Our Greeter today was Ihor Fedoriw and he did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Chuck Ehninger gave a very nice invocation with special mention of Pastor Jean Masiko and her family.
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 U.S.
GUESTS:
Gail Micca, almost a member; and David Haight, guest of Al Lewis.
Pres. Mike showed pictures of the January 10th meeting, since most of us missed last week’s meeting. These included Snack Packing at Northwestern, Snack Packing at Parkland, and the Jan 11th Thursday evening meeting. And there was the picture of Herb, Chris and the EWB group heading to Sierra Leone.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
VP Amir Famili hauled 400 lbs. of produce for the Food Pantry last week.
FOUNDATION GALA MARCH 17TH:
AWRC is supporting the annual Foundation Gala fundraiser with a basket of cheer. Members are asked to donate a bottle or two as we have in the past.
SIERRA LEONE UPDATE:
Gwenn Carr reports that the EWB team arrived safely and that a cesspit has been dug and 4 new toilets have been installed in the Hospital.
DINING OUT:
The next Dining Out will be a “German Night” on February 22nd at the Stoney Run Inn. A menu is available. Please sign up by February 16th.
TEMPTING TASTES 4 MEETING:
January 26th at 7:30 A.M. at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville is the next committee meeting.
CHAMBER of COMMERCE DONATION:
AWRC has received a $312 check for our Snack Packing project from the Allentown C of C.
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:
TOMORROW, Jan 25th at the Holiday Inn starting at 5:30 P.M. The program will be a discussion of a new Spring project to support Threads of Change in their efforts to establish a Lehigh County system.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Mustafa Jaffer and the program is Jessica Dokachev, Director Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley & NE PA.
Pres. Mike introduced S-A-A Mitch Huston to conduct the drawings and collect some voluntary fines. Mitch noted that the eight attendees who braved last week’s snow were each given an extra ticket for today’s drawings. He cited some obscure section of the AWRC bylaws.
The door prize bottle of St. Remy French Liqueur was donated by Ihor Fedoriw and was won by Donna Beach.
The $11 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Don Davis‘ ticket being drawn. Lots of white marbles remain.
At the urging of former S-a-A Don Davis, Mitch collected a dollar from each of us who did NOT attend last week’s meeting.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Amir Famili is happy to report that his younger son has been accepted into the University of Albany’s Pharmacy Program. He is waiting to hear from other schools before deciding.
Gwenn Carr donated in celebration of her recent birthday.
Ron Coleman is just plain happy today.
Geoff Legg paid a dollar to repeat Dr. Bob Gordon’s joke from last week’s meeting. It seems that his receptionist announced a new patient as being invisible. Bob said “Then I can’t see him.”
Jeanne Shipe and Gail Micca visited the Second Harvest Food Bank Facility the other day. It is impressive, well organized and clean.
Gail Micca donated $20 in celebration of her daughter’s 20th birthday.
Dan Crane seriously reported that a horse was seen in a bar with a long face.
Mitch Huston is happy that his son was home from Dallas for a week and they ate Ostrich.
Mitch also is happy to be going to Portsmouth, N.H. next weekend.
PROGRAM:
The program today was Gwenn Carr and Gary Englehardt with a Tempting Taste 4 Update. Gwenn started with a PowerPoint presentation. Gary did the second half including a survey.
We started by remembering that Tempting Tastes 4 is scheduled for May 6th at the Holiday Inn from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. Then Gwenn reviewed the results from last year when Tempting Tastes 3 was such a huge success. She noted that since we started the Tempting Tastes events we have raised over $90,000 for our projects.
Again this year we have asked the Superintendents from the school districts, the Executive director of LCTI and the President of LCCC to be Honorary Co-Chairs. Ann Bieber, LCCC President, said that our TT events are the best organized and run fundraisers that LCCC experiences.
The total gross dollars from last year’s TT3 Silent and Live Auctions were $11,516. Then Gwenn showed a photo of the Children’s World table which brought in $350. And The Special and Unique Gifts table brought in $921. Finally Art Work brought in $1,050, and last year the Raffle brought in $1,233.
Ruth Bush has again agreed to partner with us in 2018.. We select 10 to 12 art works in advance and she brings racks and sets up all of them.
There are lots of moving parts to an event such as Tempting Tastes. Gwenn showed a picture of their basement closet with some of the supplies we will need. And the basement has recently been painted.
Gwenn said that this event can’t happen without lots of good people donating time, effort and lots of patience. So we have lots of work to do and we are looking forward to having another very successful event. We currently have about 45 items for the Silent Auction. We need at least 100 more high quality items.
Gwenn reviewed “What’s new for TT4?”
• A Security team will be in place to prevent the theft of items experienced in the last 2 years. Dennis Houser will lead this team, and he needs volunteers.
• Two new food partners have been signed up -- Stoney Run Inn and The Buttered Crumb
• New Volunteers include Don Davis as the TT4 Treasurer
The Buttered Crumb will be serving kiffle, Black Forest brownies and mini cupcakes. Stephanie Fenstemacher is one of the owners of The Buttered Crum and is expected to be inducted into AWRC soon.
The TT4 Confirmed Food & Drink Partners are:
Pinnacle Ridge Winery Eight Oaks Distillery
America at the Hol. Inn Conf. Center
Curious Goods at the Bake Oven Inn
Louie’s Italian Restaurant Culinart
Stoney Run Inn The Buttered Crumb
The TT4 Unconfirmed Food Partners
LCTI Josh Early Candies
Carmel Kitchen and Wine Bar
McCoole’s at the Red Lion Inn Willow Tree Grove
Whole Foods Queen City BBQ Maza
Planned for the TT4 Auctions:
Live Auction items:
Blue Mt. Winery Party
Three sessions with a Trainer who will come to you
A day with Dr. Bob on the water
Silent Auction items:
Costume Jewelry
Bamboula items
Ladies leather tote bags
So what do we need?
• Photographer
• Guests
• Auction Items
• More Food Partners
• SPONSORS !
There were cards and info sheets and forms on our tables that were discussed. Then Gary presented the case for many more Sponsors. He asked each table of members to fill out a short survey listing potential sponsors, the contact at the sponsor, and the appropriate person to make the first call.
Gary then went to each table and collected the forms and asking for feedback. The results were very hopeful. Well done, Gwenn and gary.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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