President Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all to AWRC. Then Geoff Legg gave a very nice invocation
Pres. Jeanne began the meeting having the members recite the 4 Way test, followed with our saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
GUESTS:
Jeanne Fitch, Mother of our student of the Month; Grayson, a baby and son of Symantha; and Dr. Mark Covelle, Academic Center Principal at LCTI.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NEW AWRC BANNER :
Pres. Jeanne showed us one of the new AWRC banners now in stock. These can be used by us to exchange with other RCs when we travel and visit them. The image is a “wood-cut” style of a covered bridge -- common to our area.
SPEECH CONTEST UPDATE:
Melena View, the winner of the AW contest came in third place at the regional contest. The finals are on Saturday May 4th at the District Conference.
SHELTERBOX CHALLENGE:
For every dollar donated to the purchase of ShelterBoxes by April 30, , 2019 a member has committed to match them, at least until the donated total exceeds $1,000 and TWO ShelterBoxes can be purchased. Interact clubs are now included. Then an additional $1,000 of matching is available from our AW funds.
Please give your checks Payable to the “Allentown West Rotary Foundation” to Treasurer Chris Blechschmidt, or President Jeanne.
STRATEGIC PLAN:
John Scott reported that the board members are developing goals and action items for the months ahead.
YOUTH EXCHANGE HOST NEEDED:
Sue Weber asks us to find host families for our young lady from Denmark starting in August. Hosts do not have to be Rotarians. Contact Sue with ideas or questions.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE 2019:
The conference offers a single day option for Saturday. And that includes the finals of the Four Way TEST Speech Contest.
SAD NEWS:
P-E Amir Famili told us that Ron Helmuth of the Bethlehem Morningstar RC passed away on Sunday, April 14. He was the P-E for BMSRC.
DISTRICT GRANT UPDATE:
The Threads of Change Foster Care District Grant is almost finished. The six sets of shelves and 84 totes with covers have been purchased and most now are in the Container storage unit at the Holiday Inn. Thanks go to Dale Heffner and his truck.
OTHER PLANS:
Saturday morning April 20 is the Area 1 work event for Second Harvest in Nazareth.
May 8th will be a DESTINATION meeting at LCCC and scholarships will be awarded.
May 15th will be an Open House Mixer meeting here at Luther Crest.
TT5:
President Jeanne now has a start on bottles of cheer for the Basket to be raffled off at TT5. More donations are needed, please.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETINGS:
The next one is May 9th at the Holiday Inn at 5:30 P.M.
NEXT MEETING IS April 24. Our Greeter will be Jeff Kistler and our program will be Gwenn Carr -- Ready for TT5!
STUDENT OF THE MONTH:
Symantha Missmer was honored as the AWRC Student of the Month with Rev. Jeff Kistler conducting the ceremony. She was joined for breakfast by her son, Grayson -- baby -- her mother, Jeanne Fitch, and by Dr. Mark Covelle, Academic Center Principal at LCTI.
Dr. Covelle told us that Symantha’s teachers recommended her for this award. See separate article.
PAUL HARRIS FELLOW AWARD:
Our Foundation Chair, Barbara Kistler, asked Ron Coleman to come forward for recognition. Over time Ron has been donating some of his sales commissions to TRF and the amount now exceeds $2,000. Barb presented Ron with a PHF +1 lapel pin and a citations. Thank you, Ron.
E.R.E.Y.:
Barb Kistler again appeals to all of us to donate some amount to the RI Foundation’s Annual Fund. The idea is that Every Rotarian Every Year.
Pres. Jeanne introduced our Sgt-at-Arms, Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars.
The door prize donated by Geoff Legg was won by Marlene Heller.
The $10 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Amir Famili’s ticket being drawn followed by a white marble. A lot of marbles will be around again next time.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
David Haight is happy that today is the closing on the sale of his house in N.J.
Len Salines wishes all to have a Happy Easter.
Joe Goll and Peggy will be greeting a third grandchild soon.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Gwenn Carr -- and Gary Englehardt in the wings -- giving us a TT5 update.
TEMPTING TASTES 5 will happen on April 28, Sunday at the Holiday Inn from 4 to 7 P.M. The tickets sold so far are 120 -- ONLY HALF OF PRIOR YEARS. But this year we are competing against SIX organizations holding events that weekend.
Gwenn said that we have five of our 13 food and drink exhibitors with us for all 5 years. And they will be recognized and will each receive some free tickets.
This year we are doing very well with sponsors. There is one “Platinum”, and then Gold, Silver, etc. with a total over $10,000 so far.
Again this year we have a solid security team that will help protect items from disappearing.
Some of our working groups still need volunteers to work that day. We do have two students from the NWL Interact Club volunteering. And we can sponsor more.
This year we plan to ask folks to help the community by offering to buy:
Meals via Meals on Wheels
ShelterBoxes
Snack Pack meals
Scholarships
Youth Exchange sponsoring
Camp Neidig (RYLA) sponsoring
TT5 SILENT AUCTION ITEM PREVIEW: See separate article.
We still need help transporting items to the Holiday Inn that Sunday morning. Please contact Gwenn if you will help.-
The “walk through” at the Holiday Inn is on Tuesday April 23.
We are on our way !!
CLOSING:
Pres. Jeanne had us recite the 4 Way test, And we closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
Pictures by Gary Heller
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