Today was a Zoom meeting with 35 people on line. After some conversations President Ralph Witcher opened the meeting at 7:30 A.M.
GUESTS ON LINE:
DGE Bob Hobaugh, Kutztown RC; Peter Wolfson, guest of Gary Englehardt; Capt. Nick Millward, Rotary Peace Fellowship winner calling in from Japan; Lisa Walton and Andy Phillips, almost new members; Our student of the month’s parents, Emad Al-Bajali and Susan Said, and Dr. Mark Covelle, Academic Principal at LCTI.
TUDENT OF THE MONTH:
Rev. Jeffrey Kistler conducted the award ceremony naming Sarah A-Bajali as the AWRC Student of the Month of March 2021. See separate article. Sarah’s parents were on with us.
Sarah thanked us for this award and the gift card. Counselor Mark Covelle and President Ralph Witcher each praised Sarah for what she has become and is doing.
HAPPY DOLLARS AND COMMENTS:
Gwenn Carr and Gary Englehardt are back in their Kutztown home. Gary’s Mother received her 2 covid19 shots without any ill effects.
Ernie Boll still is in Arizona where he gets up at 3:30 A.M> just to be on with our Zoom meetings. Also Ernie received his second covid shot 2 weeks ago.
Ralph Witcher left his site to put on something green. When he came back he noted that today is Pat’s birthday -- and her maiden name is Green.
Chuck Ehninger was on from his Macungie home having just returned from a month in Florida.
Ron Coleman now is going by the name of “Hat Cat.”
Guest Peter Wolfson said he was happy to be with us today His Father was a Rotary District Governor.
Nick Millward is happy to report that he went to the Japanese Orphanage that AW Rotarians supported last year, and attended this year’s graduation. There are 65 children there.
Kathy Ott’s granddaughter is a senior at Emmaus H.S. and has earned many awards for her art projects. She may also get a scholarship.
Tom Friday is happy that their 6 year old will be back to school one day a week to start.
Gwenn Carr’s granddaughter has won a “Pi” contest by being able to recite 120 digits of the value of Pi correctly.
Gail Micca’s Mother now is getting around with a cane.
OPENING:
Pres. Ralph gave a very nice invocation. Then he led us in the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S.
FOUR WAY TEST:
Marlene Heller read the four items, and then asked for volunteers to tell us a recent example of its application. With no volunteers, she told a story about their 5 year old grandson.
It seems that he secretly recorded one of his teachers telling a story, and was planning to post it to YouTube. He told his Sister who knew he should get the Teacher’s approval. The Sister told Mom so ethical behavior prevailed.
WHAT ROTARY MEANS TO ME:
Pres. Ralph noted that during our Sept. 23rd meeting, Jean Machamer’s explanation really hit home:
R is for Relationships that are formed.
O is Opportunities to serve that are provided.
T is for Transformation and Team Building.
A is for Action, i.e. Service Above Self.
R is for Responsibilities, i.e. being the Interact Club advisor.
Y is for Yearnings being fulfilled.
She said “Do what you can, because it matters.”
CELEBRATION DATES:
Pres. Ralph displayed the list of March members and their celebration dates. We applauded.
Pres. Ralph again said “The world needs more Rotarians.”
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW RECOGNITION:
Foundation chair, Herb Klotz, announced the following AWRC members as receiving PHFs:
Tom Friday First PHF
John Scott PHF +1
Gail Micca PHF +3
Len Salines PHF +5
Gwenn Carr PHF +5
Amir Famili PHF +5
Jeff Kistler PHF +7
Congratulations and thank you all.
STEM YEA STORY:
This is a new youth program in our District. The STEM Youth Explorer Academy is a program to provide a four day-three night residential camp for middle school students throughout District 7430. It does not replace Camp Neidig; it is in addition. The first camp is planned for July 2022. The Exploratory Committee has done a great job lining up sponsors such as the Scientific Research Institute at Albright and the SETI Institute in California (www.seti.org). The intent is for this camp to occur every summer. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. See separate article for more information.
