Rotary Club of Tucson Presidents 3rd Quarter (2021-22) OverviewWell, with our Centennial celebration and the 15th Annual Tucson Classics Car Show behind us, we can take a break and catch our breath, or so it would seem, but Bobby Larson (our 16th Car Show Chair) and Bruce Jacobs (our incoming 101st President) have other ideas. More on that latter.
We should all take a minute to bask in what we helped create at JTED. We promised them $250,000 and due to the success of the car show we almost doubled it. Then, thanks to our pals at O’Rielly Chevrolet they donated the cost of the Corvette they helped us secure by donating over $71,000 to JTED in our name. This pushed the overall impact to over $500,000.
Yes, over $500,000. This was the biggest fund-raising effort in the Club’s 100 Year history and our members, and the countless volunteers who helped should be commended. The impact will go on for generations.
Turning to our Programs and our continued focus on “Tucson Treasures” the team of Kurtis Dawson, David Lovitt, and Nancy Bevens have done an amazing job. Since the start of the year we have heard from Mission Gardens; El Charro and the Flores Family; Greater Tucson Leadership; Russell True and Dude Ranching; Catholic Cathedral; Tucson Rodeo; YWCA; Jovert Steel Drum Band; YMCA; 162nd Air National Guard Wing; JTED; Tucson Chamber of Commerce; Heather Hardy and Bobby Robbins.
We also had some fun. We had the 40 Under 40 winners join us as our guests along with the Hispanic Chamber. This is an amazing group of young professionals who would all make great Rotarians.
We recognized our Club for the amazing effort with the Ride to End Polio and Club members Gary Hirsch and Darrell Stewart were thanked for their tireless efforts. We are close to $60,000,000 raised – a colossal feat.
We had some fun and engaging Social Mixers – Including the Sweetheart Dinner and Blues Concert in the new Century Room at Hotel Congress. A special thanks to Vickie Jacobs and Nicole Lombardo for a super event at this downtown landmark.
We also had what many thought was the best mixer ever at Proof the end of March. Thank you, President-Elect Bruce Jacobs, for your efforts with this. Also, thank you Dan Kalm for organizing the first ever Rotary Day with the Roadrunners. We kicked this off on the first day of April.
We were also active during the 3-Day 4th Avenue Street Fair around the first of April too. Heading up beer sales a thanks to Roger Harwell for his ongoing efforts and much help from Lynn Devou. Dave White was there too but focusing on car show ticket sales. By all accounts, both did well. This is another event we had gotten rusty on due to the pandemic.
We also started our March Madness Membership Drive. Hats off to so many but a special thanks to Past President Chuck Sawyer and Board Member Steve Pickering for their leadership. With COVID and the move downtown we have lost about 10% of our members. We have not had a membership drive in a few years, no thanks to the pandemic so we had gotten out of practice and bit rusty. Someone forgot to tell Chuck and Steve this as the 100 mile an hour crew were not notified. March Madness was a huge success and I will report back the final numbers in my end of year President’s letter.
