The August 10 meeting was a memorable meeting for many reasons.  The meeting was attended by former member, Darl Andersen, who served Mesa West Rotary as Club President in 1984-85 and as the Governor's Rep. 1986-89.  In addition to being a past member of our club, he has also been a member of the Mesa Rotary Mesa Baseline Rotary Clubs.  We were also visited by Dane Pierce, a Rotarian visiting from Hawaii.  He is relocating to our community and was aided in that relocation by networking through Rotary connections. 

 

Tim Troy collected happy bucks, which were generously shared by many members in attendance.  President Allan announced that the Steak and Beans competition to raise funds for our club's foundation to support our projects is getting close to being ready to present to the membership.  Team Captains are being identified.  There will be two ways to eat steak at the closing event:  The team that brings in the most $$$ will eat steak as will any team with each of their members bringing in at least one donation.  Teams that do not reach either of those criteria will eat beans.

 

Chuck Flint, Foundation Chair, made some presentations to members who have reached giving milestones with The Rotary Foundation.  Before making the presentations, Chuck gave John Eagleston the family photo that was taken on June 29, when his family was invited to celebrate with John the many significant accomplishments of his year serving as our President.  Four members were recognized for their first Paul Harris Fellow (recognizing $1,000 in giving to TRF).  Those members were our Immediate Past President, John Eagleston; our President-Elect, Chris Krueger; our Public Image Chair, Matt Rotty; and Tim Troy.  For each additional $1,000 in giving to TRF, members are given pins with precious stones in them for each additional $1,000 given.  Two members were recognized for Paul Harris Plus 1 giving:  Matt Rotty and Frank Rosenberg.  John Benedict was recognized for Paul Harris Plus 3.  Last year, our club was highest in our district in dollars given as well as in per capita giving to The Rotary Foundation.  TRF is the 3rd highest ranked charity in the United States.  97% of donations are used for charitable purpose.  Donations are held 3 years and invested.  Net earnings on those investments is used to cover most of the administrative costs of running the foundation.  There is a goal of Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) giving $100 to TRF, but it should be noted that we are not restricted to only give that amount.  Chuck would be glad to meet with any member who would like to be more generous in their support of the work of The Rotary Foundation.

 

Steve Ross introduced the speaker - Dave Keiser of Waste Not.  The organization is celebrating 30 years collecting and distributing perishable food that would otherwise go to waste.  The donated food comes from restaurants, resorts, caterers, grocers and various food purveyors.  It is delivered the same day it is collected to a diverse network of organizations that feed the hungry, including schools, after-school programs, senior facilities, transition homes and rehabilitation centers.  Overhead is covered by private and grant funding.  They do not rely on state or federal funds to cover their costs.  to learn more, visit their website

 

 

Polly was born and raised in Yuma, Arizona and moved to Phoenix in 1992.  Her great aunt and uncle homesteaded in the Yuma valley and had a dairy farm.  Her grandfather was from Texas and moved to Yuma to build cotton gins in the southwestern part of Arizona.  Polly's father moved there from Indiana while he was in high school and met Polly's mother.

Polly is the oldest of her siblings.  She has a sister three years younger and two half-brothers who are six years younger.

 

Polly has been an Arizona resident for 62 years.  She lived in South Dakota for about seven months as a child in fifth grade.  She is thankful a blizzard drove her family back to Yuma.  The only two states that she has resided in are Arizona and South Dakota.She has visited Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Australia, England, British Virgin Islands, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Holland, Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Fiji, and Mexico where she has stayed in Cabo San Lucas, Cancun, Cozumel, Rocky Point, Guaymas, San Carlos, San Luis, Algodonez, and Mexicali.  Polly is not fluent in any language other than English, but pretends to know a little Spanish and loves to try Italian.

 

As a teenager, Polly really wanted to be a flight attendant, but back then, she was too short.  The requirements were 5'7".  Polly has been retired since April of 2010 from a law firm she loved and where she served as Firm Administrator for ten years.  Before that, she was a legal secretary for most of her adult life working for prosecutors and different defense attorneys.

 

Polly is married to our President, Allan Miles Cady.  They celebrated 20 years of marriage last December.  Polly has no children.  She skipped that part and went straight to being blessed with eight grandchildren and three step-grandchildren.

 

Polly has many wonderful vacation memories, but the memory that currently stands out for her is a vacation to Paris immediately followed by a trip down the Danube and then on to Italy during the last part of April and through May.

 

Polly listed two rewarding volunteer experiences.  The first was in Rocky Point for the gift giving at Christmas to families in need.  "It was heart wrenching.  The second was the experience of helping with the Gift of Hearing project in Guaymas.

 

Deadline for purchasing tickets for the September 10 game against the San Diego Padres is September 6.

 

You can follow this link to purchase your tickets and get more information: