The Rotary Clubs in Mesa, Arizona held a combined meeting Wednesday, November 15 to celebrate the official visit of District Governor Nancy Van Pelt. Mesa West Rotary President, Allan Cady, called the meeting to order. John Wiegenstein, President of Mesa Sunrise Rotary provided the thought for the day sharing the background behind how Herbert Taylor came up with the 4-Way Test for his business, and it became the test used for Rotarians world-wide to temper everything they think, say, and do.
To get the meeting off to an energetic, fun, chaotic, and participative start, Darl Andersen from Mesa West Rotary had everyone present participate in singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in rounds, table by table. Guests were welcomed, announcements made, and each club highlighted accomplishments and planned activities. Our President, Allan Cady, discussed our continuation of the 25-year Gift of Hearing project in Guaymas, Mexico, which was originated by Mesa Baseline Rotary. This year, there were 333 people seen, with 175 receiving hearing aids. Overall, 3-4,000 hearing aids have been provided through the annual project, with the support and hospitality of Guaymas Rotarians. Plans are already starting to continue the project in 2018. Mesa West Rotarians will honor District Governor, Nancy Van Pelt with members of the club donating $5,000 or more to Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona before the end of the year.
In her presentation, Nancy Van Pelt began by announcing that she was very proud that all the Mesa Clubs had gotten their goals into Rotary Central by the published deadline.
She said that Rotarians are dreamers. Every success starts with a dreamer. This supports the theme for 2017-18 "Rotary: Making a Difference...together!" Shelter Box was the dream of a Rotarian in Great Britain. Polio eradication grew out of the dream of a Rotarian in the Philipines. Closer to home, the Homeless Youth Connection grew out of the dream of a single Rotarian in our own district in the Southwest Valley, and now supports homeless youth valleywide at 52 high schools. Every project starts with a dreamer.
Nancy stated that she is honored to serve as the District Governor of our newly combined combined district, stating we are better together. She is appreciative of the hours of work of many Rotarians throughout both of the old districts who looked honestly at what practices were working and which had become outdated or redundant to come up with best practices to use for District management going forward.
She said that $1,400,000 in total grants were the product of the recent Friendship exchange. There will continue to be two RYLA camps, giving youth throughout the combined district the opportunity to choose which camp will best suit their schedule.
This year, the day prior to the District Conference, a Peace Conference will be held. DG Nancy is encouraging clubs to plant a Peace Pole in their community. The District is providing a $100 grant to each club who participates in this activity.
The first international project that Nancy had the opportunity to participate in was a wheelchair distribution in District 4180 in southern Mexico. On that trip, she landed in Mexico as one single Rotarian and left with many Rotary friends from both districts. She realized that though her own actions may seem small, they never are because of the ripple effect.
Mesa West President, Allan Cady, received recognition for being the #1 club in the District for annual giving to The Rotary Foundation. All of the Club Presidents were presented with the new combined district banner for 2017-18.
Donna Goetzenberger was born in Brownfield, Texas. She has one older brother with whom she is very close. She has been an Arizona resident nearly all her life. Her parents were high school sweethearts in Arizona. After they married, they moved to Texas, the home of her mother's extended family and where her father joined the county sheriff's department. After Donna was born, she was very sickly as a baby with severe asthma and allergy to cotton gin smoke. After a couple of years which included many hospitalizations, her parents moved their family back to Phoenix, where Donna has remained. She has not had an asthmatic reaction since. Texas and Arizona are the only two states in which Donna has resided.
Donna has only travelled to Canada and Mexico. She and Bryan will travel to Europe in the summer of 2018 and plan to visit Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. At this time, their daughters have each visited more foreign countries than their mother. Donna is only fluent in English, but claims a rudimentary understanding of Spanish and can make a "sparse attempt at elementary vocabulary and a few questions."
As a teenager, in a family of law enforcement officers, Donna imagined herselve in some form of law enforcement. She applied and began the testing process for the Phoenix Police Department, but due to a hiring freeze implemented as she was going through the process, that career path did not develop.
Donna has been in the legal profession for thirty years, providing manager and senior litigation paralegal for two separate firms specializing in catastrophic injury and wrongful death. Recently, she was asked by Frank Verderame to join him and his firm (Plattner Verderame, P>C>). The firm is recognized within the legal community in placing a substantial weight on advocacy in the courtroom. They maintain a high standard of client care and satisfaction for the legal community in order to promote justice in Arizona and across the U.S.. The firm adheres to a higher value in obtaining justice for people who have been seriously harmed by the negligence or wrongful actions of others. She enjoys and loves the work and enjoys long-term, mutually respectful working relationships with those with whom she works closely.
Donna has been married seventeen years to Bryan Goetzenberger. They have three children. Dallas is 27 years old and lives in Seattle, Washington. Emilee is sixteen and currently on a Rotary Youth Exchange in Belgium. Paige is fourteen and is a freshman in high school at Arizona School for the Arts.
Donna really values time vacationing with her family and several destinations have become repeat favorites:
Quick weekend "unwinds" in Coronado, California
Visits to a vineyard estate in California wine country owned by her family
Snow skiing in Tahoe
Cape Code and the islands (Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket) with the food, abundance of historical sites and information, beautiful beaches and ocean marine life have created a love for the area so great that she and Brian intend to make The Cape a reality in their retirement future.
