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. P-E Ralph Witcher gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS ON LINE:
Allison Blechschmidt, wife of Chris and our Speaker; Dr. Jude Sandt; Parkland H.S. Assistant Principal; Dr. Mark Covelle, LCTI Academic Center Principal; Veronica DeBlois, Emerging Health majors instructor at LCTI; Tina Lues, Counselor at LCTI for Emerging Health students; Anna Akelaitis, scholarship winner, and and her father, Brian; and Dr. Carl Zvant
AND Wendy Weaver from The Villages in Florida joined us this morning. She said that restaurants now are open there.
Veronica DeBlois was heard saying “These days are like Ground Hog Day, over and over.”
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.
Ralph then read aloud the names of members with birthdays in May -- from Amir\s list entitled “November.” We sand a feeble rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Pres. Amir read aloud names of those members who joined Rotary in May.
Dr. Sandt said that they served food to 75 families last week. They will do it again in 2 weeks and then on June 2. He thanks Gail Micca for her snacks.
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:
Jean Masiko reported: “Kingdom Life Family Center Food Bank served 523 families on Saturday May 2. Drive In Service continues every week and we are displaying the “Rotary at work” sign here. We’re having great attendance.”
Jean needs more AW volunteers for future Saturdays.
DRIVE-IN CHURCH SERVICES:
The AW Sound System continues to be used to allow the Living Stone Church members to meet.
SNACK PACKING UPDATE:
See separate article by Gail Micca. She did connect with LCCC people to create more distribution outlets.
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 The Buttered Crumb. See separate article.
HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESSES:
Laurie Grube and her Bank are available to help small businesses work through the new government support options. They are very busy now.
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.
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:
No meetings for Thursday evening are scheduled yet.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday May 13th starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use ZOOM to meet together with appropriate distancing. Our program will be Parkland High School Interact Students Presentation Year end accomplishment and scholarship award presentation to PHS students
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD:
Barbara Kistler conducted the ceremony that gave the $500 Mike Henry scholarship to Anna Akelaitis See separate article.
Anna expressed her thanks to us for the award. Other guests said nice things about Anna.
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.
Mitch Huston previously asked Amir to collect $1 PER YEAR0 from each member who joined in May. Not likely.
Herb Klotz announced that we are invited to join with D7430 Rotarians on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 7 PM as we kick-off Training Tuesdays. DG Herb will welcome RI Director Stephanie Urchick as our guest speaker. Director Stephanie chaired the RI's Strategic Planning Committee and was to be the Keynote Speaker at the 2020 District 7430 Conference. Her topic for the evening: "The Future of Rotary: Demystifying RI's Strategic Plan"
Ernie Boll is very happy.
Pres. Amir thanks Gwenn Carr and Gary Englehardt for putting a “Donation button” on our website.
Bill Palmer is happy to finally see his lovely cherry trees in full bloom.
Gail Micca needs help installing fencing at the gardens. Details will follow.
Amir Famili reminds us that next Wednesday’s program will feature Lori Peters and the Parkland H.S. Interact students -- and a scholarship award too.
PROGRAM:
Pres. Amir introduced Dr. Allison Blechschmidt. She is the Director of Student Counseling at Moravian College.
Allison joined Moravian College the summer of 2019. She is a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania. She previously worked in a private practice setting where she specialized in assessment of students struggling to meet educational, social, or behavioral expectations, as well as adults facing occupational and emotional difficulties. She also provided psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults.
Allison earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from Widener University with concentrations in school psychology and neuropsychological assessment. She completed an APA accredited internship at Widener’s Neuropsychology Assessment Center. She also earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Chestnut Hill College, a master’s in business administration from Lehigh University, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Lafayette College.
Using slides Allison discussed mental wellness during a pandemic. As the stay at home order went on, some adults became tired, overwhelmed and anxious and full of fear and dread. Allison described three areas to discuss the current circumstances. These are Grief, Uncertainty and Anxiety.
Grief is created by losses such as deaths, financial issues and cancelled events, e.g. graduations, proms. People have to go through the various stages of 1- Denial, 2-Anger, 3- Sadness, 4-Bargaining and 5-Acceptance. And there can be setbacks.
Uncertainty is at a high level now. We can’t plan and there are more negative emotions. Our perspective on risks is disturbed. We tend to distrust others.
Anxiety is the biggest emotion, It means that something is not normal. As anxiety increases, our performance goes down first. We feel tired and exhausted.
In order to treat these issues, we need to change how we are thinking or feeling. The idea is to recognize what you are thinking and then eliminate “worst case’ and “what if?” distractions. We should challenge our thinking asking :Is it true?” We need to distract ourselves.
We need to break the cycle by doing something physical like deep breathing. Calm down our bodies and our minds will follow. We need to live in the current minutes. Anxiety is in the future. Also exercise is useful -- say 20 minutes 3 times a week. Going outside helps too.
We should focus on facts, not speculation. Identify what you can control. Have a regular schedule. Do something good for others. And look for the “silver lining.” Some good things can happen.
Thank you, Allison.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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