PRESIDENT MARGARET HIGGINS greeted us with a G’Day mates and warned us that she might be irritable, so watch out. Introducing STEVE OCHOA to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and then introduce our SAA DAN KALM who led us in “The Star Spangled Banner” while playing his guitar.

 

It was then JEFF RONSTADT’S turn to inspire us, challenging us to use our brains and unlock the decoding potential within ourselves.

 

Sergeant at Arms DAN KALM introduced our guests. Glad to have so many visit our club!

 

MICHAEL GUYMON introduced our keynote speaker:

 

Today’s program featured Chad Herzog, Associate Vice President of the University of Arizona and winner of the National Mascot Competition. He spoke of Arizona Arts Live working to make Tucson an Arts destination. AZ Arts Live's goal is to “Inspire Creativity, Enrich the Culture of our Community and Elevate our Place in the World.” Their goal is to make it about the community not just the University; partnering with The Rialto, Fox, muralists, restaurants and local artists to provide support to the artists but make the Art accessible to all. He also shared the top secret list of the upcoming shows. Buy your tickets and support this community treasure.

 

We were lucky to have Assistant District Governor Ann Huber in the audience today.

 

We celebrated two birthdays today; CONRAD PLIMPTON, who is an Improv actor and performs on YouTube and JENN DELANEY, a new woman thanks to the new hardware she has in her ankle.

 

You know it’s a good meeting when we introduce new members and today we did! WOCKY REDSAR-WIERZBINSKI introduced GANT GEORGE. And MICHAEL GUYMON introduced new member NANCY GUNGOR. Welcome to the Greatest Rotary Club in the World.

 

SAA DAN KALM announced the winner of the raffle, (not the 50/50) and the winner was KURTIS DAWSON, congratulations.

 

Lots of announcements that PRESIDENT MARGARET shared:

Members please update your profiles and email addresses in ClubRunner.

Denim Car Show Shirts are now available, if you want one sign up at the registration table.

LEE OLITZSKY gave us the car show update.

DAN KALM reminded us about the Whiskey tasting event tonight at his home, six spaces still available.

BRUCE RICHARDSON- Hike this Saturday 8/5 to Butterfly Point.

CLIFF BOWMAN- Had a Happy Jackson announcing the birth of his first Granddaughter, Violet Kathleen!! Congratulations to the family!

VICKIE JACOBS- March Madness 2024, membership drive… who will you invite?

JEANNE ZETAH introduced our new RYE student Kanon Nakamura, from Totorri, Japan and she spoke for a few moments.  Welcome to Tucson Kanon!

 

Remember next week there will be no meeting. The next meeting will be on 8/16 and feature Don Guerra with the Barrio Bread Company.

 

PRESIDENT MARGARET ended the meeting with a Toast.

On August 2, 2023 -As was justifiably anticipated, the Fourth Inaugural RCOT Whiskey Event was the largest and most fun of them all. (and all the previous ones were a wonderful time).

 

The two dozen Rotarians, who are the most accomplished at prioritizing their time, attended the festivities - bringing rare, interesting, and beautiful tasting whiskeys from around the world. We also feasted on the most flavorful and creative homemade pizzas this side of Chicago.

 

The gregarious Dan and Karen Kalm opened their festive home for the event. Are there more gracious hosts? Oh No, no there are not.

 

We had a wonderful mix of several of our newest members, and a bevy of our veteran Rotarians.  We had almost as many women as men. The commonality of all the attendees is that everyone was disarmingly gorgeous, fun, warm, and were quintessentially cool.

 

Everyone is asking if there will be a Fifth Inaugural Whiskey Event? Oh Yes, yes there will be!

We had a rather large group for Saturday morning's hike that turned out to be a very warm and challenging trek on the Butterfly trail in the Catalinas.  Joined by Rotarians Chuck Sawyer, Michael Guymon, Don Riegger & wife Mallory, friends of Rotary Bill & Melody Mesch as well as Julie Kennedy & David Koepp.  We traversed the mountain for 5.5 hours making new friends along the way in Kindle & Collin who joined us at the midway point.  9 hikers went in, 11 hikers came out so another successful adventure, in the books!

We will no longer be streaming our meetings live via Facebook but we will be streaming live via our YouTube Channel.  We are encouraging you all to subscribe to our Channel in order to receive notices of when the meetings are streaming live.  After the live meeting, this video will become a recording and immediately posted on our YouTube Channel.  To view live CLICK HERE.