Hello Rotary!  

Here’s hoping 2026 has been good to you so far – here’s what’s been happening in our club….

Unite For Good is the RI motto for this year, and our RCOT goal is to Unite Southern Arizona through Connections, Collaboration, Community, Compassion and Cookies!

 Connections:

Our club thrives on connection, camaraderie and communication and we have so many opportunities for all!

Fellowship:  Lots of activity with our Fellowships - Book Club, Cycling, Golf, Hiking, Wine and our newest - Axe Throwing! The Whisky and Agave groups combined to become the Desert Spirits Fellowship and are off to a well-attended start!

EAT: Events Around Town have lived up to the name! Rotary friends gathered for lunch ALL around town, including: at the Parish Gastro Pub, Locale, Lodge on the Desert, Trattoria Pina, Bai Thong, Opa’s Best, Hotel Congress, Kingfisher, Lodge on the Desert, Hacienda del Sol, Sher-E-Punjab, Mojo Cuban Kitchen, Vero Amore, Reforma, Mountain Oyster Club, Forbes Meat Co, Guadalajara Grill, Bashful Bandit, Redbird Scratch Kitchen, Canyon Crown and Café A La Carte. 

Thanks to our hosts: Mark Irvin, John Duval, David Lovitt, Glenn Ewing, Bobby Larson, Bruce Jacobs, Kurtis Dawson, Chuck Sawyer, Vickie Jacobs, Marcia Krumweide, John Doerr, Rich Flynn, Jonathan Walkup, Dot Kret. And thanks for joining us, Bobby Jo and Darlene!

Way To Go Rotarians: We recognized our members: Nina Trasoff, Luis Hernandez, Bobby Larson, Chris Edwards (Grand Marshall of the Tucson Rodeo Parade!), Gary Hirsch, Mike Anderson and Aimee Graves and we were recognized as a Shelter Box Hero!

Mixers:  Our two mixers this quarter were quite fun and well attended. Barrio Brewing and Trident Grill II were great locations with good food mixed with laughter and friendship!

Collaboration:

Working together with other clubs and District 5500 has been a priority and we are moving along nicely…

Global Grant: Our collaboration with Rotary International and The Forgotten Children in Senegal is already a success story – our Global Grant has been approved and implementation has begun! Thanks to Jim Lubinski, our GG coordinator, who has been working tirelessly (and in French!) to get the project underway.  A team of 9 Rotarians visited in December and have another trip planned for November. 

Youth Programs: RYLA training: We sponsored 12 kids – several from our Club and more from other clubs who had more participants than money to sponsor them.

Programs: Thanks to our amazing program committee for the excellent line-up of speakers! Including our own Elijah Ndoye and Hugh Thompson speaking about the Global Grant program and trip to Senegal to get it started. We heard from Dave White and Alan Rogers: Car Show Charity Presentations and Car Reveal; From Mike Ortega about the RTA; Rob Draper, O'Reilly Chevrolet; Anne Breckenridge Barrett, CEO Tucson Museum of Art; Assistant Police Chief Mickey Peterson, Tucson Youth Music program; Dr. Lisa Chamberlain, Steele Children’s Research; and Edmund Marquez, who introduced us to the Tucson Sugar Skulls.

On April 8 we had a fireside chat with our Senator Mark Kelly - and by ‘we’ I mean 220 of our Rotary friends, family and visitors (the largest attendance for a program yet)!  The site shows more than 150 hits – people who logged in to watch it on our You Tube channel.  We had two meeting sponsors: Alan Schrope and Camp Bow Wow, and David Lex from PakMail – thank you both! It was great to see him in person and hear his thoughts on what’s happening in the country, Artemis 2 and reflections of growing up in New Jersey!

Community:

We are all about community – and community service!

