RON OXMAN gave the inspiration, and JON PLIMPTON joined GARY HIRSCH to lead us in the pledge and song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”. SHARON LUDWIG introduced our guests and visiting Rotarians.

 

We had three Birthday Rotarians. The estimable STU GOLDMAN admitted that he plays an awesome piano, though not very well, and continued with a tribute to his 34 years in Rotary modeled on “Somewhere” from West Side Story. GARY GETHMANN claimed he is a little wiser each year because he is a member of RCOT, and BRETT STEIN believes Rotary teaches us that it is possible to have good human relations, successful business enterprises, and still give back to the community.

 

Richard DeBernardis, founder of El Tour de Tucson, presented the El Tour Woman of the Year Award to Past President CHARLOTTE HARRIS. El Tour has made it possible for the Ride to End Polio to become Rotary’s largest fundraiser, having raised $47 M since 2012, and CHARLOTTE is recognized on a national level for her contributions to that effort.

 

President CLIFF introduced our newest member, JON PLIMPTON. In addition to starting several international companies in the field of ID Technology, JON looks forward to continuing to participate in Rotary events including selling tickets for the Car Show.

 

Past President MIKE ANDERSON and BRUCE JACOBS unveiled the 2018 TCCS Corvette, which MIKE noted will put a face on the 2018 Car Show. The car is the highest optioned, lowest mileage car in the 12-year history of the show.

 

SERGEANT AT ARMS DALE BERG again skillfully conducted the raffle and moved on to the following announcements:

 

MARK IRVIN introduced our program, featuring two “baaaaad…. persons” (sorry Mark, family publication) from Davis Monthan: Col Scott Campbell - Commander, 355^th Fighter Wing and Col Kim Campbell - Commander, 612th Theater Operations Group. The Colonels spoke about the challenges and rewards of being a military family juggling the competing demands of high level jobs. Each has several thousand hours of flying time deployed overseas, and they plan to continue their service teaching and mentoring the next generation of Air Force pilots. They encouraged us to offer help watching kids, bringing a meal and otherwise supporting military families.

 

The Colonels signed a book for our Make Way For Books library: “I Spy in The Sky” and President CLIFF finished with a toast to all the families behind and supporting our military.

ALICE MILTON - One of our newest members is a repeat!  Alice Milton joined out club some ten years ago but family and her work made it impossible to continue.  She is back in Rotary because service is in her blood and she believes in the value of synergy and working together to make the world better for all concerned.  For those of you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Alice, she is a native.  She attended Vail school back when the entire 1-8th grade was a total of sixty kids and each teacher taught two grades.  Sometimes, she and her friends rode her horses to school and staked them out on the playground all day.

 

Alice went to the U of A for undergrad and law school.  She's a bit of an overachiever, gaining an undergrad degree in political science with minors in sociology, psychology, and just shy of another one in agricultural sciences because she was working full-time and needed to finish a year early!  Since 2003 Alice has been working in the international law arena requiring her to travel widely though China, Europe, Mexico and parts of South America and is fluent in Spanish. 

 

Alice has spent the bulk of her law career working in environmental law where she sat on the Executive Committee for the Environment and Natural Resources Law Section of the Arizona State Bar.  She wrote the International Section for the Arizona Environmental Manual and was a Special Editor for the whole manual.   She negotiated that the City of Tucson fund the Sweetwater reclamation project that is now a wonderful bird preserve instead of fines for ongoing EPA violations.  Similarly, she negotiated to substitute a never-ending pump and treatment plan of the aquifer for trichloroethylene (TCE) to instead substitute a microbe treatment plan to treat TCE in place.  On the Hill, she worked on the first Arizona Wilderness Bill and with the Senate, created the Buenos Aires Refuge and added land to the Coronado National Memorial.

 

In addition to her passion for our environment, Alice is the founder of Patient Care Advocates which she started because her parents needed care.  She wanted to insure that they received the best care possible while preserving their dignity.  Patient Care Advocates is a multi-service company that provides a range of services including Medicare and private duty homecare as well as a hospital advocacy program in which an RN meets the patient in the Emergency Room to advocate for their needs.   In her opinion, the caregivers are the most important part of the Care team!  Alice exemplifies Service Above Self and demonstrates that working together, the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts!

REMINDER:  There will be NO LUNCH MEETING ON FEBRUARY 7^th due to the Gem Show.  Our next scheduled lunch meeting will be on 2/14/18 at the DoubleTree.

 

Thank you.