Wizard of Oz!

Cast Members, from the Summer Musical division of the Amarillo Opera and Civic Amarillo entertained the crowd with songs for their upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz thanks to Rotarians Wes Knapp and David O'Dell. Summer musicals featuring the local talent of our youngsters ages 9-19 have been a hot commodity since the inception in 2004. The "Wizard of Oz" will run from Thursday, July 11 at 7:30 when it opens until the final matinee on Sunday, July 14 at 2:30 on the stage at the Globe News Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets for any of the four productions can be purchased from Panhandle Tickets, or you can contact a cast member for a ticket voucher that will save you $3. Thanks to cast members Brady, Molly, Emily, Harrison, Cassie, Mika, Hagen and Claire for sharing your talent with us today!

Wes Knapp also told us about the Texas Panhandle Independent Futures Foundation that is a new 501(c)3 in Amarillo that creates homes and oppoortunities for the physically disabled, mentally alert, young adults (ages 18-65) who have the desire and capability to achieve consistent growth towards a personal measure of independence. Perry Williams has re-fitted a duplex in the housing addition near Hillside Christian Church for the first young men who are branching out toward independence. This new Foundation helps to fill the gap of support for these young adults who previously were without government help after age 18 and before age 65. For more information, contact Charlotte Rhodes at 376-4521.

In other news, we learned that:

Lea Ann Fulton, has been named 2013 Soroptomist International Best Woman of the Year! Congratulations to Lea Ann and thank you for representing the Rotary Club of Amarillo so nicely!

Our very own Eddie Melin will be having another birthday. If you would like to attend a birthday dinner for him on Friday, July 12 at 6:30, Edes will be providing the beef for a fabulous meal in the new Happy State Bank dining room. Tickets will be $50 each with proceeds going to the Foundation. Contact Gina!

New member, Pam Thomas , accompanied Teresa Clemons for the weekly Rotary Holdup. With help from APD's Brent Barbee and our own Jeff Lester, they managed to wrangle retired state police officer,George Cushing and his grandson Jacob Croke from Bloomington, Illinois for a fun-filled evening of dinner at Feldman's Diner in Canyon and the musical Texas before putting them to bed for the night. The two enjoyed Amarillo so much, they decided to stay a little longer and see the sights around town. Capt. Jeff Lester is looking for an additional host for July 31. All of our other summer Hold Up weeks are staffed by Rotary volunteers.

Rotarians have an opportunity to serve the community by helping with the Color Run on Saturday, June 15 at the Medical Center complex. More than 12,000 runners are anticipated to join in this charitable event where runners in white shirts become more colorful the longer they run. Help with parking cars and directing runners is needed.

Cal Harriman and David Woodburn need our help on June 28 and 29. Volunteers from our Club will be participating in a free dental clinic event at the Civic Center to provide dental services to uninsured Texans. More volunteers are needed and can sign-up via the link sent us from Gina's email, tdasf.org

We will not meet on Thursday, July 4, but will be meeting together with all of the area Rotary Clubs on Monday, July 1. Details will be forthcoming.

The Watchdog Report will return in July. The official modus operandi for the report is that if you don't tell us something about someone else, we'll make up something about you. Please let Mike Good know if you would like to be on his team of Watchdogs!

Thanks to those who helped run our meeting today, including:

President Renee Wilson for presiding over the meeting

David O'Dell and the cast of The Wizard of Oz, who led us in the national anthem and pledge of allegiance

John Tyson, who offered the invocation

David Elizalde, who introduced our visitors and guests o:p><

Dale Bippus, for greeting us so kindly and Bob Russell for selling Foundation tickets

Shara Hinchey, program chair for June.

While today's drawing did not result in the drawing of the ace of spades, it did yield winners who went home with beef jerky and Papa Murphy's pizza coupons.  

Upcoming programs

June 20: Amarillo Venom/Stephanie Tucker