We meet in person on the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays. Elevator is available. Park in LOT C. Flex meetings/dining out first week of each month TBD, see calendar.
Our big fundraiser, Flags for Unity, will be taking place over Memorial Day weekend, May 22-25 of this year. Planning is well under way, and every member of our club can participate.
The most important way for members to participate right now is to make a list of the businesses you personally know that might be interested in becoming a sponsor. Sponsor packets will be available for distribution soon, and the response to our initial outreach has been extremely positive.
Picture the field at Parkland High School covered with American flags (made in the USA, of course!). Add to that, sky divers flying in and patriotic music playing. Veterans groups, government representatives, community leaders, friends and neighbors will all be sharing this exciting weekend with us. You know you don't want to miss it!
Event chair Earnie Bliss updates us at every club meeting, so be sure to attend in person or Zoom in to hear what else is planned. We expect this event to be something to talk about for at least a year...until the next one!
Are you aware of the great need for blood and blood products in the Lehigh Valley? By donating blood just once, you can save up to three lives.
Allentown West Rotary is holding a blood drive from January 20-31 at Miller-Keystone Blood Centers. You can choose to go to 1255 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. or 740 Hamilton St. to make your donation. Platelets are also being gratefully accepted.
Platelets are tiny cells in your blood that form clots and stop bleeding. Every 15 seconds, someone needs platelets. Yet the storage shelf life for platelets is only five days, so new donors are needed every day. A smaller needle is used for platelet donation than for whole blood donation, but you can't donate platelets unless you have donated whole blood in the past. The blood center will determine your eligibility for donating. Also, platelet donation can take up to three hours...during which time you can read a book, watch a movie, play a computer game, and just consider it some "me time."
To schedule an appointment, call 800-223-6667 and use the Group ID E191. You can also schedule your donation online at GiveaPint.org and include Group ID E191 in the notes section of the form.
Do you have an idea for a service project? At our February 12 club meeting, we will have a brainstorming session for potential projects. Bring your ideas and questions.
If you can’t make the meeting, but have an idea you'd like to pursue, contact Service Chair Renee Wiggins. The applications are due by March 30.
Bill Keba has agreed to be our chair for the monthly Dining Out event.
In lieu of the January 22nd morning meeting, we will Tour and Dine Out in the evening.
At 5:30 p.m., Dhruv Seshadri will give us a presentation, followed by a tour of his laboratory at Lehigh University's Hilltop Campus. The address is Iacocca Hall, 111 Research Dr, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Parking is available. Dhruv will greet us at the door.
Following the tour, at 7:00 p.m., we will meet at the Center Valley Copperhead Grill located at 5737 PA-378, Bethlehem, PA 18015. This should be about a 10-minute drive from Iacocca Hall.
If you want to tour but don't want dinner (or vice versa) you can do that.
Please RSVP by 5:00 Friday, January 17 by email to Bill Keba at bill-keba@outlook.com or text him at 570.527.0595.
Do you have an idea for a Dining Out experience? Contact Bill and let's get it on the calendar!
Adding new members to our club means new people to join our service projects, new people to socialize with, new ideas to help create new projects, and new people who know other new people who can add to our membership. Have you thought about who you know who might benefit from the gift of Rotary? Offer them an opportunity to join us at a breakfast, or to join in a service project.
And don't forget: we have two types of club memberships. Our traditional club is the breakfast club, where members get together on a Wednesday morning at Cedar Crest College for breakfast, hear an interesting speaker, take care of administrative business, and socialize a bit with each other.
We also have the Impact Club, our satellite version, where members get together to organize a service project and jump right into it. They may not have the time or desire to meet in the morning; they want to get right down to business and do service projects. Both types of clubs have a positive effect on the community we live in, and enable us to make our world a better place.
On January 29, we will be inducting two new members into our club. Allentown West Rotary welcomes Max Hanton and Claire Kukielka as our newest members. If you have been to our most recent meetings, you have met Claire and Max. We are very happy to have them become official Rotarians. Welcome Claire and Max!
If you know someone you would like to introduce to Rotary, contact Gail Micca about the next steps. She'll help you through the process of going from possibility to prospect to member! Gail can be reached at gailmicca@gmail.com.
Wondering about all these different Rotary communications, and what you really need to read?
