Our wonderful and beautiful PRESIDENT ELLIE opened the hump day meeting with a statement that April is a “busy” Rotary month.  The President wore a lovely blue dress with a blue pearl necklace – way to go PRESIDENT ELLIE.

 

WOCKY REDSAR gave the Inspiration by quoting some life lessons – I guess DOT KRET’S previous meeting Inspiration had an effect on our members.  WOCKY’S best quote was “you will meet the love of your life at 2 a.m. in a bar”.

 

GARY HIRSCH played and DIANA CANNON sang “My Country Tis of Thee”.  I always thought that this song sounded somewhat religious.  I love these old patriotic songs.

 

Our visiting Rotarians included Michael Drake, a former District Governor, Virginia Leavitt, aka “Ginger” and Les Gelband from Missouri.  There were a handful of other guests who were introduced by JEFF RONSTADT.

 

There were no birthday boys and girls – this was a first in a quite a while.

 

DALE BERG introduced new member, BRO CRAIG to the club.  BRO is from Coos Bay, Oregon, timber country and DALE is checking on BRO’S birth certificate to see if there is an actual “BRO” name on it – just for your information, “BRO” is not a “brother”.

 

SAA, FONDA INSLEY had a raffle which included Performance Footwear Gift Certificate from JAMES JOHNSTON, Harlow Gardens, DOT KRET’S Archive Advantage, TERESA BAKER donated a hair cut from Supercuts and CONRAD PLIMPTON donated a makeup collection.

 

Under Announcements:

Former President ARNIE JACOBSEN introduced our speaker and fellow club member, JERRY HARRIS.  JERRY, a very emotional guy, gave us a marvelous insight to his book writing ideas.  His presentation was chocked full of Western lore – a hand is 4” high – pronghorn antelope don’t jump so high so the rancher puts his first strand of barb wire 19” off the ground which allows the antelope to crawl under it.  A squeeze box operation at round up takes less than two minutes to give cattle a shot, brand, castrate, and ear tag. 

 

JERRY also showed how the Western ranchers conserve the land how a good “cutting horse” can move the herd from one pasture to another.  JERRY gave many thanks to fellow member and rancher, TIM PUNTENNEY, Mr. Checkered Shirt and the #1 student in his Agriculture U of A class!  We all enjoyed this cowboy Western presentation by JERRY.

 

Our meeting was brought to a close by PRESIDENT ELLIE with a toast to books and Dr. Seuss.

We are preparing to open the 2^nd chapter of the Rotary Club of Tucson Business Roundtable. If you have already been in touch with Gary you need not do anything at this point. If you have not, please send an email to rotariangary@comcast.net expressing your interest. You’ll be contacted regarding the schedule for an organizational meeting.

The Valley Verde Rotary Club’s Global Grant to Empower Women in Rural Uganda was recently approved by The Rotary Foundation. Our Tucson Rotary Club’s Foundation contributed $5000 towards this project that will teach women in four rural communities empowerment skills in areas such as women’s health, starting and growing a business, access to education, domestic violence, computer proficiency and justice in the workplace and the community. The total Global Grant project budget is $113,000 and Phil Silvers of the Valley Verde Club will serve as the training leader and business marketing instructor. The project begins this month.  Our $5000 was replaced by District Designated Funds in the amount of $7500 (1.5:1) and then the World fund matched the $7500 by 1:1 for a total of $15,000. May’s issue of the Rotarian spells out the benefits of donating to The Rotary Foundation in their featured article. It’s a wise investment as you can see. Our dollars go far. In 2015-2016, as stated in the article, 91% of the money the Foundation spent went to programs and grants, with only 9% of expenses going toward administration. Please read this article when you have time and you’ll find that PP, PDG, PRID and Chair of the Foundation’s Cadre of Technical Advisors, our own Phil Silvers, is quoted throughout the article. You’ll also want to read about Phil and his team’s Rotary Family Health Days Global Grant (2016) that is one of 20 projects being recognized by The Rotary Foundation in celebration of its 100th year. Our District 5500 was the International Sponsor. It’s all about Doing Good in the World.

The 2017 Ride to End Polio is now open for registration for all events. Choose a distance from 106 miles all the way down to a ¼ mile fun ride. There’s a ride for every level, and plenty of time to train.  Recall that to ride for Rotary you must use the application found at our website, www.ridetoendpolio.org.

 

Ride to End Polio cycling clothing is once again available at our website. We know it’s early but it takes 5 weeks from the time of your order to receive the clothing. You can order cycling shorts and jerseys, bibs, and even running shirts. What’s more every purchase of Ride to End Polio Clothing helps cover the operating costs of putting on the ride. If you can’t ride yourself consider sponsoring a rider with your next fine or Paul Harris contribution. You get the credit and you help save a child from a crippling disease.

We are happy to report that there were NO new cases of polio reported this week. Even more hopeful, year to date we have only 5 cases reported as compared to 10 cases at this time last year.  Breaking down those 5, we saw 2 in Pakistan and 3 in Afghanistan.

 

We are so close that at times we can forget that there is still much costly work to be done—even once our 3 remaining countries are polio free. Sadly, of the 13 Districts in our zone, District 5500 is far from a leadership position when it comes to giving to PolioPlus. In our club, we do so many good works that PolioPlus competes for our attention, and not always successfully. Please, when you write that next check, let’s remember the kids who are still at risk. Your $100 check will immunize more than 160 children.