Rotary Club Meeting 6/23/2015
Posted by Jo Holt
The June 23 meeting of Marana Rotary was truly historical, as the Maeve Johnson Dynasty came to a happy ending. After serving as Club President for the 2013-2014 year (in which our Club received a Presidential Citation), Maeve stepped in for 2014-2015 President Kathleen Debiak who was forced to resign after struggling with major health issues. Maeve thanked Club officers and members who helped during this difficult time. And we were thrilled to see Kathleen return to congratulate Maeve and thank the Club.
Maeve distributed the new brochure from the 2015-2016 Rotary International President K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran on the 2015-2016 Presidential Citation program. By using this as a roadmap for the coming year, we’re certainly aiming high. But we know we’ll get there under incoming Club President Alice Rigney’s leadership. We all wish Alice a very speedy recovery this week.
Everyone who’s part of Marana Rotary says thank you to Maeve -- you are a treasure!
Calendar Update: There is no breakfast meeting next Tuesday June 30. This is very unusual and so Maeve placed a rather heavy emphasis on it. At the close of the meeting, she tested Harold Burtzloff and, of particular importance, our Sergeant-At-Arms and Nana’s Kitchen owner Javier Teran on this particular subject. We are pleased to report that both passed with flying colors. So proud of you, gentlemen.
Other announcements: We had two very special guests, each of whom are considering becoming members… ATF Agent Mark Murray and Picture Rocks resident Della Grove joined us. Club members congratulated MCAT Principal Denise Coronado on her 1-year anniversary as a Club member! President-Elect Mary Straus led a stirring farewell to our inbound exchange student Jeanne Gachon on her return to home in France. What a wonderful year we had with Jeanne! Marana Man-of-the-Year John Dooling even offered Jeanne his 50/50 raffle tickets. Wow, what a guy! Of course, it was after the drawing, and did not include the winning ticket, so not really very impressive in the end.
Guest Speaker: A
real-life farmer, Dan Arnold of the Farmer’s Co-Op in Marana, gave us some basic facts about farming in the United States that may surprise you. Did you know that over 90% of our farms are family farms? Yes, many are contracted with large corporations, like ConAgra, but the farms themselves are family-owned. The average farm is 400 acres. The average age of farmers is 74, w
hich is of some concern. Young people are not going in to farming, but we need farms as long as we insist on eating.
real-life farmer, Dan Arnold of the Farmer’s Co-Op in Marana, gave us some basic facts about farming in the United States that may surprise you. Did you know that over 90% of our farms are family farms? Yes, many are contracted with large corporations, like ConAgra, but the farms themselves are family-owned. The average farm is 400 acres. The average age of farmers is 74, w
Dan encouraged everyone to research the types of food and diets, and certainly don’t believe everything you see and hear in the media. He explained that food sales of all types are intensely media-driven. But individual tastes and diets should vary from person to person – there is no one “best” diet or one “worst” food. Whether you worry about GMO’s (genetically-modified organisms) or not is a personal choice. Just remember that there are no foods that have not been genetically modified, either by scientists, Mother Nature, or farmers! Dan relayed the story of a genetically-modified cotton, Bt cotton, which produces a toxin that kills the cotton bollworm, vastly reducing the amount of pesticides used against this invasive species.
The Farmer’s Market is closed for the summer, but will reopen in September on Saturdays from 8am till 2pm. It is located on the I-10 frontage road between Tangerine and Marana Road. Thank you Farmer Dan for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us.