Seven of our members went to the annual District 7430 Conference this past weekend at Pocono Manor Inn. District Governor Doug Cook did a great job putting on this event when the weather was not going to cooperate. It snowed Saturday!
One special feature this year was having various RC Presidents act as the MC for a Plenary Session. And each told a story about their persona; “Aha” Rotary moment. Our own Herb Klotz led the Saturday morning session.
We heard from a number of keynote speakers on varied topics about Rotary's Global impact from Past District Governors like Elias Thomas of the Sanford-Springvale Club in Maine who gave an inspiring account of his 16 years of N.I.D.s to help eradicate Polio.
Also the Rotary International Representative Gilbert Brown from East Dallas, Texas addressed the crowd of more than 200 Rotarians and friends about the many projects he has worked on to help others, in Nicaragua, for example.
The theme of the weekend was about Ending Hunger and we heard about the Potato Project, Operation Backpack (from Pottstown's Lisa Heverly) and End Hunger NE. Two big events focused on the End Hunger theme - Cow Pie Bingo culminated in raising $5,000 for these charities. Then there was a fun event run by End Hunger NE where the attendees for two hours on Saturday afternoon packed 14,000 food containers for donation to Food Pantries in our district communities.
Another great feature of the weekend was to see and hear from our Youth Exchange students, both past -- via videos -- and present.
Friday evening included a reception and a buffet dinner with our traditional International theme.
And Saturday evening included a reception and a wonderful plated dinner. This time it was a Hawaiian theme. Many Hawaiian shirts were visible, some even worn with a tuxedo.
Saturday morning were the finals for the 4-Way Test Speech Contest with some excellent speeches.
Also we got to see and hear from all the students in the Student Exchange Program. It was an interesting time to meet all the students who have been attending our local high schools during this past year and to meet the outbound USA students who are heading abroad later this Summer.
Sunday morning was a very special memorial service for district Rotarians who passed away during the last year. Rev. David Mohr and the Webers made this happen. And Emmaus RC’s President Sue Straeter ably provided the musical accompanyment. Sue also MC’d the final Plenary session.
Attendees from AWRC included Herb & Ronnee Klotz, Dan Crane and Donna Beach, Sue and Bill Weber, and Bill Palmer.
