Well Folks the 4th “Noreaster” this month kept most of us away from today’s meeting. The official notes are:
Mitch Huston: “No drawings....no students....no 50:50....me..Geoff...Chris...Herb...Mike..and David Haight....in attendance....mike rang the bell 1 minute late and submitted a 1 dollar fine...that’s it.”
Herb Klotz: “Six people were at the meeting this morning. No formal meeting. We all enjoyed fellowship and breakfast together.”
PHOTO:
My Bernese Mt. Dog "Daisy" resting in the snow today.
AWRC SPECIAL SHIRTS UPDATE:
P-E Jeanne Shipe reports: “Allentown West Rotary Polos and T-shirts: Extra T-shirts are available!
Thanks to Member Gail Micca and her company Impact Corporate Promotions. They provided a great opportunity for us to get low cost, high quality polos and T-shirts with the Allentown West Rotary logo on them.
The club ordered a few extra T-shirts for purchase. They are a comfy men's cotton "Rotarian at Work" shirts in navy with gold lettering. Sizes S-2XL currently available. $8 for S, M L or $11 for XL, 2XL.
Contact Jeanne Shipe who is the keeper of these shirts.”
PROPOSED AREA 1 DISTRICT GRANT UPDATE:
P-E Jeanne also reports:
“We propose the following grant.
The five Area 1 Rotary clubs are banding together to apply for this District grant--Allentown, Allentown-West, Emmaus, Slatington, and Whitehall Clubs. This grant is to support feeding the hungry in the Lehigh Valley and NE PA.
Each of the five Area 1 clubs will donate $500 x 5 for $2500 to be matched from the District for a total of $5000.
Half of the monies will be used for building raised garden beds on the property of Second Harvest Food Pantry. Purchased items include: lumber, soil, tools, tool shed, and fencing.
Partners include: Home Depot in kind donation, Penn State Master Gardeners for training and education on gardening, Boy Scouts of America for labor, all five Area 1 Rotary Clubs in our District.
Purpose is to teach gardening, but mostly to provide fresh produce to recipients of Second Harvest foods.
The other half of the monies will be used to offset some of the purchase cost of a pallet wrapper for the Second Harvest warehouse. Currently, pallets are being wrapped inefficiently by workers and volunteers. This leads to injury of workers and volunteers who have to bend over and walk backwards 6 times around each pallet. And it also leads to damage and loss of product during shipping if the pallet would tip over when not wrapped tight enough .
Second Harvest will receive the bulk of the funds for the pallet wrapper-- $11,5000 from a Community Block Grant. Price for the pallet wrapper is $14,000 (including S&H plus installation). The balance of $2500 would come from this grant.
Allentown West Rotary currently partners with or supports partners in the Second Harvest network: Lowhill Food Pantry, Kingdom Life Food Pantry, and the Parkland Snack Packing programs. Each of these programs receive free, or steeply discounted, food from the Second Harvest Food Pantry. We also receive training and education for volunteers, staff, and the public.
Does the membership support this grant?
This grant was discussed and approved by the board of the Allentown West Rotary Club on Tuesday March 20, 2018 in a modified version. New information has come forward. We had been told that the pallet wrapper portion of the project would be paid for in total by the Community Block Grant. So, we put that aside then, but it now has been added to this grant. Our contribution remains at $500.
Please send your comments if any to Pres. Mike.
.LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
DINING OUT in MARCH:
TOMORROW Thursday March 22nd at 6:00 PM is the next Dining Out. It will be at the Mediterranean Cafe & Grill0, 7720 Main St #6a, Fogelsville, PA 18051. And it is BYOB.
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.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
April 12th at 5:30 P.M. at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville.
TT 4 MEETING:
The next TT4 project meeting will be at the Holiday Inn on Friday, April 6th starting at 7:30 AM.
TT4 AUCTION REVIEW PARTY -- APRIL 8th:
Gwenn and Gary are having a party at their home on Sunday, April 8th from 4 to 7 PM. The admission fee is one or more items to be auctioned off at TT4. Snacks will be served.
Dorothy Bloom needs some volunteers to help at the registration tables.
PUERTO RICO SUPPORT:
Herb and Ronnee Klotz visited Puerto Rico and St. Marten during their cruise and were disturbed by the obvious needs to recover still from the hurricane devastation. Herb said that there now is a “Donor Advised Fund” set up with the Rotary Foundation to accept donations to help in this relief effort.
Herb noted that AW members will be meeting at the Northwestern School next month. And it would be great if we had some funds to go with their Interact Club’s relief efforts.
WHITEHALL AREA RC CHARTER NIGHT:
On March 28th the WARC will be one year old and will be having a M.A.D. (Make A Difference) Day. Herb will be attending and all AWs are invited. Tell Herb.
NEXT WEEK:
DO NOT COME TO LUTHER CREST
Our Greeter will be Ronnee Klotz and it is a “Destination” meeting at Parkland HS Library. We will honor a Student of the Month, and will hear reports from our Interact Students.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Here is one that you missed. I’ll pay next time.
Bill Palmer is happy that both his Granddaughter and her brother have secured paying Summer internships. Shaina is a Junior studying Bio Materials Engineering at Hopkins, and Nate is a first year at UVA Law School.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was intended to be three area students competing with a 5 minute speech relating to Rotary’s 4-Way Test. The students cancelled because of the snow and will be rescheduled. They are:
Tyler Bartman - Parkland
Maggie Mauro - Northwestern Lehigh
Brianna Fritzinger - Northwestern Lehigh
CLOSING:
I believe that they closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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