We had just one visiting Rotarian today - Dave Murray. We welcomed four club guests from the Pinal County Attorney's office: County Attorney Lando Voyles, Dr. Tascha Spears, Deborrah Miller and Jim Krupp.
1. This is Dave Murray's last meeting. The club wished him well on his travels back to Thunder Bay, Ontario.
2. Murray Hiatt described the Mystery Dinner that will be held November 15, 2014. It will be a dinner theater event. The AJHS Drama Club will take the acting parts as a club project. He needs 3 people to take the county food handlers online qualification exam so they can serve food at the dinner.
3. Bill Burrows brought us the news. On this date in 1814, the Lewis and Clark expedition set out from St. Louis on their exploration of the Louisiana Territory with the goal of reaching the Pacific Ocean.
4. Daiton Rutkowski filled in as Sargent-at-Arms for Mike Dungan.
5. Tracey Yamamoto won the drawing and $10 but drew the ace of spades which she called the joker to Len's shock. So.... the pot builds.
Our speaker was Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles. Lando was sworn in to office at the end of December 2012. Prior to being elected, he served 10 years as a prosecuting attorney in Maricopa County. Lando is a tall guy and Len LaFlesch wanted to speak to him face to face so Len hopped on a chair.
Attorney Voyles brought along several staff members from his office - Dr. Tascha Spears, Deborrah Miller, and and Jim Krupp (L to R in the photo below). Deborrah introduced County Attorney Lando Voyles.
The Pinal County Attorney has two core constitutional responsibilities:
1. To prosecute cases involving misdemeanors and felonies committed in Pinal County.
2. To provide legal representation and counsel to Pinal County agencies, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors and local school districts in the county.
Lando focused most of his presentation on the new Family Advocacy Center which is a one-stop-shop in San Tan Valley for helping children and families in which children have been abused physically, emotionally, sexually or by neglect. The goal of the FAC is to consolidate the steps involved in intake, investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases into one child-friendly center that reduces the stress families are under when this happens. It is a cooperative venture of the Pinal County Attorney, the Pinal County Sheriff, the police departments of Casa Grande and Eloy, Arizona Child Protective Services and Phoenix Childrens' Hospital. To show the need, Lando mentioned that CPS was called in 460 times in 2013 to towns in and near the San Tan Valley.
Lando introduced Dr. Tascha Spears who spoke of the compassion they show in dealing with the children. It is easier to prosecute the offender when all the studies are done at the same location. The plan is to spread access to the Center across all of Pinal County which is not now the case. She and Lando invited us to get involved as a club or as individuals via donations to the Center through the AZ Public Safety Foundation and/or donation of volunteer time. We are welcome to come visit the FAC ay any time.
Saturday May 10 was the date the US Postal Service carried out its annual food drive in Apache Junction and Gold Canyon for 2014. Each homeowner/boxholder got a plastic bag from their mail carrier on Friday with an invitation to donate food for the AJ Food Bank and leave it next to their mailbox. On Saturday, the carriers picked up the food bags with their little white USPS trucks and delivered them to the AJ Food Bank.
The bags were unloaded from the postal trucks into a large bin on a fork lift that had a built-in scale for weighing the food. The bin was then deposited at the entry to the Food Bank (in background in picture) where it was quickly sorted into two types – canned foods and dry packaged foods.
The canned foods were moved up the long leg of an “L” shaped set of tables with sorter stations on either side of the table. Sorters would remove only certain types of canned food at their station – tuna, corn, beans, etc - and put those cans in crates next to their station. The other cans they would shove down the table to the next sorters. When a crate was full, sorters would raise their hands and an AJ fireman would come by and carry the crate to the appropriate storage area in the food bank. The dry foods were brought to the short leg of the “L” where sorters crated them by type – pasta, rice, cereals, dry soups, puddings, etc. There was even a “Miscellaneous “ cart to handle some of the unusual things people donate or items that get broken open in the process.
We had a team of six Rotarians working from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM when the last of the trucks was unloaded. An earlier shift had worked from 11:30 to 2:30 PM. It was fun to see the variety of volunteers which included church groups, families, firemen, Food Bank staff and Board and of course the postal workers. There was a general babble of talk and laughter and excitement as each new bin of food bags arrived to be sorted. We found out that 21,152 pounds of food – over ten tons - had been unloaded that day which beat the previous record by 4,000 pounds. When you think about it – it is an ingenious system to have the mail carriers collect the food – people have to carry the food only as far as their mailbox to donate it - and the Food Bank is close to the Post Office where the trucks are returning at the end of the day. We all came away with an amazed appreciation for how generous people were with their food and/or their time and how well organized it all was.
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: Mondays 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)
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