What an amazing meeting we had on Tuesday.  Once again, it was a full house!!  We did have two very special guests from out of town;
Martin Childers from Anchorage Alaska and Ken Pickering from Yorkshire England.  Ken was here to support his ?? son - in - law in the El Tour de Tucson, who rode the 104mi ride in approx. 7hr and has a silver medal for this achievement.  We all had fun chatting with both of them.  Ken even presented us with his club’s Rotary Flag.  Both Martin and Ken were surprised at all the things that our small club of 27 does for our local community and what we have supported around the world:
1. raising money through El Tour do help eradicate polio and having 5 people from our club participating in the ride
2. Working on a water project in Africa with Yuma and other clubs in the district
3. handing out over 600 dictionaries to 3rd graders in the area
4. Supporting an active Interact Club at a local grade school
5. Giving hands on and financial support to the Marana Food Bank and Boxing for Troops (more on that later in this report)
6. Financial support to Youth Own their Own in Marana
7. A yearly awards dinner to honor Student, Woman and Man of the Year
8. Every month recognizing Student of the Month at MCAT ( an alternative high school for teens at risk for not graduating)
 
Today our treasurer, Lynne Himmer reviewed how we did on our 4th Annual Heritage Award Dinner. Our profit between the dinner, the auction and raffle tickets was a lot better than expected.  Today we will be able to give Harold Burtzloff from Boxing for Troops a check for $1860!! YOTO will also be receiving a check for $1500.  Way to go everyone!!!!!
 
 
 
 
Our vocational speaker this morning was Roy Morris, who is a financial advisor. Roy has only been in our club a short time but has already been a very active member of the Projects Committee.  It was quite funny listening to the stories of him working packing groceries and other positions before he decided that the only way to get anywhere in this world would be to go to college. After meeting his wife in Yuma, the move to Tucson was where he completed his degree at the U of A.  Everyone in our club shared in the joy when Roy and wife Jenna were to adopt newborn baby Aiden Christopher.  Roy, with tear filled eyes, then told all of us, of the loss of their soon to be precious baby.  The biological father suddenly cam back into the picture to take him back.  At that moment I am sure many of us wanted to give Roy a group hug.
 
After the meeting, Mary Straus, Jeanne ( our exchange student from France), George Rigney, Randy Brooks, Dan Contorno and I headed off to 3 grade schools to hand out dictionaries. All of us learned a new word; latchet which means a shoelace.  The kids got a kick out of this.
 
Signing off for now….thankfully our secretary Suelee Edwards will be back next week to do the newsletter. 
 
Kathleen