Our Greeter today was Ronnee Klotz, and she did a great job. President Dan Crane rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Mike Henry gave a very special invocation.
President Dan reminded us of the Ward Cleaver statement that you are never too old to do goofy stuff.
GUESTS:
Ronnee Klotz; John Orsini, guest of the club: Steve LaPierre, Emmaus RC; Rachel Tompkins, guest of the club;
JULY FOOD PANTRY COLLECTION:
The total of cash collected in July for the Lowhill Food Pantry under the new system was $205.
PERFECT ATTENDACE AWARD
Jeanne Shipe was awarded a perfect attendance pin today by Joe Goll.
NEW MEMBER INDUCTION:
Amir Famili was inducted as our newest member this morning in a ceremony conducted by Chuck Ehninger. Mustafa Jaffer is Amir’s sponsor. Welcome, Amir.
FOUNDATION MATCHING REMINDER:
Pres. Dan reminds us that with the start of the new Rotary year our tradition of matching donations to the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund with amounts up to $200 is now in effect as long as the funds hold out. Just write your check payable to the Allentown West Rotary Club and give it to Dale Hostetter.
“MISKA” REPORT:
Pres. Dan read to us a lovely letter written by the parents of our Youth Exchange student Michaela Luzicova, who recently returned to Slovakia and her home after spending almost 10 months with the AW Rotarians. They expressed their thanks to us in many ways and had nothing but praise for the way their daughter was taken care of all that time. And they included some photos of Miska showing her wonderful smile as she was back with her family.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
There will be a brief meeting of the AW Foundation Board of Directors immediately following this meeting.
July 20th and 21st are the next volunteer days for the Lowhill Food Pantry. Volunteers are needed for the 21sr.
July 27 will be the next meeting of the Community Service committee.
July 28th -- THURSDAY -- In place of our Happy Hour meeting will be our full club monthly Dining Out at Italiano Delite in Macungie. Bring a guest.
July 29 there will be a meeting of the international Service committee at Good Shepherd home with a Skype connection with Dr.Suprun about the travel plans for the Ukrainian project.
Our August 3 regular meeting will be a club assembly.
Also on August 3 there will be a meeting of the Membership committee. Chair Ginny Sandoval made a special note to all of us that every AW member is a member of the member ship committee.
August 10 at our regular Wednesday morning meeting will feature our District Governor, Linda young, as her official visit. There will be a meeting with Linda and our board of directors immediately following ,
August 14th a Sunday is the annual AWRC Picnic at the Webers’ farm. Mark your calendars. Details from Sue will follow. Start arriving after 4 PM; Bid food we;; start at 6 PM. Bring your fishing poles.
Tuesday August 16th is the multi-district PHILLIES STRIKE OUT HUNGER baseball game. $10 of every ticket sold goes to the RI Annual Fund. Buy tickets and use them or give them to a group of worthy kids to use. Some RCs hire a bus and party both ways.
On September 10 we will have a table set up for the club at the Lehigh Valley Expo at the Lehigh Valley Mall from 11 AM to 3 PM. Some volunteers still are needed. Contact Mitch Huston.
Next week the scheduled Greeter is Ron Coleman and the program is Donna Beach presenting an overview of Medicare changes.
LUCK of the DRAW:
Today’s door prize donated by Ronnee Klotz was won by Dan Crane. Then Joe Goll won the right to draw a marble for the $47 50:50 pot and did not win.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Joe Goll for leaving early, and Marlene Ritter for coming late.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Herb Klotz is happy that the meeting on the 14th concerning the planning for the Purple Pinky event went so well. Now we have to concentrate on getting some corporate sponsors.
Herb also is happy that the program now scheduled for the August 11 Thursday evening happy hour meeting will feature our own Dr. Bob Gordon.
Dorothy Bloom is most happy that our dear friend Miska got home safely to her family.
Bill Palmer was most happy to have his granddaughter Shaina arrive home safely after seven weeks of study and touring in Europe. He also is happy that her brother Nate, a recent college graduate has secured a new job starting next month.
Mitch Huston tells us that the drum and bugle corps will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in the competitions to be held at J Birney Crum Stadium the first week in August.
Dale Heffner is extremely happy that the birth of his second granddaughter is almost here.
Ginny Sandoval and her family celebrated the 80th birthday of her mother recently.
Jeanne Shipe is happy to have received her perfect attendance been this morning.
Wendy Weaver is happy that there were two significant birthdays celebrated in her family recently.
Our speaker this morning, Joe Facchiano put in a happy dollar because he and Clay Smith were our speakers this morning.
Dan Crane was happy and put in some money because he says he thinks he probably did something wrong this morning.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Clay Smith and Joe Facchiano, representing the Community Partners 4Kids. It’s all about Keeping Kids Safe in a High Tech World.
Their website states “Our mission is focused on the prevention of and recovery of missing and abducted children. Combining prevention education with our Child Identification program, we hope to equip families with the resources they need to ensure the safety of their children.”
Clay Began his presentation by drawing attention to the flyers placed on the various tables in the room, and also to the specific folder with over 85 articles of child abduction and related incidents reported just in the Morning Call newspaper in the last 12 months.
Over the last seven years Clay and Joe have been concentrating on some prevention efforts by proper identification of the children of our communities. This involves a video of the child along with a voice print of the child and it’s his or her fingerprints. This is needed for the successful recovery of children who have been abductive.
The prevention phase includes a number of things, starting with a safety handbook. It was said that 86% of of the options fail because of children and families being trained properly prevent them. The 2016 edition of the handbook will be coming out in August this year.
They also conduct a “Be Safe” workshop and teach avoidance from predatory. They now have Child Safety University that teaches all three elements as a combined course for children and families.
Clay made a special request for any suggestions that any of us might have for forums of families and service organizations that would be welcoming them to make a similar presentation as they did to us today.
Joe told us that he has a daughter that was getting ready to go off to college and realized that he no longer could be her protector so he got involved in this whole operation as a result. Joe also said that there are about 100,000 abductions each year in the United States.
One very important point that they stress in the training is the safe use of the Internet. Unfortunately our children think they are extremely sharp and up to date on things like the Internet when in reality they can be seduced or induced to make an appointment with a complete stranger and not tell their parents. And children should never put their personal information up on Facebook; it’s too inviting.
Let’s keep our children safe.
CLOSING:
We sang a decent 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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