Our Greeter today was Len Salines and he did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Wendy Weaver gave a very nice invocation.
Pres. Mike began the meeting having the members recite the Five-way Test with the fifth question, “Is it Fun?” We recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the U.S.
GUESTS: Murtaza Jaffer, Allentown RC: Gail Micca, guest of Jeanne Shipe; and Jasper Ho, guest of Ralph Witcher.
Pres. Mike showed photographs from our last meeting including Gloria receiving a $1,000 donation for the Snack Pack Program. Pres. Mike gave some stats on the October Lowhill Food Pantry operation. Then there was a picture of Bob Gordon taken last week during his trip to Belgium. Pictures of Chris Blechschmidt and his Father, and of last week’s breakfast groups followed. And we saw pics from Thursday Evenings Networking Mixer.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
THANK YOU LETTER:
AW Rotarians received a thank you letter from the Parkland School District for our donation of dictionaries to their third grade students again this year.
HURRICANE RELIEF OPPORTUNITY:
Pres. Mike reminds us that for every $5,000 increment of funds donated to ShelterBox USA by D7430 Rotarians -- Rotary Clubs -- Interact Clubs -- another ShelterBox will be donated from the District funds. This incentive offer is open to December 1, 2017 and is limited to 5 ShelterBoxes by the district.
NOMINATIONS for RY 2018-19:
Immediate Past President Dan Crane opened the meeting for nominations for AW members for the next RY. The slate includes:
President -- Jeanne Shipe
President-elect -- Amir Famili
Vice President -- ???
Secretary -- Joe Goll
Treasurer -- Chris Blechschmidt
Sergeant-at-Arms -- Mitch Huston
A motion was made to accept these nominees by Sue Weber, seconded by Halyna Stegura, and was approved unanimously.
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.
TOMORROW Nov 9th, Thursday Eve. at the Winery.
Nov. 10th, Friday evening is volunteer work at Kingdom Life Food Pantry to install new shelves. Jean Masiko is asking for 8 volunteers to make this go quickly. Start time is 5:30 P.M. and please try to bring tools such as hammers, screw drivers, etc. Chris Blechschmidt is the Project Manager. Jean Masiko says the shelves are ready to install, and she has 9 volunteers.
Nov. 17th -- Tempting Tastes 4 planning meeting at the Holiday Inn starting at 7:00 P.M.
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY PARTY:
December 3rd, Sunday, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM, a Buffet with a cash bar, at Bravo Cucina Italiana at the Lehigh Valley Mall. Please sign-up PDQ. The price is $37.00 per person The luncheon will have 2 choices of salads served family style, sides, pasta course and entrée buffet style and chocolate cake or cheesecake for dessert served tableside. It also includes all soda, coffee and /decaf and tea.
AWRC TEE-SHIRTS:
P-E Jeanne Shipe showed samples of possible Tee-Shirts with AWRC and the Rotary logo on them. She will get prices and maybe include a sweat shirt option.
.NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Gwen Pongracz, and the program will be
Jim Palmquist of Emmaus Rotary Club talking about How an Aircraft Carrier Works - Cat Shots, Traps, and the Dirty Shirt Mess.
Pres. Mike introduced our S-a-A Mitch Huston who conducted the raffle drawings.
Mitch has introduced a new way to ask for volunteered “Guilty” fines. The new word is “PEBL” fines; i.e. Pins, Leave early, Badge missing, and Late arrival. Today the Webers donated for coming late.
The door prize breakfast was donated by Len Salines and it was won by Ginny Sandoval.
The $72 pot of the 50:50 was WON by Halyna Stegura’s ticket and she drew out the black marble.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Marlene Ritter is happy to report that LVHN has given Flu Shots to 7,800 people so far. She encourages us all to get one.
Sue Weber is happy that she was one of the AW volunteers for delivering Meals on Wheels yesterday, and they did a good job.
Bill Weber enjoyed doing M.O.W. too. He told of delivering to a woman in her apartment building at 12:06 P.M. who sternly admonished him for being late.
Halyna Stegura gave back for winning the 50:50 this morning. She also is happy to be home, even though they just returned from a two week cruise from Bayonne to Galveston, TX.
Jean Masiko is happy that they went to Paris Island to be part of the 600 cadet graduation ceremony.
Ron Coleman said that his M.O.W. experience yesterday was very rewarding.
Sue Weber is happy to have our Y.E. student “Ala” here this morning.
Murtaza Jaffer said that brother Mustafa sends his greetings to us. Mustafa right now is somewhere in the Middle East doing a humanitarian walk.
Gwenn Carr is happy to see Murtaza here today.
Ginny Sandoval paid $20 and announced that after 20 years of unemployment (but not idle) she now has a job in Bethlehem working with 5th grade girls as a mentor.
PROGRAM:
Sue Weber happily introduced our program today --- our A-W Youth Exchange student, Alycia “Ala” who comes to us from Poland. Ala attends Northwestern Lehigh High School and is hosted by the Havilands now. After Christmas, Ala will be hosted by the Blechschmidts.
Ala thanked us all for her opportunity to be here in the U.S. She truly is enjoying being here, including some cooking lessons and working on her photography. She will not receive credit for this year in the U.S. when she returns to Poland. She will have two more years of High School and then attend college.
Ala went through a PowerPoint presentation starting with describing her family. Her Father is an I.T. Specialist, and her Mother is working with Tour groups. She has a 20 year old Sister, and a younger brother.
Ala comes from the city of Olsztyn (Old Town), a city on the Łyna River in northeastern Poland. Olsztyn is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with county rights. It has an area of 34.1 square miles.
The most important sights of the city include the medieval Old Town and the Olsztyn Cathedral, which dates back more than 600 years. The picturesque market square is part of the European Route of Brick Gothic and the cathedral is regarded as one of the greatest monuments of Gothic architecture in Poland.[6]
Poland is an eastern European country on the Baltic Sea known for its medieval architecture and Jewish heritage. Warsaw is the capital. In the city of Kraków, 14th-century Wawel Castle rises above the medieval old town, home to Cloth Hall, a Renaissance trading post in Rynek Glówny (market square).
Ala said that Poland has many Catholics and that Christmas and Easter are widely celebrated. She said that everything is very nice here. She did have some issues with our foods for the first month, but her host’s cooking has fixed that.
Ala has monthly meetings with 11 other Y.E. students now in our district. She so far has traveled to Philadelphia and to Jim Thorpe.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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