The Greeter this morning was Bob Nagle and he did a great job.
President Herb rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Chuck Ehninger gave a very nice invocation with special mention of Mae and Dale Hostetter, Gloria Zimmerman and Dawn Costello.
GUESTS:
Steve LaPierre, Emmaus RC; Michaela Luzicova, Exchange Student; Rick Bloom; Jude Sandt, Assistant Principal of Parkland HS, and three inductees.
Also back with us today was Vern Fenstermaker and Daryl Smith.
There were 46 attendees today.
STUDENT of the MONTH:
Jonathan Ceh of Parkland H.S. was honored as our January Student –of-the-Month with Rev. Jeff Kistler presenting. See separate article.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Last Wednesday we did Snack Packs at Northwestern and did them in record time.
This evening is the AWRC Speech Contest at LCCC. Come at 7:00 PM to Room 107 in the Alumni Center near the Library.
Saturday Feb 6th volunteers are needed at Lowhill Food Pantry.
ONE WEEK FROM NOW -- February 10th -- THE MEETING IS AT NORTHWESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL -- NOT HERE AT LUTHER CREST.
On March 30th we will hold this meeting at Parkland H.S. Then on April 13th at LCTI; and in May at LCCC with our annual scholarship awards.
Our next Thursday evening meeting is February 11th at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Come and enjoy as an extra, or as a make-up.
Our newest project at Kingdom Life Food Pantry starts next Friday. Contact Jean Masiko.
Mike Henry can use more volunteers to sign up for Meals on Wheels deliveries on Monday Feb.15th.
Mike also asks folks to sign up for our February Dining Out on the 19th at Eight Oaks with catering by “29 Cooks.” and a Brass Ensemble for entertainment.
The annual Engineers Without Borders event will be on April 1st at DeSales University. Come and meet a real Astronaut.
Opportunities to Volunteer are listed in the weekly e-bulletin.
Next week AT NORTHWESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL our scheduled Greeter is Hope Pearson , and the program is a session with Interact students.
FOUNDATION MINUTE:
David Caccese our RI Foundation Chair reports that AW Rotarians are at the 75% mark toward reaching our $10,000 goal of donations to the RI Annual Fund. This is great, but he asks us to work on the E.R.E.Y. side. This is the hope that every club member will donate some amount every year. There are a number of ways to donate -- on line is one, and using forms that David will provide is another.
David emphasized that giving to the RI Annual Fund provides the monies back to our District that pay for the Grants that we get. Let’s keep that going.
ROTARIAN of the WEEK:
The AW “Rotarian of the Week” is Gwen Pongracz. Gwen recently started a new job and now attends our Thursday evening meetings and volunteers. Gwen is the founder of Kids of Character, and an originator of the D7430 annual Lehigh Valley Ethics Conferences. And this year Gwen has organized our Four Way Test Speech Contest.
Gwen joined AW Rotary in 2009 and was our Advisor to the Northwestern HS Interact club in 2010-13. She was a Rotary Exchange Student in 1971 for a 3 week trip to Paris. She takes great pleasure and pride in those Ethics Conferences for Middle and High School students.
LUCK of the DRAW:
The door prize donated by Bob Nagle was won by Chuck Ehninger. Then Ray Stock drew a white marble and did not win $4o in the 50:50.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Bob Gordon -- today’s Speaker -- for leaving early. Bob said that he did not want to hear today’s program.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Marlene is celebrating three family birthdays.
Bill Palmer is happy that the ground hog saw his shadow yesterday.
Daryl Smith is happy to be with us today. He claims that he really wants to hear Bob Gordon’s program.
Halyna is happy to be back from two weeks in Aruba -- and they missed the blizzard.
Dan Crane is happy to report that he and Geoff Legg doubled their fish count last weekend; two x zero = zero. Dan also is pleased about the ground hog.
David Caccese is happy that he is back from two days of financial seminars in NYC.
Michaela is happy to be living with the Blooms and to be with her Rotary family this morning.
Mike Henry put in $10 to celebrate their granddaughter’s 10th birthday.
Mary Ann Pickell is happy about Punxsutawney Phil. And she is pleased to report that her 9 mos. old puppy now weighs 50 lbs. and loves the snow.
Geoff Legg thanked Dan for the good time fishing. And he is happy about the nice article in the paper about his daughter, Dr. Kim Corba.
Vern is happy to be back and recovered. And he thanks all for the Facebook sharing. It seems that Vernon has just reached his 96th birthday, so we sang a nice rendition of Happy Birthday.
Herb is very happy to report recent test scores from the students at the Centennial School in Sierra Leone. Not too many years ago maybe 1 or 2 of 100 students tested OK for college. This time it was 43%. Similarly, 90% passed for the Community College level.
PROGRAM:
By special request we were able to have Dr. Bob Gordon provide us with a talk about the Psychology of Religious Tolerance. Bob reminds us that we have 1000 years of one faith’s followers killing each other. Some statistics:
There are 19 Major religions in the world
These break into 270 Large groups.
There are 34,000 distinct Christian groups alone.
Bob said that over the years it has been established that about 80% of what Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis, said was correct. It seems that only minor differences in beliefs cause strained relations. It seems that the closer two people are, the more they might fight.
The more insecure a person is, the more intolerant he/she is. Bob evaluated 158 court cases of divorces with custody battles. Each parent teaches the children that the other parent is bad. Bob stresses that loyalty to one’s faith does not require you to put down other faiths.
Bob says that the human brain is most importantly a “survival” organ. So instinctively we think that people who disagree with us are to be eliminated. Actually we are strengthened by being different.
INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS:
Past President Chuck Ehninger inducted three new members this morning; see separate article.
CLOSING:
Halyna hit the right note to start us on a nice rendition of “God Bless America.” Then we recited the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
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