Our Greeter today was Bill Palmer and he did a spectacular job.
President Amir Famili rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all. Then Ernie Boll gave a very nice invocation.
Secretary John Scott. began the meeting having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then he led us in reciting the Four Way Test. John also reviewed some upcoming events.
GUESTS:
Laurie Grube, almost a new member; Carl Zvanut’ Dr. Elizabeth Stanton, and Sally Wright, from Engineers Without Borders and guests of Diana Dunn. Honorary member Wendy Weaver was with us this morning.
AWARD TO JEANNE SHIPE:
Past President Jeanne Shipe was awarded her Past President’s pin by John Scott. John also noted the special recognition that Jeanne received from Senator Pat Browne.
JAFFER PUBLICITY:
It seems that E.B.C. got some publicity. See separate article.
DONATE TO POLIOPLUS:
Pres. Amir passed around a sign-up sheet seeking donations to match with $500 to total $1,000 for PolioPlus. The District-wide Purple Pinkie 5K race is on October 12th.
AWRC MEMBERSHIP PLAN:
Gwenn Carr distributed hard copies of the approved plan and highlighted some of it. One part is that we will concentrate on Retention, for example. At next week’s meeting we will honor a Rotarian of the month.
Pres. Amir asks us to volunteer to be members of the Membership Committee. Please contact Gwenn, Mustafa, or Amir.
Gwenn also said that we will be testing Rotarians’ knowledge of our great organization. For example she asked about two other guidelines for Rotarians’ behavior bedsides our motto and the Four Way Test. These are “The Object of Rotary,” and the “Code of Conduct.”
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
This great group still depends on cash donations from AW Rotarians. And volunteering for the produce pick-up and distribution on Saturday mornings is a very satisfying thing.
DINING OUT -- SEPTEMBER:
Thursday, September 26th, at 6:00 P.M., at Madeline’s in Fogelsville
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
Sept. 12 at WEGMAN’S at 5:30 P.M. is our next meeting.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Sept. 11 with Jean Masiko as our Greeter. .The program will be PDG Doug Cook (Collegeville RC) explaining about the RI Council on Legislation & Resolutions, and how YOU can make a Rotary rule get changed.
Pres. Amir introduced Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars.
The door prize bottle of wine donated by Bill Palmer was won by Laurie Grube.
The $56 pot of the 50:50 was WON by David Haight’s ticket being drawn followed by the Black marble. Many marbles will be back next week.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Dan Crane paid a dollar to ask that the club reinstate the practice of fining members as we used to do.
Diana Dunn is happy to have three E.W.B. friends here today.
Jerry Frank is praying for the Webers who have decided to remain in the Hilton Head, S.C. area and ride out the hurricane.
Ralph Witcher also asks for prayers for the Webers.
Wendy Weaver is happy to have Halyna and Mike hosting her this visit. And she mentioned an adult beverage event.
Wendy says we should come to The Villages in Florida. There are 3 Rotary Clubs and she has a spare room.
Halyna Stegura is happy to have Wendy here today.
But she is nervous that daughter Mary, an employee at DisneyWorld, is in charge of the “Ride it Out Crew” for the hurricane.
Marlene Heller is happy for the fabulous weekend in Syracuse celebrating her birthday with family. Husband Gary gave her a gift of a trip to Israel. Also she is happy that her Mom is doing well after a stroke a few weeks back. And she is happy to see Jeanne Shipe back with us today.
Jeanne Shipe put in a dollar for each of the TEN airports she was in over this recent trip.
Laurie Grube is happy to have won the wine today.
Gail Micca is just happy. Ernie Boll is too.
FULL HOUSE:
There were 28 Rotarians and guests at today’s meeting.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was AWRC member Diana Dunn telling us all about the upcoming Sierra Leone Global Grant Project. Diana had three members of Engineers Without Borders here as her guests: -- Carl Zvanut, Dr. Elizabeth Stanton, and Sally Wright. These folks all are involved in the Hospital project.
This just approved Rotary Global Grant is for $50,000 of work and training at the Hospital in Matru, Sierra Leone. It falls into the “Disease Prevention and Treatment” area of focus. The hospital is only a few miles from the Centennial School where we have done other projects with EWB over the last 10 years.
Diana describes Health Care In Sierra Leone as having a Severe Shortage of Doctors (less than 150 in a country of 7.8 Million). The Community Health Officers (CHOs), midwives and nurses provide the medical care. The Skill level of medical professionals is lower post their wartime.
They operate with a mixture of private and government hospitals in Sierra Leone. A very large number of NGOs are supporting medical facilities. And nearly all hospitals receive outside financial support (not self-sustaining.) And it is important to know that government law is that Hospitals can’t charge for maternal care -- a large portion of their work.
The Matru Hospital was founded in the 1950s by US missionaries from the United Brethren in Christ (UBC.). They provide services in Maternity and pediatrics. They have 60 Beds, 4 wards, and 70 employees.
There are a lot of Challenges: infrastructure, attracting and maintaining qualified staff, financial, management. A US Branch continues to support the Hospital –both financially and through onsite missionary support. And they are 2.5 years into an 8 year initiative to strengthen the hospital. US doctor (Jon Yoder) and RN (Pam McKee) are onsite for the last 2.5 years.
The Grant Components are:
• Housing for Key Health Care Providers
• Continuing Education for Medical Providers, and
• Training for Administrative staff.
The Housing for Key Health Care Providers involves a rehabilitation of their International House to provide four individual living quarters. Also they will set up an On-call room for midwifes. And there will be a Computer/Study station for employees.
The Continuing Education for Medical Providers will use a new Training conference room equipped to allow remote teleconferencing. They will establish a collaborating educational team for continuing education. And there is a potential partnership with a Lehigh Valley Residency program.
The training for Administrative staff. Will be in finance and management. The nearby Bo Rotary Club members will coordinate. And volunteers from Allentown West Rotary are welcome to work locally or in Matru.
Diana responded to some questions, one relating to the source of the $50,000 to pay for the grant. It was explained that these Global Grants are financed by monies our District 7430 Rotarians donate to the RI Foundation Annual Fund a few years back. AWRC current funds are not used, but we always must strive for replacement dollars to the Annual Fund.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir closed our meeting by our reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
Photos are by Marlene Heller