Attending were Andrea, Cindy, John, Harold, Mark, Dan, Bob, Christine, Beckie, Laura, Don and Kathy.
John Dooling led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He then led us in a rousing rendition of our Marana Rotary “fight” song.
Announcements
- Cindy: Time to start recruiting RYE students for both long- and short-term exchanges.
- Kathy: Explore a partnership at Sentinal Peak HS which is in Flowing Wells School District, similar to mission of MCAT.
- Don: Arizona Rotary license specialty plates are available. Proceeds will be split between our state’s two Rotary districts
- Next week: Will be club business meeting. Strategic plan update.
- Dan: Tour de Cookie 2025 date. We are aiming for March 8 so that it won’t conflict with the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15.
Guest speaker
Michelle Don Carlos, president and founder of Mending Souls Charity, a non-profit job training academy and “Charity Factory.” Michelle is a former attorney who advocated for homeless and runaway teenagers. A miscarriage prompted Michelle to form Mending Souls, sewing group.
The labor of love became a non-profit, job training place where volunteers make more than 50 different items for healthcare workers, new parents, babies, and even for animal rescue groups. Items include: pillows, cards, booties/caps/blankets, baby’s pillowcases, baby bibs, activity mats, etc. Volunteers sew, knit and crochet together — everything from bereavement angels to quilts to surgical caps to teddy bears.
The non-profit has 30 sewing machines and 1,100 people sewing in their homes.
The non-profit supports 12 causes. It used medical-grade material/fabric to make 4,000 masks in one day for St. Mary’s Hospital during the Covid pandemic.
In all, 30,000 items are made in a year, which are sold on the organization’s website. Michelle wants to continue to increase outreach, volunteers, and financial resources.
The organization’s location is at Rosemunt and Craycroft. Thrift store is up front and workshop in the back. Donations of sewing materials and fabrics are also welcomed.
For more information, go to: Lovemendingsouls.org
Michelle also brought samples of the numerous items for club members to examine — it was quite a wonderful display.
We ended the meeting with the Four-Way Test.