Wow! What a special meeting we had last week – 50 members and guests, plenty of enthusiasm, laughs, happy bucks, and a marvelous induction of Rick DePonte conducted by Chuck Flint. I am excited to be your President this year. Together with our experienced and energetic board, we’re working hard to make this a very special year. Our theme is “Put Life Into Rotary – Your Life”. I encourage all Mesa West members to attend as often as possible, bring a friend or spouse or invite a Rotarian that hasn’t joined us in a while.
Recently, you received a notice about our Sponsor’s Program. If our entire membership gets behind this drive, we are certain to pass our $30,000 goal. Soon we will divide up into teams and start our “Steak and Beans” competition. Should be a lot of fun! Let me or Bryan Goetzenberger know if you have any questions.
This week our speaks are Emilee Goetzenberger and Keegan Olson from our Youth Exchange program. With youth lies our future and these are two amazing young ladies. We encourage you to come out and hear about their adventures, both planned and past. Several activities are planned this year with Westwood High School Interactors and ASU Rotaractors.
Special thanks go to Jeanie Morgan, the editor of the Mesa West Messenger. I don’t plan to bore you with my thoughts every week. I thought periodically would be fun and it is!
In lieu of an invocation at the July 27, 2017 Rotary Club of Mesa Meeting, President Allan read a poem written by Samantha Pierce of Vacorville High School Interact Club honoring Sam Owori, who had been elected President-Elect of Rotary International, and unfortunately died as a result of complications from surgery on July 13, 2017.
Happy As simple as can be his end goal was to make life completely free Joy he brought to all And devastated we were to see him fall The light he brought to us Will never turn to dust Because the fire within is bright Providing the drive to fight Bettering today tomorrow and forever To never stray on our endeavor To make the world united Is continuously sighted So together we stand tall Our ideas never small Our time together was brief And death is truly a thief For the world that's now dim Will completely miss him For the little influencer I am The greatest impact.... Sam
President-Elect, Sam was buried with state honors on July 27, 2017, as announced by President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. To learn more about this great Rotary leader, CLICK HERE.
Our President-Elect, who will serve as our Club President in 2018-19, is Chris Krueger. Chris was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and has lived in Arizona for the past three years. Arizona and Nebraska are the only two states in which she has resided. She has visited three foreign countries. English is her primary language and the only language in which she is fluent. She was one of two children, and is the oldest.
Although, as a teenager, Chris dreamed of becoming an actress, she has served 31 years as a banker, and is currently Senior Vice President, Bank Client Care with Mutual of Omaha Bank. She has been married to Mike for 30 years. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
The best vacation Chris can remember was a trip to Grand Cayman Island in November.
In 2003, Chris went to China with her church to determine if they could build a relationship there with some people including someone who ran a private orphanage. She says "it was an amazing revelation as to how blessed we are to be Americans and all of the freedoms that we take for granted."
We had quite a few guests. Among them were students from Westwood High School Interact: President Colton Cagle, Secretary Annika Reimers, and Treasurer Sandra Franco. Colton gave a very short talk about how their Interact Club is looking forward to working with Mesa West this year. He also reported that Westwood Interact has a goal to raise $600 for Polio Plus.
Rod Daniels also had special guests: Brenda and Gary Looney who had their high school aged daughter, Sophie, with them. Sophie participates in The Power Of Voice charity at her school. She decided to raise money for an important cause: Polio Plus! She baked cookies and sold them for a dollar each and raised $100 for Polio Plus. She also put Polio Plus tags on her cookies for more awareness.
During "happy bucks", John Hunt announced he would have his annual boxes of Colorado peaches to be auctioned off at our meeting in the near future.
Carole Kralicek announced that our next Fireside Chat will be at her home on the first Saturday in October.
$75 was given to Polio Plus through happy bucks - $50 from Allan Cady due to there being 50 people at the meeting.
The Buck Board was completely filled at the meeting so the process of elimination resulted in Gil Gibbons being the recipient of a Paul Harris award. Gil was a guest of Carole Kralicek at a prior meeting.
Allan talked briefly about the Sponsor Program and showed the barometer we're using to measure our progress. So far we have $10,000 with the goal being $30,000. He and Bryan Goetzenberger are considering to have a contest with teams. Their may be a steak and beans at the end of the contest.
