The Greeter this morning was Len Salines and he did an excellent job.
President Herb rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS: Chris Hornaman, Steve LaPierre and Jim Palmquist, Emmaus RC
Ronnee Klotz, guest of President Herb
Michaela Luzicova, our Youth Exchange student from Slovakia
Jennifer Holman and Pete McKnight, Teachers from NWL SD for Sierra Leone Grant travel.
From Engineers Without Borders: Dianne Dunne, Tom Power, John Cirucci, Jim Butt, Carl Zvanut and Bill McNair
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Friday September 25th was our AWRC Dining Out at Louie’s, See separate article.
The Ontelaunee Park work detail did their thing on Saturday September 26th including help from Michaela: see separate article.
Wednesday October 7th is Snack Packing at Northwestern at 2:45 PM.
Our next Thursday evening meeting is October 8th at 5:30 PM at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville.
Thursday October 8th is the District Golf Tournament at Silver Creek CC; proceeds go to the Rotary Foundation.
Please remember that the Fleetwood RC’s annual Gourmet Gala is set for tomorrow, Thursday October 1st at Moselem Springs Golf Club. Please support this event as they do for us.
Please support the Bethlehem RC's Taste and Tunes event on Oct. 4th at the Hotel Bethlehem. They came to our Tempting Tastes One in May.
The Rodale Park work detail is scheduled for Saturday October 10th; see Dan Crane.
Wednesday October 21st is the first Snack Packing at Parkland HS. Contact Jean Masiko if you can help.
The Halloween Party at the Miracle League is October 21st. Volunteers are needed. Tell Dale Heffner and use the sign-up sheet.
The October Dining Out is on October 23rd at the Curious Goods at the Bake Oven Inn at 7705 Bake Oven Rd, Germansville, PA 18053, also a supporter of Tempting Tastes One. Please use the sign-up sheet.
Saturday October 24th is Purple Pinkie Day !!
The PP5K committee will meet this Friday October 2nd at 9:00 A.M. at LCCC to check out the site.
Volunteers always are needed at the Lowhill Food Pantry, this time for Saturday Oct 3rd. and also Oct 21st and 22nd. Contact Barb or Gloria. It is very rewarding.
The Tempting Tastes 2 committee will meet on Friday October 16th at 7:30 a.m.
The International committee will meet here on Wed. Oct 21st.
The annual District Foundation Seminar is on Saturday, October 31st and Herb is going and asks that at least one other AW Rotarian go and hopefully stay for the Grant Certification session.
President Herb asks us all to e-mail him about any announcements to be made at future meetings so he can include them as part of his planned agenda.
Next week our scheduled Greeter is Bob Gordon and the program will be Dorothy Bloom giving her Classification Talk.
PURPLE PINKIE SCORESHEET:
Herb’s list of goals to measure our progress in having a successful district 5K Race for Polio Eradication:
20 of the planned 200 runners have registered.
We have $1,750 Corporate Sponsors; the goal is > $5,000.
13 – going to 15 - RCs have committed to sponsor. We want more.
We have 11 door prize gifts; we need 25.
We have enough event volunteers.
Please do what you can to encourage friends and family to register this coming week to either run, walk or stroll for this great cause.
MY ROTARY:
One goal this year is to have EVERY AW member go onto the RI website rotary.org and click on “My Rotary” and set up an account with a password. So far we have 27 of us registered. Please do it; it takes 5 to 10 minutes. If you need help, just contact Brian Peterka.
ROTARIAN of the WEEK:
The AW “Rotarian of the Week” is Bill Palmer who served as our District Governor in 2010-11. After 6 years in the Easton RC where he served as its President in 1999-2000, Bill followed Yvette and joined the AW family in 2001.
Bill does our weekly newsletter, and is the District Secretary and Editor of the Governor’s monthly Newsletter. His proudest times were securing a $34,000 matching grant for a water well in the Philippines, and becoming a “PAST” District Governor.
LUCK of the DRAW:
The door prize donated by Len was won by Joe Goll. The $94 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Joel Masiko who selected a white marble.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Dorothy for being late.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
It is Herb’s Birthday tomorrow and Jean’s today. Twice we sang Happy Birthday.
Bill Weber is happy with the excellent blog that our outbound Youth Exchange student, Sydney Phillips, has begun. She is on Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar.
Halyna id happy that she could keep current with AW activities while she traveled the south Pacific, thanks to the weekly e-Bulletin.
Dan Crane is happy with the great Ontelaunee work crew. And he mentioned that Mike Henry proposed that we might build on Bob Gordon’s $20 “Pay & Play” plan, but only for $15 just to not have to work.
Herb is happy about Friday’s Dining Out, Saturday’s Park work, AND on Sunday he went to Philadelphia and was part of the huge Mass with Pope Francis with good seats.
PROGRAM:
President Herb introduced Father Peter Konteh and Benjamin Perra of the Healey Foundation to report on their work in Sierra Leone. Father Peter was ordained a Priest in April 1996. He served as the BBC correspondent during the Sierra Leone civil war. He also started St. Mary’s Children’s Home for orphans.
Ben Parra is the Executive Director and joined the Healey International Relief Foundation in February 2014. He previously served as the Executive Director of the Community Health Development Fund, an organization which provides financing services for the building and expansion of community clinics in the USA
Ben said that Healey Foundation has been aiding in relief activities in Sierra Leone since 2005. The main projects supported through the Foundation include St. Mary’s Children’s Home, Fatima House of Light, St. Stephen’s Home for Amputees, Serabu Hospital and the National Health Organization.
They selected Sierra Leone because it was the poorest country in Africa, if not the world. And the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa caused everyone to focus on the area. In Sierra Leone Ebola was extremely difficult to get under control. There was no vaccine until recently/
The Sierra Leone borders are porous, and the World Health Organization gave the wrong advice about contagion initially. The most significant cause of spreading Ebola in Sierra Leone was a cultural issue. Their practice is to wash the body of a deceased and re-dress it for burial. This exacerbated transmission of the virus.
The Healy Folks shipped in medical supplies, hospital beds, food and looked after orphans. Whole families were dying leaving just the children. And they opened a clinic, which now they are working to make it sustainable.
Father Peter then spoke to us starting with a Thank You for having them here today. He said that Ebola left the people traumatized and also stigmatized. He said that coming into the U.S. folks were afraid to touch his travel documents.
He works with the Healy Foundation people to educate and care for the Ebola survivors. He commented that by October of last year their ambulance system was overloaded. It would take two days before a body might be taken from a home.
When asked about the Government’s position, Father Peter said that there was no coordination of efforts and there is some corruption. The U.S. C.D.C. has to authorize travel to Sierra Leone. We still hope to be able to send EWB and our AW Teachers to Sierra Leone next Spring.
CLOSING:
Halyna hit the right note to start a nice rendition of “America the Beautiful.” This was followed by the recitation of the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
ocus on membership for our Club. 
