Longtime Sierra Vista resident, Army wife and retired three-term city councilwoman Henrietta “Hank” Huisking has taken office as the district governor of Rotary International District 5500. Hank will be in SaddleBrooke on Wendesday and Thursday, August 18th and August 19th. On Wednesday she will meet with our Board of Directors and on Thursday she will visit our regular club meeting.
Huisking’s area of responsibility and service as DG spans 50 Rotary Clubs totaling more than 1,300 members. Included are clubs in the Tucson metropolitan area, Sierra Vista and Yuma plus Graham and Cochise counties. This area encompasses 50,000 square miles and serves a population of 1.1 million.
Huisking has been a Rotarian for 15 years and her home club is the Rotary Club of Sierra Vista West. She has been an active and action-oriented Rotarian, as evidenced by her participation and support of the District 5500 Rotary Leadership Institute, the Rotary Leadership Academy, and the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy programs. She has served at the district level as the district secretary. She also supports The Rotary Foundation and is a member of the Paul Harris Society.
Hank is married to Peter Huisking, who also is active with the Rotary Club of Sierra Vista Sunrise. Together they have hosted Rotary Youth Exchange students from Germany, Brazil and Peru plus young businesspeople and professionals from Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, Turkey and Australia who were members of the Rotary Group Study Exchange program.
Huisking has a bachelor of science degree in education from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She most recently taught water conservation in Cochise County schools for the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension WaterWise program.
The Huiskings have three children and six grandchildren living in California. Their favorite pastimes include reading, hiking, cycling, gardening and planning travel adventures with family and friends.
It is such an honor and privilege to serve as the 2021-22 President of The Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke.
Rotary has been the most unexpected passion of my adult life. Thirty plus years ago I joined Rotary for the wrong reason: my boss told me I needed to get involved in the community, I needed to network to develop business lead opportunities. It did start out as a weekly lunch meeting, passing out some business cards…. but then the unexpected happened, the magic began.
I started looking forward to the weekly meetings where I had made friends. Some retired, some up and comers, and some simply good people wanting to do good in the world. Rotary became a place of fellowship, where business and professional people came together to learn, to share, and to make a difference in our community and the world.
Speakers were interesting, I was learning about my community. I began to raise my hand, share a happy dollar, work on a committee. I started to step up and volunteer for service projects, working side by side with community leaders, who were now friends. We cleaned up sections of the highway, stocked shelves at the food bank, giving back because we were so blessed, it felt good.
Soon I discovered this magic and sense of belonging did not just happen in my town, it happens in nearly 35,000 clubs around the world. I learned about wells being drilled in Africa, micro banks in Honduras, shelters in Hatti. By giving through The Rotary Foundation, I could be a part of helping those people. When I retired, one of my first adventures was embarking on a Rotary International service project. I joined 40 fellow Rotarians, from around the world, in Guatemala delivering books and computers donated by clubs in our district.
When the season of my life lead me to downsize and move to a warmer climate, one of the first things I did was find a Rotary club. And what a club I found! The Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke is a growing vibrant club that demonstrates what Rotary stands for, “Service Above Self”.
To the Members and Amigos of SaddleBrooke Rotary a big thank you! Thank you for your commitment, energy, and vision as we work together to make our community a great one.
The Membership Committee is beginning to work on an action plan to support Rotary International's "Each One Bring One" membership recruitment campaign. During the upcoming weeks we will be meeting to put together a new effort for the year.
We already do have considerable new membership momentum. As you know the club inducted 5 new members just recently. That is a considerable achievement. In addition, we have several prospective members with very strong interest.
The Board of Directors approved an additional new application this week from Linda Chase a SaddleBrooke Ranch resident. Welcome Linda! New members will be inducted within the next couple of weeks.
The Membership Committee is also reviewing applications from John and Linda Howard, Saddlebrooke 2 residents.
As a participating Rotarian you can help whenever attending meetings. It is important to get to know visitors and prospective members and also help them to become familiar with our members.
