Sister Jose Women's Center is a unique community in Tucson, born out of compassion and a desire to reach out to the most vulnerable among us.  It is a community of women as diverse as Tucson, young and old, from all faiths and all walks of life. It is a community dedicated to provide compassion, respect, and dignity, in a safe and loving environment to women who are homeless. Here they experience the trust and friendship necessary to overcome the barriers that exist in the homeless world.  Foremost, we offer a helping hand - a shower, food, clean clothing, and a moment to rest without fear.  It is the most basic of needs, yet it is a beginning of a bond that leads to transformative action, a link to a resource, and a step toward a sustainable existence.

 

 

 

Thanks to an invitation from Mike Schulte, I attended my first Tucson Rotary meeting a little over six years ago and I've never looked back. The opportunities for leadership, community involvement, personal growth, and international compassion are just a few reasons why I'm thankful and proud to be a Rotarian. Thanks to all of you, our current members, for your dedication and dynamic energy that you bring to our club. We're proving that together, everyone achieves more. Our strength lies in our membership and I’ve included an excerpt from a letter by our Rotary International President, John F. Germ, in keeping with the theme of Membership for the month of August:

 

“To be a member of the Rotary family is to be a part of something much bigger than yourself.” It means that you are a member of a diverse, worldwide team whose members together have provided extraordinary service to humanity.

 

As we celebrate Membership Month this August, I hope you reflect not only on your road to Rotary, but also how to help set others down that road. As club and district leaders, you set the example for your fellow Rotarians as active, engaged members of our organization. You not only play an important role in inspiring current members, but also in attracting new ones. There is a potential Rotarian in anyone who cares about their community and strives to make the world a better place. Finding a new member can be as simple as inviting someone you know to your next meeting or engaging Rotaractors and alumni.

 

Providing you with the materials to help cultivate and maintain membership is something Rotary is striving to do, now more than ever. Clubs can use our new Rotary Club Health Check and Membership Assessment Tools to identify their problem areas and develop strategies to address them. Also available is Impact Begins with You*, a regionalized brochure for prospective members available on shop.rotary.org. As part of our Membership Month celebrations, Rotary is offering a 20% discount on orders of this prospective member brochure (up to 20 packs of 5) through August 31.

 

The membership flexibility legislation approved during the 2016 Council on Legislation provides clubs with the freedom to determine how meetings are held, who is invited to join, and what defines engagement, which can help them grow into vibrant, successful clubs.

 

This Membership Month, I want you all to remember that you are helping build a team that can and will strengthen your local community and make the world a better place for all who live in it, because Together Everyone Achieves More.

 

Thank you again for all that you do for your clubs and districts, and that you will continue to do all you can to be part of “Rotary Serving Humanity.”

 

*I’ve ordered the brochures, Impact Begins with You, and they will soon be available in our RCOT office to any member who would like to have them for their use when meeting with prospective members. Let’s all take President Germ’s message to heart and invite that special person to our club.

 

Our wonderful PRESIDENT ELLIE began her 5^th meeting with Leslie Langbert, JEFF RONSTADT, Audrey Good, STEVE PICKERING and PAT ZUMBUSCH BY HER SIDE.  Unbelievably, we had zero birthdays – makes you wonder what was going on in December, must have been the holidays.

 

MARGARET HIGGINS gave the Inspiration – just her voice and tone inspires the club members!  The one and only GARY HIRSCH played the “Star Spangled Banner”, which was led by RUBY PECKFORD.

 

JERRY HARRIS gave a big shout out to JIM SUMWALT for his car show ticket sales.  JIM, we need a copy of that letter which inspires your friends to send back so much cash when you send them the car show tickets.  PRESIDENT ELLIE then showed some of the Boy Scout Camp Lawton Work day slides up on the screen.

 

We had a Paul Harris presentation to JOE PENNINGTON, financial planner extraordinaire and NINA TRASOFF, one of Tucson’s first and most famous TV KGUN9 news reporters.

 

FONDA INSLEY gave out her first fines of the year to SID HIRSH for $50 and RICK ROSE, $100 for his induction to the Tucson Advertisers Hall of Fame – yeah Rick!!!

 

PRESIDENT ELLIE gave a shout out to TONY PEDROZA for his service work to the club.  Hey, and don’t forget we have a Club Mixer on 8/31/16 at El Molinito.  Sign up on Clubrunner.

 

JACK PARRIS’ son will help to produce the Olympic coverage these next three weeks – yeah to Jack’s son!  PAT ZUMBUSCH gave us a heads up for car show ticket sales.  The packets and teams are set up and we all need to get started selling those tickets.  Remember to mention the “beneficiaries” first and the car show second!

 

Our program was Leslie Langbert from the U of A Compassion Studies, Educating Hearts and Minds by breaking patterns of thought and behavior.  Boy are we all stuck in our patterns or what!  Leslie tried to open our minds by using kindness to interrupt our “blind reactions” to daily incidents.  Thank you Leslie for beginning to help us all strengthen and expand our compassion with others.

 

PRESIDENT ELLIE gave us the toast from Henry James – “Be kind” Be kind” Be kind”.