WELCOME Rotarians announced PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON Wednesday’s meeting as our current PRESIDENT DOT KRET is in Taiwan at the Rotary Global Conference. 

We were led in the pledge and song by new member TINA BAUSCHATZ.  Today’s song was “God Bless America”.   MARK IRVIN offered the memorial on member JOHN DUVAL who passed away last week from pancreatic cancer. The room fell silent as we paid our collective respects to the wonderful man, JOHN DUVAL. 

The inspirational moment was given by MITCH PISIK.  MITCH shared his insights on where we spend our time as Rotarians and why leadership matters. Did you know that there are 26 past presidents who are still active members in our Club? “True leadership is built on clarity and clarity requires truth.”

Seargeant at Arms DAN KALM stepped up to the podium to introduce our guests.  Welcome to all Rotarians and guests. 

Next PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON announced the Cookie Monster, LEAH RANALLI with Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. Thank you for the sponsorship LEAH!

PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON then introduced Hilary Van Alsburg as today’s speaker who shared the plans to celebrate their 40^th Anniversary of The Children’s Museum of Tucson this year. Also, this year KHRIS DODGE is bringing his music that he is so famous for to The Children’s Museum of Tucson. Most of these children are from the under served communities and we all know that music programs are one of the first programs to be cut in schools. BOBBY also shared a Giving Moment regarding The Children’s Museum of Tucson where he presented checks to Hilary for the project that the museum is doing. Checks from BOBBY LARSON, DAN KALM, GEORGE LARSEN and there were additional checks that were offered by STEVE and BRUCE for The Children’s Museum of Tucson. The Rotary Club of Tucson is heading a project called Fountains of Fun, a type of splash pad that will be not only fun but also educational. The fun part is the water feature, and the educational part is the feature of water recycling, water conservation and will be using a recirculating system to provide this interactive exhibit. The total project cost is $310K. A slide was presented to offer a visual of the footprint where the Fountains of Fun will be built. Other things going on at the Children’s Museum is that they grew a lot in 40 years; they have expanded to a new building. They bought the building next door, the former Udall Building where they have spent the last couple years renovating the space to create more opportunities for the children and parents. Currently they are in middle of this expansion plan. They have a location at Tohono Chul Park up in Oro Valley as well. A big pillar of their mission is to make the Museum accessible to all, especially to those children that are under served. They can provide reduced admission through supporters like The Rotary Club of Tucson. Hilary then opened the mic for questions from the members. There were several great questions that offered a lot more insight into the future growth and current and future programs of the Children’s Museum of Tucson. Our Make Way for Books addition today is called “A Day at the Children’s Museum” for Hilary to sign then add to our Make Way for Books Library.

PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON then took a few moments to acknowledge some members that we have not seen in a while that are here today; WAYNE PEATE, DAVID PASHKOW and, JIM RONSTADT. It’s good to see you gentleman today. 

Next up were our Rotary Club Birthdays.  Happy birthday to: ELENA HA (6/1) and DARRELL STEWART (6/16). A very happy birthday to you both!

We have two New Member introductions this week. CHARLOTTE HARRIS introduced TINA BAUSCHATZ as one of our newest members. TINA is a Reading Specialist. Our next newest member was introduced by DON ROLLINGS. CHRIS SMITH is our second newest member. CHRIS is a retired Mechanical Contractor. 

MARCIA KRUMWIEDE presented a Blue Badge to LORI SCHROEDER. Congratulations to LORI on your Blue Badge!

MARCIA then announced the Legacy Society newest members. She is pleased to announce the two newest members to The Legacy Society are TIM and DIANE PUNTENNEY. There are now 50 members! 

JONATHAN WALKUP then gave our members an update on the 5-Year Strategic Plan. This plan is our vision and how we view things moving forward. JONATHAN gave an update on the metrics and what we are focusing on and how they align with our Vision, Mission and Values. 

The Raffle and King of Clubs game presented by DAN KALM. King of Clubs card was not drawn. Better luck to all club members for the next meeting. 

DAN KALM announced this week’s Way to Go, JONI CONDIT.  JONI is officially retired! JONI then announced she will be looking for things to do as she does not know how to be retired. Congratulations JONI on your Way to Go! 