Car Show:The Tucson Classics Rotary Car Show has given out more than $3 Million to charitable organizations in our community!  This year we awarded Job Path and the Amphi ECHO program $53,415.20 each, and our primary recipient, the Pima College START program got a huge check for $106,830.39! In all, we raised – and gave away - $213,661!  

Car Show recipient charities for 2026’s Plenty for Twenty, which will be October 24, under the leadership of Alan Rogers, are: Youth On Their Own, Interfaith Community Services and the Amphi ECHO Foundation. Dan Kalm will be taking the helm for the 2027 show – Way to Go!

Service Projects: 2 new projects were begun this quarter: TRAK (Therapeutic Ranch for Animals and Kids), thanks to Nancy Gutt, and Jim Murphy organized our donations for the Western Winds Apartments.  On-going efforts included the Community Food Bank, Tucson Clean and Beautiful (We've adopted Oracle Road, between River and Wetmore - be sure to look out for our sign when you drive by!), Triangle Y, Camp Lawton, Salvation Army, Youth Services (Interact, Rotaract, Youth Exchange, RYLA), Reading Coaches at Robison, The Haven, Boys & Girls Club,  AZ Trail maintenance.

El Tour/ RTEP: Congratulations and appreciation to Luis Hernandez for taking on the role of coordinating Rotary events for District 5500.

Scholarships: We have contributed to students attending the UofA, Pima College and to vocational programs via the TRVFA (The Rotary Vocational Fund of AZ).

Outreach: Thank you to Tom Moulton (the Morning Voice), Mitch Pisik, Brittany Battle and Mark Irvin for the excellent news, radio and print coverage for our various activities.  With your help, the Tucson community is learning about Rotary and how we Unite for Good! There was lots of coverage for Senator Kelly’s presentation (and most of the articles/stories even mentioned Rotary by name!) 

Compassion: 

Condolences: We lost 2 members recently.  Kiote Erickson in March and Conrad Plimpton on April 19. Please keep their families in your thoughts.

Giving Moments: Several of the community contributions we’ve made have been publicly shared with the group:  Kino Rotary’s Global Grant in Kenya,  Tucson Wildlife Center, Tucson Museum of art, RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership), Tucson Girls’ Chorus and ShelterBox, with more to come! 

Cookies:

As Bob Morken has said, cookies are his Kryptonite!  He’s likely not the only one who feels this way, so our Cookie Monster Sponsors are very appreciated!

Cookie Monster Sponsors: Matt Sinclair, Backflow Prevention; Anonymous; Ralph Phillips, Fair Wheel Bikes; Luis Hernandez, Hercor Insurance; Dan Kalm, State Farm; Gary Olsen, Restoration 1; Mitch Pisik, Business Consulting; Cary Benjamin, Done Rite Services; Lori Schroeder; Faye Morse and Eric Smith.  Thank you all!

Coming Up:

Bittersweet changes are coming to our office as we say Goodbye and Good Luck to Deborah Munoz-Chacon and appreciate her for the two years she spent with us.  We also say Welcome to Ashley York, who will be filling in. 

Meetings:  Upcoming programs include the ever-popular Mix and Mingle, UA Archeology Professor Paul Cressman; Becky Burke – U of A Women’s Basketball coach; the also popular Home Hospitality; The Rotary Foundation and the Change of Administration (wow – already?!?!)

Many thanks are due to your 2025-2026 Board members Brittany Battle, Jason Grabosch, Michael Guymon, Diana Madaras, Alan Schrope and Jonathan Walkup as well as Sergeant at Arms Dan Kalm, Secretary Jenn Delaney, Treasurer Glenn Ewing, Past President Kurtis Dawson and President-elect Bobby Larson. Congratulations and welcome to 2026-27 Board members Cami Evans, John Duval and Bill Tong!  

And thank you all for your support, fellowship and friendship!

~~ Dot Kret, President 2025-26

PRESIDENT DOT rang the bell at 12 noon, for all to enjoy their lunch and be back in 15 minutes.  At the start of the meeting, we were led in the Pledge & Song by new member KASEY O’CONNOR and the song was “God Bless America”.

