It was a beautiful Spring Day at the Westward Look Resort for our Rotarian meeting on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. With a murmur of excited chatter filling the room, PRESIDENT JEN HOFFMAN began the meeting on time. While muscling through a few microphone issues, JEN welcomed the attendees and introduced NICOLE LOMBARDO, a new member as of March 11th, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Star-Spangled Banner. NICOLE was followed by WES WIGGINS who through his Inspiration reminded the group that we should all be thankful for setbacks, for they are really blessings.
PRESIDENT JEN welcomed the many guests that were in attendance and chuckled that MARK IRVIN must be off his game because he only had three guests with him today. Also, joining the group was a visiting Rotarian from Dallas.
Lunch was served on time and was a delicious spectacle. It was obvious that the Westward Look was putting its best foot forward in an attempt to woo the members to select it as its future venue. The steaks were immense and beautifully presented on top of potatoes and asparagus, but the real showstopper was the chef salad. They were so large that the salad had to come with a pot of dressing and the lucky members that ordered them had enough for a few days of lunches.
PAST PRESIDENT, BOB LOGAN, comfortably introduced our speaker, DOUG HOCKSTAD, the Assistant Vice President of Tech Launch Arizona. BOB joked that Doug had previously worked with the University of Michigan so he had two opportunities to dislike Football Coach Rich Rodriguez. Doug greeted the members with enthusiasm and shared with them the mission of Tech Launch Arizona which is to help University of Arizona faculty take their life’s work or inventions and transfer it into viable businesses and technologies. They have been working on building an ecosystem anchored by the University that enables the faculty great ideas created through the University’s research to apply for Patents, earn Patents, and build businesses that license these products for use. In the last few years, Tech Launch Arizona has created over 70 businesses, created 5000+ jobs, and made an economic impact of over $500M. Doug highlighted a few of their most recent products including a trifocal lens that over 500,000 people have already used, a bio-material that sprayed on known dust-ridden areas can prevent dust storms from being swept up, and a chemical given to rats that can prevent them from pro-creating. He noted that just cutting 5% of the population of rats in China could feed hundreds of millions of people in China through added rice production. It was around the time of the rat information that delicious root beer floats were delivered to each table as dessert.
As customary, JEN congratulated both KATHY KITAGAWA and NINA TRASOFF on their upcoming birthdays. The birthday wishes were followed by ELLIE PATTERSON’S beautiful introduction of FAYE MORSE who has been a long-time Rotarian and deservedly earned the Triple Crown Pin. FAYE beamed with pride as ELLIE shared her life story with members and all that she has achieved and given through her time as a Rotarian.
It was serendipitous that after FAYE earned her Triple Crown Pin, her husband won the 25/50/25 raffle!
After several announcements, JOE DANISZEWSKI presented the Blue Badge to TAMARA CRIMANDO followed by a second blue badge presentation from MARIANNE FREITAS to LYNN and family member DAN DEVOU. Congratulations TAMARA, LYNN and DAN!
As the meeting closed, we were reminded that next week’s speaker will be JOHN COURT, Head Coach of the University of Arizona Gymnastics Team at Westward Look. PRESIDENT JEN gave the toast and the meeting was adjourned.
