Mesa West Rotary Club does not meet in-person at the Doubletree on the fifth Thursday of any month with five Thursdays.

CLICK HERE or on the image to register for this offsite activity.

CLICK HERE or on the image to register to participate.

 

President Colleen thanked

 

 

 

Dick explained the raffle briefly.  The proceeds of ticket sales are divided three ways.  A third goes to the club operating account.  Another third goes to the weekly winner and the final third is added to the accumulating big pot.  The person whose ticket is drawn wins the weekly pot, which was only $15 as ticket sales weren't as brisk as usual.  They would also win the opportunity to try to draw the Ace of Clubs from the deck.  Should they be so lucky, they would win the big pot which was up to $571.  Should they draw the joker, instead, they would win an additional $20.  Dick asked Rafael to draw the winning ticket which was held by Shelly Romine.  After shuffling the cards face-down, the card Shelly drew was the Jack of Hearts.

 

 

 

Steve reported that we were close to reaching $52,000 in donations to Mesa West Rotary Foundation this year.  The Sponsor Program is a great way to raise funds to support our charitable endeavors.  Ray Smith's team is currently leading in fund-raising in this year's campaign.

 

With the sponsorship program, each member either contributes or solicits donations (or both), so there is little or no "cost of fundraising." Also, eliminated  are the countless hours of work involved in preparing for and holding a successful fundraising event.

 

Mesa West Rotary Foundation is the fundraising and funding arm of Mesa West Rotary Club.  It is a separate legal entity and is a 501(c)(3) public charity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Braly and Sage have benefitted from an amazing experience that has helped them bridge the way to their high school diplomas.  Club members first met Braly in September at Westwood High School.  She was very quiet.  Since then, she attended RYLA, where she gained confidence and found her beautiful smile.  She turned eighteen two weeks ago and is the recipient of a full-ride scholarship to Benedictine University.  She was very thankful for everything that was done for her benefit and what she has learned.  Pam, Colleen and Braly posed in front of the Zoom camera for a graduation photo as Braly would be graduating that evening.

 

Colleen had gifts for the girls - medals that say, "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"  The idea for the medals came from a Dr. Seuss book which is found in the children's section, but is a very adult book.

Braly was given a graduatin gift and a bag of goodies.

 

Sage is a Dobson High School student.  She will graduate this summer.  When she first got involved in our program, she and her older sister had been freshly kicked out.  She opened up to her counselor, List Grant, who has become her best friend.  She has never really felt alone.   She is thankful for lots of different things, and especially thankful she will graduate this summer.  She had feared she wouldn't graduate at all.  She is looking forward to coming back to celebrate her graduation.

 

At the May 21 Board Meeting, Mesa West Rotary club officers and directors approved a recommended increase in all levels of dues effective July 1.  This recommended change is primarily due to the fact that Rotary International and District per-member dues will be increasing.  The good news is that the full-dues option is still less than the $250/member we were paying prior to the COVID pandemic.

 

 

Mesa West Rotary Club has recently become a member of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.  Members are encouraged to CLICK HERE to go to the Chamber website where you can click on a link "Email List" to subscribe to their e-newsletters.  As a business member, our club members are able to take advantage of educational and networking events held by the Chamber which you will learn about via their electronic newsletters..  The QR code in the image above will take you to their Facebook page.

As most of you know, Arizona has a very unique state tax credit program.  If you pay taxes to the state of Arizona, you can specify where your tax dollars go (state taxes only).  These instructions are for your reference only.  Please consult a tax prep professional with any specific questions about state tax credits.

There are many different nonprofit organizations that AZ recognizes as authorized recipients of these tax funds.  Mesa West sponsors the Interact Club at Westwood High School, and they are a qualified recipient of these tax credit funds in the Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) category.  Here's how you can donate up to $200 as an individual or $400 as a couple filing jointly and deduct that amount from your state tax burden.

Go to https://westwood.mpsaz.org/page/eca/ and click on the link to pay on the district's website. 

Or go straight to https://mpsaz.sites.thrillshare.com/o/mpsaz/page/pay-donate  in lower right, click on Pay Online

If you have children currently enrolled in Mesa Public Schools, you can use your existing login information.  Otherwise, it's easy to setup a guest account.

Once you are logged in, select 'Items At All Schools' under the 'Shop/Donate' list on the Home page.

On the next page select 'High Schools', then select 'Westwood High'

Select the link for 'ECA Tax Credit', and then 'Programs G-K' on the following page.

Interact - ECA is under code 8646.  Enter a dollar amount in the box, and click the Add button.  That dollar amount should then appear in your cart (highlighted in green at the top of the page).

You can then proceed to the Checkout process and pay with a credit card.  You will receive a receipt that you can print out and save for when you do your taxes.

Thank you for supporting Westwood Interact and all of our youth programs.

Mesa West Rotary Club operates two separate legal entities.  Our Rotary Club is a 501(c)(4), which is not a tax-deductible charitable organization, but is exempt from income tax.  Our club operations income from dues, most happy bucks (unless otherwise designated), raffle income, etc. is used to pay for the cost of operating the club - our meal expense, supplies, education of our officers, etc.

 

The charitable work and giving that we do is funded through Mesa West Rotary Foundation.  It is a 501(c)(3) public charity.  It is the fundraising and funding vehicle for our charitable endeavors:  Donations to MWRF are tax deductible.

 

For the past several years, rather than have major public events to raise funds, we have quietly gone to our friends, family, current and past business associates, etc. and simply asked for sponsorship donations.  We have averaged about $50,000 each year in revenue from our sponsorship drive.  So our members will be better acquainted with those who are involved with the MWRF Board of Trustees, each of the five Trustees will be team leaders this year.  CLICK HERE to down load a list showing who is on each Trustee's team.  Traditional fundraising events are very time and effort intensive and rarely yield the kind of results this effort has produced.  The Sponsor Drive has allowed Mesa West Rotary Club members to focus their Rotary effort on service projects.  The other advantage is that our donors can be assured that their donation will go entirely to charity as there are no cost-of-fundraising expenses.  

 

Sometimes donors hesitate to give to a fundraising dinner where names of sponsors are published because they don't want others knocking on their door asking for more money.  There are probably many people we know who admire what we do that would like to be a part of it, but cannot afford the time to be involved.  More people would admire what we do if we bragged about it outside of Rotary more often.  You might be surprised that someone would offer to donate if you bragged about the fact that we don't waste our time and resources putting on lavish events. Some of those donors  may have the opportunity to have their gift matched by their employer.  

 

Have fun telling why you are proud to be a Rotarian, and get your "ask" in gear.

As Rotarians, we are regularly exposed to opportunities to support various causes with our time, talent and treasure.  Sometimes it is hard to sift through all the information and decide where we are going to use our available financial resources. 

 

It would be wonderful if every Arizona Rotarian would make the following BIG FOUR their Rotary charities of choice and support every one of them every year, we could make a bigger difference than we are making today.

The process isn't quite automated at this point in time, but we hope it soon will be.  For now, you can email our executive secretary who can help you work out a recurring donation plan should you wish to make that arrangement to support our own club's charitable activity.