President CHUCK opened the meeting, and Car Show Chair BRUCE JACOBS gave an inspiration hoping for good weather, fun times and another successful Car Show this Saturday. VIC JACOBS led us in the Pledge and song: “Monster Mash” courtesy of the shy, retiring Rowdy Table. Thank you, BRUCE and VIC!
New member GARY FRANKS introduced our guests and Visiting Rotarians, including members of the Rotarian/Russian Peace Exchange and their Coordinator Charles Heberle. President CHUCK thanked our members who have hosted our friends from Russia.We had a record five Birthday Rotarians:
- ALLYN BULZOMI is a two-time past president for Rotary Clubs in California, has seven grandkids, and enjoys cooking. ALLYN is thankful for Rotary because it encouraged him to start an Interact Club.
- RICK ROSE enjoys classic boats and motorcycles, is a pilot and just celebrated his 25th anniversary. RICK enjoys our Club because it is a service club that still makes a difference.
- Past President JONI CONDIT has three children who were born on the same day in separate years, is a trained microbiologist, and admitted she had no idea the impact that Rotary would have on her life when her sponsor DON SHROPSHIRE encouraged her to join.
- Past President DAVE GALLAGHER enjoys fishing (with MARK IRVIN) and cooking (with ALLYN), and he thanked his best friend ALLYN for helping him make youth programs a hallmark of his presidency.
- MARK IRVIN has grown from his high school years to his current larger than life figure while growing enough gray hair to blend with his signature white streak. MARK thanked his sponsors and continues to do great things with Rio Nuevo downtown.
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ALLYN BULZOMI returned to the podium to present a Paul Harris to Kimberly Dickinson, the faculty coordinator for Roteract at Amphi. Ms. Dickinson has taught at Amphi for 19 years, has a Masters in Kinesiology, is the Physical Education Department Chair, has coached and founded numerous sports and dance teams, and most importantly supports our wonderful Roteract friends.For old times’ sake, Past Sergeant at Arms DALE BERG stood in today along with Past President CLIFF (Chuck?) BOWMAN for the following announcements:
- President CHUCK had the first five:
- The Rotary Office will be closed October 22nd & 29th
- District 5500 Fundation Day for Rotary International is coming up on November 3rd.
- The 2019-20 District Conference will be on a cruise for the second time (sign up soon!)
- We will have a replacement Mixer on October 30th at the Radisson Suite’s Orange Grove in the back of the hotel.
- …and the near final ticket sales results:candidate / Past President CHARLOTTE HARRIS over 9,000 tickets sold, BILL HARLOW approaching 7,800 tickets sold. Florida still too close to call…
- Past President CLIFF announced the Board of Directors 2019-2021 Candidates and noted that we will vote on the slate at the November 14th meeting.
- MARCIA KRUMWIEDE made a Blue Badge Presentation to LYUDA EISENMAN. LYUDA appreciates the combination of local impact and international outreach that Rotary offers and has already joined the Scholarship and Youth Exchange committees.
- Finally, Car Show Chair BRUCE JACOBS presented complimentary tickets to our incredible Doubletree servers. Thanks to all who make our lunches great!
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RICHARD WHITE introduced our speaker: Nancy Kluge - President and CEO of the Reid Park Zoological Society. Nancy is a Tucson native, UA graduate, and has won numerous awards for her work with STEM and conservation education. Nancy spoke about the current master planning process at the zoo which aims to provide larger, more appropriate spaces for the animals while providing more interactive and exciting experiences for visitors. Thanks to the recently passed voter initiative, our community zoo already provides for school field trip visits free of charge. The zoo is the largest gated attraction in Southern Arizona with over 500,000 visitors a year and recently received renewed accreditation by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. With the planned expansion, the zoo will become one of the top zoos in the country… and they plan to add river hippos! Nancy signed a book for our lending library: “Dear Zoo”.President CHUCK closed the meeting with a quote from Ernest Hemingway: “I love to go to the zoo. But not on Sunday. I don't like to see the people making fun of the animals, when it should be the other way around.”
