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Opening and Welcome to Meeting - President Jay Paulus  - Jay introduced Al Nunez from Benedictine University. Al invited members to attend a tribute event honoring Mayor John Giles' Journey to Leadership being held the evening of December 18 at the University. The free event will include a reception including refreshments. Information about how to RSVP is in a separate article in the December 11 Messenger.
- President Jay encouraged members to attend the Swearing-in of newly elected Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman. He said wearing cowboy hats, bolo ties and boots would be appropriate and make the new mayor feel welcomed into his new role.
- December 16 the Scottsdale Rotary Club is hosting a holiday celebration Jay said Mesa West Members were invited to. At the time of this writing, registration for the event had already closed.
- The storage unit where mobility devices were being stored for Interact has been cleared out. The devices will be shipped to Kenya via Crutches 4 Africa headquarters in Denver.
- Pai Bethea, Bob Jensen, and Gary Whitehall who were attending via Zoom were welcomed to the meeting.
- Don LaBarge said that signups for bell-ringing shifts were going well. He was down to about fifteen shift openings. He said if members plan to give to Salvation Army, they should put their checks in the kettle being passed around at the meeting or in the kettle at Bass Pro. If checks are mailed in the self addressed solicitation envelopes, they go to a central location and a fee is deducted before the balance is sent to the local post. Everything in the kettles stays to benefit those in need in our local community. He had the sign-up book with him to circulate during the meeting.
- The invocation was offered by Dick Myren.
- Ray Smith led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Introduction of Guests - Jim McGown introduced Jeff Bushman. Jim also announced that the gift wrapping supplies by the door could be taken by anyone who wanted them for free. After the meeting, he will deliver any that are left to a thrift store.
- Brian Harvey intoduced former member Greg Okanowski as a great Rotarian. Greg is now a member of the Queen Creek Rotary Club.
- Connie Bunyard introduced Katie Gist who she met at the College Bound Luau. Katie is studying Mechanical Engineering at ASU.
- Ron Thompson introduced visiting Rotarian Wayne Barefoot from Easton Pennsylvania. Wayne is planning to make Mesa West his winter home club. He was visiting for his second week in a row.
- Machel Considine introduced Exavier King with the Grand Canyon Council of Boy Scouts of America. He has only been in Phoenix one month.
Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint Chuck asked Warren Williamson to draw the winning ticket, which was held by Katie Gist. He explained that the small weekly pot was $30, and that Katie would automatically win that. She would also win the opportunity to try to draw the Ace of Clubs from the cards remaining in the deck. Should she be so lucky, she would also win the large, accumulating pot which was up to $440. The other way she might also win would be $20 if she drew the joker. The card she drew from the deck was the Queen of Clubs. Happy Dollars - Ron Thompson  - As Ron Thompson was getting ready to gather Happy Bucks, Jay explained that the hat used for the raffle used to be worn by member Jack Rosenberg when he was being Jellybean the Clown. The hat even travelled overseas with Jack when Jellybean entertained children who had been displaced by the war in Bosnia back in 1992-98. After Jellybean retired, the hat was bronzed. Jay shared a thought for the day - No man is a failure if enjoying life. He encouraged everyone to enjoy the holiday season.
- Ron announced that all happy bucks in December would go to Salvation Army. Ron was happy and proud of his wife Toni who has been installed as President of her University. With all that going on, Ron fined himself for missing a bell-ringing shift at Bass Pro. He was glad someone covered his shift for him.
- Dick Myren contributed his traditional donation celebrating that he and honorary member Rod Daniels are associated with the Ace of Clubs. He encouraged members to reach out to Rod who is experiencing some health problems. Rod spent many years as a committed Rotarian serving as President multiple terms.
- Harry Grossman was sad about the Cardinals loss the prior weekend, saying "close doesn't count" but he was proud of their six victories this season.
- Deb Koeneman contributed in honor of her brother Doug who passed away way too young.
- Pam Cohen was happy to see all the guests and see Greg at one of our meetings, again.
Greg Okanowski contributed in honor of Brian's birthday. - Brian contributed celebrating his birthday. He thanked Don LaBarge for what he does keeping the bell-ringing schedule up-to-date. He was happy to see Greg, a good friend who is missed by Mesa West.
- Joan Reimann contributed. They had a wonderful Thanksgiving trip to South Dakota. While there they were named godparents of their great grandson.
- Wayne Barefoot was happy for his wife's birthday and said his was tomorrow.
- Pam Cohen pledged $69 to celebrate her birthday.
- Don Boucher told about his little grandson, Bash, who was having a sword fight with his mother at bedtime. After she said "En Guarde!" Bash said, "I'm God!" Bash is three years old.
- Katie Gist was happy to be in Rotaract. She was also happy that her grandfather was out of the hospital and doing okay.
- Exavier was happy to have spent Thanksgiving with his grandparents in California. Being closer to them is one of the benefits of his new job with the Boy Scouts of America.
- Connie Bunyard was happy to have spent Thansgiving with two of their five grandchildren. They were 7 months and 4 months old.
