tken of our appreciation to Carmen after she finished her presentation.  Update from Logan Harper It has been a few months now since Logan stepped away from his President-Elect position in Mesa West after his employer, Freeport McMoRan, made him aware of a potentialjob opportunity in one of their overseas facilities. He is also planning to be married in January. Logan will soon start going to the overseas facility every other month and stay for a month each time. It may segway into a permanent position where he would be doing the same as what he will be doing as an "ex pat," in their mining/smelting operation in Indonesia. |
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RLI SESSION 1 ONLY 
Mesa West Rotary Foundation, Inc. is the funding and fundraising arm of our own Mesa West Rotary Club. It is a 501(c)(3) charity. We have had successful sponsorship campaigns the last few years enabling us to spend our energy on service rather than on holding fundraising events. Charitable grants that we get involved with are funded through our charitable foundation, Our signature Gift of Hearing Project in Guaymas Mexico is funded through this foundation. Scholarships are awarded annually to Westwood High School Students (the high school where Mesa West Rotary sponsors an Interact Club). Funds are used to support a variety of activities in four of the Rotary Avenues of Service:
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