Our Greeter today was Dorothy Bloom and she did a marvelous job.
The new arrangement with the table lectern farther in the room made for a more inviting setting.
President Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all to AWRC. Then Dottie Bloom gave a very nice invocation
Pres. Jeanne began the meeting having the members recite the 4 Way test, followed with our saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
GUESTS: Dave Dries, President, Spring Twsp RC.
Pres Jeanne showed a number of pictures from last week including some from our Jan 10th Thursday evening Open House Mixer. Then she reviewed announcements.
STRATEGIC PLAN:
Pres. Jeanne said that the AW board is working on a strategic plan to help guide us in the months ahead.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
THE ROTARY FOUNDATION (TRF):
See separate article by Chair, Barbara Kistler.
THE ALL NEW JAN 10th THURSDAY EVENING OPEN HOUSE MIXER:
See the separate article.
APRIL 28TH is TT5. The next PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING is on Friday January 18th at the Holiday Inn at 7 a.m.
If it snows too much, you will get an e-mail to join in on a conference call.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD CENTER:
See separate article by Jean Masiko.
MEALS ON WHEELS PLAN:
Dorothy Bloom from M.O.W. explained that the merger has added more stringent requirements for new volunteers. But those AW Volunteers who have done it before are “grandfathered in” and may continue.
JANUARY DINING OUT:
Thursday, January 24, 2019 – Dining Out at Curious Goods 6PM. A sign-up sheet went around.
FEBRUARY DINING OUT:
On Feb 28th at Tacos & Tequila in the 500 block and Hamilton in Allentown.
NEXT MEETING -- Jan 23rd -- Our Greeter will be Gwenn Carr. The program will be Marlene Heller giving her Classification Talk, all about Public Relations.
Pres. Jeanne introduced our Sgt-at-Arms, Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars. Mitch started with his own happy dollars devoted to his N.Y. Giants.
The door prize bag of goodies donated by Dottie Bloom was won by Gary Heller.
The $25 pot of the 50:50 was NOT won by Ralph Witcher’s ticket being drawn followed by a white marble. Ten marbles will be around for next week.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Bill Palmer is most happy to announce that our own John Scott is now the President of the Northeast Berks Cty. Chamber of Commerce. Congratulations, John
Jeanne Shipe is happy to be celebrating another full revolution of the earth around the sun --- i.e. her birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to her quite well.
Halyna Stegura is happy to be back with us. She also is happy that her daughter Mary bought a house in Orlando that lets her see the Disney World evening fireworks.
Halyna saw Wendy Weaver at the Citrus Bowl game where Penn State lost. Wendy says “Hello.”
Dale Heffner acknowledged that he and Bill Palmer as Engineers are prone to liking to debate (i.e. argue). Dale said that arguing with Bill is like wrestling a pig in the mud. After a while you realize that the pig is having fun. Hmmmmmmmmmmm……….
Gary Heller is happy for the AW Orientation session he attended.
Gwenn Carr is happy that their 4th grade granddaughter won her spelling bee.
Stephanie Fenstermacher is pleased that the surgery she had on her hands 3 weeks ago has worked out very well.
Dottie Bloom is happy to be here. And she and Rick found some old newspapers with AW members’ photos. And they still are learning how to live with Eddie, their 8 month old pup.
PROGRAM:
. Our program today was our member Stephanie Fenstermacher giving her Classification Talk, Using slides she told us her life story.
Steph brought some of her lemon blueberry and orange cranberry muffins for us to enjoy this morning.
Her title was: “Stephanie Fenstermacher – the book of me” She broke it down into 5 chapters ---- so far.
She was born and raised in Germansville, PA. Her parents were farmers, and she is the youngest of four childfren.
Steph says that she loves to learn and is insanely curious. She grew up with kittens and playing in the hay stacks.
From age 12 she had a tough time. Her parents opened a Produce Stand on Route 309, and Steph was expected to work there most days and weekends too. This continued until she was 17,
“ My husband Tom & I met in high school, moved out when I was 18 and married when I was 21. Throughout all of this, I attended college part time and worked full time.
“ My first job was being a clerk at UPS during the holiday season. My second job was working as an Administrator and then Account Supervisor for a transportation company.
“My 3rd job is when I entered the world of Human Resources as an Administrator for a logistics company. My 4th job was the true start of my career in HR. I started as an Administrator and when I left, I was the Assistant HR Director. During that time I also became heavily involved in our local SHRM Chapter and also earned my professional HR certification which I still hold.
“Along came two babies and I finally graduated when I was 27. Baby #3 was my graduation request.
“My mom passed away when I was 26. She was only 60. It was around that time, that I started to see through a different set of eye glasses.
“There was a key person in my life at that time. Her name is Renee and she taught me what it meant to have a relationship with God. I learned to appreciate the benefits of my upbringing – a strong work ethic, commitment to succeed and strength and resilience to overcome obstacles.
“Next were my mid 30’s to my early 40’s.
I was blessed to work at Computer Aid for 17 years, and to have a close relationship with the company’s founder. My years at CAI were the awakening of my desire to serve.
“I was given countless opportunities to make an impact – through blood drives, by teaching inner city children how to cook, by holding a bake sale to raise $ for childhood hunger, by taking on ad hoc projects like beautifying our corporate grounds and the biggest project of all – helping to establish the CAI Learning Academy in downtown Allentown which serves underprivileged youth.
“In my late 20’s I learned to appreciate what serving meant. By my mid-30’s, I was hungry to make a difference and yearning for my children to understand what it means to serve.
“On my 42nd birthday Tom & I decided it was time to leave my career in HR and pursue a dream that I had of opening a bakery. So I left Computer Aid to start out on my own with my co-owner and oldest sister Sharon, with me.
“When I decided to leave CAI, my plan was simply to bake out of my house and see where it took me. In fact, I recall thinking that I didn’t ever want a storefront. Well, business slowly took off and
“it has grown significantly each year. In fact, grown enough that the only logical next step for us is to open a storefront. The flaw in our business plan is that we didn’t believe in ourselves and our capabilities. If we had, we would have known a storefront was inevitable.
“Consequently, we recently purchased a home in New Tripoli that we intend to convert into a coffee stop/bakery. We have a lot of work to do and expect to not open before late 2019 or early 2020.
“The baker in me is terrified. The entrepreneur in me sees it as a fabulous business opportunity and a way to facilitate giving back to our community in greater ways.
“2015-ish was my first introduction to Rotary. My daughter was involved in Interact at her high school. While I was an active bystander, I was impressed at the impact the program had on our community through the Snack Pack program. I gradually learned more about Rotary through my relationship with Barb Kistler but due to financial and time constraints, I didn’t think I would be able to participate.
“By 2018 I determined I couldn’t afford not to be part of Rotary. I don’t mean that in terms of dollars and cents….I mean it in terms of being part of something bigger than myself.
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”