After the September 21 meeting was called to order by President, Allan Cady, John Eagleston led the invocation and Dan Coons invited all present to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. President Allan reminded members that the theme of the 2017-18 Rotary International President, Ian Risely, is "Making a Difference." Allan had recently received a book written by Larry Van Tuyl, People, People, People. The book contained a section on "Thought Starters," one of which was, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
Guests present at the meeting included Beth Garrow, who is a remote employee of The Rotary Foundation, serving as a major gifts officer. She is a member of the High Noon Rotary Club in Carlsbad, California. PDG John Pennypacker was in attendance for his 4th consecutive week. Alice Phan, District 5495 Rotaract Representative was visiting and brought three colleagues from her new place of employment with her. Grace Canzoneri was a guest, attending with our speaker. Morgan and Suzanne Davis, were also guests.
Jim McGown won the attendance drawing. Penny May won the weekly drawing, but did not draw the ace of clubs, so the large drawing prize will continue to grow. Tim Troy collected happy bucks from those present. Wendell Jones announced the birth of a new granddaughter - their 28th grandchild. Alice Phan paid happy bucks as she is soon going to leave on an extended vacation, which will include many stops, including Viet Nam.
President Allan made several brief announcements:
A sign-up sheet was being circulated for greeter, pledge, and invocation responsibilities
He encouraged members and their guests to attend the Chile Cook-off being planned for October 7
Bryan Goetzenberger had provided him with information that the sponsorship program had a good week, bringing the total collected to date to nearly $17,000
Wendell Jones introduced his neighbor and guest, Suzanne Davis. Suzanne introduced the speaker, Dr . Gary Walker, from the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center with a personal endorsement. When her husband, Morgan, was diagnosed with cancer, it was highly recommended to them that they look into services offered by the MD Anderson Center. They took that advice and could not have been more pleased with the attention, expertise, and level of care received.
Dr. Walker shared some information about his specialty, radiation oncology, illustrating how tumors can be specifically targeted with radiation using today's technology, combined with a team of specialists. targeted radiation is particularly useful in treating several specific types of cancer with head and neck cancers at the top of the list. In some but not all cases, radiation is combined with chemo-therapy. His personal care philosophy is "I partner with my patients to provide the highest leel of personalized, evidence-based medicine in a supportive and caring environment. My goal is to implement the world-renowned MD Anderson standard of care in Phoenix."
Don Boucher was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He is the oldest of six children. He has been an Arizona resident for almost ten years. Prior to relocating to Arizona, Don previously resided in Rhode Island, California, and Georgia.
Don has traveled to six foreign countries: Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Monaco and France. The only language in which he is fluent is English.
As a teenager, Don dreamed of a career in Law Enforcement. He lived that dream for a significant number of years. He is a retired Narcotics Detective from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He was medically retired in his fourteenth year of service as a result of service-connected injuries (cervical and lumbar). During his time of service, he received dozens of commendations from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, The California State Treasurer’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his high level investigative skills.
While assigned to the Narcotics Bureau’s Marijuana Eradication Team, Don trained and worked with members of elite U.S. Military teams including the Navy Seals, Army Special Forces, Marine Corps Force Recon, and Army Military Police, and had the good fortune of completing a modified version of the Army’s Air Assault School at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma.
Don is the recipient of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department highest honor – The Medal of Valor. He received this award for his role in the rescue of his partner who had become trapped inside an apartment during the execution of a narcotics search warrant and ensuing gunfight with two armed drug dealers.
Don is currently Managing Partner with Wealth Advisor at Copper Canyon Wealth Management. They provide investment, insurance and wealth planning services. Don now has fifteen years of experience in his second career.
Don has been married for nine years to Sharon, who is also his best friend and business partner. He has one daughter, two stepdaughters, and one stepson. They have four grandchildren with a fifth due in late December.
Favorite vacation memories for Don are of fall hiking trips in Yosemite and the Eastern Sierras.
Don’s most rewarding volunteer experience to date was his nine-week Mesa West Rotary Club grant for the Paideia Health, Nutrition and Leadership Program in the sping of 2015. Our club interacted with and positively impacted approximately 60 lower income children from the Sequoia Chartered School in Mesa.
Mesa West Rotarians – at the present time, we have $16,650 in donations and another $1,400 in pledges for our Sponsor Program. That means we are 59% of the way towards our first goal of $30,000. Shown is the breakdown by team.
I have had several club members tell me that getting donations is not as difficult as they at first thought. That’s encouraging. I’ve also had several tell me they think we would do well to extend the program through the month of October. So please consider for the purposes of the Steak and Beans competition, the Sponsor Program will now go through October 31. I must encourage all of you Mesa West Rotarians to continue your efforts on behalf of our club so that we meet our objective and maybe even our secondary objective of $40,000. Thank you for what you do for Mesa West Rotary.
When we show up to have fun at Chuck Flint's at the end of this year's Sponsorship campaign for our club's charitable foundation, will you be eating steak or beans? You will be eating steak if your team has raised the most in donations, or if EVERY member of your team has brought in at least one donation. If your team hasn't met either of these criteria, you are encouraged to come for the fellowship and to celebrate those who have worked at helping us make the funds needed to do the work we want to do in our community and the world, but Chuck Flint suggests you may want to bring some Gas-X.
