Today we welcomed these guests: Profess Philip, Gisel Philip, Anjah Goss, Tamara Cutler and Sharon Knutson-Felix. Visiting Rotarians were: Van Van Jepmond from the Lacey, WA club, Davis Edels of the Okotoks, Alberta club, Ron Tarrant of the Creston, BC club and Ray Lange of the Lake Havasu, AZ club. This was the first meeting back for Maurice Francouer.
1. Jim Erickson promoted the new club shirts and passed around a sign up sheet to order them. He said it would be cool if we could have most of our members wearing them during the golf tournament.
2. Jack Beveridge reported their organization donated 130 turkeys and 10 hams to needy people. 150 people showed up for the event including 3 Rotarains who helped hand out the food.
3. President Bryant read a letter of thanks from the AJ Food Bank for our support of their Christmas food drive. Thanks to Gene and Jeannie Anderson for gathering the club donations and getting them to the Food Bank and to all members who made contributions.
4. Mike Munion passed around a sign up sheet for non-golfing club members to help at the golf tournament. The committee also has a large public sign up board for the donation of gifts for the drawings. (Dan Govinsky said later at the Board meeting that we have more Canadian golfers than American ones. We need to get some more American players including some more from our club.)
5. Harvey Clark won the drawing and $10. The pot was worth $191. Harvey drew the six of hearts.
We have successfully started an Interact Club at Apache Junction High School. President Bryant presented Tracey Yamamoto with the official club charter document from RI. Tracey and Heather Itz have been instrumental in getting the Interact club started.
The students are volunteering on Saturday mornings at the Gold Canyon Food Bank. It would be good if club members would attend meetings once in a while to show our interest in seeing them succeed. Our 3-4 RYLA students for this year will be chosen from the Interact club membership.
Our speaker of the day was Sharon Knutson-Felix, Executive Director of the 100 Club of Arizona. The motto of the 100 Club is "Standing Behind the Men and Women Who Stand behind the Badge".
Sharon's husband was a DPS motorcycle officer who was struck by a car and killed on a freeway ramp. She also lost a six year old son who was killed by a car while walking back home from the store. She resolved not to be defined by these events but to reach out in a positive way with the rest of her life. She went to work for the 100 Club of Arizona so she could help the families of public safety officers that were impacted by death or injury of the officer. Over the years, the club has given over $11,000,000 in aid of various types. The most well-known type is a $15,000 grant made to the family of an officer killed in the line of duty. They try to get the aid to the family within 24 hours. A grant of $500 to $1,500 per month depending on need is also made to families of officers injured in the line of duty. Grants are also made for On Duty Death or Injury and Non-Line of Duty Death or Injury
Less well known is the fact that the 100 Club has provided scholarship help over the years in the amount of $1,140,000 to the children or spouses of officers or firefighters killed or injured. They were there for the families of the Yarnell Hill hot shot crew killed fighting a forest fire.
If you would like more information on the 100 Club of Arizona or would like to donate to this extremely valuable and compassionate organization, see their website at www.100club.org.
Sharon clarified that they are not a Rotary group. They are often confused with the Phoenix 100 Club which does belong to Rotary.
Nearby Rotary Clubs that might be useful for meeting makeup attendance. You can find the meeting times and locations for Rotary clubs throughout the world by going to the Rotary International website (www.rotary.org) and clicking on "Club Locator" in the upper right corner of the screen.
Mesa East Rotary Club: Thursdays at 12:00 p.m.
Superstition Springs Golf Club, 6542 E. Baseline, Mesa (16 miles)
Gilbert Rotary Club: Thursdays at 7:00 a.m.
The Henhouse Cafe, 3244 E. Guadalupe Rd., Gilbert, AZ (20 miles)
Mesa West Rotary Club: Thursdays at 12:10 p.m.
Hilton Phoenix East-Mesa, 1011 W. Holmes Ave.,Mesa (24 miles)
Mesa Sunrise Rotary Club: Wednesdays at 7:00 a.m.
Banner Health Business Center, 525 W. Brown Rd., Mesa
Tempe South Rotary Club: Fridays at 6:45 a.m.
Friendship Village, 2645 E. Southern Ave., Tempe (26 miles)
