Our Greeter today was Jean Masiko and she did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Rev. Jeff Kistler gave a very nice invocation with a special plea for the Hurricane victims.
President 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:
Steve Kovacs, guest of Gwen Pongracz
And Shirley Randall was with us today.
President Mike showed photographs from our last meeting including people enjoying their breakfast conversations, and our two Camp Neidig students.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Volunteers are needed this week.
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
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.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
Sept 14th will be a Happy Hour and business meeting at the Holiday Inn starting at 5:30 P.M.
SIGN UP NOW for the ROTARY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (RLI):
Registration is open now for the September 16th training at DeSales. See separate article. P-E Jeanne recommends this highly for all.
NOTE, your registration fee will be reimbursed to you in full by our RC.
DICTIONARY PROJECT 2017:
Amir Famili is this year’s chair and he is asking for donations and also for assistance in adding labels and staging the books for delivery.
DINING OUT for SEPTEMBER:
Ronnee Klotz asks for sign-ups for Friday evening at 6:00 P.M. on September 15th at Queen City BBQ, 27 N 7th St, Allentown --- where Shula’s used to be on the Arts Walk. Ron Coleman says the wings are good.
D7430 END POLIO PURPLE PINKIE RACE OCTOBER 14th:
A signup sheet is going around for runners, walkers and volunteers for that morning.
.NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Brian Peterka and the program will be Ralph Witcher with a plan on how to live to 120 years old. Relax.
President Mike introduced our S-a-A, Mitch Huston who conducted the raffle drawings.
The door prize bottle of wine was donated by Jean Masiko and it was won by Dan Crane.
The $70 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Jeanne Shipe’s ticket. There now are six marbles remaining.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Mitch started by being happy to be going to Dallas and attending Six Flags’ roller coasters with his son again. He likes the wooden ones.
Ralph Witcher is happy to report his son now is starting at Lehigh University.
Jeanne Shipe our President-Elect, announced that her first official act as AW President in July is to cancel the first meeting…….it’s the Fourth of July!
Jeanne is happy that last week she traveled to Oregon and with friends camped out in an empty house in order to witness firsthand the total solar eclipse, which was fantastic.
Ginny Sandoval is happy to be here after being away. And she wished Ron Coleman a Happy Birthday; he says he turned 66 today. We sang a decent version of Happy Birthday. And Ralph came over to Ron and gave him a kiss.
Don Davis, a long ago graduate of Lehigh, is happy to learn that Ralph was able to send his son there at today’s costs.
Chris Blechschmidt is pleased that he hiked up Mt. Washington climbing about 4,300 feet in elevation. He was on the highest mountain in the northeast when the solar eclipse occurred.
Jean Masiko is really happy that her daughter in Texas is safe.
Gwen Pongracz is happy to announce that her first natural grandchild is due in February.
Gwen also is pleased that guest Steve Kovacs is with us today.
Joe Goll reported that they were just in Key West and he has made friends with some officials there.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Gwen Pongracz telling us about the LV Youth Leadership and Ethics Conferences. President Mike introduced Gwen and said she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Secondary Education from Kutztown University with a double major of social studies and Spanish. She later received her Master of Education Degree from Kutztown University and a certificate as a reading specialist.
Gwen has taught computer classes and was an adjunct faculty member for Lehigh Carbon Community College for whom she taught GED classes. In 1996 she founded a support group in the Lehigh Valley for people with Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD).
In February of 2009, Gwen decided it was time to bring the focus in education back to character. In April of that year, Kids of Character was incorporated. Kids of Character is a non-profit, community recognized resource for teaching the behavior standards our sons, daughters, students and future employees are to strive for.
Gwen became an AW Rotarian in 2009 and began by thanking Rotarians for the continual support for the Ethics Conferences as Kids of Character. The ninth year of these will be 8th grade students on October 24th and 11th graders on October 26th, both again at DeSales University.
Gwen then got two volunteers, Ralph Witcher and Jeff Kistler, to come forth and compete to see which of them could empty a full tube of toothpaste the faster. Ralph seemed to win.
Then Gwen asked them to put the toothpaste back into the tube! It is very difficult and slow to do. The analogy is that you can lose your honor and integrity very quickly, and it takes a very long time to earn it back.
This demonstration is used in front of the students at the conferences as they discuss Peer Pressure. They want to encourage competence and character. One purpose of the conferences is to make the students think about what it is that they believe -- maybe for the first time. It also is important that the faculty who work at the conferences understand these issues and take them back to their regular classrooms and teach them.
This Lehigh Valley Ethics effort came about because Bill and Sue Weber took Gwen to the Berks County Ethics conferences and she met Len Morella, an author and teacher. A year later, with the help of Rotarians the L.V. conferences began. Since the start 746 8th graders and 167 of their faculty have participated. And 494 11th graders and 116 of their faculty have participated.
The purpose of the conferences is to motivate both students and faculty to pursue the development of competence and character within their own schools and throughout their lives as they aspire to be citizens of competence and character in society.
Gwen noted that 8th graders cannot sit still and 11th graders need to talk. . They give them work and talk about how to communicate. They are taught that in some instances, “Silence = Consent.” They strive to have great presenters each year. They do breakout sessions and team building exercises. And Gwen reads every feedback form that comes to her.
Gwen said that the cost to put on these two conferences is about $4,000. DeSales does not charge them; most of the cost is for food.
Gwen again thanked Rotarians for their support. And Ralph Witcher volunteered at the 2016 conferences and says that they are great.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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