Today was a Zoom meeting with 37 of us on line. After some conversations President Ralph Witcher opened the meeting at 7:30 A.M. Bill Weber gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS ON LINE:
Pat Witcher, incoming member; and Capt. Nick Millward. Peace Fellowship candidate calling from Japan.
Pres Ralph began the meeting with Bill Weber leading us in the Pledge to the Flag of the U.S. . Then Ralph asked Marlene Heller to give the 4 Way Test example.
THE FOUR-WAY TEST EXAMPLE:
Marlene asked for a volunteer or two to tell a story indicative of their application of ethical standards recently.
John Scott told of his volunteering to spend 4 hours helping an individual prepare a grant application. Beneficial for both.
WHAT ROTARY MEANS TO ME:
Bill Weber joined Rotary in 1978 and shortly after Ernie Boll asked Bill to work on the Summer Youth Exchange committee to host a team coming from Wales. He and Sue went to the U.K. and stopped in Wales to meet those Rotarians who adopted them. From then on the Webers continued to travel and make more friends, many of whom they still contact today.
Pres. Ralph displayed the list of members and their September celebration dates.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE:
Katrina Sundstrom told her AW story. She met with Jeanne Shipe and Gail Micca a few years back about feeding the hungry. She is the co-founder of Parkland C.A.R.E.S. and with a critical grant from AWRC she outfitted and opened a food pantry in June 2019.
The covid 19 problem forced changes and thanks again to AW Rotarians they are getting fresh produce to go with the staples they get from Second Harvest. AW members make a difference.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD CENTER:
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED for Saturday Sept 12th in Orefield for a food distribution. Please contact Jean Masiko.
LOTTERY RAFFLE UPDATE:
Pres. Ralph expressed thanks from us all to Len Salines’ fundraising committee including Tom Friday, Dennis Houser, Gail Micca, Marlene Heller and Chris Blechschmidt.
Tom Friday said that 436 tickets were sold and another $1,700 was donated. The net cash to AWRC for good works is $8,653.
THE RAFFLE WINNERS ARE:
First Prize -- Jeanne Shipe
Second Prize -- Ernie Boll
Third Prize -- Tom Friday
Congratulations and thanks.
AWRC INTRODUCES THE “LOOK BOOK” FUNDRAISER:
** We will develop a digital scrapbook
** The “AWRC Look Book” will be available by 9/30/20
** For a small donation ($25) we will send you a digital copy
** All funds will go to the LowHill Food Pantry
Please use the “Donate” button on the AWRC website. Or YOUR donation checks can be sent to Chris Blechschmidt made payable to the AWRC Foundation.
Once available we will provide the assembled pdf to the individual donors.
YVETTE PALMER 5K PURPLR PINKIE RACE:
The race this year will be virtual and is on Oct. 24 which is World Polio Day.
Some volunteers are needed; please contact John Scott.
AND we need some Corporate sponsors.
YOUR SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES:
Please take a look at this new section on the left side of this bulletin.
STATUS OF MORNING MEETINGS;
The AWRC B.O.D. has suspended all AWRC face-to-face meetings until further notice. Zoom meetings are now scheduled for each Wednesday at 7:30 A.M.
NEXT MORNING MEETING:
Wednesday September 16TH starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use Zoom to meet Our program will be Carol Ferguson, S7430 chair of the Polio Plus committee to discuss “Vaccines Work: RI's Focus on Disease Prevention.”
STATUS OF THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
No Thursday evening meetings are planned for September and for October 2020.
HAPPY DOLLARS and MEMBER NEWS:
Amir Famili is healing and has another 3 weeks of therapy to do.
Jeff Kistler said that Barbara is with their son and grandchildren and 2 foster children.
All Allentown schools are operating virtually right now.
The Webers’ niece is teaching in a hybrid manner.
Somebody’s daughter made the varsity team and is in the playoffs.
Gail Micca happily reports that she now is a “Grandaunt.”
Tom Friday is most happy to have just received an e-mail inviting him to a wedding of his daughter to Pat and Ralph Witcher’s son.
Pat Witcher is very happy about the wedding as well.
Sue Weber said she is happy to be back home and that they are now looking for a used car about 5 years old.
Ralph and Pat Witcher are happy to be back home after a great vacation in Colorado. There was a picture of Pat riding a buffalo.
PROGRAM:
Pres. Ralph Witcher introduced Michael Schlossberg, State Representative to discuss The Impact of COVID-19 on the Emotional Wellbeing of "School-Aged" Children in the Lehigh Valley.
Mike’s education includes Livingston High School, 2001, Muhlenberg College, B.A. Political Science & Psychology, 2005, and Lehigh University, MA Political Science, 2006. And he is married to Brenna, a teacher, and they have 2 children. Mike was VP of the Greater LV Chamber of Commerce.
Mike thanked us for inviting him back. He said that it is very interesting to see how AW Rotarians are operating so well under these unusual circumstances.
Mike said there still is not a lot of information available about the mental health issue. And while covid19 has been with us for 6 months, we just do not know its long term effects.
The sense of structure and stimulation normally afforded to children by going to school in the Lehigh Valley have been greatly disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And because of this, children are experiencing less opportunity to be with their friends to get the social support that is essential for their mental and emotional wellbeing. This new disruption in our educational structure can have far-reaching implications on our children's emotional well-being.
Mike discussed the best practice approaches to adopt in order to remain educationally functional during a pandemic. And he talked about how schools and local government can get better at anticipating the unmet emotional needs of school-aged children?
Mike then touched on the psychological effects that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the emotional and psychological wellbeing of our children within the Lehigh Valley. And he reviewed what Pennsylvania State and Local Governments are doing to address these real challenges.
Mike covered what the average person within the local community can do to better support school-aged children during COVID-19. We need to explain to our children just what is going on. We should reassure children that this will end. And we should make sure that the children are ie0t busy.
CLOSING:
Pres Ralph led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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