Donna has three rewarding volunteer experiences, each of which have been impactful.
Volunteering to host youth exchange students has changed their family forever, resulting in wonderful friendships, experiences, memories, benefits, and life lessons for their own family as well as their extended family and friends. The experience has resulted in both their daughters having a passion for the program with Emilee currently on her exchange in Belgium and Paige planning her exchange in two years, hoping to go to Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
Both daughters have been members of organized choir since they were six. Many fellow choristers are economically challenged and unable to afford the program's tuition and touring obligations. Four years ago, she developed a fundraising program for the Phoenix Children's Chorus to assist those kids to raise money to help themselves to pay for the expenses of the program on their own. The effort started mid year and raised $60,000. The next year, they doubled that amount, and has increased every year since. In 2016-17, they raised over $162,000 and in total over $600,000. It has benefitted 150-200 choristers each year, many of whom would not have been able to afford the mandatory summer camp and travel requirements. It has benefitted the choir itself in providing needed funds to support performances, staff increases, and music and production expenses.
Her third experience was her recent trip with the volunteer team that participated in the Gift of Hearing project in Guaymas, Mexico. Donna wrote an article about that trip which appeared in the November 15 issue of the Mesa West Rotary Messenger.
At the District Governor's official visit, President Allan announced that our club members, collectively would support TRVFA with $5,000 or more in donations from our members prior to the end of the year. The fund qualifies for Arizona Tax Credits, so the donations, in qualifying amounts ($400 for individuals and $800 for joint returns), will offset your Arizona State Income Tax obligation dollar for dollar and can also be a qualifying Federal Income Tax Deduction. If you are going to have a 2017 state income tax obligation, CLICK HERE TO DONATE.
The twelve members of the Rotary Sun Lakes Club Friendship Exchange team returned from Australia recently following their stay with five Rotary families for about five days each. They were privileged to attend the Parliament's afternoon "Question Work Session".
Our Congress is a mild group in comparison to the antics of the Australian Parliament. They called one another names for more than an hour, then smiled and shook hands. Following are the comments we could remember:
You:
are morally corrupt
are a defective strain of human nature
are a genius imbecile
are as deceitful as a snake
suck them in like a fish
all are blood sucking blokes
are a lump of a man
only drag the chain
(apparently the greatest insult) think you are born to be the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister took part. Can you imagine if our president did this?? I can only say this was a very interesting experience More to come later. I was pleased to be a substitute part of the team.
Allan Cady, our Mesa West President, would like our club to receive the "Every Rotarian, Every Year" award. I believe that Rotary Club of Mesa Baseline used to do this. What this entails is for every Rotarian in our club to donate $100 during this Rotary Year to our Rotary Foundation. Please think of this as a donation of $2.00 per week to put it into very simple perspective. Just $2.00 per week. How many times do we spend this amount weekly on something that really does not help anyone?
There is a very simple, painless way to do this. There is a program called Rotary Direct which we each can sign up for which charges your credit card whatever amount you wish each month. This is an easy way of giving that you do not have to think of several times each year. Several Mesa West Rotarians currently do this. If you were to agree to commit $5.00 each month to the Foundation, we could meet our goal. Please do not limit yourself to just $5.00. I will have forms for this with me to distribute at our next meeting on November 30th. Several members of our club donate $84.00 each month and have become Paul Harris Society Members - those that have donated $1,000 per year to our foundation.
There are many options available to us that will result in not only helping others elsewhere, but half of our donations come back to us in the form of funds available of grants with District Designated Funds. All of you that have read this article so far, please ask me for a dollar at the meeting.
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The Rotary Clubs in Mesa, Arizona held a combined meeting Wednesday, November 15 to celebrate the official visit of District Governor Nancy Van Pelt. Mesa West Rotary President, Allan Cady, called the meeting to order. John Wiegenstein, President of Mesa Sunrise Rotary provided the thought for the day sharing the background behind how Herbert Taylor came up with the 4-Way Test for his business, and it became the test used for Rotarians world-wide to temper everything they think, say, and do.
Donna Goetzenberger was born in Brownfield, Texas. She has one older brother with whom she is very close. She has been an Arizona resident nearly all her life. Her parents were high school sweethearts in Arizona. After they married, they moved to Texas, the home of her mother's extended family and where her father joined the county sheriff's department. After Donna was born, she was very sickly as a baby with severe asthma and allergy to cotton gin smoke. After a couple of years which included many hospitalizations, her parents moved their family back to Phoenix, where Donna has remained. She has not had an asthmatic reaction since. Texas and Arizona are the only two states in which Donna has resided.
At the District Governor's official visit, President Allan announced that our club members, collectively would support TRVFA with $5,000 or more in donations from our members prior to the end of the year. The fund qualifies for Arizona Tax Credits, so the donations, in qualifying amounts ($400 for individuals and $800 for joint returns), will offset your Arizona State Income Tax obligation dollar for dollar and can also be a qualifying Federal Income Tax Deduction. If you are going to have a 2017 state income tax obligation, .jpg)
The twelve members of the Rotary Sun Lakes Club Friendship Exchange team returned from Australia recently following their stay with five Rotary families for about five days each. They were privileged to attend the Parliament's afternoon "Question Work Session"..gif)
