Our Greeter today was Gary Englehardt and he did a marvelous job, although he was trying to sell us our badges for $1.
President Dan Crane rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting.
The assembled voices sang a good rendition of our National Anthem along with a flag video. And we said the pledge of Allegiance.
Ralph Witcher gave a very nice invocation.
President Dan says the word from the country is “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month,” said Theodore Roosevelt.
GUESTS:
Just us AW Rotarians today.
President Dan showed many slides of photographs from our last meeting starting with our Greeter Stan Drabick, and some of last week’s scholarship winners. Then we saw Food Pantry volunteers and the Rodale Park work crew from May 20th. There were pictures from the May 20th annual District Training Assembly.
Amir Famili sent a picture of a Rotary sign in Copenhagen.
Jerry Frank sent a photo re the Parkland HS Go-Fund-Me page success raising $7,000 to send kids to school in Sierra Leone.
NOTE: A special Mike Henry Rotary Scholarship Fund has been established. Anyone wishing to donate may do so by sending Checks to the Keller Funeral Home made out to the AW Rotary Foundation. Or they can go to Treasurer Chris Blechschmidt. Over $2,000 has been donated so far.
SCHEDULE:
Dan continues to e-mail us an updated list of volunteer opportunities and future events.
Our next Thursday Evening meeting will be TOMORROW May 25th as a Happy Hour and Business meeting at the Holiday Inn starting at 5:30 PM. A new member induction is planned.
May 28th, All 18 seats have been sold for the Iron Pigs evening baseball game. Through the generosity of Jerry Frank the $70 per ticket funds will be donated to the AWRC foundation.
June 7th -- Charter night dinner for the new RC of Upper Perkiomen.
Jun 8th is a Business Card Exchange Mixer at the Holiday Inn at 5:30 PM.
Jun 30th is DINING OUT at Nostos Greek Restaurant at 701 N. 19th Street in Allentown, 6 PM start; free glass of wine, or BYOB.
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. Over half of our members have done this.
NEXT WEEK our Greeter will be Amir Famili and the program is Melissa DelVecchino, Physical Therapist at Good Shepherd. Her subject is What's New with Hip and Knee Replacements.
ROTARY COMMUNITY CORPS:
A Rotary Community Corps is a group of people who share our commitment to changing the world through service projects.
Rotary Community Corps members plan and carry out projects in their communities and support local Rotary club projects but are not members of a Rotary club. There are more than 8,500 corps in over 90 countries.
Thanks to the hard work of our Service Projects Committee Chair, Gloria Zimmerman, AWRC has successfully chartered the Northwestern Snack Packing Community Corps by Rotary International. Thank you, Gloria!
LUCK of the DRAW:
The first door prize, donated by Gary Englehardt – a bottle of wine – was won by Wendy Weaver. Then the breakfast donated last week by Stan Drabick was won by Marlene Ritter.
The $45 of the 50:50 pot was not won by Mitch Huston’s ticket being drawn.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Don Davis happily reported that since July 1, 2016 about $1,700 of our 50:50 and happy dollars have been donated to The Rotary Foundation.
Halyna Stegura’s daughter Christina and her bicycle now have reached Catalina Island in the Pacific. Next she goes to San Diego.
Ron Coleman is happy to be here, but unhappy that he left his badge in his car.
Dorothy Bloom said that Meals on Wheels need walkers for the event on Saturday June 3rd at DeSales University.
Dan Crane donated $10 in recognition of many missteps.
Mitch Huston reminds us of the Monday May 29th Memorial Day Trumpets over Bethlehem. This is their 4th year and there will be 51 trumpets over a 4 mile stretch playing taps starting at 8 AM.
PROGRAM:
Today was one of our club assemblies that have various committee chairs providing us all with updated information. President Dan led the session.
Len Salines, Fundraising Chair, said that the September 16th Pig Roast will be named in honor of the late Mike Henry who made it happen in years past.
John Scott, Race Coordinator, noted that the annual District 7430 Yvette Palmer Purple Pinkie 5K Run / Walk will be held at LCCC on October 14th. Volunteers are needed for John’s team to make this happen. This was announced at the District Training Assembly on May 20th complete with Flyers. We need all RCs to sponsor at $250 that will go to Polio Plus in a RC’s name.
Bill Palmer, District Finance Chair, described the activities at the District Training Assembly. Notable was Herb Klotz who gave the invocation, led a breakout session on Social Media, and then conducted a Membership presentation and workshop in the closing plenary. Bill got the 2017-18 District Operating budget approved. Five Youth Exchange students conducted a parade of flags at lunch. Mike Gschwendtner added that the winner of the D7430 Speech Contest gave her winning speech.
Chuck Ehninger, Awards Chair, said that the AWRC board of directors had approved giving the award to a business as well as to an individual. Chuck asks us all to consider worthy candidates for this year’s award and tell him.
Chris Blechschmidt, Club Treasurer, asks that all financial activities that need to be done by June 30th be sent to him PDQ. Please do not wait to the last minute.
Mitch Huston, PR Chair, offered congratulations to Gwenn, Gary and Gloria for having great relationships with the Parkland Press. The article on Tempting Tastes 3 was great.
Mitch constantly sends AWRC messages to the press to keep them interested.
Dan Crane, Club President, said that the next school year we will have a young lady Youth Exchange student from Poland here to be hosted.
And Dan reported that all is well with the AWRC Foundation.
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TWMPTING TASTES 3 -- REPORT AND A REVIEW OF LESSONS LEARNED:
Gary Englehardt and Gwenn Carr led this session. Gary introduced Gwenn and she did the rest.
The overall gross income from TT3 was $36, 452 before expenses. The NET cash for AWRC;s good works in RY 2017-18 is #28,698 plus another $2,000 towards TT4 in 2018. Wow.
Gwenn noted that this year we did some direct mail advertising, but the value was slight.
At TT3 we had 19 food providers, up from TT2’s 14. This proved to be a bit too many and will be less next year.
Gwenn also noted that the reusable table top decorations cost money this year, but nothing more for future years.
The feedback from the food providers so far is positive. Hopefully most will return next year.
We will try for better security next year. At least two auction items were stolen.
Gwenn extended heartfelt thanks to all who again made TT3 a great success.
Gwenn asked for comments and suggestions from the audience. One idea was to move up earlier in the schedule the request for donations to fund students. Holding near the end means half the attendees are gone.
REMINDER:
Tempting Tastes 4 will be held on Sunday May 6, 2018.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
