As the members walked in the song and video “Imagine” by John Lennon could be seen on the big screen for all. PRESIDENT BRUCE JACOBS rang the bell at 12pm to get the meeting started then welcomed everyone.
PRESIDENT BRUCE JACOBS called for a moment of silence for a few members; RICHARD ROWLEY’S wife, Jean recently passed away, DIANA MADARAS’ mother passed away this past weekend, and one last moment for ROBIN STODDARD whose son-in-law passed away too. We all bowed our heads in honor and sadness for our members and their families.
We were led in the pledge and song by MATTHEW GASPARI. Today’s song was “Star Spangled Banner” with the assistance from KHRIS DODGE on the keyboard.
The inspirational moment was given by DOT KRET. DOT spoke about how remarkable our club is. DOT then highlighted the impact PRODIP DUTTA has made during his time in our club, over 7,000 families have been lifted out of poverty because of the vision, passion, and mission of PRODIP. He implemented and still supports a micro-loan program in India that is managed by Monks, he continues to donate and give back annually to this program. We then all gave a ‘Hip-Hip-Hooray’ for PRODIP!
After lunch and fellowship, PRESIDENT BRUCE introduced SERGEANT AT ARMS, KHRIS DODGE, who then introduced our guests for this Wednesday.
PRESIDENT BRUCE was back at the podium to introduce our speaker for this Wednesday meeting, Renee Gonzales, CEO of Long Realty Companies. Renee’s presentation was very insightful. She spoke about our current real estate market and its trends. Renee shared statistics regarding the current market, what has been happening and what she anticipates the future will bring. HINT: watch the California and Phoenix markets. Tucson typically follows those trends right after. The trends normally start on the coasts then move inland as they progress. Renee was very informative in her presentation and offered slides to show the trends. She left us with the most important part of her presentation; the best investment you can put your money into is real estates, it will always be real estate. Build that equity! After Renee’s presentation the book “The Little House” was signed by Renee Gonzales for our Make Way for Books Library as we continue to support children’s literacy in Tucson. We celebrated our Rotary Birthdays next! Happy birthday to: ANGELA MOORE who celebrated her birthday on 6/25, DAVE WHITE who celebrated on 7/6, and DIANA CANNON who celebrated her birthday on 7/13. A very happy birthday to all of you.
We had the great pleasure of having PDG HANK HUISKING at today’s meeting. She is here to present the District Award for Rotary Year 2021-2022 to our Club and to PAST PRESIDENT MARK IRVIN. HANK’s speech let our club know that we have a fabulous fundraising reputation. To receive the award the certain criteria needed to be met:
- To increase our membership.
- To empower women.
- To have a wonderful Rotary Day of Service.
- To do something to help the people in Ukraine.Rotary Club of Tucson is in the Silver Hero Club; we’ve given $3,000 to Shelter Box.District 5500 went above and beyond and gave a total of $110K to Shelter Box in 2021-2022.
The winners also received $100 to put into the General Fund. PAST DISTRICT GOVERNOR HANK then presented PAST PRESIDENT MARK IRVIN with a lovely Rotary Lantern. The lantern lights up the room with the Rotary logo.
Next up was a Paul Harris Award to Steve Koeppen presented by BOB LOGAN. Steve was instrumental to our club during the BOB LOGAN ‘reign of terror’ presidential year and during the COVID-19 nightmare. BOB gave a brief history of Steve’s background. He worked closely with our Club to get our YouTube channel up and running. He worked for Rick Rose and Film Creations through 2021. BOB is personally grateful to Steve for the critical role he played during and after BOB’s presidential year and during the pandemic. All of the meetings were filmed at Film Creations where Steve spent hours and hours editing the content for publishing them to our YouTube Channel. The Club all stood to welcome Steve as our newest Paul Harris Fellow. Then BOB presented the ‘gifts of little to little or no value’ to Steve. 
We had another new member inducted at this meeting. DOUG LOWELL introduced RICH KENNEY as our newest member. RICH is a Realtor for Long Realty Companies. RICH made DOUG’s recent house purchase extremely easy and the two became fast friends. Welcome RICH!
The Raffle and King of Clubs game presented by SERGEANT AT ARMS KHRIS DODGE. The King of Clubs card was not drawn. Better luck to all club members next meeting.
Announcements:
PRESIDENT BRUCE JACOBS introduced PAST PRESIDENT MARK IRVIN to the podium. MARK introduced the 2023-2025 Board of Directors Candidates. Those candidates are Kym Adair, Nicole Lombardo, David Lovitt, Diana Madaras, Mitch Pisik and Nina Trasoff. Next week the ballots will be on the tables, and you will receive an absentee ballot via email soon as well.
PRESIDENT BRUCE JACOBS was back up to announce his Miles of Memories campaign for his Rotary Presidential Year. BRUCE plans to walk over 2,000 miles this year, there are registration forms on the tables or at the registration desk to sponsor PRESIDENT BRUCE.
HUGH THOMPSON was up to present a Blue Badge to DOUG LOWELL. Congratulations DOUG on your Blue!!!PRESIDENT BRUCE JACOBS closed with a final thought of having some fun this year. He wants us to have Wacky Wednesdays where we have a theme that connects back to our speaker or program. Next week we have the Chief of Police, Chad Kasmar speaking at our meeting. BRUCE would like us to have a ‘blue out’ at our next meeting for the Chief. Thank you to all our members, guests, and virtual attendees. The scholarship cups are on the table if you’d like to donate and, remember to return your badge in your numbered slot on your way out. PRESIDENT BRUCE gave the final toast before ringing the bell to adjourn the meeting.
