Past President ELLIE PATTERSON opened our meeting filling in for President CLIFF who was away on very secret business (ok, we exaggerate a little).
KANDIE VACTOR gave an eloquent inspiration including a wish that every day could be celebrated as Earth Day. BILL HARLOW asked for a moment of silence to remember Honorary Member SUE VARNEY, wife of Past President BILLY JOE VARNEY. BILL remembered that Sue’s grace and warmth were appreciated by all.
STU GOLDMAN led us in the Pledge and then joined GARY HIRSCH to conduct us in a spirited version of “You’re a Grand Ole Flag”. ASHLEY ELAINE YORK introduced our guests and visiting Rotarians.
Finally, ALLYN BULZOMI introduced two Interact students from Amphitheater High School who gave speeches about the relevance of the Four Way Test to aspects of their lives. Both gave amazing speeches.We had one Birthday Rotarian, the marvelous KATHY KITAGAWA. KATHY quoted Jodi Picoult to say that equity is taking account of differences so everyone has a chance to succeed and announced that she will be spending her birthday in the Galapagos.
Sergeant at Arms DALE BERG discovered President CLIFF hiding in the wings, and then proceeded directly through announcements:
- Past President ELLIE reminded us of the Monthly Social Mixer at Trident (4/26) and of our Dark Day on 4/18 in lieu of Home Hospitality.
- SHARON LUDWIG announced a Wine Tasting Event on 4/19 in a wine cellar she designed.
- BRUCE JACOBS introduced our next Car Show Chair (drumroll please…) JASON GRABOSCH. Good luck JASON!
- …and TED FORSBERG invited us all to the Boy Scouts’ Good Scout Award on Thursday 4/26.
Our program speaker was introduced by “The Most Interesting Man on the Planet” Past President JON WANG. JON introduced Maricela Solis de Kester, Director of Operations for World View. Maricela is a Tucson Native, graduate of Rincon High School, past CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and past staffer for both Ron Barber and Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. World View chose Tucson for its headquarters and contributes substantially to our local economy. World View manufacturers, launches and flies Stratollites (balloons that lift satellite-like payloads into the stratosphere above 60,000 feet and below 140,000 feet above sea level). Stratollites are a far more economical way to launch and fly sensing devices for private companies as well as government entities such as the NASA and the Department of Defense. Soon to follow are space tourism flights starting at $75,000. (Sign up now STU!) Maricela signed a book for our lending library: “I Spy Pets”.Past President ELLIE closed our meeting with a quote from World View’s website “Sometimes to break new ground, you have to leave it.”