The Program was presented by Harvey Clark, a member of the Superstition Rotary Club. He is an agent for SkyMed, "If your trip turns into an emergency because of illness or injury, Skymed takes you home. They also offer travel services and protection for this type of emergency.
At the July 27 meeting, Chuck Flint had the honor of inducting Rick DePonte as the newest member of the Rotary Club of Mesa, West. Rick’s wife Donna was with him, as well as Polly Schumacher (his sponsor) standing up front during the induction.
Rick was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, and was admitted to practice law in Arizona in 1987. He received his Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law in Concord, New Hampshire in 1987. Prior to that, he had graduated from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received a Masters of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Arizona State University in 1980.
Rick, and his wife, Donna, have been married for 40 years. They have two adult children, Austin and Taylor, both residing in Seattle. Donna and Rick enjoy the beach and especially enjoy escaping to Rocky Point whenever they can. He is a big Arizona team sports fan and a bigger Boston fan, especially the Red Sox.
Rick has a history as a Rotarian. In about 1992 through 1996, returning to active membership in 2005 through October, 2016, when he was in the Ahwatukee Foothills Rotary Club (President 2010-11). The club closed in 2014. After that, he was in the Phoenix Camelback Rotary Club. 1992
Donna spoke for a few minutes after Polly “pinned” Rick. She mentioned that Rick has always loved serving in Rotary and although she’s not a member of Rotary, she has always been there with him.
Rick let us know that he is looking forward to working with Mesa West. He mentioned that the thee extraordinary Rotary thoughts that come to mind have to do with Mesa West::
He was a host family for an Rotary Youth Exchange Student through Chuck Flint;
He was involved in the purple pinky project in Hermosillo to help eradicate Polio through Polio Plus. Don LaBarge was there and instrumental in that project, and
He’s on the Gift of Life Board with many Mesa West members: Chuck Flint, Pam Cohen, Frank Rosenberg and Polly Cady (Rod Daniels used to serve on the GOL board too).
Rick is happy to be with Mesa West and mentioned that he is hard of hearing so don’t be surprised to see him scrambling for a seat at a front table.
Rick received a standing ovation after his induction.
When we introduced Rotary Club Central in 2012, it revolutionized goal tracking and planning for clubs and districts — no more filling out paper club-planning forms or passing along boxes of historical club information every time a new leader took office.
Rotary Club Central offered clubs and districts a quantifiable way to begin measuring local and global impact, specifically membership initiatives, service activities, and Rotary Foundation giving.
But as with any technological advancement, in a few short years, Rotary Club Central began to show its age, and Rotarians took notice. They...
At its January 2017 meeting, the Rotary International Board of Directors adopted a new zone structure for Rotary clubs.
Rotary bylaws require the Board to complete a comprehensive review of the 34 Rotary zones no less often than every eight years to ensure that each zone has an approximately equal number of Rotarians. The Board’s previous review of the zones occurred in 2008.
The Board earlier approved the creation of three regional workgroups to develop rezoning proposals for Asia, Europe/Africa, and the Americas. These workgroups comprised one representative (either a current director,...
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In lieu of an invocation at the July 27, 2017 Rotary Club of Mesa Meeting, President Allan read a poem written by Samantha Pierce of Vacorville High School Interact Club honoring Sam Owori, who had been elected President-Elect of Rotary International, and unfortunately died as a result of complications from surgery on July 13, 2017.
Our President-Elect, who will serve as our Club President in 2018-19, is Chris Krueger. Chris was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and has lived in Arizona for the past three years. Arizona and Nebraska are the only two states in which she has resided. She has visited three foreign countries. English is her primary language and the only language in which she is fluent. She was one of two children, and is the oldest..jpg)
We had quite a few guests. Among them were students from Westwood High School Interact: President Colton Cagle, Secretary Annika Reimers, and Treasurer Sandra Franco. Colton gave a very short talk about how their Interact Club is looking forward to working with Mesa West this year. He also reported that Westwood Interact has a goal to raise $600 for Polio Plus.
Deadline for purchasing tickets for the September 10 game against the San Diego Padres is September 6.
