Today was a ZOOM meeting and again there were about 40 of us on line. After 15 minutes of talking amongst ourselves with our Greeter being President Amir Famili, he opened the meeting at 7:45 A.M Pastor Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS ON LINE:
Dave Dries, Spring Twsp RC; Sharon Goldner, guest of Gail Micca; Sandi Boll; Pat Witcher; Dr. Jude Sandt, Parkland H.S. Assistant Principal; Richard Sniscak, Supt. Parkland S.D. and Interact Club members Melena View, Lillian Rodgers and Olivia Nyce plus some parents in the background.
P-E Ralph Witcher began the meeting by having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then he led us in reciting the Four Way Test.
Pres. Amir thanks all “first responders” and other Essential Workers for what they do and asks all to pray for them. And he reminds us that we are people of action.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD BANK:
The Kingdom Life Food Bank Drive In Food Giveaway---
“Thanks to everyone for all their help. We worked together with 30 plus other volunteers to serve 513 families from 9am to 12noon on May 9.
Thank you for caring.” Jean Masiko
Jean needs more AW volunteers for Saturday May 16, Then there is a break until June..
NEW PROJECT:
Gail Micca sent out an e-mail announcement --- “Our amazing club is taking on a new project - growing food for local food pantries. In this time of uncertainty, one thing is certain - we can still help and spending time in a garden may even help you too. It's a peaceful place and while you can socially distance, you can make a difference.”
If you think you might enjoy some time helping with the new Green Thumbs Garden Project, please email me so I can form a volunteer list to keep in touch. Currently, I am in need of a few things:
Cash donations for materials/plants
Help with installing 50 feet of fencing
Help with occasional watering and weeding
Thank you to the Webers and Amir for donations thus far.
The garden plot (#4) is located at the community garden near Dorney Park and Cedar Brook Nursing Home.
Please email if you are interested in helping.
SNACKS VIA LCCC:
Gail Micca reports that she delivered 150 Snackpacks for LCCC students on Friday May 8th.. Many of these will be delivered to the Donley campus in Allentown.
Then they delivered these 120 packs to the Parkland School District on Tuesday, May 5th.
HELP OUR TEMPTING TASTES FRIENDS:;
Our leaders have agreed to Gwenn Carr’s suggestion to publically ask members and friends to support the Restaurants and food suppliers that have supported us in the past. Using Facebook, our weekly A-W Bulletin, and by buying gift cards and food from them.
Restaurants and providers are now hungry for our support. Please consider ordering from them when you are looking for a break from your own cooking! You can also support them with the purchase of gift cards, for yourself or others. This week’s Featured Food Provider is Curious Goods at the Bake Oven Inn. See separate article.
AWRC PEN SET AVAILABLE:
Pres. Amir showed a picture of a Rotary pen set with AWRC on it for sale at $100. Each purchase will put $90 into an account to provide food for the hungry Thanks go to Gail Micca for making this happen.
Pres. Amir urged us to join our RC Facebook page.
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW HONORARY AWARD:
DG Herb Klotz with great enthusiasm virtually presented Gail Micca with her PHF+1 recognition. Jeanne Shipe donated recognition points in Gail’s honor to make this happen. Gail has been a very busy Rotarian with Snack Packing and many other projects.
Congratulations, Gail.
MORNING MEETINGS;
President Amir Famili has suspended all AWRC face-to-face meetings until further notice. ZOOM meetings are now scheduled for each Wednesday at 7:30 A.M.
THURSDAY EVENING SCHEDULE:
TOMORROW May 14th at 5:30 P.M. we will hold a ZOOM Happy Hour meeting. Just show up and smile.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday May 20h starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use ZOOM to meet together with appropriate distancing. Our program will be Northwestern Lehigh Interact students presentation --- Year end accomplishment and scholarship award presentation to NWL students.
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD:
INTERACT DYNAMIC DUO WIN AWRC SCHOLARSHIPS
Melena View and Lillian Rodgers are Scholarship Winners. Barbara Kistler conducted the ceremony that gave the scholarship to them. See separate article.
Melena said she is very happy to be part of serving others. Interact Club Advisor, Lori Peters, expressed her thanks to the winners. Dr. Sandt noted that there are 94 clubs involved with Parkland H.S., but the Interact club is one of the few with positive results.
Lilly, with her Dad in the background, expressed her thanks to us for the award. She had three great years and even helped at the Purple Pinkie race.
Supt. Snicsak said these winners exemplified “Service Above Self.”
HAPPY DOLLARS and MEMBER NEWS:
Pres. Amir conducted this part and kept score on who owes how much money. BTW it is $2 for ZOOM happiness.
Bill Weber was seen wearing a cowboy hat this morning to give Ron Coleman some competition.
Ron Coleman was wearing a very special fancy shirt today. He left the room and came back and announced that there were no chocolate bonbons on his pillow.
Ernie Boll is very happy.
Bill Palmer is pleased to report that Yvette’s granddaughter, Arista, was graduated “virtually” from Penn State University last Saturday with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Pat Witcher was holding their 6 month old granddaughter, Michaela as Ralph was on too.
Gail Micca asks us to sign up for the new garden project.
Sue Weber said that James, our cancelled outbound Y.E. student, has asked to be part of our Rotary projects going forward.
Gwenn Carr noted that this week we urge members to support Curious Goods and the Bake Oven Inn.
PROGRAM:
Pres. Amir introduced Lori Peters our Parkland H.S. Interact club Advisor. Lori thanks AW Rotarians for supporting the great Parkland H.S. Interact club. She used a series of slides and turned the presentation over to Melena, Lilly, and Olivia.to review the year-end accomplishments and some future plans.
Melena is the Interact club President, Lilly is Vice President, and Olivia is the Secretary. Melena and Lilly will be in college next tear. So Olivia will be rebuilding the club that typically has about 20 hardworking members.
There was a photo of the group that volunteered at the October 2019 District 7430 Purple Pinkie 5K race. They had a good time making this a success.
Also that weekend they had their Homecoming celebration with a food drive. They collected 3,200 food items that went to school programs.
Also last October Melena designed a special bracelet that was used for a fundraiser. And on Wednesdays these students help pack the snacks -- about 240 each session.
In December they held a holiday gift drive for children. They also went to an Elementary School in Allentown and sorted many items for distribution.
In November they attended the Rotary Day at the United Nations and had a great experience. They were able to catch up with friends that they met at the 2019 Camp Neidig.
In March they had folks from Engineers Without Borders talk to them about our project at the Hospital in Sierra Leone.
They reviewed a list of things that were planned for this Spring, but school got cancelled. They expressed their thanks to AW members and especially to Lori Peters.
Pres. Amir congratulated all of these great students, and he asked us to be safe.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
Photos by Gary Heller
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