President Jim opened the meeting by asking Ray Smith to lead everyone in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Wendell Jones offered the invocation and Lola McClane led the Pledge of Allegiance. Jack Rosenberg was thanked for serving as our extra-friendly official greeter.
Guests
Mark Lavell was visiting. He is with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the East Valley. Shelly Romine, an Idaho Rotarian with the classification of commercial banker, who has recently relocated to Arizona was again visiting Mesa West.
President Jim thanked Rotarians for bringing friends and guests and thanked John Pennypacker for putting up the club's banners every week.
Drawings
Shelly Romine was asked to draw the token to determine the winner of the weekly attendance drawing. The holder of badge number 36 was not present to collect, but on the second try, Frank Rosenberg was the lucky $5 winner. PDG Gary Whiting was asked to draw the winning ticket for the weekly raffle, which was held by Ron Thompson. Instead of drawing the ace of clubs, however, Ron drew the six, so the accumulating large pot will continue to grow.
Happy Bucks
Penny May contributed $5. She was happy to be back in Arizona, but was also happy to recently receive a payment from the Alaska permanent fund of $1,106. Bob Jensen reported that on September 19 he turned 70. He spent the day with his wife. He was also celebrating the birth of his second granddaughter. To celebrate, he announced he was donating $100 to support the Guaymas Gift of Hearing Mission. The YMCA was happy to report their golf tournament netted $37,000 which will be used to help families with limited resources enroll their children in YMCA programs. Chuck Flint announced he was able to help a waitress in Filiberto's who had a legal problem. When Chuck learned of her problem, he sent a text to fellow Rotarian, Bert Millett. Bert returned Chuck's call from Ecuador. Lola McClane was gone two weeks visiting her daughter and her daughter's "other significant person" in Fort Worth.
Auction Items
Bert Millet had a bag of non-consumable items - all from Peru - where he travelled in the Amazon and the Andes. John Pennypacker offered the winning $50 bid and found some cold weather accessories among other things in the gift bag. Polly Cady had a gift bag containing edible and decorative items purchased on their recent travels to Canada, Illinois, Colorado and Georgia. Chuck Flint offered the winning $40 bid.
Accounting Humor
What a 90-year-old accountant who had reached the end of his useful life had to say about a homeless person: "It's accrual world." When asked about how to value Santa's sleigh, the accountant answered, "You have to assess its net present value." Editorial note: These may have been misquoted, but the effect is likely the same.
Announcements
Paige sent letter reporting on her youth exchange experience to date. (see separate article in this newsletter.)
Mesa West will be dark on Thursday, October 31.
Pam Cohen announced that Alan Ramsdell's celebration of life would be held Sunday, October 6, at 2:00 PM at the Salvation Army facility. Jim Crutcher was invited to be present to speak on behalf of Mesa West Rotary.
Pam proudly announced that sixteen members of Mesa West Rotary were at the annual Child Crisis fundraising luncheon.
She also reminded members that at our next meeting, October 10, we will be discussing various ideas from members about what might be a good legacy project that would be an on-going memorable benefit in and for our community. A notice will go out after the meeting to members explaining how the process will work.
Budget Presentation
President Jim presented his 2019-20 budgets which included the operating budget for Mesa West Rotary and the philanthropic budget of Mesa West Rotary Foundation, which now holds all the assets previously held by the Mesa West and Mesa Baseline Foundations as a result of the recent consolidation of the two charitable foundations. Both budgets were approved.
Program
John Pennypacker introduced PDG Gary Whiting and his unpaid Uber driver, John McCoy. In introducing them, John briefly told of his recent trip to visit the completion of the second phase of delivering water to remote homes on the Navajo Nation.
The recently completed project was near Window Rock on the Navajo Nation and covered an area approximately the same size as West Virginia, and where only 40% of the population had running water.
The first project benefitting the Navajo Nation was initiated by the Gilbert Rotary Club. With $78,000, that project provided water to eighteen homes.
The second, recently completed, project delivered water to thirty-three homes. It was initiated by Sun Lakes Rotary and provided running water to thirty-three homes. It was funded by nine Rotary Districts, seventeen US Rotary Clubs and twenty-six international Rotary Clubs. When it was announced that this grant would be providing water for the first time to homes on the Navajo Nation in the United States, e-mails expressing interest in participating came from Rotary Clubs from all over the world.
When there was no existing sink in the homes receiving water, the size of the sink that was installed was large enough to bath a baby.
Gary Whiting was very impressed with the Dig Deep team which managed the project. "The left hand knows at all times what the right hand is doing." Cindy Howe is the individual that keeps them organized. He said there is a story behind every home, hogan, or old trailer where water was installed. Home number 32 was built in the 60's. They had no water except what their son hauled with his pickup when the roads were passable. The water he brought in three barrels would have to last a month. In warm months, the barrels were stored on the porch, but in the winter, they had to be stored inside so the water would not freeze. For that installation, the Dig Deep team encouraged the Rotarians to help. They were mostly "gofers" fetching and assisting - except for John Pennypacker who Gary said was "afraid he'd get his pants dirty."
Once you carry your own water, you learn the value of every drop.
One photo that Gary showed was of a 12-year-old girl with the Water is Life driver. She was the water girl for her grandmother. Every morning she would carry water weighing twenty pounds 150 yards to her grandmother's house. Her siblings did not have shoes. The team took care of that, but when the girl understood that the installation at her grandmother's home would free her of her daily water girl duties, she was radiant.
In addition to the water project, Gary was proud that they also brought the third-grade dictionary project to the community.
