Opening of Meeting - President Colleen Coons - Jim Schmidt offered the invocation.
- Jack Rosenberg led the Pledge of Allegiance
- President Colleen thanked the following individuals:
- Steve Ross for serving as greeter
- Diane Ware for returning from Oahu to manage the check-in table
- Chuck Flint for handling the raffle
- Ron Thompson for serving as Sgt at Arms
- Ed Koeneman for serving technology needs and serving as Youth Chair
Introduction of Guests Ron Thompson introduced Major Mike Lutcher with the Salvation Army. Major Mike has attended several meetings and intends to become a member. President Colleen acknowledged those attending via Zoom: Bob Jensen, Jeanie Morgan, Gina and Mike Schroeder and Erica Williams. Crutches For Africa Presentation Kayla Mudge introduced Kassandra Macias and Natalie Pacheco, two of the five Interact students who travelled to Africa in early June. Kayla explained that she was one of three advisors who had the privilege of traveling with the students. Kassandra is the President of Westwood High School Interact Club and Natalie is the Vice President. This group of eight travelled to Kenya where they spent two weeks in early July. The team went to the warehouse where the mobility devices were stored and worked with the local Rotaractors to organize the devices. The Rotaractors were hard working and they had fun working together to get everythng organized. When they loaded their bus to take the devices to be distributed, they had to work as a team to get the devices loaded on top of the bus. One photo showed a group of elderly people who had walked some distance using sticks and makeshift devices to support themselves. Their faces lit up when they were given their devices. They were delivered by the bus to their homes following the distribution.  Two of the women shown in the photos happily sitting in their new chairs will have new freedom of movement within their own homes. Cassandra and Natalie remembered visiting in one of their homes where they saw her very humble surroundings with a dirt floor and very little in the way of possessions. They did see two small kittens. The lady who lived their invited them to stay and have tea with her. Prior to receiving their chairs, these two ladies would be placed in a chair where they would spend the entire day until their family returned home. With the wheelchairs, whey would have the ability to move about their homes and fix their own meals and beverages. One man, who had been carried by someone to the distribution location, could not move his legs. After being placed in his wheelchair, they watched him slowly learn how to make the chair move. As he realized the change this would make in his life, his face shown with joy. In addition to delivering mobility devices, the team make presentations at the schools they visited. They had used some of the money available for the trip to purchase school supplies which they delivered. They were pleasantly surprised to find the students at the schools spoke English very clearly. The math they were being successful studying seemed pretty complex for the age of the students. The Interact Ambassadors were very impressed with the respect and importance the students in the schools showing how much they valued the opportunity to be educated. The Interactors had fun sorting the school supplies they had taken so they could be given to appropriate age groups. They taught the students some games from the US and learned some games played locally. Everyone had fun with this type of interaction. In Kenya, those with disabilities are generally hidden. The team visited a school for those with disabilities. There was work at the school for the students' mothers to do making craft items - the sales of which were used to fund the school. In summarizing their presentation, both young ladies expressed appreciation for the life-changing experience. They were inspired by the changes the people they met had to make to "conquer their environment. It gave them an appreciation for how much they have compared to those they met on the trip. A rather profound lesson expressed by Cassandra was that it is better to be part of a community than try to operate as an individual. Kassandra said that she had seen her limitations before going on the trip. The trip allowed her to believe she can do anything she sets her mind to. Kayla said it was beautiful watching the team members grow. The Rotaractors and Rotarians the team met in Kenya were very impressed with the team members. Kayla thanked the club for their support of the Crutches for Africa missions. Before leaving the meeting to head back to school, this photo was taken to document the very special message of this presentation. Ace of Clubs Raffle - Chuck Flint Chuck explained that the small pot would be $30, and the large pot was up to $1,045. He asked Major Mike to draw the winning ticket, which was held by the Three Musketeers. Jack Rosenberg had the responsibility to try to draw the Ace of Clubs from the cards remaining in the deck. The card he drew was the Queen of Diamonds. Happy Bucks - Ron Thompson  - Dick Myren contributed his traditional $2 - happy he and Honorary Member Rod Daniels are members of the Ace of Clubs.
- Jack Rosenberg expressed appreciation for the club support of the project Frank coordinated to help the homeless population in Flagstaff. He also pointed out that John Benedict would turn 76 on Saturday. Ray Smith led the club in singing Happy Birthday to John.
- Major Mike was happy to be back following his surgery. He is waiting for his oncologist to say he is in remission.
- Warren Williamson announced that he and Son Hee would be celebrating their 17th Anniversary Saturday. He went on to say that he was somewhat offended the prior week when surprise was expressed that someone in engineering might have other talents. He said John McMillan, a Silicon Valley Engineer made it to the finals in a comedy competition using statistics: There are 1.4 billion chimes in a world of about 7 billion people. One out of five children born are Chinese. If you have four children, the next will likely be Chinese. Statistically one in three women think their husband is ugly, creating the odds that there's a one in three chance his wife thinks he's ugly.
- Ed Koeneman was happy it was only 813 days until the next Star Wars movie will be released. He was also happy to have driven the Interact float on Friday for the homecoming parade. He said the Polio trophy was presented at Westwood to congratulate the Interact Club on the funds raised during their purple pinkie campaign.
- Jim Schmidt explained the difference between an accountant and an engineer. Unfortunately, your editor did not hear his explanation.
- Pam Cohen was happy to have attended the assembly at Westwood High School. Both the Principal and Vice Principal expressed appreciation of the Interact Club, with one of them saying Interact is the busiest club on campus. That is very impressive since there are sixty clubs on campus.
- John Pennypacker contributed. Again, your editor missed hearing why...
- Colleen Coons was thankful for the great leaders in Mesa West. Warren Williamson is one of them. Son Hee reminds Colleen she is Korean and mentors Colleen. Son Hee gets Warren's permission before making purchases when she is out shopping. Colleen saw her take a photo of a Louis Vuitton bag so she could send it to Warren to ask which credit card he wanted her to use.
Announcements - President Colleen reminded members to sign up to volunteer at our October 21 Service Project.
- She announced that our Rotarian for the month of September was someone who goes every week to the Interact Club. He handles our club's technology. He sits on the Interact District Council Meetings every month. He is in change of the technology monitoring to ensure youth protection requirements are being met in our district. He looks for small errors so they can be corrected before they become large issues. No-one seemed surprised when she announced the winner was Ed Koeneman. His prize was Star Wars Socks.
- CLICK HERE to view and/or download the informative slides presented during the Club Assembly portion of the meeting.
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