Rotary Club of Marana
 
                                                                            
As always, not withstanding last week, President Jo M Holt rang in the meeting at 7am (not to be confused with 8am) sharp. Jason Halper, (remember him?) led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Maeve once again demanded that we sing and once again we sang a patriotic song, "My Country Tis of Thee". Totally unbiased President Holt commented "Not too bad". High praise indeed.
 
Next our leader, whose time in her lofty perch is short, polled the membership for an idea or thought. When none were forthcoming she suggested we incubate those thoughts/ideas that are in the zygote stage and possibly gift them to President Tony when he returns from the RI Conference in Toronto.
Jo then shared a quote from Buddha regarding one candle can share it light with a thousand other candles and not diminish its brightness. The same can be said of human happiness.
Mary spoke of Cameroon project. The country is dry for nine months then three months of torrential downpour. The inhabitants subsist on millet and water with few protein sources. Challenges in numerous areas such as disease control, education, economic growth and food scarcity. Our RI grant may include cows, sewing machines and a community garden project. Guidance from local Rotarian Phil Silvers who has sat on the RI Board in the past. An RI grant requires a community assessment and therefore possible travel to Cameroon by two or more Rotarians. This travel cannot be paid by RI grant money and could run about $2,000.
Brief discussion followed regarding 1)Shelterbox for Guatemala, 2)Xray machine for Guatemala 3) AZ Rotary Vocational Fund. President Jo artfully and appropriatly ducked these discussions as being more correctly addressed by new President Tony Hunter. 
 
Happy Bucks
Richie-Charlie is 8.5 pounds and doing well, lost his wallet (I lost my wallet once and indirectly cost me a night in jail and $50) and he's going to Washington DC in August. One out of three isn't too bad.
Don- Spouse Kathy is undergoing her third of four scheduled eye surgeries this week
Randy-Getting out of Dodge to see his family and his best friend Bert. Don was visibly hurt by this announcement about Bert.
Denise-Happy for Tony in Toronto (probably because it is about a hundred degrees cooler there than here)
Jo- Her son is back in school in NY and living in Hell's Kitchen. (I thought that was near Yuma)
Mary-Rotary
 
Joke Off
Yes, Joke Off now gets its own heading. Maeve began by lowering the bar with a story about a guy wrapped in  cellophane  (invented by Swiss Chemist Jacques Brandenberger) going to his new psychologist for his first appointment. The psychologist exclaimed "You do not have to tell me about your situation, I can see your BLANK." Or alternatively, Randy's punch line "I can see you're BLANK" .
 
Convinced that she had another victory, Lynne went with the nervous new priest who was given advice by the Monsignor to have a small glass of vodka next to his water at the pulpit during his prsentation. Well you guessed it, the new priest over imbibes and made numerous funny errors in his homily (it truly was as if Lynne was a member of the congregation as she struggled to get through her delivery without a complete collapse from her hysterical laughter) ending with the Monsignor's admonishment "There will be a taffy pull at St Peter's Church next Sunday, not a peter pull at St Taffy's Church."
 
Denise "Lucky" West won and lost with the five of spades.
 
 Jim Evers was our speaker today. Following his retirement as an ob/gyn he has volunteered for several years at Community Home Repair Project of AZ. CHRPA.
The daily work as a new volunteer was abit too strenuous for Jim so he ended up on the board and is their current Board President. CHRPA is a 501c3 organization that does mobile home repairs for owners who are of limited means and ability. Coolers, bathrooms, floors, roofs, plumbing, ramps, etc. You name it they do it. The organization was founded over 35 years ago by Mennonites. Today they are still housed in the Mennonite  church at 30th and Wilmot and pay $1 year for the facility.
They have a million dollar a year budget and did 18oo projects last year in Tucson, primarily in the south and SW parts of town. 1/3 of the budget is from government grants, 1/3 from fees for service and 1/3 from donations. There is a shortage of funds due to city cutbacks and CHRPA is currently dipping into its surplus to provide needed projects.
Volunteers are always welcomed, with or without skills. Many winter visitor RV'ers assist and religious groups from around the world that send young volunteers to do good in the world and end up in Tucson and participate.
Volunteers include people from various backgrounds such as ob/gyn, a physicist and a Violin Player, not to mention building trades. Their culture is one of "No One Complains".
 
Jim indicated they do a couple of ramps a week and they are very willing to work with Rotary when we can share the cost and provide some hands on labor.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
See you all on July 3rd 2018 in the year of Tony The Hunter.