President JEN HOFFMAN called the meeting to order at 12 noon outdoors in the beautiful and sun-filled courtyard of Hacienda Del Sol featuring music performance by KHRIS and Rylande Dodge. The opening of the meeting featured a rendition of “America the Beautiful” introduced by SARA GAAR EHRENS with musical background performed by KHRIS.
The lunch featured a juicy chicken dish with a delicious sauce and some healthy vegetables. As always Hacienda Del Sol banquet staff were attentive to the hungry Rotarians.
Following lunch several guests were introduced by President JEN including, Dan Devou, and Sandra Solial, who are checking out our remarkable club and musician, Rylande Dodge.
President-Elect MARK IRVIN was called up to introduce the new President – Elect, who to everyone’s surprise, not really, was our very own and successful Car Show leader, BRUCE JACOBS. We all know that Halloween is BRUCE’S special holiday, but there was nothing scary about his gracious acceptance and pledge to be a better President and not lead a “Reign of Terror” as Past President, BOB LOGAN had done. Just kidding!
Following BRUCE’S comments MARK IRVIN began to tell a story about a member who well deserved becoming the recipient of the Orville McPherson Award. Orville McPherson Award is an annual award, and our club’s highest, given to a member of the Rotary Club of Tucson who best exemplifies the ideals of Rotary. The recipient of this award is someone who consistently goes above and beyond giving 100% to make our club a very special place for all of us. Orville McPherson, for whom this award is named, was a charter member of our club since its founding, April 1, 1921. MARK introduced the recipient as being an extraordinary leader with positivity and creativity gushing from his every word spoken. The recipient was described as being the not-so-typical Rotary President, who was the “right person, at the right time” to be our leader of Tucson Rotary. MARK with overwhelming enthusiasm announced BOB LOGAN as being the winner of the Orville McPherson Award. BOB graciously and being completely surprised, thanked everyone for this great award and was amazed by the huge plaque given to him. BOB, you deserve the world’s largest plaque for giving all of yourself to Rotary as President during our lifetime’s first global pandemic and got us all through with a smile and a pleasure to observe the Rotarian 4-Way Test.
Not to be anti-climatic to the afternoon’s celebration, two Birthdays featured MARGARET HIGGINS and BOBBY LARSON were introduced with brief remarks by all. Happy Birthday you two!
There was no Sergeant At Arms announcements for the afternoon so President JEN talked about her Running for Rotary and how she was going to get back at it; and encourages more folks to support her run that was up to 73 miles for November. An announcement of the upcoming Holiday Mixer was announced, however at the time of this writing it was cancelled to help keep everyone safe from the COVID-19 surge happening in our community at this time.
With that MARK IRVIN came back to the podium to announce and introduce this afternoon’s entertainment featuring KHRIS and son Rylande (on the drums) DODGE. The weather was perfect for our mini-Concert in the Courtyard. The winner of the hat contest was new member, ANNA LANZI, who was chosen by the Hacienda del Sol wait staff. Congrats ANNA!Meeting was adjourned at 1:20 with a Holiday Cheer and toast by JEN.
