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Rotary Club of Marana
President Hunter has returned with his guitar! After Bob Bishop led us in the pledge Tony banged out "Hard Days Night" by an English group that was popular in the 1960's. Truth be known, "Hard Days Night" is the only 45 rpm record I ever bought. All in attendance mouthed the words and many also made recognizable sounds. While I did not sing along with the fervor of my youth I was one of those uttering the words. Thanks, Tony.
What a meeting!!!!!!!!!!Ninety-five% attendance. Buehler? Buehler? Er, I mean Cheeseman? Cheeseman?
Six guests and President Tony swore in TWO NEW MEMBERS!
District 5500 needs only 200K to be named the prime sponsor of the Tour de Tucson. This recognition would have to be good for membership and insure the Tour de Tucson goes on along with our 45 million dollars raised to date from pledges to eradicate polio. Easy to make a payment and each of you should have received an email from District with instructions on how to do so.
District Conference will be a cruise. This has been done before and was fun and beneficial to the town in Mexico where the cruise ship docked. All should consider the Mexican Riviera cruise. Check out the District website for additional information.
Need to think about RYLA involvement and student sponsorship for this coming year.
Spring Training, Rotary Style, coming up May 4th in Green Valley. New officers and new members would benefit from this. See District website for additional info.
Cameron project resubmitted. At this point our Club's share will be $5,000.
New members Laura Clymer and Jeff Pridgett were pinned by POTRCOM. Welcome to you both.
Happy Bucks
John-Easter family get together
Dan-Wife is leaving for Ethiopia with church group. No mention of her returning.
Harold, John Z, Denise, David, Randy, Mary all happy to have new members and six guests
Richie-enjoyed lazy weekend
Bob-Happy his spouse Linda joined us and Col. Grasky for being our speaker today.
Joke Off
There was none today. Maeve just got two more weeks of detention and Lynne was assaulted.
John D won and lost with 2 of hearts.
Robert Bishop, Honorary Commander of the 214 Attack Group stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base introduced our speaker Col. Brian "Padre" Grasky, Commander of the 214 Attack Group stationed at DM AFB.
The 214th is part of the AZ National Guard. They fly remotely controlled airplanes, commonly known as drones, as far as 8,000 miles from AZ! The Reaper is an unmanned, armed, intelligence, reconaissance, surveillance aircraft. They have two operators for each drone. The skill set needed is more of an engineer than a pilot to fly these aircraft. They are aloft 24/7 landing about every 24 hours for fuel. The Colonel gave specific examples as how this high tech machine aides grand troupes and even helps to fight forest fires. There are about 250 people assigned to 214th. Thank you Colonel for your presentation and your service.
Next week join us for a presentation by our own, Peter Mack, as he discusses the relocation of five million Egyptians and their national observatory.
Patrick Cavoulos was our MCAT Student of the Month. An experienced heeler with a talented header for a friend, Patrick proudly displayed a belt buckle the size of a dinner platter he won as part of a team roping competition. This exceptional young man had dropped out of high school and was headed in the wrong direction. MCAT turned him around and in his own words, "The future looks bright.". While nervous about addressing our Club I was impressed that he thanked all of our members, Nana's Kitchen and staff, his parents, Ms Coronado, Oliver Bowen his Social Studies teacher and especially his nana Delores. Patrick was accompanied by his nana, his dad-Danny and his mom-Monica. As always our MCAT honoree was presented with an Honorary Certificate, a Marana Rotary cowbell and a gift certificate to Harkins Theaters..jpg)
Lynne-Dr. and atty. conversing at a cocktail party. Dr, "I always get approached at parties by multiple people describing their symptoms to me and asking for free medical advice. How do you handle the problem of free advice?" Atty, "I answer their question then send them a bill in the mail.".JPG)
Mary Straus and Bouba Hamadou spoke on our Cameroon project. Bouba is a Tucsonian, a Cameroonian and a Rotarian. He also is the spiritual and community leader of the village in Cameroon where our project is planned. The position is one pased down through families and is for life, unless you resign. First appointed at age 18 Bouba served four years before deciding position held to much authority for one so young. Now a grandfather, Bouba resumed the duties five years ago. He helps to settle village disputes and serves as an intermediary between the village and state/national government..jpg)
In President Tony Hunter's absence, President Elect Richie Benner began the meeting with the pledge. Foregoing any thoughts or songs PE Benner plunged ahead with the meeting directing all to "sit". Quack, quack, quack. (Inside joke).jpg)
Maeve-Two men walk into bar and the third ducks. When the laughter quieted down Maeve tried to make up for this horrendous offering with: Fella awakens in the middle of the night a little hungry. Opens the fridge and the mayo shouts out, "Turn off the light, I'm dressing."..jpg)
Lynne-Two old ladies looking for excitement. One decides to streak the flower show. Stripping then "running" as fast as her legs could go she entered the building. Screams and shouts were replaced by loud applause. When she exited she held a trophy. She exclaimed to her friend, "I won first place for "dried arrangement".
Denise Coronado introduced Courtney "Corey" Reid. Corey is a pleasure to have in class and personifies the AAA (Academics, Attendance, Attitude) motto of MCAT. Corey has lived in at least six states as her father transferred around the country with the US military. She plays several musical instruments and has a career goal of law enforcement or cosmetology
Also today we were pleased to host MCAT Student of the Month, Andres Perez. Andres was accompanied by his mother Andrea Valencia, student support coach Laura Garcia and MCAT Principal Denise Coronado. Anrdes likes helping others and will attend Pima Community College west campus after graduation from MCAT this spring. His long term goal is either nurse or teacher. .jpg)
Dan Contorno reports we have 126 riders signed up for the Tour de Cookie fun ride scheduled for Saturday 3/9/2019. All memebrs are encouraged to share on Facebook. Many club volunteers are required for this event so it is an "All hands on deck" kind of thing for our major fundraiser for the year. It was suggested the Interact Club be approached for additional volunteers.
Our speaker was Becky Noel of Therapeutic Riding of Tucson, TROT. Founded in 2006 TROT was originally established in cooperation of Southern AZ Veterans Admin Healthcare System for veterans of all ages to experience the physical and psychological benefits of riding. It has expanded so that today children and adults with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Down;s Syndrome, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and other special needs can benefit. For additional information one can access Rotary Club of Marana Facebook Page or visit www.trotarizona.org.