Next up…Rotary Announcements:

PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON reminded the members the announcements are on each table to view. There were several Red Badge Selfies this week and they all were giving ROB SAME a run for his money since the same members were in a lot of the pictures. 

Remember not to miss the next meeting, which will be the Change of Administration where DOT will pass the gavel to BOBBY on June 24th. 

There will be a Dues increase. Starting July 1^st, there is a $25 increase in all membership Dues. 

There was another Giving Moment from MARGARET HIGGINS’ daughter, Grace Fricke. Grace announced her gratitude for the sponsorship of her American Heart Association where she was named the 2026 Woman of Impact. Grace is a guest of ALAN SCHROPE today and wanted to say ‘thank you’ to ALAN who donated to her campaign as well and for everyone here for allowing her to speak today. 

DAN KALM gave the Membership Minute encouraging all guests to join our amazing group. In the group you make lifelong friends.  JEANNE ZETAH gave an update on the car show tickets sales; we are up to 12% so far. JEANNE then had a Happy Jackson, she announced and shared a picture of her newest grandchild, Winslow. JEANNE was gifted with a teddy bear for Winslow. 

BRITTANY BATTLE announced the Marketing Minute in which she updated us on the current projects she is working on. A website revamp, a video of “Who the Rotary Club is”, a public version of the Strategic Plan, increased social media presence and lots of Board Member conversations coming.  BRITTANY also gave a Happy Jackson; she is having a Jazz Residency at The Leo Kent this summer. 

PRESIDENT ELECT BOBBY LARSON closed today’s meeting by thanking all our members and guests for being here today and watching online.  The scholarship cups are on the table if you’d like to donate. 

MITCH PISIK gave the final toast honoring JOHN DUVAL before BOBBY rang the bell to adjourn the meeting. Here-here!  That’s all folks! 

To continue providing the quality experience our members expect at our weekly lunch meetings, we must address rising operational costs. Due to increased expenses especially for catering and audiovisual services, membership dues will increase by $25 per quarter, effective July 1.  Attendance Exempt and Family Member Meals will increase to $34. Guest lunches will increase to $36 per meal.

We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we work to maintain the high standards and value of our meetings and programs. Most importantly, we want to continue fostering the fellowship, camaraderie, and spirit of service that make our club such a meaningful part of our members’ lives.

Rotary Youth Exchange: Kevin Kim, our South Korean exchange student, has been accepted as a junior at Ironwood Ridge High School for the 2026-27 school year. Leo and Lucy Lawrenson will be his first host family and the Oro Valley Rotary Club will be partnering with us to host him. Their club will try to find the two additional host families, although if you or someone you know in the Ironwood Ridge HS area would like to host him, please let Jeanne Zetah know.  We'll be sharing Kevin between the clubs, as far as involvement with Rotarians and service projects

Martha and I were delighted to celebrate our 34th Anniversary on Saturday with a glorious day on Mount Lemmon.

Joined by family members Amy Nelson and Jim Bachman, fellow Rotarians Bruce Jacobs and Michael Guymon, and friends of Rotary Dave Koepp and Bill Netherton, we set out on this month's hiking adventure. Beginning from Soldier Camp Road, we traversed the Sunset and Marshall Gulch Trails, with the addition of the newly plotted "Beyond Bread Spur" for well-earned beverages and snacks.  It was a great group, a beautiful morning, and a wonderful day!

Be sure to save the date for the next installment of this year's Summer Hiking Series:

Saturday, July 18th – Incinerator Ridge (Kellogg) Trail

We hope you'll join us for another great adventure on Mount Lemmon!

Our next hiking fellowship will be on Saturday, July 18th at Incinerator Ridge (Kellog) Trail.  More details to follow.  We hope you can join us for another great adventure!

Ticket Packets as well as Classic Club tickets are now available for pickup at Rotary meetings along with posters, business cards, and ticket-selling partner agreements. 

If you haven't completed the Ticket Survey yet, please click on this link: (https://forms.gle/jot5D3JstDyYvoBs5) and give us your feedback by May 20.  If you can’t access the link, please complete a paper survey at the Ticket Table to let us know whether you'll sell paper tickets, online, at events, through partner seller groups you recruit, and/or donate instead.   THANK YOU!