Our Greeter today was Dale Heffner and he did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Rev. Jeff Kistler 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 flag of the U.S.
GUESTS:
Andrew Shaver and Andrew Fink, guests of the club; Jim Palmquist, Emmaus RC; Bruce & Mary Kemmerer, parents of Reuben; and Shirley Randall was with us today.
Pres. Mike showed photographs from our last meeting including Snack Packing at Northwestern last week, and the before and after photos of Friday’s Kingdom Life shelf replacement project. The Webers sent pics of the carts we donated to Jordan Lutheran Church. Then there was Jeanne Shipe delivering dictionaries to the Truman Elementary school in Salisbury Township, followed by pics from last Thursday’s evening meeting at the Winery. He closed with Dorothy Bloom’s pics of the AW Volunteers for Meals on Wheels on Nov. 7th.
DICTIONARIES FOR BRADFORD CTY ELEMENTARY:
Barbara Kistler made good use of the 60+ dictionaries we still had left in inventory this year. She contacted the Principal in her home town way out West. He got a red wagon and walked through the school handing out our AW dictionaries with smiles and gratitude. Good job, Barb.
PARKLAND PRESS ARTICLE:
Pres. Mike passed around the article about the Seipsville Grange donating $1,000 to our Snack Packing project. Gloria said that the Grange gave (18) local organizations money including the Allentown West RC.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
HURRICANE RELIEF OPPORTUNITY:
Pres. Mike reminds us that for every $5,000 increment of funds donated to ShelterBox USA by D7430 Rotarians -- Rotary Clubs -- Interact Clubs -- another ShelterBox will be donated from the District funds. This incentive offer is open to December 1, 2017 and is limited to 5 ShelterBoxes by the district.
STUDENT OF THE MONTH:
Reuben Kemmerer was recognized as the AWRC Student-of-the-Month for November, 2017. He is from rom Northwestern Lehigh High School. Barbara Kistler made the award with Dr. Mary Anne Wright and David Combs attesting to Reuben’s qualifications. See separate article.
NORTHWESTERN SNACK PACKING:
Gloria Zimmerman reports that at last Wednesday’s Snack Packing at Northwestern we filled 60 bags X 2 weeks = 120 snack packs.
AWRC CLOTHING:
P-E Jeanne Shipe had a wall of Tee Shirts on display. Sweat shirts may be added, and prices will be announced.
ROTARIAN ACTION GROUP (RAG):
Jim Palmquist shared with us his involvement with the R.A.G. on Peace and Conflict Resolution. He is convinced that Rotarians all over the world are the right kinds of people to take up this cause.
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.
Nov. 17th -- Tempting Tastes 4 planning meeting at the Holiday Inn starting at 7:30 A.M.
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY PARTY:
December 3rd, Sunday, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, a Buffet with a cash bar, at Bravo Cucina Italiana at the Lehigh Valley Mall. Please sign-up PDQ. The price is $37.00 per person The luncheon will have 2 choices of salads served family style, sides, pasta course and entrée buffet style and chocolate cake or cheesecake for dessert served tableside. It also includes all soda, coffee and /decaf and tea.
LUTHER CREST TRI-CEES CONCERT:
The Club funded concert of the Tri-Cees at Luther Crest will be ON Monday, Dec. 11 starting at 7:00 PM.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Tim Rushton, and the program will be John Tacca, VP -- Profile of Wacker Chemie a Global Chemical Company.
Pres. Mike introduced our S-a-A Mitch Huston who conducted the raffle drawings.
Remember that Mitch has introduced a new way to ask for volunteered “Guilty” fines. The new word is “PEBL” fines; i.e. Pins, Leave early, Badge missing, and Late arrival. No action today. But Pres. Mike paid for making a typo on his slides.
The door prize bottle of wine was donated by Dale Heffner and it was won by John Scott.
The $12 pot of the 50:50 was not won by our guest, Andy Fink’s ticket. Lots of white marbles remain.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Mary Anne Wright is very happy that the Northwestern Boys soccer team is competing for the state championship.
Jean Machamer id happy to have Mary Anne Wright with us today.
Jeff Kistler is happy and also a bit sad about his estate auction 8 days ago. He saw a 67 year old tractor leave. Eric Zettlemoyer, Ralph’s grandson, was one Auctioneer.
Mitch Huston had 4 happy dollars today. His niece soon is leaving for 2-1/2 weeks in New Zealand. And last weekend he and fellow band members were really cold as they performed.
Al Lewis paid a dollar to explain to Mitch that Allentown “cold” is Spring weather in Saranac Lake, NY.
Dale Heffner is happy that he and Becky will visit their children and granddaughters in Colorado over Thanksgiving.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Emmaus RC’s Jim Palmquist whose talk was
about How an Aircraft Carrier Works - Cat Shots, Traps, and the Dirty Shirt Mess. Jim is a frequent visitor with us, and a year ago he gave a great presentation to us about helicopters.
Jim spent six years in the Navy and served on six aircraft carriers. He flew fixed wing and helicopters onto and off of carriers. He noted that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor there was not much left of our fleet except 3 carriers. So as we rebuilt the fleet we learned how to modify those carriers and how to effectively fight with them. The first carrier was built in 1922 and 67 total have been constructed overall.
Jim played a loud signal from a Bosun’s Pipe for us, and explained its origin. In the days of sailing ships the Bosun’s pipe was the one sure way of sending instructions to the entire crew, some of whom are in the rigging, etc. They are part of the Navy’s tradition.
Using slides, Jim explained that the current carriers have about 5,000 crew members, 20% of whom are officers. He noted that there are 3 new carriers under construction, and each will have about 4,000 crew members.
Carriers are about 1,000 feet long, and are 25o feet wide at the widest point. They typically carry 67 aircraft. They truly are floating cities.
There are two groups operating a carriers, One is the Air Wing with its own Commander. The other group runs the ship, feeds the multitude, provides services, etc.
Jim noted that carriers have no stairs, and use ladders -- steep ones -- to get around. But some have an escalator in key areas.
The crew members wear different color shirts depending on the type of work they are doing. For example, red shirts mean ordinance. On the top deck things are very noisy and it is imperative for everyone to know who is doing what.
“Cats” means catapults, which are the means used to launch a plane from zero to air speed in about 2-1/2 seconds. Every type of plane has different weights and flight characteristics.
To stop an inbound plane the hook on the plane comes down and a series of transverse cables at different heights are positioned. The hook is caught and the plane stops. Jim described the Fornel landing system that is matched to a planes characteristics, and lights indicate the approaching path vs. the proper path. It is very sophisticated.
Jim explained that there are a number of places on a carrier to eat a meal, but most call for some standard dress mode. One exception is called the “Dirty Shirt Mess,” which was Jim’s choice. He never had to worry about what he was wearing in order to eat.
Jim showed a picture of the Trainer plane he once flew, and one of his Helicopter. He was in a helicopter rescue crew.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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