Our Greeter today was Gwen Pongracz and she did a marvelous job.
President Amir Famili rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all. Then Rev. Jeffrey Kistler gave a very nice invocation including a special mention for Ronnee Klotz and Dale Utt.
Secretary John Scott. began the meeting having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then he led us in reciting the Four Way Test. John had members introduce their guests.
GUESTS:
Gary Miller, Scott Strahler, and Amy Barnett, guests of Katrina Sundstrom from Parkland C.A.R.E.S.; and Ashley Lorah, guest of Murtaza Jaffer and with the Chamber of Commerce; and Tom Friday, guest of Ralph Witcher. And Honorary member from Florida, Wendy Weaver was with us.
SHELTERBOXES FOR THE BAHAMAS:
Barbara Kistler sent an e-mail to all members asking for emergency donations to buy replacement ShelterBoxes because of the Hurricane devastation in the Bahamas. Some members promised to match $250.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
This great group still depends on cash donations from AW Rotarians. And volunteering for the produce pick-up and distribution on Saturday mornings is a very satisfying thing.
DINING OUT -- SEPTEMBER:
Thursday, September 26th, at 6:00 P.M., at Madeline’s in Fogelsville
THURSDAY EVENING SCHEDULE:
Oct 10 -- at the Starlite Diner at 5:30 P.M.
Oct 24 -- at a Locale TBD at 5:30 P.M.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Sept. 25 with Laurie Grube as our Greeter. Our program will be AWRC’s own Herb Klotz making his official visit as our 2019-20 District 7430 Governor.
Pres. Amir introduced Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars.
The two door prizes bottles of wine were donated by Gwen Pongracz and Katrina Sundstrom. The first was won by Geoff Legg. The second was won by Ron Coleman.
The $26 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Chuck Ehninger’s ticket being drawn followed by a white marble. Ten marbles will be back next week.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Len Salines is happy that their son is getting married this Saturday.
Wendy Weaver is thrilled to be here again. And she is very happy that Penn State beat out Pitt in Saturday night football.
Sue Weber is happy that Wendy Weaver is here, and also that finally guest Amy Barnett also was able to come to a meeting. And she is happy to see Gwen Pongracz here.
Gwen Pongracz is happy to be here. And she thanks AW Rotarians for their continued support of the LV Ethics Conferences now in their 11th year.
Katrina Sundstrom is happy to report that their son’s team won in a baseball tournament.
Gail Micca is happy to have the Parkland C.A.R.E.S. board members here. And she is happy to be going to Colorado next week.
Mitch Huston Is happy that there is a Marching Band competition this weekend in Allentown.
PARKLAND C.A.R.E.S. GRANT:
Pres. Amir reminded us that addressing Hunger issues is AWRC’s signature project. He thanked member Katrina Sundstrom for bringing her program to us last year. Katrina and Service Chair, Gail Micca, applied for a District Grant that was approved for this Rotary year.
Gail Micca and the Parkland C.A.R.E.S. board members came forward. Gail presented them with a check for $6,000, half was the District Grant, and half was from AW Foundation funds as a match.
Katrina thanked us all for the great support and gave us a status report. Last June the new Food Pantry opened and they hoped that 5 families would show up; there were 12. Right now they are providing food and other necessities to 58 separate households.
Snack Packs for weekends are needed, and starting in October they will provide them in the Middle School and an Elementary school.
A future plan is to have a Community Center open for these same clients. Their new logo is “Community Helping Community.”
PROGRAM:
Pres. Amir introduced our Speaker for today. Jim Martin, LLB District Attorney of Lehigh County.
James B. 'Jim' Martin is the longest serving district attorney in the history of Lehigh County. He has been district attorney since January 1998 . Jim has more than 28 years’ experience as a prosecutor and almost 47 years’ experience as a trial attorney. He is past president (1986) of the Bar Association of Lehigh County. Jim is a graduate of Mt. Saint Mary’s, and earned his law degree at Temple University.
He is a past president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute, the educational and training arm of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. Jim is a past member (eight years) of the Governor’s Victims Services Advisory Committee. He also has served on the Commission for Justice Initiatives.
Jim manages a budget of over $12 million, and he supervises more than 125 people. These include attorneys; administrative staff; a victim/witness unit; county detectives; homicide, drug and auto theft/insurance fraud task forces; the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center (RIIC); the Officer David M. Petzold Digital Forensics Laboratory of Lehigh County located on the campus of DeSales University; and the Central Booking Unit.
Jim noted that while he has 47 years of experience, he believes that our Jerry Frank preceded him. He also told Mitch Huston that he – Jim – was not driving on Rt. 22 this morning and did not disobey a Yield sign. And Jim noted that the ticket that Ralph Witcher gave to him this morning was a “loser.”
Jim said that if we watch Law and Order TV shows it is not realistic about what a D.A. actually does. Jim has 28 Assistant D.A.s that he manages. They handle about 5,700 criminal cases each year. Added to that are about 1,000 juvenile cases that they help with.
In Lehigh County there are a number of groups that make up the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center (RIIC). This Center tracks an enormous amount of information about criminals and Gang members. Jim told a few stories about how much good help is coming from this Database and those who work there.
When asked, Jim confirmed that there indeed are quite a few gangs in Lehigh County, mostly in Allentown city area. They try to track the members and their drug and gun selling efforts.
Jim answered some questions, and left copies of the 2017-19 DA annual operations report for us.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir closed our meeting by our reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
Photos are by Marlene Heller
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