"If it is to be, it is up to me," should be each of our attitudes. If you don't know what team you are on, CLICK HERE to download the team roster.
The donations are not supposed to come from us, it is hoped we will each give our personal Rotary "elevator speech" to friends, neighbors, associates, neighbors who might be too busy to join a Rotary Club, but who would be happy to help us make a difference, if asked. Just ask! Download our Sponsorship Brochure to give (or send) to those you ask.
Let's not try hard to make this program work, Instead, let's each try very hard to make it fun! (and pray you're not on a team of vegans)
Dan Coons has generously offered to print business cards for Mesa West Rotary Club members at the nominal cost of $12.00 per box of 500.
They are available in two designs, as shown, and should be ordered by Thursday, October 12 by members who wish to take advantage of this pricing opportunity. The initial orders will be printed in a single batch, making the cost savings possible. The business cards will be useful in many ways as we network within our own club, invite potential members to join us as guests at our meetings, promote our sponsorship program, etc.
To order your cards, CLICK HERE to send an e-mail to provide Dan with the details of how you wish to have your cards printed. If you choose Option A, you will need to provide a digital head-and-shoulders photograph with your e-mail. If no photo is included, cards will be printed in the option B format. Cards can be ordered with fewer than four detail lines, but additional lines cannot be added.
If you miss the deadline, cards can still be ordered, but the cost will be $20.00 per 500. To keep the bookkeeping as simple as possible, the cards will be paid by the club and available at the sign-in table. When you pick up your cards, you can pay cash to Aubrey or have her bill your account for the cost of your order.
Bob Zarling, Matt Rotty, and Allan and Polly Cady responded to the call for volunteers to report for work at the Midwest Food Bank Saturday morning, September 9. They helped stack goods to go to Texas the next morning for the flood victims. The boxes contained everything from personal hygiene items to paper goods to cleaning supplies. Others were packing boxes with canned goods, water, tea, coffee, and fresh dates.
Greg Okonowski and his family also were at the food bank to work Saturday, representing Mesa West Rotary,but were not available when this photo was taken.
Midwest Food Bank has a new and wonderful facility where they provide a marvelous service. Polly wrote, "It was heart warming to know our efforts are actually doing good in benefiting the victims of hurricane Harvey."
Midwest Food Bank is an organization that collects non-perishable food items from vendors throughout the Phoenix Metropolitan area. These food items are collected using Midwest Food Bank trucks, brought to the Midwest Food Bank warehouse, repackaged by volunteers like us, then redistributed into Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Tempe. Our club will be participating the second Saturday of the month for the remainder of 2017. One thing that makes this project worthwhile is the ability to play a vital role in feeding our community. Another reason is that the work is simple; we repackage bulk items (crackers, chips, and so forth) into smaller quantities for out-going delivery. We are asking that at least 12 people attend each of the remaining three Saturdays. You are free to attend for whatever amount of time is convenient. Members are encouraged to mark their calendars, and encouraged to bring their spouses, significant others, and friends because they need all the help they can get. Matt Rotty, who identified this volunteer opportunity says, "Thank you very much in advance!"
RLI is an excellent way for Rotarians, especially those already moving up into leadership roles, to learn more about the larger world of Rotary. The institutes are held three times each year in various locations throughout the state. Each institute has all three sessions available. To graduate from the program, Rotarians need to attend all three of the sessions. The next institute is scheduled for October 7 in Prescott, Arizona. The cost is $60 per session. CLICK HERE to download a registration/information form.
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After the September 21 meeting was called to order by President, Allan Cady, John Eagleston led the invocation and Dan Coons invited all present to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. President Allan reminded members that the theme of the 2017-18 Rotary International President, Ian Risely, is "Making a Difference." Allan had recently received a book written by Larry Van Tuyl, People, People, People. The book contained a section on "Thought Starters," one of which was, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right."
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Mesa West Rotarians – at the present time, we have $16,650 in donations and another $1,400 in pledges for our Sponsor Program. That means we are 59% of the way towards our first goal of $30,000. Shown is the breakdown by team.
When we show up to have fun at Chuck Flint's at the end of this year's Sponsorship campaign for our club's charitable foundation, will you be eating steak or beans? You will be eating steak if your team has raised the most in donations, or if EVERY member of your team has brought in at least one donation. If your team hasn't met either of these criteria, you are encouraged to come for the fellowship and to celebrate those who have worked at helping us make the funds needed to do the work we want to do in our community and the world, but Chuck Flint suggests you may want to bring some Gas-X.
Dan Coons has generously offered to print business cards for Mesa West Rotary Club members at the nominal cost of $12.00 per box of 500.
RLI is an excellent way for Rotarians, especially those already moving up into leadership roles, to learn more about the larger world of Rotary. The institutes are held three times each year in various locations throughout the state. Each institute has all three sessions available. To graduate from the program, Rotarians need to attend all three of the sessions. The next institute is scheduled for October 7 in Prescott, Arizona. The cost is $60 per session. 
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