The Greeter this morning was Wendy Weaver and she did a very good job. President Herb rang the bell at 7:30 a.m.
Pastor Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation with special mention of Dale Utt and Dawn Costello. Also noted was the passing of Mitch Huston’s Father.
GUESTS: Michaela Luzicova, Youth Exchange student; Steve LaPierre, Emmaus RC; Nawal Atiyah, guest of Herb Klotz; Virginia Sandoval, guest of the club; and Nick Weida, guest of the club.
ELECTION of OFFICERS & DIRECTORS:
See separate article.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Last week Gloria took Herb to distribute dictionaries to the 3rd-graders at Northwestern Elementary School. Because of Pastor Candi’s training, Herb knew just what to do and had a marvelous time.
Dec 14th was the holiday concert here at Luther Crest that we sponsor for the residents . It featured the “Tri Cees” choral group and was a great show with about 60 attending.
PLEASE determine the names and contact information for candidates for membership and send them to Mike Gschwendtner. Our big membership Networking Mixer event will be on January 14th at Wegmans in the Timber Room.
Today, Dec 16th is the next Parkland Snack Packing. Be there at 2:15 p.m.
Dec 16th and 17th volunteers are needed to work at the Lowhill Township Food Pantry.
Our next Thursday evening meeting is TOMORROW the 17th at 5:30 PM at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville. Bring your friends.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS:
Membership Committee today.
The ShelterBox campaign is on through December. Consider donating in the name of family or friend as a Christmas Gift. Barb makes up great cards to wrap.
Tempting Tastes Two Tickets are available now and make great Holiday gifts. Ask Gwenn Carr.
Ideas for AW District Grant projects for RY 2016-17 are needed; tell Dan Crane.
We are reminded to take a look at our Facebook pages.
President Herb asks us all to e-mail him about any announcements to be made at future meetings so he can include them as part of his planned agenda.
Next week our scheduled Greeter is Keith Koepke, and the program will be our AW Rotary Professional Service Award presentation.
SOUND SYSTEM:
The good news is that we continue to have more attendees here on Wednesday mornings. The bad news is that folks in the back cannot always hear the speaker.
The good news is that we will purchase a wireless sound system with two speakers and two mikes. The bad news is that it costs about $1,700 and we don’t quite have the funds to cover it.
So, among other things, we will hold a few auctions at meetings, starting today.
LUCK of the DRAW:
The door prize bottle of wine donated by Wendy was won by Mike Gschwendtner. Then Dan Crane snagged a white marble and did not win the $35 pot of the 50:50.
MINI-AUCTION:
S-a-A Don Davis auctioned off a basket of pickles and jellies, a six pack of special beer, and chocolate candy bars bringing in about $80 for the sound system.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Ray Stock for having his picture in the paper.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Gil Keller is most happy to report that Grace’s surgery at Johns Hopkins went well with a good outlook for recovery. Gil also noted that their grandson plays football for Parkland and has a big game this week.
Joe Goll bragged about their 15 month old grandson taking his first step unaided.
Sue Weber is happy that Ginny Sandoval joined us this morning.
Al Lewis is happy that Monday’s concert was so good; and sad that his daughter’s eye surgery got postponed.
Herb said that on Saturday they had a great tour of the White House. And he noted that the Christmas tree this year is from Montgomery County.
ROTARIAN of the WEEK:
The AW “Rotarian of the Week” is Keith Koepke who returned to Rotary and AWRC last Summer. His career is in Family Entertainment -- and he can design water parks too. He was sponsored by Dan Crane and was part of AWRC from 1997 to 2006. He served as our Sergeant-at-Arms and on the Membership committee. He was proud to receive his Paul Harris Fellow award and also about the band shell project and our Reverse Raffle fundraiser.
PROGRAM:
President Herb then introduced Keith Koepke to give his Re-classification Talk. So he starts by showing us his baby picture. Keith was born in Toledo, Ohio, and raised on a farm. He has a very large family because of two second marriages; a family photo has 22 people in it.
Because of his High School football Coach and Teacher, he went to the University of Findlay in Findlay, OH. He still is friends with that coach and follows his career, which includes the Ravens now.
On March 11, 1995 Keith married Rhonda. Before that with Summer and part time jobs, and for about 35 years Keith worked for Cedar Point. One of their executives mentored Keith and kept giving him more responsibility. They moved Keith and Rhonda to the Lehigh Valley in 1997 where he ended up as Dorney Park’s General Manager.
Once in the area Rhonda set out to find some horses to ride. Keith knew AW’s Ralph Zettlemoyer had something to do with horses, so they went to visit. Somehow Ralph and Rhonda went riding for 1-1/2 hours, while Keith cleaned the stables.
This was the start of a great friendship with Ralph. The Koepkes even purchased 11 acres of land from Ralph, built their home there, and added two German Shepherd Dogs. And they love Winter sports and go skiing in Quebec City -- staying in the Ice Hotel. Also they have a Condo. In Colorado just south of Aspen where they go a few times each year.
CLOSING:
Barb Kistler hit the right note to start a nice rendition of “God Bless America.” This was followed by the recitation of the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
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