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Rotary Club of Marana
President Jo M Holt led us in The Pledge as the clock struck 8am. Her attempt to quickly begin reminiscing about her past year as club president wa thwarted by Member Maeve Johnson's enquiry "Isn't this a song month?" Without waiting for an answer Maeve pressed "Let's sing "Its a Grand Old Flag" I just love that song. And so we did. Some of our younger members (those under 70) may not know the background of this George M Cohen song written in 1906.
The original lyric for this perennial George M. Cohan favorite came, as Cohan later explained, from an encounter he had with a Civil War veteran who fought at Gettysburg. The two men found themselves next to each other and Cohan noticed the vet held a carefully folded but ragged old flag. The man reportedly then turned to Cohan and said, "She's a grand old rag." Cohan thought it was a great line and originally named his tune "You're a Grand Old Rag." So many groups and individuals objected to calling the flag a "rag," however, that he "gave 'em what they wanted" and switched words, renaming the song "You're a Grand Old Flag".[1]
— Library of Congress
If you have three minutes check this out-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxyt1Vt5ejY
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Back to President Jo's reflections on the past year. The year was filled with the planting of thousands if not tens of thousands of trees by Rotarians spurred by our RI President. Hundreds were planted in our own Marana Veterans cemetery. Tour De Tucson aide station was again our big November event. Rpotarians riding in this event have raised over FORTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS for the fight against polio over the past few years. Our club has played a not so small part. Our own Tour de Cookie has also raised thousands of dollars for our charitable works. Our books for preschool kids project, in spite of a few twist and turns start to finish, provided over 6,000 books to needy families seeking services through the Women, Infants and Children program at The Marana Healthcare facility. A few hundred hours of hands on work were spent assisting the Food Bank at the Ortiz Clinic in Picture Rocks, AZ.
Gifts were provided by Jo to her Board Members and she especially singled out Denise West, while not a member of the board, for her participation in so many of the years events.
Then Maeve went on a roll. I missed 95% of what the hell was going on. However, I did learn a new word. "Jamoke". I think Randy is one, but as I said, I am not sure I heard everything correctly. There is a lot of stuff that goes on over in that corner of the room each week that is out of order and needs to be reigned in. I think our Sergeant of Arms needs to get involved. This kind of fun should be prohibited.
Lynne, following up to last weeks hijinks, decided to read her joke of the week to us. While not as hilarious as last week, the gist of the humor was, if you are looking for a priest or a lawyer there may be better places than St Pete's backyard.
We finally got around to swearing in Tony Hunter as our new president effective 7/1/2018 and he in turn swore in and pinned the following members:
Richie Benner-President Elect
John Dooling-Secretary
Lynne Himmer-Treasurer
Harold Burtzloff-Member at Large
Bob Bishop-Member at Short (his joke, not mine)
Tony addressed the club and notedly told us that Rotary International, the Zone, The District and The Club all run on their members. The thought was taken from this months Rotarian Magazine's article by the new RI President. After providing the backstory to the origin of the name Marana Tony encouraged us to take risks and "To Be The Inspiration".
We look forward to Tony's year at the helm.
President Holt congratulated new dad, Richie Benner. An "I love Rotary" outfit for Carl Benner and other gifts were given to Richie, Samantha and their son.
Mirabel presented her Exchange Year.RYLA was GREAT. She was forced to work with others and develop skills of persuasion. She overcame fear of heights and made several friends with whom she remains in contact. 
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All members and quests in attendance raised their voices in a musical tribute to John Zwick and Harold Burtzloff for their combined 103 years of Service Above Self.
MCAT honoree John Cain, his mother Elaine, two brothers Tim and Victor and a sister. John chose MCAT Secretary Tiffany Montes as someone to accompany him to the award ceremoney as she has been there for him since he started MCAT. John is 22 and running out of time to complete his high school education. He has dropped from MCAT twice but is determined to complete his studies this time. He wants to be a welder and has learned first hand of the doors that are shut to him without a HS diploma. John has a great support system as evidenced by his entourage and his biggest supporter appears to be his mom. His recognition by The Rotary Club of Marana was an emotional occurrence. 
Next we presented John and Harold with token gifts of a Rotary pen and key chain for their support of Rotary over the years. Each has been a member of only one other club. Both were rather stoic in their comments regarding their accomplishments, but John did indicate that the Marana Club has a special feeling and that he has enjoyed our club to a greater degree over the first club he joined 2/13/1963. A rather large cake with special decorations celebrating John and Harold's longevity was sliced distributed to everyone in attendance. Special thanks I believe go to Randy Brooks for spearheading this richly deserved recognition meeting.
Today was a special day also in that Richie Benner was welcomed into Paul Harris Fellowship by District Governor Hentges. Richie has excelled as an active member in his short time with The Rotary Club of Marana and this step is but one more to what we believe will be a long career with Rotary. Congratulations, Richie.
Newly married President Elect, Tony Hunter, led the meeting today. President Jo turned the reigns over to Tony so he could gain some experience running the meeting before taking over officially 7/1/2018.
Beth Garrow of Zone 26 our Rotary Foundation Chair (our zone) and Pam Kerr former PDG in the Chicago area that encompasses Evanston, IL where RI is headquartered. Pam's husband, Andy was also in attendance primarily to make sure Pam did not leave something out of her talk.
Harold Burtzloff made a generous donation to our club's foundation in recognition of his 50 years in Rotary. Thank you Harold for all your service over the years. As many of you are aware Harold also is a recipient of the Wright Bros Master Pilot Award for being a licensed pilot for fifty years. It is an honor to be in the same club as you Mr. Burtzloff.
Pam Kerr made an excellent presentation regarding Rotary's work in Guatemala. Primarily she spoke of the goal of raising 2.5 million to purchase 29 x-ray units. Eleven have been funded and eight have been installed. Each unit can serve between 50,000 to 100,000 persons a year. This is a true Global Grant with Taiwan Rotary clubs sponsoring three of the units. The individual machine/operational cost is $73,000 to run for two years with individual clubs raising $23,000 with the balance from matching funds from District and RI. Cooperation among RI, the Guatemalan Minister of Health and other governmental entities has been wonderful. Pam provided two pages of documentation concerning this project.