Here's an easy introduction:
Rotary: The magazine arrives by mail and/or digitally and is focused on international news by and about Rotarians. Reading it will give you a good idea of what goes on around the world, thanks to the work of Rotarians like yourself. You'll also learn more about opportunities available to Rotarians, and might just get some ideas of somethings you would like to do in your own club.
Share...the Magic of Rotary: This is the District 7430 bulletin. It comes out on the first day of every month. Our club is part of District 7430. News in this bulletin focuses on new information for clubs, for leadership, and for members. In it, you'll find programs you can join to learn leadership skills, explanations of some of the ways we raise and use donations (particularly when it comes to our Foundation dollars), and items of interest such as upcoming opportunities to travel around the world as a Rotarian, representing your club and our district. On July 1, the name of this bulletin will change. The new name is currently under discussion.
The Palmer Post: You are reading The Palmer Post right now. This is our club newsletter, named for Bill Palmer, a member who passed away in 2023. Bill spent many years as a Rotarian, and he worked hard on the bulletin in his later years. In tribute to the hard work and love he put into it, even as his sight was failing, we named it after him. In this newsletter, you will find information that pertains specifically to you, a member of the Allentown West Rotary Club.
If you have questions about any of these publications, drop me a line. In Rotary, an answer is always an email or phone call away.
All members, new and old, should start the New Year by going into ClubRunner, clicking on "My Club" followed by clicking on "Members" and then opening their own profile.
Has anything changed? Are the phone numbers and emails correct? Are there any misspellings? Is the address right? If you've moved, gotten married, changed your names, divorced, retired and no longer receive mail at your work address...all kinds of lifestyle changes can affect the information in your profile. If you need to make a change, click on "edit profile" on the bottom, and make the changes.
When you've successfully edited your profile, scroll to the bottom, and click "save profile."
These instructions are for the mobile app. If you work on a laptop or computer, the instructions are basically the same, but on a larger scale.
If you have difficulty making the changes, feel free to email them to our club secretary, Michelle Steiner, at msteiner3199@gmail.com or to me (marleneheller@mac.com) and we will make them for you. If you'd like me to walk you through the process, text me at 732-801-3621 and we'll work out a time to take care of it.
New members: If you have not yet downloaded the ClubRunner app, it is a free download in any of the phone store apps.
Meals on Wheels delivers on the second and third Tuesday of each month. The start time is 9:45-10:00 a.m. The meals are provided by Asbury United Methodist Church on 1533 Springhouse Rd. Anyone interested in joining in this service project should contact Helen Papathanasiou at elenavasso@gmail.com.
The food bank at Kingdom Life Family Centerdistributes healthy food on the second Saturday of each month to an ever-increasing number of families in the Lehigh Valley. More volunteers are needed to help set up, help with the distribution, and tear down afterwards. Contact Jean Masiko at masiko@aol.com for information on volunteering or to sign up. The next dates for volunteering are:
February 8
March 8
April 12
SNACKPACKING
The Parkland SnackPacking takes place on the third Tuesday of each month from 2-3:30, except for February, when it will occur on Tues., Feb. 11, and April, at which time it will be on Tues., April 22.
More volunteers are always appreciated! If you would like to help, email Diana Dunn at dunndianas@gmail.com.
PARKLAND C.A.R.E.S. PRODUCE DELIVERY:
The last outdoor distribution will be held on January 24. The choice pantry will be open in March with new opportunities for us to serve. Contact Karen Rodgers at kmrbmr1@gmail.com.
FLAGS FOR UNITY
More volunteers are welcome to join in this fundraiser that will take place in May, over Memorial Day weekend. Contact Earnie Bliss for details. earnie.bliss@gmail.com
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FAMILY OF ROTARY
Do you know of any member of our Rotary family who would benefit from our support with cards, flowers, or visits? If so, please notify Marlene Heller at MarleneHeller@mac.com
This story appeared in the February 2018 issue of Rotary magazine. It’s a crisp, sunny day in late October, and school groups are touring the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in
Signature events at the 2025 Rotary convention include dinner at Rotarians’ homes, a country music jamboree, and boot-stompin’ celebrations of the Western culture in Calgary.
Student artists spread the word about cervical cancer with works they’ve created through the Rotary member-led program United to End Cervical Cancer in Egypt.
e also being gratefully accepted. 
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