Our meeting today was held at the Northwestern Lehigh Middle School and included the H.S. Interact Club students and about 20 AW Rotarians. Our Greeter this morning was Randy Beitler, and he did a great job.
President Herb Klotz rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Barbara Kistler gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS: The NWL H.S. Interact Students.
PREIDENTIAL CITATION AWARD:
President Herb proudly announced that the NWL H.S. Interact Club students have earned the Rotary International Presidential Citation for this Rotary year. They won it last year too.
INTERACT PRESENTATION of GIFTA TO OTHERS:
NWL students Lauren and Anthony representing their Interact Club presented AWRC with two gifts. One was $1,000 for a ShelterBox; the other was $100 to go to Polio eradication’s PolioPlus TRF fund. Well done, guys!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Herb informed the students that this year the District 7430 Purple Pinkie 5K Run/Walk event will be on October 22nd at LCCC and they are asked again to run, walk, and help out.
May 25th was the last snack packing at Northwestern until next Fall. There were 17 volunteers there.
May 25 and 26 we volunteering at the Lowhill Food Pantry. Thanks.
TODAY. June 1st is snack packing at Parkland.
May 26th was the latest Thursday Evening Happy Hour meeting at the Holiday Inn. See separate article.
A Purple Pinkie Race committee meeting was held on Thursday 5-26 and the plans for Oct 22nd are underway.
Jun 4th Saturday, we need volunteers for the Lowhill Food Pantry.
June 5th , Sunday at 1:45 P.M. is the Miracle League baseball game.
June 15 is the Young Professionals Networking event put on by the Chamber of Commerce. We will co-sponsor their June 15th event along with the Allentown RC. Herb needs a few more AW Rotarians to attend and mingle to represent Rotary there.
June 20th, Monday evening, is the annual Camp Neidig BBQ and closing
ceremony. It always is great.
June 24th Friday is Dining Out at 29 Cooks in Emmaus; price is $25 per person, and we will be treated to a BBQ Blowout menu. BYOB.
June 29th Wednesday at our regular meeting we will conduct our annual Changeover. Let’s all attend to welcome Dan Crane as our next President. Bring family and friends.
Mike Henry announced that our Tempting Tastes 2 fundraiser has netted the club over $34,000 for good works.
Next week the scheduled Greeter is Dorothy Bloom and Herb Klotz has planned some fellowship and a club Finance review.
Our 2016-17 slate of officers has been completed with the addition of Jeanne Shipe as our Vice President.
Herb confirmed that the District team will start an all new RC in the Whitehall area. It will involve the support of some established Rotarians in nearby Rotary clubs. Please contact Herb if you would be willing to get involved in making a new club happen.
RI CONVENTION 2017 SAVE MONEY:
The RI annual convention next year will be in Atlanta, GA June 10 to 14. A Very special registration rate of $265, is available only from May 28th to June 8th 2016 at riconvention.org. A year from now the rate will be about $500.
Brian Peterka will be sending out a form to each member for information we need to update our ClubRunner database. Please be sure to respond.
LUCK of the DRAW: -- Not today.
FINES: -- S-a-A Don Davis did manage to fine some of us today.
ROTARIAN OF THE WEEK:
The AWRC Rotarian of the week is Dr. Mary Anne Wright, Superintendent of the Northwestern School District. Herb said that Mary Anne is a very special Rotarian who has been doing special things for Rotary reasons.
Her proud moments are when NWL students are AW Students of the Month, and when they receive AW Scholarships. And she is proud of the snack pack program we all do in the school district.
Mary Anne also opened the door that allowed us to secure and staff the Teacher Grant for Sierra Leone.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Geoff Legg recalled how Bill Masters bemoaned the 3 cars in front of him 30 years ago as he approached Fogelsville for the Rotary meeting. Today Geoff had 20 cars in front of him, and he paid $10.
Jeanne Shipe is happy to be our Vice President.
Jeff Kistler is most happy that he is officially retired -- again.
Jeff Kistler paid $1 for being one of two NWL HS grads in the room; Gloria Zimmerman is the other.
Bill Palmer is happy to report that Yvette’s granddaughter, Arista, brought home 3 firsts, a second, etc. awards in the mid-Atlantic dance competition in KOP last Sunday.
Barbara Kistler is happy to see so many Interact students with us today.
Somebody reported that Mitch Huston appeared on local TV recently, talking about his business.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Jennifer Holman who is the Assistant Superintendent of NW School District since 2011. She traveled to Sierra Leone in March with Pete McKnight of NWL HS as the Educators for our 2015-16 Rotary District Grant to assess the Centennial Schools methods and needs.
The school is a secondary school and works with about 1,200 students. During the Sierra Leone civil war of the 1990s the many school structures were destroyed by soldiers living there.
Then in 2010 Engineers Without Borders took up their cause and began various projects to rehab the facilities. Since then the school has new toilet facilities, a fresh water well and distribution system, solar panels to generate electricity and many structural repairs.
The school Principal. Mr. Sengay is looking for a list of things they might do to promote better learning and discipline. The team is to develop a list of teaching needs.
The grant included a portable P.A. system which they took over with them. This immediately was put to use to better address the large group meetings. The classrooms are bare of books and any tools. They have but a chalkboard and some chalk.
The team took some USB thumb drives over with them so that each Teacher will have one. This way the Teachers can download information from other sources and bring it back to the school easily for use there.
Jen said that all exams in the school are oral and in English. She described how on 2 days’ notice about 220 parents came to a Parents meeting. There was full support for them to pay a small fee for their kids to attend the school. These monies then are used to maintain all of the new equipment they have.
Two days before they left for home Jen et al met with the school staff and discussed improvements. One suggestion was to have students try to create something rather than just listen to information. Jen said that they took with them an inflatable globe, which makes it far easier to grasp what our world looks like. They also suggested the Teachers try to get more of the female students to become involved.
Students helped install solar panels during this trip They were there 7 days and mostly until dark. They truly value what EWB and Rotary have done and are doing, and they want to help. The Team took with them special Tee-shirts for the students who helped.
Jen mentioned their detour through Brussels on the way home. The terrorists’ attack resulted in their adding 5 more days before getting home.
Jen said that we can learn some things from them. Their Teachers do an exceptional job without books. What they need are tools such as Protractors, Rulers, Pencils and Pens. But they almost have to be hand-carried there because of cost and theft problems.
CLOSING:
We sang a nice rendition of “God Bless America” Then we recited the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
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