This year we have a new Amigos Chairperson, Monica Oszust. We also have several prospective Amigos. The membership committee recently approved Jenny Green as a new Amigo. Congratulations, Jenny.
The Rotary Club of SaddleBrooke will once again be participating in the Jim Click Charity Raffle. Every year Jim Click donates a vehicle to be raffled by various charitable organizations with 100% of the money raised selling tickets goes to the charity.
SaddleBrooke Rotary has participated in the past and two years ago we raised over $3000 to support our programs and projects.
There are three prizes available.
First Prize – A 2021 Ford Bronco Sport Badlands edition. MSRP is over $34,000.
Second Prize – Two first class airline tickets to any destination in the world.
Third Prize - $5000 cash.
We have secured 300 tickets. They are $25 apiece or five for $100. Our goal is for every member to purchase or sell five tickets.
Five tickets have been issued to you. Please attempt to sell all five of them. This is not a requirement but a request from President Liese and the Board of Directors.
Once you have sold the tickets, return the envelope with cash or a check to Dan Watson. Checks should be made to SaddleBrooke Rotary Club Foundation.
If you would like additional tickets, contact Dan and he will provide them.
Tickets must be turned in by early December. The drawing will be on December 10.
Make sure to complete the stubs and return them in the envelope. And be sure to include SaddleBrooke Rotary on the last line since other Rotary clubs are also participating.
From Community Services Chairperson, Bre Zientarski
The Rotary of Saddlebrooke donated $2,000 to IMPACT of Southern Arizona’s “Client Aid Fund”. IMPACT is a nonprofit organization with a vision to empower Southern Arizonans with the resources to pursue a stabilized life, overcome obstacles and learn the skills to be self sufficient.
IMPACT’s Client Aid fund is used to better the lives and situations of vetted clients. Assistance can include help in emergencies, medical care, contributing to utilities or house payments, light auto repair to get clients to work, supporting education or other needs of people deprived of some of life’s basic necessities.
Thank you to Chris Millar and Bill Demeroutis for representing our club in presenting this contribution to IMPACT.
The Community Services Committee has scheduled a meeting on August 16th at 10:00am. All members are welcome to attend. If you are interested in attending please contact Bre Zientarski.
This event has been planned for two years and was postponed twice due to covid 19. Our work over the past few weeks had been contacting the sponsors and golfers to confirm that they are still committed to the new date.
Looking ahead:
After this year’s tournament, Dan Watson will be chairman of the committee. To ensure a seamless transition he is assisting as co-chair leading up to the event.
Sponsors: 53 sponsors
Golfers: 128 maximum. Currently we have 100 registered.
Work required :
The golf committee will develop a marketing plan to get the word out in order to get the last 28 golfers.
We need to take prize certificates to the donors and get the dates adjusted (they currently have an expiry date of 2020.
Volunteers:
On the day of the event we will need approx. 24 Rotarians to run the tournament (register golfers, monitor the prize holes, manage the silent auction, etc.)
Financial support from club members:
As this is our prime fundraiser for the year, all of us are expected to donate $100 for the event. This can be done on our webpage.
We want to support our members and their families as they face challenges in their lives.... and as they have successes. It is important that we observe each one's individual privacy.
As Rotarians we want our members to feel a part of our family, the Rotary family. If you wish to share anything with fellow members please send a note to Joe Guyton or Wendy Guyton. We will include it in our newly formatted Weekly Members Newsletter.
Gary Terrell is undergoing tests for vascular issues. Please keep him in your prayers.
Craig Stokely is recovering quickly from an Appendectomy!
Amigos, Curt and Diane Prickett were flooded out of their RV that they keep in the White Mountains. Hoping for the rains to stop just long enough to get it out.
Great news for Gordon Wainwright. Gordon has been undergoing radiation treatment for prostrate cancer and he just received his test results. indetectable PSA. Fantastic news!
