President Carla called the 6th meeting of the Rotary year to order at 12:03. The Pledge was led by Chris. There were no visitors logged into Zoom at the beginning of the meeting, though we were later joined by our speaker, Mike Marlowe and his assistant Debbie. Carla recognized two Rotary Birthdays: Eric Walden celebrated 21 years with our club on September 1st, and Steve Peru celebrated 4 years on September 6th. Eric Walden gave an update on the local Interact club. At the beginning of this school year 6 students joined Interact, which is double last year's participation. They have already done a service project - cleaning up the landscaping at the Hope Cottage. This included picking up trash, weeds and pine needles, as was attended by all the club members and two parents. Great Job Interact club!! Tonya reported the results of the WIN, WIN, WIN auction: the total contributed to the Navajo Water Project was approximately $10,220! This is beyond our wildest dreams, and twenty club members participated in gathering gift certificates. Thanks for all your support, and a big thank you to Tonya for spear-heading the effort. Next, our Foundation Chair, Micah Crabdree gave us a short update on The Rotary Foundation. He told us about the three money buckets in the Foundation - The Polio Fund, the Annual Fund and the Endowment fund. If we are on Rotary Direct, we can direct how our gifts are distributed, and can even direct them to specific Rotary projects - like our own Mongolia Hep C project. Micah will send out information on the many ways you can contribute via Rotary Direct, and is on hand to help you make the transition. Carla had to "dance" a bit as our speaker was having trouble logging into our meeting. We said the Four Way Test, she read a thank-you letter from Killip School, and spoke briefly again about what a BIG DEAL it was to hear that African had been declared Polio Free. Now only Pakistan and Afghanistan are left. Chad started the "Happy Bucks" off by sharing that he has been asked to present at the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association Fall conference - his first ever academic lecture to physicians! Go Chad!!! Several other piped up with happy bucks, and President Carla reminded everyone to add their contributions to their payment of their assessments when Millie sends out the next bill on October 1.
Steve Peru introduced our speaker, Mike Marlow, Vice President of Athletics at NAU. He spoke about the changes that NAU has had to implement to keep athletes safe and fit during these challenging times. Their philosophy is to use the time to first, maintain the focus on their studies, then focus on gaining strength and fitness so they will be strong when the time comes to compete with other schools again. He updated us on the new state-of-the-art facility being built on campus to serve all student athletes. He then took questions. Afterward, President Carla made the book presentation. "Mercy Watson to the Rescue" will be donated in Mike's name to the Family Food center reading room.
Our next meeting is October 6, when our speaker will be Kim Musselman from Coconino County, who will give us a COVID 19 update. The meeting was adjourned at 12:59.
