Bud Heitman, Chairman of the Board for the Prescott Community Cupboard Foodbank (PCCF) was our speaker this week. The PCCF was started in 1973 in Prescott, by 7 churches. Six of those churches are still affiliated with the PCCF, and they are the main source of volunteers for it. Bud shared some insightful statistics:
Arizona is 10th in the nation in food insecurity, 3rd in the country in child food insecurity
In 2023, the PCCF fed 36,000 people in Yavapai County
The PCCF does not have any eligibility criteria, although there are limits on the amount of food that participants can receive. The program offers different options for different sized families. Bud says they see mostly what they call the working poor- people who are working, but often have to choose between feeding themselves/their families and paying the bills. Thanks to significant donations from local grocery stores to include Fry’s, Safeway & Sprouts, and grants, they are able to offer not only non-perishable items, but also fresh foods that might not be saleable in the grocery store, but are still perfectly fine. They also provide milk and eggs to participants.
The Rotary Club of Prescott SunUp recently (mid-November) donated 100 Birthday Cake Kits for Kids to the PCCF. Bud shared that they kept those kits to the side, and asked parents if their children had upcoming birthdays to distribute the kits. All of the kits had been distributed by mid-January!
The Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona (TRVFA) is a non-profit organization under IRS Code 501(c)(3) whose purpose is to assist those people who qualify under Arizona law to obtain financial assistance to further their vocational studies. TRVFA is an organization that meets Arizona’s Credit For Contributions To A Qualifying Charitable Organization requirements. Our QCO Code is 20698. Candidates who meet the eligibility requirements are identified and recommended to TRVFA by financial aid counselors in vocational education institutions, and/or by Rotarians and their clubs.
As of January 15, our Rotary Vocational Fund has awarded 104 of these vocational education scholarship grants this Rotary year (since July 1), totaling $201,663. Eighty (77%) of them have been to prepare individuals for careers in medical and dental fields. The other 24 grants have been in automotive service, trucking, cosmetology, electrical and welding. All of these life-changing vocational scholarships are made possible by our contributions to TRVFA, which are eligible for state tax credits, as noted above. You can donate online at trvfa.org, or mail a check to TRVFA, P O Box 14412, Scottsdale, AZ 85267.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Thanks to our Prescott Sunup Volunteers who served this weekend in the snack bar for the AMA Arenacross Championship at the Findlay Toyota Center!
AROUND OUR ROTARY DISTRICT
The Sedona Village Rotary Club is inviting our club members to participate in their Best Raffle EVER!!!
Because I couldn't unplug the toilet with a plunger, I had to dismantle the entire fixture, no small feat for a non-plumber. Jammed inside the drain was a purple rubber dinosaur, which belonged to my five-year-old son.
I painstakingly got all the toilet parts together again, the tank filled, and I flushed it. However, it didn't work much better than before!
As I pondered what to do next, my son walked into the bathroom. I pointed to the purple dinosaur I had just dislodged and told him that the toilet still wasn't working.
"Did you get the green one, too?" he asked.
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A young man and a pastor are playing a round of golf together. At a short par 3, the pastor asks the young man, "What club are you going to use on this hole?”
The young man says, "An 8-iron, reverend. How about you?”
The pastor says, "I'm going to hit a soft seven and pray.”
The young man hits his 8-iron and puts the ball on the green.
The pastor tops his 7-iron and dribbles the ball out a few yards.
The young man says, "I don't know about you, pastor, but in my church, when we pray, we keep our head down.” __
A little boy is gone to school one day and while he is gone, his cat is accidentally killed. His mother is very concerned about how he will take the news.
Upon his arrival home, she explains the tragedy and tries to console the boy saying, "But don't worry, the cat is in heaven with God now."
The boy replied, "What's God gonna' do with a dead cat?" __
Two wrongs don't make a right. But three will get you back on the interstate highway.
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The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off.
Most everyone is familiar with the telephone game. It's that game where one person whispers a sentence to one person, and they whisper to the next and so on through a handful of people. At the end, the last person says what they heard, and it's usually something different than where the "phone call" started.
It turns out that our brains work the same way with memories. We don't really remember events in our lives, we remember the last time we remembered an event, so just like the telephone game, a memory becomes a memory of a memory so much so that eventually, we may remember something completely different than what actually happened (Bridge & Paller, Journal of Neuroscience 2012).
So, the next time you think you're recalling a past event accurately, realize that your brain has probably played the telephone game, and it may not be quite what you recall!
With this in mind, what if, the next time your siblings or spouse recall something differently than you remember it or if it seems the story has shifted, you just listened? Rather than calling them on it or arguing with them, remember that we all have our own memory telephones, and the message changes with each recall- not just with your siblings or spouse, but with yourself as well!
Here's to some lighter moments where we can realize that our brains love to play the telephone game!
Help Spread Sunshine: If you currently know any Rotary members who are going through challenging times or if you'd like to volunteer to make calls and send cards to members and their families during sickness, hospitalization or loss, contact Laura Vanderberg <laura@newtonservicesconsulting.com>
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