Our Greeter today was Chris Blechschmidt and he did a marvelous job.
President –Elect Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Then she gave a very nice invocation.
P-E Jeanne 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:
Wilmer Schultz, Emmaus RC: Ala, our Youth Exchange student; and Sarah Knop. our speaker.
P-E Jeanne showed pictures starting with Snack Packing at Northwestern. Then we saw Chris Blechschmidt presenting to Dorothy Bloom a $500 check for Meals on Wheels last week. Then there was a picture of Mitch Huston from last week.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
NETWORKING EVENTS:
DGN Herb and some others attended one of the Chamber of Commerce Networking Mixers. Please contact Herb and arrange to join them next time.
YOUTH EXCHANGE UPDATE:
Since Ala was here today, Sue Weber asked her to speak. Ala again expressed her thanks to AW Rotarians for looking after her so nicely. Soon she will be joining about 50 YE students all heading to Phoenix and a west coast tour. They will see the Grand Canyon, L.A. and end up in San Francisco.
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.
DINING OUT for JUNE:
Ronnee Klotz reminds us that Friday June 29th is Dining Out at the Shanty Restaurant in Allentown at 6:00 P.M. There is a sign-up sheet.
JUNE THURSDAY EVENING MEETINGS CANCELLED:
Dennis Houser previously had to cancel the June 14th meeting. And today Herb Klotz said that there will be no meeting on June 28th, which is the D7430 Changeover Dinner and Awards. We hope that our Thursday evening members will come to Friday’s Dining Out.
FALL FUNDRAISER:
Chair Len Salines is asking for ideas for the September 30th event in lieu of a “Pig Roast.”
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Gwenn Carr. And our program will be Sandy Stober to discuss “The Connection Practice.”
P-E Jeanne, noting that S-A-A Mitch Huston had left the building, asked Bob Gordon to conduct the drawings and collect some “Happy” dollars.
The door prize bag of things like Honey, donated by Chris Blechschmidt was won by Chuck Ehninger.
The new 50:50 Pot of $10 was WON by Chris Blechschmidt ‘s ticket being drawn and his locating the black marble among many in the bag. There will be many marbles next week.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Bob Gordon roamed the room with the microphone encouraging folks to show their happiness. He tried a new rule that charges a dollar for each sentence.
Herb Klotz is most happy to have attended the new Whitehall Area RC’s Changeover yesterday.
Bob Gordon is happy to see Tim Smith back with us.
Ernie Boll is happy to back from Arizona for a while.
Bill Weber is happy that Sue and he will be attending the annual RI Convention in Toronto.
Joe Goll says Peggy is happy that their school year is about to close.
Ron Coleman is looking forward to taking his two grandchildren to DisneyWorld in two weeks.
John Scott is happy to report that his Masonic Lodge had a good fundraiser event with good food.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was DeSales University Senior, Sarah Knop. Sarah is the student whom AW Rotarians provided financial support for her to attend a service trip to South Africa. She is from Rochester, NY, plans to stay in the Lehigh Valley, and is studying to be a Physician’s’ Assistant.
Sarah expressed her gratitude to AW Rotarians for helping to finance this trip. Sarah used a series of slides to describe her very successful travels, that had her fly in and back from Johannesburg. Their first 3 days were spent in J’burg.
Then they toured Soweto. The locals are pronouncing it “So-We-too” to promote something. There they sampled many local foods and saw how folks are living. There are poor among the comfortable. As folks’ fortunes improve, they stay where they are and add onto their house, for example.
Sarah said that some apartments were built seven years ago and remain empty because of the rent being too high. Her group also went on a Safari where they saw Giraffes and Lions.
Then they took a 13 hour bus ride to Uppington and Botswana. Sarah even went camel riding. She said that the schools are OK, but have 60 to 70 kids per classroom. And the kids wear uniforms.
Sarah told the story about the local tour leader, Auntie Florida. Auntie was raised by Father Hinley, a Priest from DeSales.
In preparation for their trip they packed 12 suitcases with about 50 lbs. of supplies in each. These were distributed to the schools, and to some needy families. And they were used up quickly. A class of 7th graders had Sarah’s group speak and also sing to them. They also helped distribute food packets.
There is a garden in the area that was funded by DeSales two years ago. Vegetables are grown and sold to sustain the operation.
Sarah having prior training, conducted a class with nine local women and taught them how to “can” vegetables. Then they are available off season.
Sarah’s group also had a project to replace 20 broken windows with new glass. This will keep out the cold much better. And they painted the window frames, and they installed two new doors. One closes off the utility room.
Sarah said that this trip was an awesome experience and that she hopes to return there. And she answered some questions very well. We applauded her presentation.
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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