- Colleen Coons was happy that Melodie coordinated the McKinney Vento gift buying/wrapping effort. She was also happy for the generosity of our club members. In all theire 57 gifts for twelve students. Melodie allowed Colleen to leave, leaving the mess behind. Colleen was happy to announce that their oldest son, Ryan is now engaged, so she may get to join in on the grandparent stories in the future.
- Ed Koeneman was happy that after Jay's internship in Ed's workshop, Jay still had all ten fingers. He said it was less than two weeks til his new knee would be installed. He was happy to have been ahead of Greg Okanowski in the buffet line.
- Jay Paulus was happy that his granddaughter is going to RYLA. She is in Interact and is captain of her soccer team.
- Don Boucher had a shift at Bass Pro ringing the Salvation Army Bell. He was asked to deliver a big bag to Melodie, which he did.
- Warren Williamson told a story about a gentleman visiting his ancestral homeland of Ireland. While there he visited a graveyard and was impressed by one of the stones bearing this epitaph:
Remember as you pass me by As you are so once was I And as I am you too will be So be content to follow me. Added by a concerned observer: To follow you I'd be content If I but knew which way you went. Program - Polio Plus - Jim Schmidt and Jim Erickson Jim Schmidt introduced Jim Erickson, who he said was very instrumental in the successful merging of two Rotary Districts. He was the second District Governor of now District 5495. He currently serves our District as our Polio Champion. Jim Erickson said that since Rotary became involved in Polio eradication efforts, the number of cases worldwide has been reduced by 99%. In 2023, there were only twelve cases of the wild poliovirus. Type 2 Polio was eradicated in 1999 and Type 3 in 2200. The only two countries where cases of the wild polio virus are still occurring are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, as long as cases of wild poliovirus are still occurring, vaccinations must continue and cases of vaccine derived polio will be diagnosed. If live polio viruses are not in the vaccines, you do not get the benefit of herd immunity. The Salk vaccine contains dead virus - no no herd immunity is achieved. In communities where polio is still endemic, sewer systems are not the greatest. Children play in the contaminated water and are exposed. Jim said that this year, so far, there have been 78 diagnosed cases - 55 in Pakistan and 23 in Afghanistan. That is the highest nunber of diagnosed cases since 2020. The Taliban runs hot and cold on providing support. Culturally the immunization efforts have to be done by women as men cannot enter homes to do the immunizations of children. Some parents have been known to paint their children's pinkie fingers purple to make it appear they've been immunized, but have not, because they fear the vaccine. Vaccinators have been killed in Pakistan. 80,000 soldiers have been used to protect vaccinators. One thing that makes it very difficult is that the culture is still very nomadic. Jim stressed that we can't give up. A new vaccine used in Africa - the Novel vaccine cuts down on vaccine derived cases. Rotary has been at this since 1988. We wanted to have it eradicated y 2025. We're not there, but we won't give up. The hotel told Jay that they would donate a staycation at the hotel including two days with breakfast. Members donating $100 to Polio or who are already contributing and will donate $100 or more this year were entered into a drawing. Jeanie Morgan shared a personal childhood memory. Iowa friends of her parents who had daughters near Jeanie's age travelled to Denver to visit family for a few days then were to stay with Jeanie's family for a few days before returning to Iowa. In phone conversations, Jeanie's mother became very worried about one of the little girls who was ill and being treated with home remedies. When they arrived at Jeanie's home, that little girl was quite ill and Jeanie's mom called their family doctor who made a house call and advised them to take their daughter to Children's hospital where she was placed in an iron lung. The little girl did not survive. Until Jeanie saw her father and the little girl's father outside a dining room window holding onto each other and sobbing, she didn't know grown men ever cried. Ted Williams had a story similar to Jeanie's. His brother Dale who was 2 1/2 years younger was very sick for serveral weeks and they thought he might have polio. it was rheumatic fever. He couldn't play sports anymore. Another person close to him, Louise was in an iron lung and lost her life. Adults can be affected by polio. FDR was a polio survivor. Ted was at a Rotary meeting in Pennsylvania when it was announced $200,000 had been raised for polio eradication. In answer to a question that was posed, Erwin Reimann informed everone that Polio is transmitted human to human. It is not transmitted by animals. Gaby Duran was the winner of the drawing for the staycation at the Doubletree. |
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Well, maybe NOT the shirt off your back, but instead some old t-shirts out of the back of your closet. 
Mesa West Rotary Foundation, Inc. is the funding and fundraising arm of our own Mesa West Rotary Club. It is a 501(c)(3) charity. We have had successful sponsorship campaigns the last few years enabling us to spend our energy on service rather than on holding fundraising events. Charitable grants that we get involved with are funded through our charitable foundation, Our signature Gift of Hearing Project in Guaymas Mexico is funded through this foundation. Scholarships are awarded annually to Westwood High School Students (the high school where Mesa West Rotary sponsors an Interact Club). Funds are used to support a variety of activities in four of the Rotary Avenues of Service: