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:

 

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.”

Aimee Graves was born in Savanna, GA and graduated from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont with a Master’s in International Administration and from the University of Georgia with undergraduate degrees in Communication Studies and Spanish. Her father and his brothers sold the Bluffton Seafood Company and oyster factory in South Carolina they'd inherited and her father apprenticed to be a foundry man in Oklahoma. After that, they kept moving west because her father’s clients were primarily Western sculptors. Once he had his own foundry, they lived in Missouri, Colorado, and Arizona, eventually settling back in Georgia. Aimee is a CARF surveyor and a consultant for organizations seeking accreditation.

 

Aimee laughs, cries and howls over fiction. Novels that she goes back to time and again are “Handling Sin” by Michael Malone, “The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell because both of them speak to the messiness and hope of life. She also enjoys non-fiction about history and religion such as “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford for its broad take on how we have been influenced by others from long ago; and many works by Elaine Pagels, Mathew Fox, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan and Karen Armstrong for inspiration.

 

Aimee enjoys cooking, gardening both vegetables and flowers, bike-riding, canoeing and camping. Since there was no TV in her father’s house, her family did all of these activities together for fun and sustenance.  They still ground Aimee in her urban-life today.

 

Mike Harris and Aimee have been married for 23 years. They bought a 1941 adobe house in New Deal Acres (commonly known as Blenman-Elm) and have been fixing it up together since 1998. It’s the project that never ends! Both of them adore their two Pomeranians, Isa and Mamie. Aimee wrote a piece about her background and wanted to share it with her fellow Rotarians.

 

 

Mine is a Southern family with a

carpetbagger branch.

My childhood of Spanish moss and red

bugs and gnats.

Live music played in homes with sour cream

and McCormick’s French Dip seasoning.

 

I am of specially-homemade-for-me

school clothes,

Canoe trips down crystal Ozark creeks—

Huge fish shadows on the river beds.

 

I am from the smell of radiators and wooden school house floors and

“Scott + Aimee” carved high up in a Sycamore.

Guinnea hens, goats and Sassafras root tea,

am I from.

And hot, moist chocolate garden dirt,

pink salamander caught in the leaf pile fire.

 

Bushels of beans to be snapped in

Grandmama’s lap.

I am from aluminum steamers on every

relatives’ kitchen stove—pip! pip! pipping!

Smell of rice and butter beans.

 

Screen door slamming in the summer’s heat, too hot even

for a sheet on the sleeping porch.

Please welcome the following new members into the Rotary Club of Tucson.  They will be introduced to the club at a meeting in the near future.

 

New Family Member:  Tamah Donaldson

 

Classification:  Family

 

Sponsor:  Jim Murphy

___________________________________________________

My fellow Rotarians,

 

We stand at $35K on our way to our goal of $50K for Annual Fund giving.  As a reminder, the club will match points for every dollar that you donate to the Annual Fund which all will go to a Paul Harris Fellowship.  For example, if you donate $500 to the Annual Fund, the club will match your donation with 500 points, and you will receive a Paul Harris Fellowship!  It is a win-win for everyone!  Donations to the Rotary Foundation via the Annual Fund are kept in reserve for three years.  The interest from this three-year reserve is used to fund Rotary International operations.  At the end of the three years, 100% of the funds are equally split with half going to the World Fund as the monetary mechanism for Rotarian international projects supporting Rotary's six areas of focus.  The other half is given back to the Districts to use in local projects such as our club's tree project this year.  We have 10 more weeks to reach our goal.  Thank you for being such a fun and generous club, but more importantly, for truly making a difference in our local and global communities.