Our August 12th club meeting had three speakers, as follows:
Scholarship recipient Kaya Glasner visited the club to relate some of her experiences as a freshman at the University of Arizona, majoring in Art - Animation & Illustration. She was an exemplary student from Marana High School that was awarded a $1000 scholarship for the 2020-21 academic year and will receive that amount again for the upcoming term. She described a non-standard year of having all classes online, very much looking forward to in-person learning. Kaya became best friends with a wonderful roommate while both were studying exclusively from their dorm room, and hopes to be working for a top animation studio in 5-7 years such as Pixar, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, or Prism & Pixels.
Monica Smith, Marketing & Community Relations Director, spoke to the club about Visiting Angels Tucson, which provides in-home care for seniors to age in place in the safety and comfort of their own home or wherever they call home. Monica has over 30 years of experience in the public relations, administrative, and legal sectors and has worked in various business settings including corporate, non-profit, and preeminent law firms. Monica has been a part of Tucson’s health and wellness industry for the past 6 ½ years. At Visiting Angels, Monica cultivates relationships and strategic partnerships to create opportunities that broaden awareness and collaboration in the local community. Monica outlined many aspects of in-home senior care, including services provided, drivers for senior care such as fall prevention & the need for long-distance caregiving, how to broach the difficult topic of a need for care assistance with a loved one, and criteria for selecting an agency to provide in-home care. Monica also raffled to DM Rotarians a valuable handbook of vital information & records put together by Visiting Angels, which was won by Club President - Fred Novick.
Cindy McKearney, of Fairway Independent Mortgage, an industry expert with over 30 years of mortgage lending experience in the local Tucson community, has focused in the last seven years on providing clients 62 years of age or greater with the best guidance on mortgage programs for them as they move into retirement. Her vast knowledge includes management, operations, servicing, origination, secondary marketing and past ownership of her own mortgage brokerage company. Cindy spoke to our club about the basics of the latest types of reverse mortgages, what a reverse mortgage is and is not, as well as the myths & other Q&A’s on reverse mortgages for seniors