Today was a Zoom meeting and there were about 3o of us on line. After some conversations President Ralph Witcher opened the meeting at 7:30 A.M. Chris Blechschmidt gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS ON LINE:
DGE Bob Hobaugh, Kutztown RC Dawn Costello’s granddaughter , Maddie, and Sue Burnett’s daughter..
Pres Ralph began the meeting by having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then he asked Marlene Heller to take over.
THE FOUR-WAY TEST EXAMPLES:
Marlene asked for a volunteer or two to tell a story indicative of their application of ethical standards recently. Ron Coleman explained the importance of truthfulness in the Real Estate business. These days the inventory is low and demand is up. And results are not always “Fair” in the opinion of some parties.
AUGUST CELEBRATION DATES:
Pres. Ralph reviewed the members names with Birthdays, Anniversaries and Join dates in August.
YVETTE PALMER 5K PURPLR PINKIE RACE:
Herb Klotz announced that the decision was made last week to have a “virtual” race this year, still on Oct. 24 which is National Polio Day. Herb and John Scott need some volunteers.
AND we need some Corporate sponsors.
LOTTERY RAFFLE UPDATE:
Pres. Ralph reports that 140 Raffle tickets have been purchased so far yielding about $3,500 including a $1,000 donation to the Raffle from a member
Ralph urged us to use Marlene Heller’s sample appeal write-up to e-mail others for donations. And there is a brochure available for us to use.
AW Rotarians can share the Raffle story on Facebook, BUT be sure to include a specific link to our raffle website.
Marlene and Pres. Ralph advocate that members buy raffle tickets each week in lieu of the breakfast that they did not buy.
DISTRICT CHANGEOVER AWRDS FOR 2019-20:
July 27 was our virtual annual D7430 Changeover where we officially confirmed Janet Kolepp as our new DG.
Pres. Ralph listed the awards that AW Rotarians earned. See separate article.
Ralph also noted that our D7430 was #1 in the whole U.S. for ShelterBox purchases, and #1 in BOTH Zones 28 and 32 for membership growth. D7430 has started 6 new clubs in the last 2 years.
GREEN THUMBS GARDEN, etc. UPDATE:
Gail Micca said that they delivered produce to Parkland C.A.R.E.S. on Tuesday. And she cleaned up some used fence posts that the Boy Scouts then installed.
Also on Tuesday, Gail picked up two more raised beds from PDG Cindy Hornaman. The Whitehall Rotary club had two beds they didn’t find a home for, so we were able to use them in the new plot and they look so nice. Now we need to fill them and plant some fall crops!
Gail also said that Marlene and Gary Heller had put together 48 snack packs at their home for future distribution to children.
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 August 5th starting at 7:30 a.m. We will use Zoom to meet Our program will be Kevin Clark, Former Brand Steward-IBM ThinkPad re Thought Leadership vs. Thoughtful Leadership
NEXT THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
August 13 as a Happy Hour Zoom meeting starting at 5:30 P.M. Please join us.
HAPPY DOLLARS and MEMBER NEWS:
Ihor Fedoriw congratulated PDG Herb Klotz for leading the D7430 with great accomplishments.
Laurie Grube showed us her 8 week old Golden Retriever.
Dawn Costello was happy to have her granddaughter, Maddie, on line. Maddie explained that she attends Michigan University and is an Ambassador the USA Triathlon fundraiser. There is a link to donate and Gail Micca will follow up.
Tom Friday’s youngest son tested negative for the covid19 virus.
PROGRAM:
Pres. Ralph Witcher introduced Susan Burnett, D7430 Rotaplast Co-Chair from the Bethlehem Morningstar RC to discuss the Rotaplast Mission Trip to Guatemala last year.
Sue has been in Rotary for 15 years and is a Past President of the Beth MS RC. Sue has an MBA from Lehigh University and works in Marketing. She has 3 daughters, one of whom was on line with us.
Sue thanked us for the invitation and congratulated us for our many awards Awesome, she said.
Sue explained that going to Guatemala was not really on her list to do. PDG Linda Young asked her to be on the Rotaplast committee and then she decided to go on the September 2019 mission. She was the Historian, photographer and Blog writer. Using some great photos, Sue told the story.
The mission was for 13 days, to Guatemala City and it helped 114 children who had cleft lips and cleft palates. There typically are 15 missions like this each year. Our D7430 sponsors all or part of the $120,000 costs every other year. The Rotarian volunteers pay their own way. Sue is 53 years old, speaks no Spanish, and was one of the youngest team members.
The mission required a team of 16 medical staff and 10 non-medical volunteers -- eight from our district. Through a first-come, first-served process on about 200 possible, an amazing 114 surgeries were performed on children who with their parents waited on line at the Hospital overnight and some traveled 16 hours by bus to get there.
Sue described the clinic screening and pre-op work followed by the 3 days of actual surgeries. There were only 3 operating rooms, no air conditioning, and they were short on sterilization equipment. To her surprise, Sue was allowed into the ORs during surgeries to take pictures. She emphasized how nice and happy the staff were the whole time.
The Rotaplast program has been around for 27 years and has done over 20,000 surgeries. BTW, many cleft palate cases need about 8 surgical procedures in their lifetime. It still is unclear what causes cleft lip and palate. One thought is the lack of folic acid in the diet. Children in Central America are six times more likely to have these problems than children in the U.S.
This truly is a life changing surgery and all of the children received a handmade quilt as a remembrance of the time their lives changed. Kids born with these defects are shunned by their whole society.
Sue said that near the last days they had a fundraiser and purchased shoes for every patient and for the local staff too.
Planning is under way for a 2021 mission. Already Rotarians have raised $25,000 and another $75,000 plus will be needed to fund this extraordinary program.
For more information, contact Co-Chairs Darlene Scott dscott@cwmeter.com or Susan Burnett burnetts@rcn.com of the D7430 Rotaplast Committee.
Sue answered some questions and thanked us again. Pres. Ralph thanked Sue and promised to send an AW Pen set to her, and a Raffle Ticket.
CLOSING:
Pres Ralph led us in the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
Photos by Marlene Heller
.png)
