President Jim Schmidt was present and ran the meeting. Ray Smith led the club in singing “The More We Get Together.” The invocation was by Darl Bethea. Pledge was by Warren Williamson.
Guests: Greg Bouslog, a potential new member, and Shakima Fagan.
Drawing: Carolyn Jones won the attendance drawing.
Happy Dollars: Carolyn Jones and Dick Myron were both happy to be there. Daryl Bethea was happy his son was there to listen to his presentation. Warren was happy to participate in the Feed My Starving Children project.
President Jim gave the club a bit of Rotary history by letting us know that the very first Rotary project was not the community toilets as many believe, but was to purchase a new horse for a preacher. He also added to his weekly humor letting us know that the two inevitable things in life are death and taxes. However, you only have to die once. Taxes just keep coming.
Chuck Flint introduced Shakima Fagan who was an Interactor at Westwood HS. She is originally from the British Virgin Islands. Now that she has graduated from Westwood, she has been accepted to the University of York in York England to work on environmental and ecology studies. She also expressed her gratefulness for the scholarship she was awarded by Mesa West.
Program: Darl Anderson and Daryl Bethea sharing their life experiences
Darl Anderson: Darl can trace his family back to Denmark from the 1400’s. His 34th Great Grandparent was Mohammed. When Darl was born in Mesa the population in Mesa was only 16,000. He graduated from Westwood HS where was was part of the first graduation class and where he met his wife Kaye. Some of his Rotary accomplishments are being the District Governor’s representative for the polio campaign in 1985 and being the team leader for a GSE team to Argentina. He is also currently involved with the district’s participation in the micro credit program in Mexico. (See below for a bio that Darl put on each table. He covered the bio information in his presentation as well).
Daryl Bethea: Daryl joined Rotary in 1972 at the age of 30. He has been a member of the Tempe Rotary Club, the Mesa Baseline club and the Mesa West Club. He is an attorney and a graduate of BYU where he played football. He was a legal missionary for his church to Central America and became involved with the Guatemala City Rotary Club. This club’s membership included several prestigious community members including the mayor and they all treated Daryl as family. Daryl noted that to him “Relationships Are Everything” and that is how he views Rotary. He then challenged all of the men in the club to truly listen to their wives which provides an opportunity to learn a great deal. They also should make sure they have a Friday night date with their wives and take them on a honeymoon every couple of years.
- Dari J. Andersen was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona. He graduated from Westwood High School, attended Brigham Young University and Arizona State University and then served a 27-month mission for his church in Chile, S.A.
- Dari holds two bachelor's degrees from Arizona State University--one in Real Estate and the other in Accounting. After receiving his first degree, Dari worked for the Valley National Bank in retail operations and in real estate. After receiving his second degree, he joined the international CPA firm of Ernst & Ernst, where he worked in the audit and tax departments and was assigned to the Bashas' account from 1973 to 1977. During that time period, he also taught evening accounting courses at Mesa Community College. Dari was a member of the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants from 1974 to 2003.
- Dari began his career with Bashas' in 1977 as Corporate Controller. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Administration & Chief Financial Officer. After serving more than 25 years with the company, he retired in 2003 to serve as Mission President for his church in Chile, S.A.
- Dari returned to Bashas' in 2009 as Chief Restructuring Officer to assist with the Company's bankruptcy. From 2009 to 2014, he served as the President and C.E.O. for Bashas' and was responsible for overseeing the operations of 125 Bashas', Food City and AJ's grocery stores and their 10,000 employees. From 2014 to 2017, Dari was called to serve full-time in the presidency of the newly constructed L.D.S. Gilbert Temple.
- Dari is also the founder of Andersen Capital Partners which manages family real estate holdings and provides private lending to real estate developers. He currently advises the company in a strategic capacity.
- Dari has been involved in numerous civic and service organizations. He was President of the Mesa West Rotary Club, President of the Retail Executives of Arizona, and President of the Mesa Ecumenical Clergy Association. He served as a Board Member for the City of Mesa's Board of Adjustments, the City's Planning and Zoning Board, the YMCA Board, the MARC School Board and as Board Member for the National Conference of Christian and Jews. In the Food Industry, Dari served on the Boards of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, the Western Association of Food Chains and the Food Marketing Institute.
- Dari served in numerous capacities for his church including Bishop and a member of Stake Presidencies for many years.
- Dari and his wife, Kaye, live in Chandler and enjoy spending time with their 9 children and 40 grandchildren who all live in the East Valley.