Events

     Myron L. Donald has been to every state, every continent and more than 80 countries.

     He was once upon a time fairly fluent in Spanish, French and German, but edits the Club bulletin and the District newsletter in English.

     He is a retired Air Force officer, fighter pilot and finish carpenter.

     He grew up on a corner of his grandfather’s farm near Moravia, a town in central New York. His dad was a carpenter; his mother was a housewife.  He has two younger brothers and a younger sister, three sons, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

     One son is a registered nurse, another is a mechanical engineer at Raytheon and the third is a computer programmer and materials tester for prosthetics.

     He graduated from the Air Force Academy with a BS in Basic Science in 1965, entered basic pilot training at Craig AFB, Selma, AL, just a few months after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s civil rights march to Montgomery, then transitioned to the F-4 Phantom II at George AFB, Victorville, CA, before heading off to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base in September, 1967.

     After flying mostly night truck-hunting missions over Viet Nam and Laos, he was shot down by a Mig-21on a day mission near Hanoi during the Tet Offensive in February, 1968, and immediately captured after parachuting into a rice paddy.  He was released in March, 1973, after more than five years as a POW.

     After receiving an MA in English Literature from the UofA, he was assigned to Ramstein AB, Germany for four years and then finally to Griffiss AFB in Rome, NY.

     He retired to Tucson in 1986, joined Tucson Sunrise Rotary and returned to the UofA for an MBA in Entrepreneurship.

     He then worked for 25 years as a finish carpenter before completely retiring in 2012.

     He continues to travel whenever possible, reads lots of pulp fiction, goes to plays, concerts, and movies, attends many adult-education classes and is a ballroom and country dancer.

Plant the Water First: Landscaping for an Arid Climate

     Charlene Westgate is owner of Westgate Garden Design, an ecological landscape design firm in Green Valley, creating beautiful landscapes in harmony with nature. By making Nature an ally in the design process, landscapes are not only more attractive but are easier and less expensive to maintain, save water, and provide greater year-round enjoyment.

     Charlene is a proud Rotarian, and is a member of the Rotary Club of Green Valley where she serves on their Foundation Board. Charlene stays active in the community as a member of the Board of the Green Valley-Sahuarita Chamber of Commerce, and the Green Valley Council’s Architecture and Planning Committee and the Park Advisory Board. Westgate Garden Design was named the Chamber Home Based Business of the year in 2017, and the Pima County Rural Small Business of the Year in 2019.

     In a region where water is becoming more scarce and outdoor water use accounts for as much as 70 percent of our residential water consumption, rain gardens provide a beautiful solution. A rain garden, also known as passive water harvesting, is “a simple depression in the ground that becomes a watery oasis every time it rains.”

     Rainwater harvesting earthworks contour the soil to make use of rainwater runoff. This approach adds interest to the landscape, saves water and reduces our reliance on groundwater, while providing plants with free, clean, salt-free water.

     Best of all, rain gardens are an easy and impactful way that we Rotarians can contribute to the environment—one of Rotary International’s Areas of Focus—and to do it in our own backyard.

Pat has been the Executive Director of Citizen Diplomacy Alliance since 2010, shortly after moving to Tucson from Southeastern Iowa. 
She joined Rotary in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa in 1997 and continued in Rotary when moving to Tucson and then Thatcher, AZ in 2009.

Citizen Diplomacy Alliance is a not for profit organization with works with the Department of State in hosting international visitors from around the world that are sent to the US to learn about subjects they are involved in at home. These may be law enforcement, education, border issues, wildlife, archeology, judicial system, health care, tribal governance and lifestyles, water issues or any number of other areas that we are qualified to present to the world.
CDA (formerly known as Tucson Council for International Visitors) has hosted thousands of internationals who leave here thinking that America isn't as they had thought. They all comment on how kind and hospitable the people are (and how hot it is in the summer!)
There are 92 other organizations like CDA across the US, each willing to share their culture and knowledge with the visitors.

 Sewing for Living

In 2019, before the pandemic began, then President of Rotary Club Bali Ubud Sunset [RCBUS], Kartika [Tika] Dewi, launched a new program. Called Sewing for Living, it teaches local women to sew using sewing machines and to crochet. Balinese women have always had multiple jobs: take care children and family, doing all the housework, providing help to the community, and assisting at temple and cultural events, among other duties.  It is important for women to make their own money, not only for their self-esteem, but to enable each of them to support her entire family. Sewing For Living teaches marketable skills that women can use from their homes.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these women are the sole providers for their families.

Thanks to Tika, Rotary Club of Seaford Australia stepped forward to donate sewing machines. In 2021, RCBUS introduced crochet lessons to Sewing for Living.  They quickly discovered that yarn was scarce and expensive in the local markets, so they reached out to Rotary Clubs Tucson Sunrise and New Tampa Noon in the United States who both donated financial support, fabric, and boxes of yarn.  Private citizens from Australia and the US also donate yarn.

Rotary Club E-Cologne in Germany is also involved.  They supply vital markets for the items that the Sewing for Living women produce.  The holiday season found E-Cologne staffing a Christmas Market where attendees could donate to Sewing for Living and receive a gift of a handmade item in return.  The money donated went directly to the women who crocheted and sewed the items in the market.  People in Bali also purchase handmade items which are then sent to charities in Australia, in Rocky Point in Mexico, and in the US.

Marion Hook – Bio

Marion has lived in Eastford, Connecticut; Elkins, West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Jakarta, Indonesia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Tucson, Arizona. She currently lives in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia where she intends to stay.

Her educational background includes a degree in English literature, drama and journalism and another in education.  She has studied applied linguistics at a graduate school level longer than anyone needs to –her words.

She has been employed as a high school English teacher, a professor of communications skills in a community college, and as a director of several not-for-profits. She has been self-employed as a consultant for Board and fundraising development in the not-for-profit sector and as co-owner with her late husband, Jim, of the Adobe Rose Bed and Breakfast in Tucson, Arizona.  She currently writes an occasional article for Tucson’s DesertLeaf.

Marion just can’t resist volunteering and has been appointed to serve on over 12 Boards of Directors in three different states and one national Board in Washington, DC.  She also served on the advisory board of Enterprising Women magazine, the advisory board of the School of International Business at Duquesne University, and served on both the Small, Minority and Women-owned Business Commission for the City of Tucson and the Pima County Small Business Commission.

Marion has two daughters, one who lives with her family in Blackmans Bay, Tasmania, Australia, and one who lives with her husband in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.