PRESIDENT JEN HOFFMAN opened the Cinco de Mayo meeting and introduced ABBY NAGBE to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and Song. ABBY was born in West Africa and grew up on the Ivory Coast. She’s been a member of our club since February of this year.
MITCH PISIK, another newer member of our club, offered a very well done Inspiration. Following the Inspiration, we enjoyed a good surf & turf lunch.
PRESIDENT JEN welcomed all of our guests and introduced JEFF RONSTADT to introduce our Speaker.
JEFF introduced John Court, the Head Coach of the University of Arizona Gymnastics Program. John was glad to be speaking to the largest group that he’s been a part of in over a year. He said it felt that we were returning to normalcy and hopefully he is correct! John started his career at Brown University where is Mom was a legendary Gymnastics coach of that program, then moved to Vermont. He lived on Lake Champlain in Vermont and when he had the opportunity to move to Tucson and work with the U of A, he was excited to live on the Rillito River. That sandy wash wasn’t like the rivers he was used to.“Every single day counts,” John explained as he talked about his approach to mentor his student athletes. His job is to make sure that when they graduate, that they are prepared to be successful and important members of our community. The U of A Gymnastics program has a 100% graduation rate. That’s awesome! “Continue the climb,” John said as he has helped the athletes to thrive throughout the challenge of the past year. He’s a great part of the U of A Athletics program and it was nice to have him speak to our club. The next season will start in January of 2022 and he would love to have our support and attendance at the home meets.
MIKE SAGARA was celebrating a birthday and reminded us to check our smoke alarms quarterly as well as have and practice an exit plan for our home. We need to be able to get out in under two minutes. PAT LENNON also was celebrating his birthday and ended with a quote from Jim Valvano that reminds us to laugh every day, show our emotion and don’t ever give up!
LEE OLITSKY introduced our newest member, JONATHAN ROTHSCHILD. LEE has known JOHNATHAN since 1994 and talked about JOHNATHAN’S many accomplishments. JOHNATHAN was even Tucson’s Mayor at one point. Who would have known?
CHARLOTTE HARRIS presented RICH and Judy FLYNN with their Paul Harris Awards. Among other things, RICH enjoys hiking with Rotary to the Phantom Ranch in the Grand Canyon and cycling. Judy Flynn is an artist and has had her work shown at the Mountain Oyster Club for the past 10 years.PRESIDENT JEN was back on the mic and updated us on her #Runningforrotary campaign. She will have run over 1,000 miles this year. It’s not too late to donate to support her and please do. BRUCE JACOBS let us know that the next mixer will be May 26. JEANNE ZETAH and CINDY BARBEE offered some guidance on online ticket sales. Our goal is to sell 35,000 tickets this year and we are already almost 10% of the way there. You can go online and send an automated email to all of your contacts to sell tickets. It’s easy and works!
PRESIDENT JEN closed the meeting with a toast and we were on our way out to see the new raffle car that was parked outside. It’s sweet!
