Catalina Rotary Club Preserves Veterans’ Stories on Video
Storming the beaches in the Philippines; flying B29 bombing missions over Tokyo – preserving these and other wartime memories is the goal of a new initiative launched by Tucson’s Catalina Rotary Club. The goal of Catalina Rotary Club Veterans Project is to record, on video, the military and Rotary service stories of club members. Copies of the interviews will be posted on a special Web site the club will create. Each veteran will receive a copy of his/her interview. The interviews will also be submitted to the Veterans History Project, run by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
The first stage of the Catalina Rotary Club’s initiative is a pilot project focusing on the club’s WWII veterans. The first two interviews, with Les McQuary (Army Infantry) and Jim Kingston (Army Air Corps), were taped on October 19 and 21, 2009.
The Catalina Rotary Club Veterans Project is being funded initially by donations from Catalina Club members. The club also hopes to attract additional funding through sponsorships and grants.
The project was conceived by Catalina Rotary Club member Irv Mindes, who saw the need to honor military veterans and inform future generations by preserving veteran reminiscences on video. He approached fellow Rotarian and video biographer Steve Pender with the idea and together they proposed the project to the club. After raising some initial seed money, they assembled a production team consisting of Steve Pender, (director, interviewer, editor); Victor Lim (videography); Halina Pender (make up); Irv Mindes (still photography). Project co-chairs Mindes and Pender plan to complete the balance of the WWII veteran interviews in 2010, and then move on to later eras.
The Catalina Rotary Club is on the Web at www.catalinarotary.org.
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Jim Kingston - Army Air Corps
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Les McQuary - Army Infantry
Benson's Purple Piggy Bank for Polio
Butterfield Stage Days held in Benson on October 9-11 saw the Benson Rotary very involved while bringing attention to the eradication of polio. It began some time before with the engineering and building of the very large purple pig. Nearly 2000 pompoms were made by members to cover the pig and it became the centerpiece for the Benson Rotary parade float and booth at the weekend events. On Sunday, Benson Rotary held the car show, drawing much more attention. A healthy contribution will be made to the RI Foundation toward the polio fund.
DG Steve has invited the pig to attend the district conference and it will be taking part in the golf tournament. Other clubs are invited to use the pig in their polio fund-raising events. Contact Benson Rotary president, Judy Herring, for information.
Sierra Vista Rotary deliver Thesauruses
On 22, 23, and 24 Sep 20 members of SV Rotary helped hand out nearly 600 Thesauruses to 7th graders in Sierra Vista and Fort Huachuca. This is the 2nd year in a row we were able to help the literacy of our public school students due to a donation by the Sulphur Valley Electric Cooperative. The books will help the students in their day to day school work and as they prepare to take the AIMS test later this year. The students and the teachers were very appreciative of our efforts again this year.
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