Marana Rotary Club
February 8, 2022 weekly meeting
This week’s meeting was held virtually, as will the remaining meetings through the end of February.
Announcements
Don reported that Harkin’s Theatre and the shredding company have confirmed the shredding event date for Saturday, April 30th.
Mary has 173 of the cookie medallions for the upcoming Tour de Cookie event, and suggests providing 100 of the Ben’s Belt coins to augment memorabilia tokens for the Tour participants
Mary also reports that, following up on the recent Board meeting’s discussion regarding the need for more local service projects, the Southern AZ Food Bank is seeking support. There are two options which Mary will research and report back upon for club members to volunteer.
Randy mentioned that thank you letters have been received for our support to families over the holidays, our support for the Police Foundation, and a thank you was received from John Zwick for the flowers he received.
Randy reported that at our latest Board meeting, John Z. would be given Emeritus status, wherein John would be invited to attend our meetings/events and club dues would be covered from club funds. Randy asked if any members had concerns to please contact him directly.
Randy again asked for help promoting the Tour de Cookie promotions at Rillito Park, Sundays, from 9-11AM. After awkward silence, Mary volunteered, again. Randy noted that Don, Mary, and Cathy have been the sole volunteers and reminded that this was our biggest fund-raising event and asked for more support.
Happy Bucks
- Harold was happy to be meeting John Z for breakfast at Grumpy’s following the meeting. All are welcome to join.
- Cathy was happy to be planting this week at Felicias Farms
- Don visited the Sand Hill Cranes near Wilcox before departing to Seattle. And, that he was promoted to District Governor Nominee, moving his assuming the Governor’s position up by one year. Not official, stay tuned.
- Beckie was “just happy” and shared that she had a recent birthday lunch followed by a neighborhood walk with her new dog, “Joy” to introduce her to her new surroundings
- Laura’s oldest sister was in town and showed us an amazing birthday cake from the Village Bakery.
- Cindy was delighted to have her 6 year old grand daughter for a Sunday visit
- John was happy that the U of A men’s and women’s basketball teams were in very strong shape
- Denise was happy to have the Gem Show back in town
- Mary was looking forward to meeting with the Owl and Panther refugees tomorrow to talk about the Peace Pole essay project.
- Lynne is beginning tax season, and shared a funny story about Facebook and the experiences of us dinosaurs with the social media
- Andy was happy that one of the companies he’s involved with approved an innovative investment into Cameroon to support a reforestation and carbon emission reduction program
- Dan was celebrating a seven day fishing expedition in a remote village south of Cancun, Mexico where he actually caught fish!
- Adrian (guest speaker) was happy to be sharing zoom time with sunny Arizona from her home in Kansas City
- Randy shared an interesting experience involving an obviously off-kilter, right winger’s interactions with Mary at Rillito Park last Sunday where Mary put herself out there in a meaningful way.
Speakers
Adriane Parry and Brad Lundell spoke on behalf of the Operation Mainstreet Project, the objective of which is to educate as to the sources of food production from the agricultural industry. Brad’s family runs a large family pig farming operation in Iowa. Brad described the many aspects of the pork industry that the general population is not aware of and dispelled many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the pork industry. Especially enlightening were the evolution of the pig-farming business, misconceptions about the supposed “big-corporation” involvement in pig-farming, the environmental impacts (now greatly reduced) and the humane lifestyle the majority of pigs-in-waiting enjoy. Brad and Adrianne also explained many of the underlying food chain supply problems we’ve seen over the past two years. Interestingly, they also clarified what “organic” and “no antibiotic” terms mean and their usage on packaging. The pig farming business has evolved differently than my impressions led me to believe, and the talk was timely and enlightening.