Our Greeter today was Randy Beitler and he did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Pastor Jean Masiko gave a very nice invocation.
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:
Hal Warner, guest of the club. Ala, our Youth Exchange student.
Pres. Mike showed pictures starting with the food packs for the Parkland Snack Packing last week. Then we saw photos of the LCCC meeting last week when we gave out 10 scholarships. The picture of the first Mike Henry scholarship included winner – Geoff Legg’s grandson - and Anna Jean Henry.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
We are looking for assistance with distributing produce on Saturday Morning June 2nd at the Lowhill Food Pantry.
NEW MEMBER INDUCTION:
David Haight was inducted into the AWRC in a ceremony conducted by Chuck Ehninger. David is sponsored by Dr. Al Lewis. Welcome, David.
MORE ABOUT D AVID HAIGHT:
Al Lewis gave a mini-Classification talk about new member David, since Al will be away for the Summer.
David was born in the 30s, is an Eagle Scout with a Silver Beaver award, a Mason, and served in the Military. He worked in the family business, and served on local boards.
THREADS of CHANGE UPDATE:
Bill Palmer is working with Mustafa at ERC to have a sign made to place on the new Container now in place at the Holiday Inn.
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.
RODALE PARK DATE CHANGE -- VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
The Rodale Cycling Park - Allentown West Rotary Work Event is on Saturday- May 26th, from 830-11am. We will be spreading mulch. Please sign up with Dennis Houser. The bribe is good donuts supplied.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETINGS:
TOMORROW, May 24th we will meet at 6:00 P.M. at the Weatherland Winery at 7670 Carpet Rd, New Tripoli. Guy and Cindy Rosevelt are in charge.
DINING OUT for JUNE:
Friday June 29th is Dining Out at the Shanty in Allentown at 6:00 P.M. There is a sign-up sheet.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE 2020:
DGN Herb Klotz announced that the 2020 D7430 Conference that AW Rotarians will be hosting is to be held on April 25 to 27th at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia. Harleysville Rotarian Shushma Patel is the Conference Chair. Two AW Rotarians are on the committee, and others are needed as we get closer in time.
AWRC ACTIVITIES SURVEY:
President-Elect Jeanne Shipe distributed colored papers for members to indicate their preferences regarding our club activates going forward. Jeanne will consider adding things, continuing things and stopping things depending on survey results. The Thursday evening group were polled last week.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Dorothy Bloom. And our program will be James D Tobias, Air Products speaking about Polyurethane Foam.
Pres. Mike introduced S-A-A Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected some “Guilty” dollars.
The door prize bottle of wine donated by Randy Beitler was won by Jean Masiko.
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The $60 pot of the 50:50 was NOT won by Y.E. Student Ala’s ticket. Six marbles remain. Ron Coleman laments that he has never been asked to look in the marble bag to confirm there is a black marble.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Dr. Bob Gordon started off this fun-filled session telling us about his recent trip to Germany and Albania. See separate photo herein.
Amir Famili noted that Ramadan is well underway for 2018, and Muslims everywhere are practicing abstinence during daylight hours. So if Mustafa seems grumpy, you will know why.
Bill Palmer is happy to announce that his Grandson Christopher has been graduated from Lehigh University with TWO degrees. One is in Civil Engineering. The other is in Music. Chris loves Conducting and all things in music.
Jean Masiko is happy to remind us that the winner of the Mike Henry scholarship has been helping with Snack Packing for the last 3 years.
Mitch Huston said that the 5th annual “Taps Over Bethlehem” will take place on Memorial Day with 52 trumpeters in sequence playing taps across the city.
Then we come to Halyna Stegura who happily reports that Wendy Weaver sends greetings to us all. Next Halyna noted that today she was wearing two different shoes, but asked us not to look. Bob Gordon paid $5 to see them and Ron Coleman took the photo.
Al Lewis is happy that David Haight has become an AW Rotarian. Al also said that he and Hilda are heading north to Saranac Lake for the Summer. And Al thanks the AW Rotarians for their friendship.
David Haight is happy to be AWRC’s newest member.
Geoff Legg thanks us for his Grandson’s Mike Henry scholarship. And he is attending a session this week to receive another.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was in two parts. Ala, our Y.E. Student from Poland here since last August gave us her year to date Review. Then Treasurer Chris Blechschmidt presented a YTD review of the AWRC Financials.
Ala said it took her three months to begin to understand English comfortably. And recently she had a dream in English.
Ala showed pictures from her time here, starting with her first host Mom. She has delighted in visiting so many special places. She went to NYC 3 times, Philadelphia 3 times, and Wash. DC for 3 days. She also visited Canada and last week she toured in North Carolina.
Ala has made many, many friends during this experience. And she has gained much self-confidence and makes her own decisions now.
Ala noted that while in NYC she went to see the Lion King. And in late April she attended the D7430 Conference in Wyomissing. The Y.E. students did the traditional parade of Flags ceremony.
Ala lived with two host families, the latest being the Blechschmidts. These host families do everything for the students and are very important to the program.
Ala will be traveling with some of the students to the west coast before returning to Poland. She thanks all of us and Rotary for this fabulous experience.
Treasurer Chris Blechschmidt using a series of slides with tables and “Pie” charts reviewed our RC financial state through April 2018. We are well under control and are both raising funds and spending them according to this year’s approved plan.
Chris will provide a more detailed review after the June 30th year-end numbers are complete. There was some discussion about posting the financials to our website with password protection. Pres. Mike will follow up.
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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