Our Greeter today was Marlene Ritter, and she did a fabulous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Pastor Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation.
Pres. 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 U.S.
GUESTS:
Dave Dries, Spring Township RC: David Haight, friend of Al Lewis; Lily Hu, guest of Bob Gordon; Ala, our Youth Exchange student; Dave Shaver, guest of Chris Blechschmidt; Wilmer Schultz, Emmaus RC; Craig Newkirk, guest of Amir Famili, and Andy, guest of Ralph Witcher.
Pres. Mike showed pictures of last week’s Northwestern Snack Packing, and last week’s meeting including from our great Thursday Evening meeting.
NEW MEMBER INDUCTION:
Diana Dunn was inducted as AWRC’s newest member. Herb Klotz sponsored Diana, and he conducted the induction ceremony and applied her lapel pin. Welcome, Diana. We are glad you are with us.
.LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
V-P Amir Famili reported that they purchased and distributed 495 Lbs. of Produce last week for the Lowhill Food Pantry.
HOST Youth Exchange FAMILIES NEEDED:
Our club is looking for possible host families for our youth exchange student for 2018-2019. If you are interested in hosting please contact Sue Weber for more information at floraweber@aol.com
MEALS ON WHEELS HELP NEEDED:
AWRC volunteers will be delivering for Meals on Wheels (MOW) on President’s Day, Monday, February 19.
FOUNDATION GALA MARCH 17TH:
AWRC is supporting the annual Foundation Gala fundraiser with a basket of cheer. Members are asked to donate a bottle or two as we have in the past. Pres. Mike will take custody of bottles starting Feb. 14th here at the meeting.
DINING OUT:
The next Dining Out will be a “German Night” on February 22nd at the Stony Run Inn. A menu is available. Please sign up by February 16th.
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:
Feb. 22nd is the Dining Out event for February at the Stony Run Inn at 6:00 P.M.
TT 4 MEETING:
The next TT4 project meeting will be at the Holiday Inn on Friday, February 23, starting at 7:30 AM. Gwenn and Gary will be having breakfast there starting at 7 AM. Please join them for breakfast if you can.
Gary said he and Gwenn have forms for us, and need auction items and Sponsors.
MEMBERSHIP PLANS:
Herb Klotz will hold a meeting today here after this one.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE 2018:
Dave Dries distributed flyers about the April 25 to 27 annual conference being held at the Crowne Plaza in Wyomissing.
. Dave emphasized that the site is local and the cost options are very attractive. We can attend all day on Saturday for just $99. They have some great speakers scheduled, and the finals of our annual Four-Way Test Speech Contest. There still is ad space available in the event’s program. Please Register on line.
POSITION AVAILABLE:
On behalf of Saint George Orthodox Church, Wendy Weaver said that there is a part time job opening for a Business Manager.
NEXT WEEK:
Pres. Mike introduced Substitute S-A-A Don Davis, who was dragged out of retirement to serve today. Don conducted our drawings and picked up some “Guilty” dollars. He still has his skills.
The Door Prize Valentine heart box of candy donated by Marlene Ritter was won by Dave Dries.
The $51 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Len Salines’ ticket. Many white marbles remain.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Al Lewis is happy that Saranac Lake Olympian won the gold in the Luge competition in Korea.
Ralph Witcher is happy to have his guest here for breakfast today.
Ron Coleman paid $2 because Don Davis faulted him for not wearing a red hat today.
Gary Englehardt recognized that he recently had a birthday.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Members Chris Blechschmidt & Herb Klotz providing “A Snapshot of Sierra Leone & Matru Jong: Possibly the Best Place in the Whole universe.” The latter is the morning wakeup call mantra they heard every day.
Chris began with pictures of their trip to Sierra Leone last month for Engineers Without Borders. We saw the group at Newark airport, and then an aerial view of the Sahara desert. He described the very poor roads that are available.
The key EWB project for this trip was the installation of a covered toilet facility at the Matru Hospital for Outpatients. This replaces the simple hole in the ground, very fragrant system.
The six foot deep hole for the new toilets had been dug before the team arrived. They built up the columns and enclosed it. it has running water and buckets of same are the flushing mechanism.
A future project will be another toilet for Patients. And they need to rehab a small building to house a mid-wife full time at the Hospital. Nobody travels in the dark there.
There was a huge boulder in the way while the cesspit was being dug. It was broken into a huge pile of rocks. Then the word was spread that there were rocks available for free -- and they were gone in about two hours.
Herb told us:
He and Chris drove about 50 miles and it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to get to the Bo Rotary Club. Work was begun with the Bo Rotary Club for a Rotary Global Grant for the hospital, which is about a mile from the Centennial School. This 30 member RC is again ready and willing to partner with AWRC.
They conducted a Hospital Visioning Meeting with Stakeholders. The result is a Proposed Global Grant for Mattru Hospital with its Area of Focus as Maternal and Child Care. The Host Partner will be Bo Rotary. The Scope includes:
Training for Nurses and Midwives
Rehabilitation of Maternity and Pediatric Wards
Rehabilitation of Staff Housing so that Midwife can live on campus
We also saw pictures of kids playing soccer, and the team with the locals having a meal and beverages together. Great presentation.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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