MEMBERSHIP:
Chair, Tom Friday, welcomed our guests who were on with us today.
CAMP NEIDIG (RYLA):
Camp Neidig will be held in May. Our AWRC Mike Gschwendtner has been transferred and now we need a leader from our club to step up and work on this district-wide annual event for High School Juniors.
APPALACHIAN TRAIL D7430 FUNDRASER:
PDG Herb Klotz’s AWRC plan to sponsor Herb’s final 110 mile trek as a fundraiser for TRF Annual Fund has been expanded to be a district-wide event. See separate article.
KINGDOM LIFE FOOD CENTER NEEDS YOU:
Pres. Ralph thanks all the AW volunteers who distributed food last Saturday.
SNACK PACKING:
There were 250 snackpacks assembled and distributed at Parkland HS last week.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY:
Volunteer house painters still are needed. Contact Amir Famili.
YOUR SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES:
Service Chair, Gail Micca, asks that you take a look at this 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 March 24. 2021 starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use Zoom to meet. Our program will be Alicia Ruiz-Orbin, PPL Marketing Manager (Retired) discussing Woman & Rotary: We have Come a long Way Down the Path of Inclusion
STATUS OF THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
No Thursday evening meetings are planned until after the pandemic..
PROGRAM:
Pres. Ralph Witcher introduced Willard Dellicker, Secretary-NW Lehigh Veterans to discuss an update re Northwestern Lehigh Veteran Memorial (Ontelaunee Park). Ralph said that Bill is gentle, humble and bright.
Bill Dellicker’s career spanned 45 years in various engineering and management positions in manufacturing plants at DuPont, General Motors, Atlas Powder, Air Products and Acme Cryogenics, retiring as the Facility Engineer at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute.
Bill served in the Navy for five years as a carrier-based fighter pilot with three tours to Vietnam flying 200 combat missions in the A-4F Skyhawk. After his active-duty service Bill completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State and joined the PA Air National Guard. He completed his thirty-year Air National Guard career as the Chief Civil Engineer for Pennsylvania, retiring in 2000 as a Brigadier General.
He is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), National Rifle Association (NRA), and the Allentown Chapter of the Honorary First Defenders.
Bill and Trudie have been married for 51 years. All three of their children live in the Lehigh Valley area, with two of their five grandchildren still attending Northwestern Lehigh. Three have graduated and are attending college at Pitt and Grove City.
The four townships of the Northwestern Lehigh School District have come together in a unified effort to honor our local Veterans with a permanent memorial to be located in Ontelaunee Park.
The vision of the committee is to list all the names of our residents who served in the military services since the Revolutionary War to the present time, with provisions for adding Veterans’ names into the future. If you would like to see a picture of what the memorial park will look like once completed simply, visit the Northwestern Lehigh Veteran Memorial Website.
The four townships are Lynn, Weisenberg, Lowhill and Heidelberg. The 12 person committee started in 2018 and came up with a design for the memorial in the Fall. They estimate that $300,000 is needed to make this happen. So far they have $160,000 on hand plus $15,000 in pledges. New Tripoli Bank donated $60,000. And many construction vendors are donated time and materials.
Bill reviewed the design with a great graphic that showed 11 free standing pillars, each 6 ft x 42” x 10” arranged in a circle. These will be granite and the first 9 of them will bear the names of 2,600 veterans. No other info will be shown except for a star to indicate a death in active service.
The area has 5 light standards, one for each service branch. There will be a 25 ft across white colored star in the center, and the whole place will be fenced in.
Besides the physical memorial, there will be a digital file listing each veteran and their relevant information. This will be accessible by visitors just inside the entrance.
They are looking for financial support to get this done, hopefully with a Nov. 11, 2021 dedication event. Donors of $2,500 or more will have their name engraved in a granite pillar just outside of the entrance. There also will be a souvenir program with sold ads to raise funds.
CLOSING:
Pres Ralph led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”