The next phase will be to serve the Dilkon, Arizona community which is west of Window Rock. With that project, it is planned to serve 160 homes and will cost close to $720,000. District 5495 is being joined by District 5280 in Hollywood to initiate phase three. John reminded members of his own creation of a fund within TRF in memory of his wife to fund water projects. He had a check to deliver to Mesa West Foundation as the first contribution to stimulate support from Mesa West Rotary for the third phase of bringing water to our neighbors.
Several members had questions:
Q Who owns the water truck?
A It was donated by another foundation.
Q Who pays for the water?
A The people receiving the water pay for the water delivered.
Q How is the system maintained?
A. Filters have to be changed, and batteries have to be charged/replaced and are responsibility of the resident. There is some financial backup. The delivery driver makes an inspection - to date there have been no problems.
Q. Is water quality safe?
A. Water will meet all safe water standards.
Gary stated that the next project site is barren of water. In trying to drill a well, they will have to go more than 2,000 feet and there is risk that past uranium mining may have contaminated the underground water supply.
To see the slides presented by Gary Whiting at the meeting, CLICK HERE.
I just wanted to update you on how my exchange is going so far and give my thanks to Mesa West Rotary for making this possible.
I have now been in Austria for two months and everything has been absolutely amazing! I get along great with my host family and have made many friends since starting school in September. I have had many opportunities to meet other exchange students and to travel, both through Rotary and with my family. So far, I have gone to Salzburg, Vienna, Villach, and many other smaller towns across the country. Beyond the border, my host family included me in their vacation to Croatia for one week. In the future, I will be going to Vienna again with Rotary and we will meet up with inbounds from Hungary. There is also a planned trip to Prague, Dresden, and Berlin at the end of the month! With my class at school, I am going to the capital of Slovenia for a day. I am so excited to explore these cities and see more of what Europe has to offer.
In school, I take fourteen different classes. Although I do not understand very much of what the teachers are saying, everything has gone better than I could have ever imagined. As soon as I walked through the door on the first day, my classmates were so welcoming and wanted to know all about me and the US. They are still so great and friendly and now that a few weeks have gone by, I have made some really great friends. I have definitely had to adjust a lot, as school is very different here, but I am getting used to it very quickly. I can't wait to learn more of the language so I can participate more in class!
To help with this, I am taking additional language lessons outside of school. This is extremely helpful, and I've learned so much in such a short amount of time! Now, I understand quite a lot when people speak to me, but I am not as good at speaking. My host parents talk to me completely in German and when I first arrived, I had no clue what they were saying to me. Now, I know based on picking out words that I have learned and putting the pieces together.
Even after just two months, this experience has changed my life so much and I wanted to tell you this personally. I can't wait to share my experiences with the club after the rest of what is going to be the most amazing year ever.
PDG Art Harrington recently shared some interesting information about the Westwood High School Interact Club:
"The ID number for the Westwood High School Interact Club is 165. It has the lowest ID number of any club in our district, since it is the oldest, continuously operating Interact Club in our district. It was chartered by Mesa West Rotary on February 24, 1964.
"Today Interact has 4,299 clubs, and an estimated membership of 558,877 around the world. Interact is, by far, the fastest growing part of Rotary, and Westwood High School Interact can proudly say, "We were the 165th Interact Club in all the world to be chartered."
"Your Rotary Club can be justly proud of this Westwood HS Interact Club, which has accomplished so much good, and produced so many leaders for Rotary over the years! Its leadership continues. Last year it produced our Interact District Governor, along with numerous Assistant Governors. This year it has produced seven of our current 27 Interact Assistant Governors. Our Interact District 5495 is exceedingly grateful for the ongoing leade4rship we draw on from Westwood HS Interact."
Bill Peters is a Commander with the Mesa Police Department and a member of the Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club. He is looking for support for a cause he feels strongly about:
"Law Enforcement works very closely with Special Olympics Arizona. We participate in a number of fund-raising events such as "Tip-a-Cop", "Fuel of Dreams" and the "Law Enforcement Torch Run." All of this to support Special Olympic Athletes.
"The athletes love to interact with Law Enforcement and see us as hero's, but the truth is, they are OUR hero's! I have worked with Special Olympics AZ for many years, but this is the first time I am going "Over the Edge." Participants in Over the Edge need to raise at least $1,000, which is the cost of supporting two Special Olympic Athletes for an entire year.
"There are over 21,000 Special Olympic Athletes in AZ. They participate in sporting and health events. Athletes can be as young as 2 ½ and they do not age out. CLICK HERE to see a recent story of Carla who is one our local athletes who shows up at many of our events. Before she started participating with Special Olympics, she was a big girl and very shy. Now she is an incredibly accomplished and confident athlete."
If you would like to support Bill with his fundraising, CLICK HERE. It is a 501(c)(3).
Choose the INDIVIDUAL RIDER option (the discount will come at a later step). Click the plus sign for the number of registrations. Scroll and click the Register Now button
There are a bunch of questions to answer— At the payment part enter the Promo-code of LTRROTARY19! The total per person will be $145 for entry plus the online service fee.
Please note that if the cyclist chooses to purchase a t-shirt, jersey or other item the balance will include that/those purchases along with the online service fee.
Thank you for being a part of El Tour – Have a great ride!
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President Jim opened the meeting by asking Ray Smith to lead everyone in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Wendell Jones offered the invocation and Lola McClane led the Pledge of Allegiance. Jack Rosenberg was thanked for serving as our extra-friendly official greeter.
PDG Art Harrington recently shared some interesting information about the Westwood High School Interact Club:
Bill Peters is a Commander with the Mesa Police Department and a member of the Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club. He is looking for support for a cause he feels strongly about:
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