Rotary Club of Marana
President Holt brought the meeting to order and Harold Burtzloff led us in the Pledge. No singing this month however, even in a no singing month we can quote a singer, Cheryl Crow. Cheryl said something to the effect of "if compassion was the motivating factor for all our actions the world would be a better place."
Erica, the UA student/spy, was our only guest and she was quite complimentary regarding Rotary. She was not familiar with this organization before the assignment and now is considering membership!
A big shout out to David Hindman for not only stepping up to house our Rotary Exchange Student, Mirabel, but also to arrange for housing following her stay at the Hindman household. THANK YOU!Attendance was sparse with just under 60% in attendance. Of special note, John Zwick was among the missing-a very very rare occurrence. John is getting over a bout of flu and should be with us next week. Hopefully the same can be said about the other missing members as well.
We sang. Rules are made to be broken, so Mary, Dan, John Z, Richie all were serenaded with "Happy Birthday". I think there may have been others as well.
Peter reported on the Food Bank Diaper cage fiasco. Many Rotarians answered the call for assemblers, however the cabinets ordered/received will not do the job. Maeve to provide more info at a later date. Thanks to all who answered the bell.
Speaking of Maeve, she broke a few HIPPA rules regarding Santa's sessions with Mary Straus, a mental health therapist. Apparently it all began when Santa's parents told him he did not exist.
Not to be out done, Lynne told of us two books she is reading. One she highly recommends: The Girl With Seven Faces about a North Korean girl. The other she does not recommend, but she cannot put it down. It is called Helium. One could call the group reaction to this second book as "speechless". Jaws opened as if to speak but they just hit the floor. Odds and Ends:
Next year enter the football pool and let Randy make your picks.
Dan says our first Tour de Cookie rider has signed up.
Round of applause for Maeve for Aide Station work.
Richie to speak at Open Doors, Lori Malagone's school.
**********Harold is B-E-G-G-I-N-G for El Tour photos****************
Don happy about a surprise visit from daughter and son-in-law. Don also won and lost with a small heart.
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Since we are on the topic of Don Jorgensen he was our speaker and gave an excellent presentation on ShelterBox.The big box with tent weighs about 140 pounds and costs about $1,000. It contains solar lights, saw, shovel, hoe, pots, pans and much other stuff. The solar light is about the size of a deck of cards before it is unfolded. It gained venture capital after appearing on Shark Tank!There is also a water purifier.
Boxes are tailored for their audience. Tents come with or with out stoves and some are built to United Nation specifications. Mosquito netting where needed is packed and there is now a Shelter "Kit" sans tent for about $100 and maybe a quarter the size of the big box.
The program was started and still is run by Rotarians out of Cornwall, England. There is also Shelter Box USA in Florida. The great Tsunami of 2004 in India put Shelter Box on the map. Since they have been in Panama, New Orleans, Haiti multiple times and currently in Madagascar, Mozambique, Syria, Peru, Columbia, Iraq, Somalia, Niger, Myranmar and Cameroon. Don showed a satellite photo of a spot on the map called Menawao in Cameroon that has grown from effectively zero inhabitants to 35,000 over just a couple of years due to migration of people fleeing Boka Haram.
Shelter Box responds to both man made and natural catastrophes.
See you all next week????????