Our Greeter today was Rev. Jeff Kistler and he did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Pastor Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation.
President Mike began the meeting having the members recite the Five-way Test with the fifth question, “Is it Fun?” We recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the U.S.
GUESTS:
Burt Duren, President, Emmaus RC; and Dave Dries, Spring Township RC.
President Mike showed photographs from our last meeting including one from 2 weeks ago, Bob Gordon inspecting Dan Crane for something. Then there were some from last Thursday’s meeting at the Holiday Inn Happy Hour.
SIERRA LEONE UPDATE:
Chris Blechschmidt reported with pictures of the roof trusses going up on the Education Building, and of the bathroom in the Principal’s house. Progress is on schedule.
VOLUNTEERS FOR THIS SATURDAY ARE NEEDED:
Volunteers are needed for the Lowhill Food Pantry. See schedule in our bulletin. Contact Gloria Zimmerman.
JOINT RC EVENTS WITH WHITEHALL:
Herb announced that the Whitehall Area RC invites AW Rotarians to participate in two planned events:
1 – Work with Habitat for Humanity on August 5th,
2 – Gourmet shopping via a bus trip to NYC on November 18th.
SCHEDULE:
President Mike announces upcoming events at our meetings and a list of them appears on our website. A list of the appropriate contact information appears each week in the A-W bulletin.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
August 10th will be a Happy Hour and business meeting at the Holiday Inn starting at 5:30 P.M. We will work on Membership growth ideas.
MEETING INVITATION FROM BETHLEHEM RC:
The Bethlehem RC has invited us to join other area RCs for their August 9th luncheon meeting at Musikfest. Meet in a tent behind the Sands Steel Stage.. Entry to the tent is through the Visitor's Center adjacent to Levitt Pavilion on Bethlehem's South Side ArtsQuest/Steel Stacks area. The speaker will be Kassie Hilgert, President and CEO of ArtsQuest. The luncheon begins at noon. Advance registration is required, with $15 payment for lunch. Checks payable to "Bethlehem Rotary Club" can be sent to PO Box 358, Bethlehem, PA 18016.
ANNUAL AWRC PICNIC:
Sue and Bill Weber are again hosting the AWRC annual Picnic at the Webers’ farm in Vera Cruz on Sunday August 13th starting at 4:00 P.M. A signup sheet is going around, and as usual AW attendees are asked to bring food or drink to share if possible.
Halyna confirmed that she has a tent we can use to protect the food.
AWRC ANNUAL SERVICE AWARD:
Chuck Ehninger now is accepting nominations for the Fall 2017 award through September 30th. He distributed application forms today.
ROTARY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (RLI):
Registration is open now for the September 16th training at DeSales. See separate article. P-E Jeanne recommends this highly for all. NOTE, your registration fee will be reimbursed to you in full by our RC.
MEMBERSHIP MINUTE:
Membership Chair, Herb Klotz reminds us that “It’s OK to ask a candidate to become part of Rotary more than once”. Geoff Legg asked Jeanne Shipe many times over 10 years, and then she joined.
EMMAUS RC OFFERS RAFFLE TICKETS:
Burt Duren said the ERC annual golf tournament is coming up and that the raffle ticket cost is $100 per ticket for a 1 in 300 chance to win a fabulous golf holiday.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Herb Klotz and the program will be Douglas Yingling about the Center for Vision Loss.
President Mike introduced our “Entertainment chair”, S-a-A, Mitch Huston, a “Gentleman.” Mitch began by asking any of us who are guilty of Rotary violations to pay a dollar fine. Some did..
LUCK OF THE DRAW:
Our Sergeant-at-Arms, Mitch Huston, conducted the raffle drawings.
The door prize bottle of wine donated by Jeff Kistler was won by the boisterous Ralph Witcher who loudly proclaimed “I am a winner”!
The $25 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Jeff Kistler’s ticket.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Herb Klotz and family had a great vacation on a lake in Virginia last week.
Ralph Witcher this time proclaimed “I’m Great”!
Amir Famili is happy to recommend a Mennonite farm with great cantaloupes in Pine Valley.
Halyna Stegura is celebrating her birthday and she asked Ralph Witcher to sing to her. With no further urging, Ralph took the microphone and gave a great performance of a special Happy Birthday.
Mitch Huston said that the annual Drum and Bugle Corps competition with 20,000 fans is this weekend. Mitch has been on that committee for 40 years.
Mitch also told a funny story about how to rest from your troubles and drown your enemy. That’s what we think he said.
PROGRAM:
President Mike said “It be me”!
President Mike Gschwendtner shared his vision for 2017-1018 in the AWRC. He noted that some planned activities are not yet firmed up; some cost info is needed. The Parkland SD and Kingdom of Life plans.
Mike reviewed the following:
We will support two Interact Clubs again.
We will host a 17 year old young lady named Alicia from Poland as our Youth Exchange student. She arrives here on August 21st and will attend Northwestern HS.
Sue Weber has heard from Marti who says “Hello” from Argentina.
We again will sponsor a Christmas concert at Luther Crest.
We will present Service Awards.
We will have a table at the LV EXPO again this year. Mitch will do it and needs volunteers.
We plan to support ShelterBox USA again this year.
We will support the Food Pantries again this year.
We have added the Mike Henry $500 scholarship to our other 9 $1,000 awards.
We will continue our Student of the Month program with gift cards.
We will sponsor 4 HS students to Camp Neidig (RYLA).
Financial support of Kids of Character is planned, as is volunteering for the two days of Ethics conferences.
We would like to sponsor a local Speech Contest as part of the District-wide competition. WE NEED A LEADER to make this happen.
We plan to volunteer to drive for Meals on Wheels on two holidays again this year.
Snack Packing for NW and Parkland school district children will continue. Ray Stock is the new Chair for this work.
Once again AW Rotarians will plan and operate the District 7430 Purple Pinkie 5 K Run & Walk to support Polio Eradication. It will be at LCCC on October 14th with John Scott as the race Director.
We are considering a new project that will sponsor Sierra Leone, Centennial School students to attend college at about $1,000 a year.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
.JPG)
