President Cliff is continuing the tradition of having our 5^th Wednesday meeting away from the DoubleTree. Our Social Committee has planned an event on Wednesday, August 30th at the GAP Ministries located at 2861 N. Flowing Wells Road. This function will take the place of our regularly scheduled Wednesday lunch meeting.   Registration is now closed for this event but if you are interested in attending, please call the Rotary office.  Guest Fee is $15 which will be billed to your account.

 

PRESIDENT CLIFF opened the meeting and in keeping with today’s presentation, TED KIRACOFE noted that divine intervention only applies to player safety and maybe good refereeing – thank you TED.

 

GARY HIRSCH on the piano, and ASHLEY ELAINE YORK, lead the club in Pledge and Song. In her swan song, JANET BARBRICK introduced our Guests and Visiting Rotarians.

 

We had four birthday Rotarians – HUGH THOMPSON, SUZANNE LAWDER, CHRISTOPHER SHIREMAN, and SID HIRSH. HUGH noted the rewards of service, SUZANNE reminded us that JOE NEVIN is right as always, CHRISTOPHER converted 60 years to 16 degrees Celsius, and SID stressed the importance of good shoes.

 

BOB ERNSTEIN introduced ASHLEY ELAINE YORK as our newest member. ASHLEY recalled reading Paul Harris’ book and what an impact it had on her life.  Welcome to the Club ASHLEY!

 

For Announcements, PRESIDENT CLIFF reminded us of the District 5500 Membership Seminar on August 26^th which will focus on recruiting young professionals, and invited everyone to the month’s Social Mixer at Trident II, on August 24^th at 5:30 pm. JOHN LEWIS reminded everyone to sign up for the Replacement Member Mixer at GAP Ministries as soon as possible to help fix the head count (No Lunch Meeting next week), and MIKE SAGARA spoke about the upcoming Work Project on September 23rd installing smoke alarms with the American Red Cross. Past President JIM MURPHY introduced our newest Car Show Major Sponsor Madden Media – Thank you JILL and KEVIN MADDEN. Past President JONI CONDIT gave a quick summary of all the impact that the Car Show’s main recipient Make Way for Books has – 31,000 beneficiaries who are 70% more likely to graduate high school after being exposed to reading at an early age.

 

Past President JON WANG introduced today’s speaker University of Arizona Women’s Basketball Coach ADIA BARNES. Coach Barnes still holds the UA scoring record, won PAC 12 Player of the Year, and then played 12 years of professional basketball. Coach Barnes talked about coming home to the University of Arizona, and about the influence Coach Joan Bonvicini had on her development. Coach Barnes sees her role as developing the whole person, and in one year her team won the Community Outreach Award, achieved a 3.08 GPA, and brought in the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation. Best of luck Coach Barnes!

 

This year's District Conference will be held on October 13-15, 2017.  We are returning to the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel Reid Park in Tucson.  Rooms are available for only $79 per night, plus taxes.  Early Bird Registration is only $185 for the entire conference - and what a conference it will be!  Keynote speakers are Jennifer Jones, Susan B. Neuman, Michael Angelo Caruso and John Matthews - our own Rotary International Director.  There will be more than 20 breakout sessions and special events for our Interactors and Rotaractors Saturday morning.  Sunday morning will be special, with a salute to Rotarian veterans and active duty personnel.  A special conference website will be up and running by Sunday, July 16. Watch for the link on the District 5500 website: rotaryd5500.org.  Sign up early to qualify for the low room rates and special Early Bird Registration.

 

Scholarships Available!  If you want to participate in the District Conference but the cost is stretching your budget and preventing your attendance, contact President Cliff.  President Cliff is offering up to four scholarships for RCoT Rotarians covering the full district cost of $185.  No forms to fill out, no documents required - just one easy phone call or email. 

 

There will be a service project on Saturday September 9 from 8:30 to 12:30 AM to help shine up the new offices and balconies in the historic Glenwood Hotel.  There will be plenty of opportunities for painting railings and window sills and sanding of floors on the porches. Other small and light chores will be available.  ATC recently acquired their new digs and they will look even better with RCOT help.  Please register with Dave Gallaher or Mike Orcutt.  Dave can be reached via email dave@tucsonindustrialrealty.com .

The Southern AZ Chapter of the American Red Cross will be installing FREE 10 year smoke alarms in locations throughout Tucson on Saturday, September 23, 2017 from 8:00 AM to Noon.  We are in need of volunteers to help install the smoke alarms.  There will be training available at the beginning of the event at a location to be announced.  The goal is to install 1,000 alarms throughout Southern AZ, with a reach to 450 homes using 350 volunteers.

For more information and to register:  www.redcross.org/local/az-nm-el-paso/home-fire-safety

Any questions, please contact Mike Sagara, Public Information Officer, 520-403-7408, or mike.sagara@redcross.org.

GAP Ministries is a non-profit social-service agency founded in 1999 with a fervent mission to “stand in the GAP” for those who are vulnerable and struggling in our community. GAP Ministries has long been an advocate for the most vulnerable members of our community from its start as an agency caring for foster children, to its newest undertaking as a rehabilitative Culinary Training Program targeting the indigent, ex-offenders, youth “aging out” of foster care and other similarly vulnerable populations.  GAP Ministries serves the community in three core areas: Children, Family, Community.

 

CHILDREN: GAP cares for over 400 foster children and teens annually in 14 family-model group homes in Tucson. Siblings are able to stay together while in care due to the larger size of our homes and children are given love and support through the stability afforded through a family model. Teens and young adults are given additional support to successfully “age out” of foster care through mentoring, job skills training and independent living programs.

 

FAMILY: GAP certifies foster parents in order to provide a safe environment for children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect. GAP also supervise court-mandated visitations between children and their families, in the desire that children and parents reestablish a healthy relationship while working toward family restoration when possible.

 

COMMUNITY: GAP’s Community warehouse partners with Good 360, local organizations and over 35 non-profits in order to redistribute fresh food and basic needs items to over 4,000 families weekly. Over 759,000 pounds of produce and perishable items are distributed annually throughout the community by GAP’s partner non-profits and churches. Southern Arizona nonprofits that serve the marginalized annually receive over $836,000 worth of hygiene items, paper goods, cleaning supplies etc. from GAP’s warehouse. GAP Culinary Training Program provides on the job training to young adults; students increase their marketability while giving back to the community by preparing meals for thousands of low-income, at-risk children and families throughout Pima County.

 

GAP kitchen was built in 2014 with a vision to impact those in need by reclaiming highly-perishable food, turning almost-spoiled tomatoes into marinara sauce, on-the-verge strawberries into preservatives. Since its opening GAP has served over 160,000 meals to the homeless and destitute!

 

GAP’s Culinary Training Program offers 10 weeks of tuition free culinary training to low-income, unemployed, underemployed, destitute, ex-offenders and youth who have aged out of foster care. This is an enormous undertaking with the capacity to impact the lives of so many hurting families and individuals in our community as GAP works to help them move from a position of surviving to truly thriving. The Culinary Training Program would not happen without the generous support of the Rotary Club of Tucson!