CAMI EVANS gave our Inspiration and SAA DAN KALM welcomed our Rotarians and introduced our Guests.

This week’s Cookie Monster sponsor was FAYE MORSE and ERIC SMITH.  Thanks to you both for allowing the group to enjoy their cookies this week.

Who could do a better job introducing our program other than RICKY HUNLEY, who spoke about Edmund Marquez, President of the Tucson Sugar Skulls.  Edmund told us of the story of how he came to be the Owner and President of the Sugar Skulls. The Tucson Sugar Skulls are now locally owned by 13 local CEOS here in Tucson.  Indoor football is exciting, smaller court, and lots of action.  Edmund needs our help and encouranged everyone to come out and see the Sugar Skulls.  Have a group night, bring your employees, bring your friends, have a Rotary night, sponsor the team.  The energy in the stands has been fantastic, the fans have been great and we have an amazing Booster Club.  Come out and have fun!  Edmund signed the book “My First Book of Football” for the Make Way for Books Library.

We all wished JON WANG a happy belated birthday, as his birthday was March 15^th.  Happy Birthday JON!

We had two new member introductions.  First, ROGER LAFAYE introduced new member, LEAH RANALLI, her classification is Service Industries:  Plumbing.  Second, KEVIN BARKER introduced new member, KASEY O’CONNOR whose classification is also Service Industries: Plumbing.  Hard to believe we haven’t had a plumber in the club, and now we have two.  Welcome LEAH and KASEY to our remarkable Club!

Blue badges were presented by ROGER HARWELL to THOMAS GOMEZ – Southwest Heritage Bank and PHIL GUTT presented a blue badge to SCOTT TILLEY of TRAK.  Congratulations to you both from going Red to Blue!!!

JO DECHATELET informed us of the Club's Foundation's Legacy Society and how to become a member of this Society.

SAA DAN KALM had Edmund pick the raffle ticket and card.  Unfortunately, the King of Clubs was not chosen and the pot increases once again. Keep an eye out at our next lunch meeting, to play and possibly win big!

Announcements were made:

DOT announced that Deborah was leaving the Rotary Office for a new adventure, we say goodbye to Deborah.  Ashley will be joining us, we say welcome to Ashley!

DOT went through the slides of Red Badge Selfies.

DOT announced the Time Capsule at Hotel Congress this evening.

DOT also announced the sign ups are now up on the website for the Event on 4/22.

DOT reminded members to donate to TRVFA.

DIANA MADARAS announced the March Service Project Winner – Congrats WALLY JOHNSON.

BRITTANY BATTLE – had a Marketing Minutes for the Club and a Happy Jackson.

JEANNE ZETAH – Car Show Minute – Sell those tickets.

ALAN ROGERS – Happy Jackson.

PRESIDENT DOT reminded all to donate to the Scholarship Cups and she thanked Edmund for taking the time to talk to us about the Tucson Sugar Skulls.  Next week is the Event so no lunch meeting.  Welcome LEAH and KASEY.  Congrats to THOMAS and SCOTT on your blue.  Happy Birthday JON WANG.

The Toast was given by CAMI EVANS and the meeting was adjourned.

A big thank you to the RCOT members and guests for your support and enthusiasm at the April 18 Adopt-a-Road cleanup! Our group was a little small this time, but Karen Kalm brought along colleagues who jumped right in and made a real difference.  Participants:  Holly Stein, Mike Rhode, Patrick Randles, Karen Kalm, Lee O. Not pictured, Jerry Sullivan.

This community service project truly benefits everyone by helping keep our streets very clean and looking their best. Our next and final cleanup before the summer heat arrives will be Saturday, May 16, at 8:00 AM. We’d love to see you join your fellow Rotarians on 5/16/26 for one last great morning of service and community impact.