Marana Rotary Club Meeting Sept 29 2015

Another beautiful late September morning in Marana, AZ! Today marks a transition in our club’s leadership. President Alice Rigney has decided to step down so that she can focus on regaining her health. President Elect Mary Straus becomes our new President. Alice addressed the group and said that she would continue to work with the Club as her health improves. This is very good news! Our club will support both Alice and Mary as they assume their new roles. Mary announced that Board meetings will continue to be held on the third Monday of each month at Maeve Johnson’s Edward Jones office on Ina Road.

 

We welcomed the return of Tom Mangold and permitted him to brag a little (actually it was quite a lot) about his family’s athletic prowess. He passed around the Sept 12 edition of the Daily Star which featured a football player for Ironwood Ridge that Tom said he was related to. Maeve interjected that Tom should be fined for bragging. He did pay a $5 fine, but then continued to brag some more. At that point, we all decided to let him get away with it (this time).

 

The Service Above Self Dinner is approaching (Oct 9), and Denise Coronado reminded everyone that we still have room for more auction items.

 

 

Our annual Service Above Self Awards Dinner at Dove Mountain Highlands Clubhouse. You can buy your tickets for this event right here on our website!

 

The RC of Dove Mountain has invited us to attend their evening meeting (at 5pm at the Highlands Clubhouse) featuring speaker Saad Allawi from the Oro Valley Rotary Club on “Anger in the Arab World; What Should the West Do?”

 

Rotary Foundation Day includes a seminar at PCC from 9am to 3pm, and dinner at the Omni, reception at 6pm, dinner at 7.

 

El Tour de Tucson day! We’ll be aiding riders at Tangerine Rd and I-10. See Tony Hunter to sign up to volunteer for this event.

 

 

Dan Contorno had his Rotary pin today!   

 

And, we had two honored guests from the Old Pueblo RC, AG Jim Lovelace and Keith Ganske, who challenged our Club to enter a team for their Old Pueblo poker tournament on Oct 17. You can find all the details about this event at www.saguaropoker.com.

 

 

Our inbound foreign exchange student Matus Bogart from Slovakia was our guest speaker today. Matus gave us some basic facts and background on his country. Slovakia split from the Czech Republic in 1993 and has a population of 5.5 million people. After talking about this, Matus immediately switched the conversation to food. He said one of the favorite foods of Slovakia is bryndzove halusky, or potato dumplings with melted sheep cheese (bryndza) and bacon. Slovakia is also the land of many castles and dramatic landscapes. Matus introduced (some of) us to Peter Sagan, who is a famous champion cyclist and the pride of Slovakia. It might even be said that Matus was bragging just a little. He ended his presentation with a wonderful video called Slovakia – Little Big Country, and gave each of us a business card and a personalized refrigerator magnet. Maeve Johnson asked Matus why Spanish is one of the languages he chose to learn, and he said that 20 countries speak Spanish, it is one of the world languages, and he wants to be able to travel for business opportunities. Alice asked “What do you want to do?” and Matus replied “Something with money.” Thank you, Matus, for sharing your story with us. We’re so glad you’re here!