Our Greeter today was Len Salines and he did a marvelous job. President Dan Crane rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting.
Then PDG Bill Weber gave a very nice invocation including special mention of AJ and Mike Henry and Dawn Costello.
And the assembled voices sang a good rendition of our National Anthem along with a sign language video. And we said the pledge of Allegiance.
President Dan read two thank you notes from Laura Long, the President of the newly chartered Whitehall Area RC. The first thanked us for making her an Honorary member of AWRC. The second thanked us for the gift of ClubRunner software that we gave to the new RC.
Dan also shared that Mike Henry currently is in the hospital at the University of Pennsylvania.
President Dan says the word from the country is “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.” Said Benjamin Franklin.
GUESTS:
Dave Dries, Spring Township RC; David Bausch, Allentown RC; Alicia Ruiz Orbin, Emmaus RC; The Past President of the Lansdale RC, guest of Bob Gordon; and Our Youth Exchange Student, Martina.
Dan announced that through the generosity of Jerry Frank there are seats available for the Iron Pigs evening baseball game on Sunday May 28th. Contact Dan PDQ; only a few left.
YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENTS REPORT:
Marti told us that she has moved to the Gschwendtners for her third host family, and is very busy and having fun. Recently the Y.E. group traveled to Washington, DC, which she said was great. Also she went to Hershey, PA and saw and consumed chocolate. And she recently bought her dress for the Prom. Marti has signed up for the western U.S. tour after the school year.
RI POLICY ON FIREARMS:
The RI Board of Directors has issued a new policy starting July 1st, 2017 that prohibits RCs from auctioning off guns, for example. There seems to be many Rotarians unhappy with these changes. Zone Director Dean Rohrs is holding a Go-To-Meeting event at 7 PM on Thursday April 13th. Contact Dan for log-on info. Go to rotary.org for F.A.Q.
OFFSITE MEETING NEXT WEEK:
REMEMBER that our April 19th regular Wednesday a.m. meeting is scheduled to be at the Northwestern Lehigh Middle School. PLEASE be sure to e-mail Dan if you will attend.
DO NOT COME TO LUTHER CREST ON APRIL 19TH.
President Dan showed many slides of photographs from our meeting last week, starting with Arch Klumph wearing an Iron Pigs hat. Others were Gary Englehardt and Donna Beach with Arch, Ron Coleman and his hat that got fined, and Gwenn Carr and Gary who conducted the TT3 program last week. Then there were pics from last Friday of volunteers at Kingdom of Life Food Pantry, and of the hard working crew at Ontelaunee Park last Saturday.
Dan also briefly reviewed pics of the major TT3 Live Auction items. Still on the TT3 website, too.
SCHEDULE:
Dan continues to e-mail us an updated list of volunteer opportunities and future events.
TOMORROW is Our next THURSDAY EVENING event which is a Mixer on April 13th at the 1760 House Pub ~n~ Grille, Trexlertown from 5:30-7:00PM. Please bring some candidates for membership.
Friday is volunteering at Kingdom of Life Food Pantry.
April 23rd is TEMPTING TASTES 3 at the Holiday Inn.
April 29th is the Parkland Community Resource day and Ray Stock needs volunteers to staff the info table.
The annual Engineers Without Borders fundraiser is on April 30th.at DeSales University. AW Rotarians are supporters of EWB.
May 6 Farm Fest at Ontelaunee Park. We need some volunteers to work a booth that day. Hours are from 10:30-6:30. If you can work the early set-up or a morning or afternoon shift please contact Ginny Sandoval.
Dennis Houser on May 20th will lead a work group at the Rodale Cycling Center. Please sign up with Dennis.
June, early, Herb Klotz says there will be another new RC chartered in our district. This is the Upper Perkiomen RC, sponsored by the Pottstown RC.
AND, of course, you always can have your breakfast at our meetings sitting with Arch Klumph for a donation of $26.50 --- or more --- to the Rotary Foundation.
NEXT WEEK our Greeter will be Jeanne Shipe. The program will be presentations from the NWL Interact Club members meeting at the Middle School.
LUCK of the DRAW:
The door prize donated by Len Salines was won by Marlene Ritter.
Then Dorothy Bloom’s ticket was drawn and she selected THE BLACK marble and WON the $145 pot of the 50:50.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Amir Famili for no badge, as well as Bob Gordon’s guest for no pin, and Alicia Orbin for no pin.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Sue Weber is happy that once again our friend Dave Bausch has donated a beer stein to our Tempting Tastes Auction.
Alicia Orbin has just returned from a Rotary project trip to Cuba and Jamaica where much good work was done.
Mitch “Henny” Huston told a funny story about Don Davis.
Bill Palmer is happy that he and 5 other family members will be cruising the Caribbean for 12 nights starting the 17th. Donna Beach and Bob Gordon will put out our Bulletins.
Halyna Stegura said that daughter Christina on her bike now is in South Carolina on her way to St. Augustine, FL and then to Calif. The stories are mounting; there may be a book from this adventure.
PROGRAM:
Dr. Ihor Fedoriw extended greetings to all Passover and Easter celebrating people. He then introduced David Fink of Heidel Hollow Farm, Slatington, PA to speak about Value Added Agricultural Processes.
David is the fourth generation operating Heidel Hollow Farm which has been in the family since 1852. He is a graduate of NWL H.S. and Delaware Valley College. He also serves as a Supervisor in Heidelberg Township. David, along with his wife Sonia and sons Michael and Travis, manage the 1600 crop acres of which 900 are devoted to quality hay production.
The largest industry in Pennsylvania is agriculture, and the largest crop both in acres and value in the state is hay. Heidel Hollow Farm is a family farm dedicated to the production, processing, and distribution of quality forages.
David told his story with a series of slides. Eight years ago they installed 952 solar panels which generate 85% of the electricity they use. They have 600 acres of vegetables, 35 of which are in Broccoli. And they have 1000 acres in sweet corn.
Recently they purchased an adjoining farm and began raising hogs for others. They feed and raise 3 gropes each year for about 6,000 head of Hogs.
They have 30 hay harvesting machines and each can do 35 acres per hour. The bales are each 3 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. and weigh 1000 lbs. The bales then are split into thirds and later to 150 lb. Sizes. Their market uses 33 lb. bales and larger.
David invites us all to bring the family and visit his farm. Check their website for hours.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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